Hardware

Right, this is meant as a reference for people who have some idea what they're doing.

If you get stuck or have no idea, post in the forum as people will be able to help you better than this generic guide to everything.

Hardware

Processors

Manufacturers

AMD Vs. Intel - Current best of each, and best overall (also best perf/£)

Intel, AMD and VIA (most common in mini-ITX motherboards)

Sockets

Most recent sockets that you're still likely to find.

• A (AMD)
• 423 (Intel)
• 478 (Intel)
• LGA775 (Intel)
• 754 (AMD)
• 940 (AMD)
• 939 (AMD)
• AM2 (AMD)

Cores

Number of cores, performance effect

Temperatures

Ideally the max temp of any CPU should be below 70 degrees, with below 60 being ideal.

More info in the cooling section.

Memory

Types

(obsolete)

• SDRAM (168-pin modules)

Getting old now, still turns up in older Socket A, Socket 423 and some older Socket 478 Motherboards.

• PC-66: SDR at 66 MHz
• PC-100: SDR at 100 MHz
• PC-133: SDR at 133 MHz

• RDRAM (RIMM)

Old, very rarely used, very pricey nowadays, was mainly used in some Socket 423 and Socket 478 Motherboards.

(current)

• DDR (184-pin modules)

Used in Socket 754, 939, 940 and Intel 478 Motherboards.

• DDR2 (240-pin modules)

Used in Socket 775 and AM2 Motherboards.

(future)

• DDR3

Not yet used.

Speeds

DDR

• PC-1600: DDR at 100 MHz using DDR-200 chips
• PC-2100: DDR at 133 MHz using DDR-266 chips
• PC-2700: DDR at 166 MHz using DDR-333 chips
• PC-3200: DDR at 200 MHz using DDR-400 chips
• PC-3500: DDR at 216 MHz using DDR-433 chips*
• PC-4000: DDR at 250 MHz using DDR-500 chips*

DDR2

• PC-4200: DDR2 at 266 MHz using DDR2-533 chips
• PC-5300: DDR2 at 333 MHz using DDR2-667 chips
• PC-6400: DDR2 at 400 MHz using DDR2-800 chips
• PC-8000: DDR2 at 500 MHz using DDR2-1000 chips*
• PC-8500: DDR2 at 533 MHz using DDR2-1066 chips*
• PC-9600: DDR2 at 600 MHz using DDR2-1200 chips*

*These are non-standard, generally manufacturers making memory faster than specified (mainly for overclockers)

Heatsinks (ramsinks)

Ramsinks do /not/ help the memory cool, but they can help keep temps stable which can help with system stability.

Generally don't bother unless they came fitted on your memory

Motherboards

Sockets

See CPU Socket Guide

Multi-GPU

Specific technologies will be covered in depth in the graphics card section.

For a motherboard to be able to support a multi-gpu technology it has to specifically made to do so, this usually requires The motherboard to have;

A Chipset which supports your chosen technology (either Nvidia's SLI or ATI's Crossfire) A pair of Physical PCI-E 16x Slots (often only the primary slot will be 16x electronically, with the secondary being 8x electronically)

Layouts

Motherboards are often laid out similarly, but there are Differences with the placement of the cable connections, often these differences can make some motherboards unusable with some cases, also certain placements of cables can restrict airflow and impede cooling.

Heatpipes

Some makers use heatpipes for cooling components on the motherboard,

However the heatpipes used often do not work as well if the motherboard is used flat or upside-down (as in lian li v1000 etc)

Hard Drives

Sizes

This is something important to know.

There's been a lot of confusion in the past regarding the size of HDDs, due too maths, evil, evil maths.

Wiki Info until someone can be arsed to write something here.

Types

• 2.5" (Laptop)
• 3.5" (Desktop)

longitudinal perpendicular

Interfaces

PATA

Previously called ATA, also known as IDE, ATAPI, and UDMA.

SATA (Serial ATA)

New standard for connecting Drives, supports a lot of fancy toys such as

NCQ

Native Command Queuing, a HDD Feature that allows the HDD itself to queue requests to optimise performance

Hotplugging

Allows you to add and remove SATA drives from a system without shutting down (requires sata power support on the PSU, rather than using a PATA HDD>SATA power connector as HDD power connectors do not support 3.3v)

SATA 150/300 Forwards/Backwards compatibility

Allows SATA 150 and 300 Drives work on either speed of controller

SATA Power

15Pin Flat power connector, kinda fragile.

SATA 1.5 Gbit/s (SATA 150)

First Generation SATA, offered few benefits over PATA

SATA 3.0 Gbit/s (SATA 300)

Second Generation STA, offers many benefits over PATA and SATA 150

SATA II

Doesn't Exist, never has, never will.

The 3.0 Gbit/s specification was widely referred to as “Serial ATA II” (“SATA II”). The official website notes that SATA II was in fact that organization's name at the time, the SATA 3.0 Gbit/s specification being only one of many that the former SATA II organization defined, and suggests that “SATA 3.0 Gbit/s” be used instead.

