• Gran Turismo: An enthusiast’s PC geared towards PC gaming
• Easy Penny: A very reasonable PC able to sustain a few years without letting its owner down

Too many web sites offer you a list of PC configurations that they pretend ideal. but they do not bother trying to really set them up. This is not the case here at Roumazeilles.net, we tried to install the Gran Turismo PC presented in these pages in the recent days. Here are the results of this experience.

when actually buying the parts, I did an exception to the list indicated previously: I let me be induced in buying a the Wifi version (or Wireless edition) of the Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard. for a few euros more, the Wifi 802.11g function is integrated to the mobo and it comes with a nice little antenna.

In addition, I provided a keyboard and mouse. Nowadays, this is standard issue for most computers. The only recommendation is to ensure that you have a good mouse (this rodent will be used a lot and is sure to be the first part to break when you use your computer). I admit having a strong preference for Logitech when it comes to mechanical mouse. But since the advent of optical mice (they have the advantage of being very difficult to fill with dust and junk), I accept nearly any mouse.

Setting up the hardware was utterly easy. As a matter of fact, the power supply, the computer case and the motherboard came with extensive documentation (including clear pictures and photos, a lot of screws, more than a few bolts, cables and connectors to easily solve the little issues that could have been coming up. Even installing the CPU-cooling fan on top of the AMD Athlon x2 5600+ processor (box edition) did not request any effort (it’s nice to know that long gone are the days of the struggle required by the old AMD Socket A). The many connections are well identified, marked and mostly fool-proof.

One of the nicest surprises of this installation was the very low noise level of the configuration. It’s even the most silent PC in the room here, producing less noise than old PC machines (Athlon 750MHz, Athlon XP 2600+). The quality of the power supply (GameXStream 600W from OCZ) and of the computer case (Centurion 5 from Cooler Master) were critical for this, but the graphics card is still notably more silent than older like the Powercolor ATI 9800 pro.

The comes the software installation. Windows 2000 pro (without any Service Pack) appeared to be too old to correctly install itself on a SATA-II disk like the one we selected from Seagate and connected to the ASUS M2N32-SLI deluxe Wifi motherboard. I tried to create a drivers diskette from the drivers DVD provided with the motherboard, but Windows 2000 still had real problems trying to recognize the hard drive (even after reformatting it using the Seagate utilities or the partitonning tools found on the otherwise excellent UBCD). Au mieux, j’ai réussi à copier les fichiers en début d’installation, mais impossible de finir l’installation de Windows 2000 pro.

The solution: Install a lot more modern Operating System, like Windows 2000 pro SP4, windows XP or Windows Vista (though I wouldn’t recommend the later because of the dire lack of drivers – or their very limited quality – even for the EN8800GTS 640Mo graphics card). You still need to provide the drivers floppy disk, but then it’s only a matter of pressing F6 when prompted by the installation program and then following the instructions to use the floppy disk appropriately.

Nota bene: do not forget to remove the Windows installation CD-ROM to let the computer reboot on the hard disk drive after the first file copy.

Nevertheless, you still can look at really ow cost OS (either free to download or cheap to buy on a DVD): GNU/Linux under the form of one of its many distributions (Suse, Debian, Ubuntu, Knoppix, etc.) the price difference between the Microsoft OS and the GNU/Linux family of oeprating Systems can be tremendous…

All in all the Gran Turismo PC was relatively easy to setup, is significantly less expensive than its branded counterparts and is more than satisfying. It will receive more and more FPS games (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Far Cry are already running and the aliens must be cautious here around) and will still be the basis for later extensions.

After the last addition of the mouse and keyboard, we will not add more to the configuration. So, we have:

• Gran Turismo: 22€ for a Logitech media wireless desktop [mouse + keyboard] (current total: 941€)
• Easy Penny: 22€ for a Logitech media wireless desktop [mouse + keyboard] (current total: 433€)

All prices are the best we could find in France at writing time.

• Gran Turismo: An enthusiast’s PC geared towards PC gaming
• Easy Penny: A very reasonable PC able to sustain a few years without letting its owner down

We have well progressed into the building of our two Summer PCs. But we still need to add a hard disk drive and a DVD drive. The later is no problem. the choice is huge and product differences are minor. Since I love the Pioneer drives (they are really reliable and used by other companies who just add their name stickers to the Pioneer drives), I selected the Pioneer DVR 112D drive. But honestly, there are many more that you can chose from with very similar characteristics. Both PCs will have one (Gran Turismo as well as Easy Penny).

I also love the Seagate-branded hard disk drives for their solid reliability (not only on specification documents), for their good prices, for their welcome silence and for their neat performance. Gran Turismo will like to hold a 320GB disk such as a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 – 320GB of SATA 300 ncq interface with a cache of 16MB (ref# ST3320620as). But Easy Penny will receive a smaller one -always thinking of keeping costs low- with a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB of SATA-II interface with a cache of 8MB (ref# ST3160811as).

