Making Your PC Take Care of Itself - the Easy Way!

However, the methods described in that article weren't completely free, as it involved buying Iobit's Advanced SystemCare software license. So, here's a guide for those who are willing to dig deeper into the settings of their operating system to get an optimized Vista-PC to work with, for free!

This guide is divided into several steps to make it easier to continue following it after some necessary computer reboots. The steps are as follows:

1. Comfortability - Clean up the User Interface!
2. Updates - Keep your Vista up-to-date
   
3. Security - Make sure you're safe against viruses!
   
4. Drivers - Keep your hardware running!
5. Programs & Features - Save disk space!
   
6. Services - Don't have anything useless eating your resources!
7. Disk Cleanup - get rid of the trashes!
   
8. Registry - Don't let it get messy!
9. Defragment - Get it all nicely together!
10. Schedule - Deja Vu for your PC!

So, let's get started!

Step 1. Comfortability

The first thing that hurts my eyes when I start a freshly installed Vista-PC is the amount of useless stuff it forces on to the screen:

Welcome Center: Never has anything useful or interesting in it, so just un-check the box at the bottom left corner that says "Run at startup", and close it. It won't bother you anymore.

Sidebar: A nuisance with nothing to offer. You have the clock in its own place  at the end of the taskbar, you don't need it in the other corner too. Neither do you need your computer loading you pictures to the sidebar constantly, and you're damn lucky if you ever find anything really useful for the sidebar anyway. Let's close it permanently! You should be able to find the sidebar-icon in the taskbar; it shouldn't be hard to find, as it has a screen with a bunch of useless stuff coming out from it, just like the taskbar makes your screen look! So, right click that icon and choose "Exit". In the resulting dialog, un-check the box that says "Start Sidebar when Windows starts" and click "Exit Sidebar". Ahh... better...

Quick Launch for Desktop and Flip 3D: Seriously, whose great idea was this? Or flip 3d, for that matter... Quick Launch should be dedicated for shortcuts to the programs you use the most, so that they're easy to access. If you do this right, you'll never have to look at your desktop while working! So, let's drag&drop these two shortcuts to the Recycle Bin.

From now on, when you have a program you use a lot, make a quick launch shortcut for it by right clicking its icon on the desktop or the start menu and choosing "Add to Quick Launch". Then delete the icon from the desktop, as you won't be needing it anymore.

The next thing to do would be doubling the taskbar, to get more room for your quick launch and open applications. To do this, right click on the task bar and un-check "Lock the Taskbar". Now grab the upper edge of the taskbar with your mouse, and drag it up until the size of the taskbar doubles. Now just right click the task bar again and lock it.

Now, let's customize the taskbar and start menu. Right click on the taskbar and select "Properties". This opens a dialog where you can customize what is shown in the taskbar and the start menu.By default, you should be viewing the Taskbar-tab now. I like to keep most of these on their defaults, but I just un-check the checkbox that says "Group similar taskbar buttons", just to get an easy access to every window I have open. When you're done with these, go to the Start Menu-tab. Here you can choose between the classic start menu and the new Vista start menu, as well as choose whether or not to display recently opened files and programs in the start menu. Explore these settings by clicking the "Customize" button and modify them as you wish.

For example, I choose to show the Control Panel, Computer and Personal Folder as a menu and hide the Games Explorer and music-, pictures- and documents-folder. This makes the Start menu a lot more compact and more comfortable to use. When you've made your changes, click "OK".

Now go to the Notification Area-tab. Here you can choose which items to show in the notification area. I like to keep it all visible there, so I simply un-check the box that says "Hide inactive icons". Now let's go to the Toolbars-tab. One thing I really love in Vista is the "Windows Media Player"-toolbar, because it makes it very convenient to listen to music with your Vista PC, as it makes the media player go to the end of the taskbar when minimized, instead of staying among the other applications, where you might unintentionally click it. So I just check the box next to it and the "Quick Launch" and then press "Apply" and "OK".

That's pretty much it for the User Interface-cleaning. The last thing you might want to do, though, is to disable User Account Control, just to get rid of all those annoying permission dialogs. To do this, just go to

Start Menu -> Control Panel -> User Accounts

Click the text that says "Turn User Account Control on or off", now click "Continue" on the last annoying dialog you'll see. Now all you have to do is to un-check the box that says "Use User Account Control... blah blah.." and click "OK". This change will Require you to restart your computer. Do that now, and then get back here and jump right into Step 2!