External SATA (eSATA)

External SATA

Cache

2,8 or 16MB

Bigger is better here, worth looking out for, often budget HDDs will only have a 2MB cache which generally means they're very, very slow.

Most HDDs now should come with an 8MB cache, with 16MB being more popular on Higher end drives.

Speeds (RPM)

Common speeds are

• 4200rpm
• 5400rpm
• 7200rpm
• 10000rpm
• 15000rpm

4200rpm drives are 2.5" laptop drives, always.

5400rpm was a common speed for older drives (up to about 80gb) while the performance on these drives was poor, they did offer more affordable storage than equivalent sized 7200rpm drives. nowadays 5200rpm drives are mostly high performance 2.5" laptop HDDs

7200rpm is by far the most common hdd speed today, it offers a good balance between noise, speed and reliability.

10000rpm Really very fast, reserved for high-end drives such as WD Raptors and various SCSI drives

15000rpm SCSI, expensive.

RAID

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

Most common RAID levels:

RAID0

RAID0, also known as striping, consists of two or more hard disks striped together so as to appear as one larger hard disk.

Despite the name, this is technically not RAID because there is no redundancy. AID however sounds bad, like Bad AIDS, so we still call it RAID0.

This RAID level is supported by approximately all storage controllers.

Advantages

• Speed

On average, reading and writing the data is quicker than it would be from just one drive. For non-server machines, this speed boost is generally not that significant.

Disadvantages

• Reliability

In RAID0, data gets split across drives in a random manner, meaning that if one drive dies, you lose the data on all drives. If the mean time between failure of a particular model of hard drive is four years, with two such hard drives in a RAID0 array the mean time between failure of the array will be two years. With four such hard drives in a RAID0 array, that time is reduced to one year.

Capacity

For n drives of x gigabytes each, total array capacity is n*x gigabytes.

Uses

• Anywhere maximum storage performance is required with minimum data reliability, such as temporary storage for video editing. RAID0 arrays make excellent swapfile or pagefile drives.
• Gaming machines where maximum performance is desired and where the machine is not being used to store important/irretrievable data. Companies selling boutique gaming machines often equip their products with RAID0 arrays (see also bragging rights). Note that the performance boost from a RAID0 array in gaming scenarios is generally not significant.
• Bragging rights.

Notes/Recommendations

It is generally better to use a single faster hard drive instead of a RAID0 array. Setting up a RAID0 array with 7200rpm hard drives does not make sense. Yes, 10,000rpm hard drives cost more and don't hold as much, but they will be much faster and much more reliable.

Due to reliability issues, if you want to set up a RAID0 array then the following is recommended:

• Stick to no more than two drives in a RAID0 array.
• Only use the most reliable drives - so-called enterprise-class or nearline storage drives are preferred.

Western Digital Raptors are the drive of choice in a Serial ATA RAID0 array, due to their high speed and very good reliability. For SCSI or SAS RAID0 arrays, there are a number of very fast and reliable drives that are suitable. IDE RAID0 arrays are strongly discouraged.

RAID1

Capacity

For n drives of x gigabytes each, total array capacity is x gigabytes.

RAID5

Capacity

For n drives of x gigabytes each, total array capacity is (n-1)*x gigabytes.

JBOD (Concatenation)

Not really a RAID level at all, this stands for Just a Bunch Of Disks, JBOD is a method for combining multiple physical disk drives into a single virtual one. As the name implies, disks are merely concatenated together, end to beginning, so they appear to be a single large disk.

• Note: Some Raid cards (e.g. 3ware) use JBOD to refer to configuring drives without raid features including concatenation. Each drive shows up separately in the OS.

Advantages

• Acts like one large HDD

Disadvantages

• No redundancy
• No Speed advantage over seperate drives

Capacity

Add up all of the storage space on the bunch of disks, and that's how much you have.

Uses

Paperweights

Can be useful if you have a few smaller HDDs that aren't much use seperately. However the ever-falling price of HDDs makes this redundant.

Notes/Recommendations

Really, this is ghetto as fuck, just buy a cheapy HDD big enough for your needs.

Common problems

Death

Optical Drives

Types

• CD
• DVD
• HDHVD
• BluRay

Interfaces

Optical drives will talk on PATA or SATA (the latter being less common, but now coming down in price)

All the same as for HDD Interfaces

Video Cards

Multi-Card Solutions

SLI vs. Crossfire

Pictures and how they go together

Brands

For gaming graphics cards come down to nvidia vs. ATI - The majority of graphics cards will just be repackaged reference boards from nvidia or ATI with a few small tweaks (usually just a different sticker, heatsink or a minor overclock.)

Memory

Beware low end cards bearing masses of memory.