The less expensive PC could receive a slightly more expensive and bigger disk but its utility stays limited while its owner does not use it to store large amounts of videos or to install big software applications (but they are themselves often too expensive for a limited budget).

Samsung could also be an option to ponder about if you look for even better noise elvels. The small Samsung SpinPoint series has a very good fame here.

The USB interfaces of both PC allow to connect USB memory keys. For the digital photo amateur a useful 10€ or 15€ addition would be a Flash card memory reader compatible with Flash SD or Compact Flash (or a 13-in-1 reader, or the integrated Flash card reader of a high-end LCD monitor).

We will add more to the configuration in future posts, but we currently have:

• Gran Turismo: 32€ for a Pioneer DVR 112D drive and 79€ for a 320GB Seagate disk drive (current total: 919€)
• Easy Penny: 32€ for a Pioneer DVR 112D drive and 62€ for a 320GB Seagate disk drive (current total: 411€)

All prices are the best we could find in France at writing time.

• Gran Turismo: An enthusiast’s PC geared towards PC gaming
• Easy Penny: A very reasonable PC able to sustain a few years without letting its owner down

To protect the Summer PC (for the gamer [Gran Turismo] as much as the student [Easy Penny]), we need a computer case. For this, we must remember and understand the various roles of this important part of the PC machine. If we except the really odd high-end dream machines (big CPUs, double graphics cards, etc.) nearly all the computer cases available on the market are apt to their function: holding all components together and provide a convenient cooling. All that is left are more personal criterias like:

• Elegance, form and external appearance
• Extension capacity

I won’t try to offer my advice about the first item. But I tend to have a very pragmatic approach to the second. the gaming PC must allow some significant extension in the future (even more if it is relegated to secondary role when its performance starts to show its age, later). I will opt for a case with enough space for added drives (both internally and externally in 3″1/2 and 5″1/4 sizes). This being taken into account and having read the positive comments from ArsTechnica, I chose the Cooler Master, Centurion 5 tower case (sometimes known as the Centurion T05). It exists in a modern two-color black and blue presentation (but the most moderate buyers can have black or silver grey); It is not too expensive (54€ without power supply); It is up to the task of cooling a normal PC.

Regarding the power supply, the two PCs have very different needs. Gran Turismo, must support a much larger power consumption than what was considered standard in recent years. With mid-range or high-end graphics cards (AMD Radeon HD 2900 XT or nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX), the needs climb directly to 300W per board! Even if we do not not load fully the machine right now, we want to preserve extension capacity and we need to take into account one 250W graphics card, one 75W CPU and some peripherals. It leads us to 350W already. If we want to support future extensibility (in 2 years a new card or a second graphics card in SLI or CrossFire mode), a 450W power supply will be easily overwhelmed. The GameXStream series from OCZ have the enormous advantage of having a PFC (Power Factor Correction) that leads to extreemely high efficiency. This is important becasue between an active architecture power supply with more than 95% efficiency and a more traditional power supply with a more comme 75% efficiency (less, sometimes) there is such a difference that an old 500W PS can draw more energy from the outlet than a modern PFC-based 600W one (this is observed in the Legit-Reviews test, where two power supplies from the same brand, OCZ PowerStream 600W and GameXStream 700W, compete: The second has the smallest electricity bill despite its higher output power).

Not willing to go too far, I opted for a GameXStream 600W from OCZ in Gran Turismo (the gamer’s PC).

For the cheapest PC, Easy Penny, the issue is much simpler. The extension capacity is much smaller and the power needs are completely different. This machine will evolve mostly by components replacement and it won’t go as far in the future as Gran Turismo. The best solution is to find an integrated computer case. The Antec SLK1650 ATX is a small tower case meeting those requirements: 350W power and a murmur for colling down components. Even better, it is well distributed in France and in Europe; Its price just went under 65€ (less than 85€ with shipping and handling).

We will add more to the configuration in future posts, but we currently have:

• Gran Turismo: 54€ for a Cooler Master Centurion 5 case and 103€ for a OCZ GameXStream 600W power supply, including S&H(current total: 808€)
• Easy Penny: 85€ for the Antec SLK1650 ATX case, including S&H (current total: 317€)

All prices are the best we could find in France at writing time.

• Gran Turismo: An enthusiast’s PC geared towards PC gaming
• Easy Penny: A very reasonable PC able to sustain a few years without letting its owner down

To start with Easy Penny, the most reasonable PC, the integration of a graphics card inside the motherboard leaves the cost perfectly well managed. Added cost: 0€.

Eactly on the opposite, to play with PC video games, Gran Turismo requires a graphics card up to the level expected by most game designers of today (and of the near future). For this, I chose to look at cards able to support DirectX 10 (even though there is still no title adapted to this standard) and the eyes fall automatically on nVidia. The current offering from AMD-ATI (now only the Radeon HD 2900 XT) is obviously not mature enough and eats a electricity like if there was no end to oil reserves; This is not good for long-term reliability, cooling fans noise and overclocking capability (for the most adventurous ones).