Step 2. Updates

Now that you restarted your computer, you probably noticed a notification warning about the UAC-settings. To get rid of this, you can either turn off the Security Center notifications only, or completely disable display of its notification area icon. If you wish to do this, click on the notification to open Security Center. On the left there should be text saying "Change the way Security Center alerts me". Click on it and choose the option that best suits you. I choose to disable both the notifications and the icon.

Now that you're already in the Security Center, you can easily get to Windows Update by clicking on its link on top of the list on the left. If you're not in the Security Center, you can find Windows Update in Start Menu, in the "All Programs"-list.

When having the Windows Update open, click the text on the left that says "Check for updates" to find the newest updates for your Windows Vista. After the search has finished, you can view the available updates by clicking the text on the right that says "View available updates". The important updates should already be selected, but you might want to also include hardware drivers in the installation. Choose the drivers you want to have included in the installation. Note: the drivers in Windows Update aren't always the newest ones available, especially for video cards!

When you've made your choices, click the "Install" button and wait for Windows Update to download and install the updates. This may take a while, depending on the file size of the updates, as well as your connection speed, so you might want to do something else for a moment now. I'd recommend making a cup of coffee and a bowl of noodles and watching an episode or two of the Simpsons, Family Guy or American Dad.

When the Updates are installed, it will most probably tell you to restart your computer again. Do that, and get back here to continue to Step 3!

Step 3. Security

Now what you need is security for internet browsing. The best, free way to get it is to download and install Avast! Home Edition. You can get it here.

While downloading the installer, you should register your copy to get the license key for it. The registration is completely free and you can do it here. The license key is then e-mailed to you.

After registering and downloading the installer, install the program with "Typical" settings. After installing, it will tell you to restart the computer again. Do that and get back here.

After restarting, you should see the "Welcome to avast! Home Edition!" dialog. Click "OK" to that.

You should see two new icons in the notification area of the taskbar. A sphere with a "i" on it and a sphere with an "a" on it. The one with the "i" is the icon of the Virus Recovery Database and the one with the "a" is the icon of the main antivirus application. We'll just get rid of the one  with "i", just because we don't need to have two icons for basically the same program. Right click the one with the "i" and choose "Merge with main avast! icon".

Now you should only have the sphere with the "a" there. Right click on it and choose "About avast!...". This will open a dialog with your license information. Click the button that says "License key...", check your e-mail for your key and enter it to the registration-dialog. Press "OK" to activate your license and "OK" again to close the "About avast!..." screen.

Now, right click on the "a"-icon again and choose "Program Settings..." to open the "avast! settings..." dialog. Set the settings as follows: (if something's not mentioned here, leave it as default)

Appearance:

     un-check "Animate tray icon when scanning", so it won't draw too much attention at any point.

Sounds:

     check "Disable avast! sounds", for the same reason as above.

Update (Basic):

     set both options to "Automatic"

Troubleshooting:

     check "Check for full screen applications (e.g. games) before displaying popups".

Now click "OK".

You might also want to remove the "avast! Antivirus" shortcut from the desktop.

Congratulations! You now have a working antivirus!

Step 4. Drivers

This step is exactly the same as the Step 2 in my previous article

The next thing you need to do, is to download RadarSync, the free driver updater. Just go to RadarSync

website and click the button that says "Start Download". When the download has finished, start the installer.

On the first screen, click "Accept" to install RadarSync, but in the next screens when it asks about PC Confidential and Registry Power Cleaner, just click "Decline", because you really don't need these once you get Iobit's Software up and running. Also, uncheck the checkboxes in the last screen, or it will change your browser's starting page and add some screensaver advertising shortcuts to your desktop.

After unchecking those, just click "Accept" and wait for the installer to download and install RadarSync. When it says it's done, click "Finish". The program will start automatically and show a small window with the RadarSync's logo and a "Continue" button. Click that button, and it will show the main program window.

Here, you just need to click the big "Start Now!" button, and the program will scan your computer and find any needed driver updates for it. After the scan, the program will show you a list of available driver updates. Just click the button that says "Download all items" and then go to watch some movie or something, as this will probably take some time, depending on your internet connection speed. I would recommend the movie "K-PAX", a great story about a man who makes his psychiatrist doubt his own mind, and should make each one of us ask "what if?"