Really beware of low-end cards bearing masses of memory and words like "Turbo Cache" or "Hyper Memory". They generally have very little memory on the board itself and steal your (slower and more generally useful) system memory for themselves, similar to on-board video cards. However, even these low-end cards typically have much better performance than on-board video.

Often you'll be far better off with a higher end card sporting 256Mb of memory, than a mid range card with 512mb of memory as a less-powerful card will not be able to use the memory efficiently enough to warrant the extra memory.

TV out

Looks like shite on older CRT televisions, often not worth the time and effort taken.

Looks pretty decent on HDTVs but redundant as they'll often have VGA, DVI or HDMI connections which allow for high enough resolutions without excessive cable shuffling

Connectors

The most common connectors on Graphics cards are DVI, D-sub, HDMI (on some newer cards) and an 8-pin din plug component/composite for TV out.

*labelled photos*

Sound Cards

Soundcards are another oft overlooked component of mid-range computers for reasons we'll cover below.

Onboard vs. Soundcard

Onboard sound can be a great feature for family desktops and non-gaming machines.

However, as onboard sound uses the CPU for Processing sounds there is a risk of gameplay affecting performance issues when using onboard sound.

Also onboard sound can often pick up noise from interference on the motherboard which can sound like very quiet pops and clicks, this is often only a problem on headphones as speakers aren't sensitive enough to pick them up and any digital outputs aren't prone to the interference, but is worth a mention nonetheless.

Soundcards use a dedicated processor to process sound information with negligible load on the CPU, this improves overall performance including higher framerates.

Recommended cards

audigy/audigy 2, SBlive.

Surround, digital etc.

Surround is an area where onboard sound can excel in the price/performance field as many onboard sound systems support 5.1 or 7.1 surround over analogue and digital

You can also run a full analogue or digital surround system on your onboard sound for media purposes, while keeping a soundcard dedicated for gaming.

Power Supplies

General

Power Supplies (PSUs) are the most often overlooked and underspecced component in a computer.

Often a poor PSU will cause system instability, unexpected problems and can lead to component damage.

Wattages

Before we get into how many watts a PSU needs, we need to understand the ways it can be measured

Wattage on a PSU is usually quoting peak output, or sustained output.

Peak output (what most cheap PSUs are measured in) refers to the peak wattage a PSU can put out for a short period of time (seconds) often these will be fine for a while, then will develop issues (from being overloaded) and die horribly, potentially killing other components

Sustained output (nice PSUs) refers to the output the PSU can give all day every day without issue, sometimes a PSU that has a sustained output will also mention a peak somewhere such as "650W (710W peak)"

How big a PSU do i need?

If you're running a single GPU system, you'll need a 450W PSU max.

If you're running a dual GPU system, you'll need a PSU around the 550-600W Mark

PSU Calculator

Modding

*DANGER*

Anything within this section will probably kill you and your family if you fuck up

Fan Speed mod (also fan replacement)

Cable sleeving

Cable Sleeving allows you to make your PSU's cables look a lot better and improve airflow.

Hardware.info cable sleeving guide

Cases

Types

• Standard ATX

ATX is your bog standard form factor from the past few years. Chances are if you own a computer it's living in an ATX case

• Upside down ATX (notes about not BTX)

Some ATX cases mount the motherboard upside-down as it can allow for better cooling and cleaner airflow.

These cases are often Called BTX cases by people who don't know better, BTX is a separate standard covered below, Upside down ATX cases adhere to all the ATX standards, but hold the motherboard upside down.

• BTX

BTX is a new form factor designed to replace ATX while offering better cooling and better designs for components

• SSF

SSF (Small Form Factor) is not a form factor, but is a term used to describe cases such as shuttles.

• Mini-ITX

Is a very compact form factor designed by via, often used for in-car PCs and home-theater PCs as they're low noise, very low power consumption and heat output.

Materials

alu,steel

Layouts

where stuff goes in standard and common but weird cases

Modding

windows, lights, stealthing.

Monitors

LCD Vs. CRT

Pros/cons of each

connectors

DVI,D-sub, tv stuff.

Peripherals

Keyboards

simple cheap keyboards

nice expensive keyboards

Mice

gaming mice

Wired vs. Wireless

pros, cons, blah blah blah

Joysticks

eurgh (yes, that's what she said)

Gamepads

Unfortunately for PC gamepads your choices are pretty limited these days, often all you'll get are nasty Playstation controller clones.

If you own a PS2, Xbox or Xbox360 you may do well to buy a suitable controller > USB adaptor such as This for the PS2.

Adaptors and connectors

how to make plug A go into socket B (generally a bigger hammer)

Graphics Tablets

Wacom are probably the best and best known tablet makers, however there are many cheap alternatives available which might tempt new users and disappoint with poor tracking and terrible build quality.

It is worth noting that basic Wacom tablets are now available for under £40.

Card Readers

handy.

Overclocking

Potential of given types, risks and gains, low-cost options

FSB

overvolting (list of standard voltages for cpus?)