| Custom Built Computers - The Glory of Customisation |
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| Computers - Computers |
| Written by Dan Ashton |
| Wednesday, 24 December 2008 09:48 |
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We all use our computers for different reason. Some for professional purposes, some of us have hobbies that we carry out online, many are serious gamers. Just a few reasons why the average PC may not be quite up to scratch. A custom built PC gives you the power to take control over how effective your computer is in carrying out what YOU need it to.
We all use our computers for different reason. Some for professional purposes, some of us have hobbies that we carry out online, many are serious gamers. Just a few reasons why the average PC may not be quite up to scratch. A custom built PC gives you the power to take control over how effective your computer is in carrying out what YOU need it to. The ability to specify your requirements, and have someone tailor the hardware immediately gives you the advantage over the standard package that everyone else has. By going down the custom route you should also have the ability to "future proof" your computer which means you have it for a lot longer. Lets look at some reasons why you may need a custom computer: Gaming is huge sector of the computer industry. The limits of performance are continually being stretched with each new release, and the only way to cope with this is with a PC that has been custom built for this purpose. Superior specifications are required to run the games, and gamers often go for a cool PC case which lights up or glows to add to the gaming experience. There must be nothing worse than sitting at your computer waiting for the next section of the game to load, or have your screen freeze mid-battle. Without the necessary graphics card, RAM and CPU this is going to happen. If you're buying a PC that is to be used for gaming, check it's specification against that required by the games that you will be playing. The Laptop DJ. Mixing your own music is increasingly popular, and a custom-built computer designed for audio engineering will perform better than store-bought, general-use machines. Like gaming PCs, a fast motherboard with a powerful processor and lots of memory is a good starting place. If you're on a budget, give memory higher priority. Next, a high quality speaker system is essential. The dinky speakers bundled with store-bought computers are inadequate for audio engineers, who need to hear subtle nuances in music on multiple tracks. At the very least, you'd want speaker systems with a subwoofer. At the other end of spectrum are high quality 5-point surround-sound speakers. Finally, to take full advantage of your awesome new speakers, you'll need a powerful audio card. Whether as a hobby or a profession, video editing can now be done from the comfort of your own home. With the advancement of digital technology both the camera's used for recording and the software used for editing, the results that you can achieve can rival what was only previously achievable with extremely high specification (and huge cost) systems. This still means that you need the correct memory and capability to run the software, but this is a lot more achievable and affordable than ever thought possible. First of all, get a fast motherboard containing a powerful processor and all the memory you can, or your video rendering times will be only slightly faster than a turtle with arthritis. You don't need the most powerful video card on the market-go one step down instead. It will be a little less powerful and a lot less expensive. Finally... storage. Unrendered movie files are measured in gigabytes, not megabytes. Add to that the size of raw footage, and hard drive space becomes crucial. You'll want at least a 500 GB hard drive, especially when working on multiple video projects simultaneously. Finally, get a fast DVD-RW for burning your movies to disc. The situations whereby a custom built PC is not just a "nice to have" but a necessity are varied, and the above are just three of those. |