When the downloads have finished, click on the text "ready for install" next to each to remove it from the list and start the installer. Follow the steps of each of the installers. Each installer will probably tell you to restart your computer, but I'd say you don't have to do that until you've installed every one of them. Do that then, and then get back here and we'll move on!

Step 5. Programs & Features

Also this step is the same as one found in my previous article, but it's still necessary, so I've included it here too.

Go to:

Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Programs and Features

Here you can uninstall all the programs you don't need to have on your computer. Taking care of this now will save you from a lot of trouble later, when you really want or need to get something new installed. Just browse through the list of installed programs and when you spot a program you never need, select it and click on the "Uninstall" button on top of the list. Then just follow the uninstaller instructions.

You might also want to look at the windows features and turn some of them off. You can do this by clicking the text on the left that says "Turn Windows features on or off". This will open a new window with a list of currently installed and available Windows features. Move your mouse over these features to see a short description of each, and decide whether or not you necessarily need them. If you don't just un-check the box next to it. When you're done, just press "OK" and wait for the changes to be made. Sometimes, this may require you to reboot your computer. If so, do it, and then get back here to follow the rest of the guide!

Step 6. Services

Now it's time to get rid of useless services running on the background. To do this, open the service manager by holding the Windows-key and pressing R, then writing "services.msc" and pressing ENTER.

You can also do this by entering "services.msc" to the start menu search box.

Now, you can disable a service by double-clicking it and changing its startup type to "disabled".

Disable the following services:

• DFS Replication
• Distributed Link Tracking Client
• IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules
• IPsec Policy Agent
• KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator
• Offline Files
• Remote Registry
• Tablet PC Input Service (Unless you're using a tablet PC, like I am)
  
• Windows Error Reporting Service

Also, take a look at the rest of the services and determine by their descriptions whether or not you need them running. If you're sure you don't need it, disable it.

Step 7. Disk Cleanup

Now open the run command again (Win+R) or go to the start menu search and write "cleanmgr /sageset:1" and press ENTER.

This will open the Disk Cleanup Settings. Choose what you want your disk cleanup to clean; I choose them all. Then press "OK"

Now go to the run command or the search box again, write "cleanmgr /sagerun:1" and press ENTER to start the cleanup. The first time will take a few moments because of the old file compression, but later on, this should be a very fast process and it will be scheduled to happen automatically.

Step 8. Registry

Now you need to download Wise Registry Cleaner free edition. To do this, click this link.

Install the program without creating those useless shortcuts it asks about in the end and remember to remove the mark from the checkbox where it says "Download Wise Disk Cleaner now", while leaving the one where it says "Launch Wise Registry Cleaner". Press "Finish", and the program will start. It will ask you about the language you wish to use, and for this tutorial I recommend you choose English.

When the program starts, it will ask you about upgrading to PRO-version. Click "no". In the next dialog check the box where it says "Don't show this window again" and press "yes". It will now create a restore point and report to you when it's done. Press "OK".

Now go to:

Options -> Options

In the General-tab un-check the following

• Create Log
• Show balloon hints
• Auto get promote message

and choose "No Hints (Fastest)"

In the Auto Run-tab choose "Automatic" and "Only safe entries" and un-check "Show log when the program exits".

Click "OK" to close the Options-dialog and press "Scan" in the upper left corner to scan and fix the registry, after which the program will automatically close. Time to move on.

Step 9. Defragment

This step is also in my earlier guide. You need to download Iobit's SmartDefrag, the free, automated defragmenter with set-it-aand-forget-it functionality. Just go to Iobit website and scroll down until you see the button that says "Download freeware now". This will take you to CNET's download.com page, where you just click "Download Now" to start the download.

When the download finishes, install the defragmenter and start it.

In the program's main window, click the button that says "Options". Check all the boxes that have the word "(Recommended)" after them, as well as the one that says "Automatically check for updates".

Now click the button on the left that says "Schedule". This will take you to the schedule configuration. Check the boxes next to each of the hard drives listed, as well as the one where it says "Enable schedule" and from the drop-down menu choose "Defrag and Optimize". This will schedule automatic defragmenting to be performed once every two weeks, which should be just fine.

Now click the button on the left that says "Auto Defrag", which takes you to a screen where you can configure the automatic defragging performed on the background all the time when the computer is on. Just click the button that says "Recommended", and it should set everything just as it is best for your computer.