Currently, the nVidia 8800 GTS 320MB boards are outrageously attractive. If you do not have a very large screen, 320 MB will be ample enough (if your screen is 1900×1200 or more go for 640MB) [1]. But the 8800 GTS 640 MB boards are much more expensive. Don’t wait! Get 320 MB, it’s a bargain.

As nVidia organized strictly the manufacturing of the boards of its partners, nearly all of them look identical (except for the color). The add-ins are the only real difference in the box. But since we wanted to go for a bargain price (if you need some games, look for the bundles), we went to a Sparkle SF-PX88GTS640.

We will add more to the configuration in future posts, but we currently have:

• Gran Turismo: 284€ for a Sparkle SF-PX88GTS640 graphics (current total: 651€)
• Easy Penny: 0€ for the integrated graphics of a Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H motherboard (current total: 232€)

All prices are the best we could find in France at writing time.

• Gran Turismo: An enthusiast’s PC geared towards PC gaming
• Easy Penny: A very reasonable PC able to sustain a few years without letting its owner down

Having previously chosen AMD processors for the two optimized PCs we are trying to build, things will be relatively easy. The integration of the memory controller in the CPU is a great advantage since it levels off the competition for performance. We only have to choose based upon options and features.

For Gran Turismo, the fastest PC, we decided to favor extensibility with many external peripherals. We opted for the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard:

• Passive cooling to limit noise
• Two PCI Express 16x slots with SLI support to accept a future two-graphics boards configuration using nVidia SLI boards
• Many interfaces (USB, FireWire, SATA II)
• ATX format, for an easy choice of computer case

We will add 2GB of DDR2-SDRAM memory using two slots with PC6400 – 800MHz in CAS 5-5-5-12 configuration (two sticks will be better than one from the performance point of view). The extensive price drops of this year are very helpful leading to only 86€ for Corsair-branded memory sticks.

If you happen to be willing to play with games under Windows Vista (for example, in order to take advantage of DirectX 10 that is not yet available under Windows 2000 or XP), you should seriously think about going up to 4GB (more or less, 2GB used by Vista and the rest being eaten up by big games or memory hogs like graphics applications or PhotoShop CS2). For a mere 86€ more, of course.

For the cheapest PC, we needed to keep the ATX format advantage, but the integration of a graphics card woudl allow to lower down overall price significantly: We opted for the Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H motherboard that has an on-board Radeon X1250 graphics chip to avoid paying a separate board (it will be possible to buy one later when money is available to the owner).

Its memory will be limited to 1GB for now, but you can easily extend it now (for a limited cost) or later (when really needed).

We will add more to the configuration in future posts, but we currently have:

• Gran Turismo: 113€ for an ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard and 86€ for 2GB of DDR2-SDRAM (current total: 367€)
• Easy Penny: 91€ for a Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H motherboard and 43€ for 1GB of DDR2-SDRAM (current total: 232€)

All prices are the best we could find in France at writing time.

• Gran Turismo: An enthusiast’s PC geared toward PC gaming
• Easy Penny: A very reasonable PC able to sustain a few years without letting its owner down

In this beginning of Summer, it may seem like a preparation for Fall rush for computers (not only for students starting a new college or university year).

To start with, we will check how to choose the CPU (in a still very competitive commercial environment: AMD vs Intel, single or dual core, fast or cheap?) Those who dream about quad cores should wake up: To start with, prices are preoperly out of bounds for Core 2 Quad from Intel (not less than 500€ for a Core 2 Quad Q6600), leaving it out of our scope. Then, AMD is still pushing its quad-core solution for August and we don’t know what availability they will have then.

Nevertheless, it has become clear that dual-core solutions have entered the mainstream. The Core 2 Duo line from Intel is nicely spread all over the place but the diversity of models is making things a bit more complicated than necessary. AMD has less options and has left the field of higher-end performance. However, for normal applications like ours (let’s stay in the 150-200€ range for our best machine and less than 100€ for our penny-less student), the competition is quite hard. All the comparison articles I could find indicate that AMD and Intel align their offers on the same price for similar performance. Obviously, there are minor differences if you test one specific program, but don’t expect much: Two 150€ CPUs have the same performance (open markets are good for this).

For our enthusiast PC gamer, we decided to set our aim at the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (leaving aside the direct competitor of Core 2 Duo E6400). Accoridng to Tom’s Hardware, the difference is small, but I was attracted to AMD by the lower power consumption and the integration of the memory controller that levels the playground for motherboard leading to a competiton on features only (see next post).

For the cheapest PC, the recent arrival of double-core processors under the 100€ limit such as the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ is a godsend (the single-core CPUs are now officially at the end of their life). Up to now, we only had the ageing Pentium D in this price range. Curiously, now, the Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 is still a little over that 100€ limit but this could change quickly. Our choice: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ using the AM2 socket (let’s avoid the old 939 socket at the same price but with less of a future for upgrades in the AMD offer).

We will add more to the configuration in future posts, but we currently have:

• Gran Turismo: 168€ for an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+
• Easy Penny: 98€ for an AM2-socket AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+

All prices are the best we could find in France at writing time.