The last thing in this step would be a full defragment and optimization of all disks. For this, go to the main screen by clicking the button that says "Defrag Now". Check the boxes next to all drives listed and choose "Defrag and Optimize" from the drop-down menu. Now just click "Start" and it will start defragmenting.

Now, this also may take some time, so perhaps it's time for another movie? My recommendation this time would be "Wanted", a story of an anxious office worker who learns that he's really the son of the world's best assassin and possesses super-human killing and fighting abilities. Not really a good movie story-wise, but a perfect choice when you just want to enjoy some action.

When the defragmenting finishes, you'll see a report window, and you can just close it and also the program itself (it will keep running on the background, keeping your files in shape!), and we can move on to the last step.

Step 10. Schedule

Now we'll schedule the disk and registry cleaning to be made daily.

Go to the run command (Win+R) or the start menu search box and write "taskschd.msc /s" and press ENTER to start the Task Scheduler. On the left, click "Creat Basic Task..."

This will open the Task Wizard. In the first screen, write a name for your task, for example "Daily Disk Clean" and then press "Next".

In the next screen choose "Daily" and press "Next". Set the time you wish your task to take place in and press "Next" again.

Now choose "Start a Program" as the action and press "Next". Set the following:

Program: C:WindowsSystem32cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:1

and press "Next". Now press "Finish" and that's it! Your computer is now scheduled to clean the disk every day!

Now make another task and in the program set this:
C:Program FilesWise Registry Cleaner 3WiseRegistryCleaner.exe

Congratulations, your PC is now configured to stay in shape, for free!

10. The Graphic Adventure Creator

This wouldn't make it to the top ten of everyone's lists because it does what the title suggests: creates adventure games. Text adventure games to be precise, with the option of adding vector-drawn graphics. The number of days I have lost to this piece of software, creating games that entertained a few of my friends for a few hours at most, should not be calculated unless you want me to whine about my mis-spent youth. Nevertheless it was the utility that produced so many excellent home-brew adventures that when it appeared on the coverdisk of Amstrad Action it was a shot in the arm for the CPC's dying software market and for that it deserves a place in this top ten.

9. Dizzy

The original is still the best. Guide the battery hen's answer to Indiana Jones around a fantasy world on a mission to defeat the Evil Wizard Zaxx, solving dastardly puzzles along the way. The game was so popular that it spawned a dozen sequels; most of them excellent adcade adventures like itself. Also, kudos for making the game's protagonist a hard boiled egg. Whoever came up with that idea should be given a knighthood, or maybe a psychiatrist.

8. Scapeghost

This is, quite simply, the finest adventure game I have ever played. It reads like a novel, the puzzles are logical yet devious and I have fond memories of spending an entire summer holiday trying to complete it with the help of a band of friends. We managed it, eventually, and we were not disappointed by the finale. Also, playing as a murdered detective who was framed by colleagues for a drug bust gone wrong was a bold move for the times, so the game gets extra cudos on that point, too.

7. Croco Magneto

Once you hear it, you will not be able to get this game's sountrack out of your head. It's a simple tune for a simple yet feindishly difficult and addictive game. If this ever turned up as a download for your mobile, you would not get any work done. Seriously, do not track this thing down and play it; your life will be forefeit.

The premise is simple: play a powerball from hell, bouncing around a sideways-scrolling maze while some crazy early '90s techno beat blasts at you from your speakers. By ricocheting off walls to change direction you must navigate vicious obstacles in order to smash up some radioactive barrels and clear the world of radiation. Oh, and you only have one life, so be careful.

6. Electro Freddy

Another deceptively simple game from a computer that has so many hidden qualities it practically invented the concept. Guide Freddy around a single-screen maze, pushing stock from his warehouse onto a conveyor belt at the bottom of the screen so it can be packaged up and sent out to some shops. Sounds easy? Well, it's not.

An enemy allegedly modelled on Sir Clive Sinclair (whose company was responsible for the CPC's main rival, the ZX Spectrum) will chase you, firing blue ZX Spectrums from his eyes as a weapons while occasionally a Comodore C64 will drop down the screen. Touch that and you're dead meat. Also, watch out for the forcefield that runs above the conveyor belt, just for added nastiness. Freddy certainly had his work cut out for him!

5. The New Zeland Story

To this day I have no idea how this game was marketed to publishers. As a tiny yellow kiwi you must travel the length and bredth of a New Zeland that can only exist in the minds of some of the most tripped-out hippies ever to grace the planet. Battle giant, flying whales while sitting on minature hot air baloons and firing at them with a bow and arrow. Avoid the razor-sharp claws of a veritable army of crabs. Dodge snails that move faster than you can, and more! All in the name of rescuing your fellow kiwis from their hideously-coloured cages.

This game was insane.

4. The Bard's Tale

Computer-based roleplaying games owe their lives to The Bard's Tale, possibly the most famous (and certainly the best) computer RPG of its time. Guide a motley crew of dangerous psychopaths through a dungeon, fighting monsters and collecting treasure as you go. It's pretty much that simple, but then again most computer RPGs have continued to be just this simple. The impressive use of pseudo-3D graphics (think Doom, only flatter and less animated) set this game apart from all that had come before, and most that would come after.

The modern console remake is nowhere near as enjoyable.

3. Way of the Exploding Fist

Let's put this simply: without Way of the Exploding Fist there would be no Tekken. There would be no Dead or Alive. There would be no Streetfighter. This game started it all.

The concept is simple: model a karate championship. You play as either a white-clad karate champion or a black-clad karate champion (the game had an excellent two-player facility) and fight a succession of ever more capable opponents until you are finally declared the ultimate karate champion. It sounds so simple but, like all the fighting games that followed it, the proof is in the playing. This game was fiendishly difficult but so amazingly replayable. It deserved a place in any CPC owner's collection, and if you download Arnold, it deserves a spot on your hard drive too.

2. Forgotten Worlds

This frenetic shooter is one of the most astounding experiences anyone who grew up in the 1980s could experience. It is simply adrenaline incarnate, as you and a friend play The Nameless Ones, two gun-toting clones of Arnold Schwarzenegger, as they defend their home planet (presumably Earth although possibly not - it looks rather desolate if it is Earth) against a succession of rampaging alien hordes.  By 'defend' we do, of course, mean 'blow up everything in sight, using guns that thankfully don't run out of ammo'.

The game is a hideously difficult sideways-scrolling shoot-em-up that practically wrote the book on how to produce instant classics.  It mixes non-stop action with gradually rising difficulty level, an excellent soundtrack and just enough plot to let you understand why you're blowing up everything in sight ("They're nasty aliens and they want you to die.  Kill them!").  Excellent.

1. Elite

If you don't know what Elite is, you weren't a gamer in the early years of the home computer. This is, quite simply, the computer game of the 8-bit era. There are still fans of this game playing it right now and they may have been doing so for years.

Taking on the guise of Commander Jamesson, you find yourself in the cockpit of a Cobra Mk3 spaceship in the far reaches of the galaxy. From this point on, everything you do is up to you. You can be a peaceful trader, shipping goods from planet to planet and making some quick cash as you do so. You can use this money to better equip your ship if you want to. You can fight bad guys and collect the bounties on their heads. You can explore the universe, relishing in having reached star systems few others will ever even have seen on their (very extensive) maps. You can fight good guys, battle the interstellar police and become the universe's Ultimate Badass; or you can combine all these things to truly master all the game has to offer. The choice is yours and the replayability is infinite.

All games since have aimed to better the experience Elite provides. Few have succeeded.

Problem Number 1

This problem occurs to all teens out there who want to come home and relax. All of us teens want to play video games, whether we prefer XBOX or Playstation, we'll want to play video games. A large chunk of us want to come home and play our favourite games on our computers. Now, not all of our parents want to pay 3000$ for a nice computer, so how are we supposed to play those nice games? Especially when our video cards are constantly being outdated by new, "way too expensive" ones? That's the problem, we want to play nice games, but we don't want to pay three thousand just to play them. I recently installed Far Cry 2 on my PC and the graphics card was way too old! Go figure right? Then I put in Far Cry 2 and it was as slow as a darn snail. There was a low frames per second and the graphics totally sucked. Now, as soon as I saw this, I immediately assumed it was the graphics card, and I was 101% correct. I researched my card and it was almost 6 months too old. That's fairly old for a new computer. The card to the left is 455 bucks! So my points are:

a) Why should we have to pay so much money just for a decent computer?
b) Why do video cards have to be constantly updated (It sickens most people how much money it costs to get a new one)
c) Why do new computers have old graphics cards?

When you buy a computer brand-new it would have a brand-new graphics card just as you suspected. Nowadays, there are like 50 different models being sold at once, the newest ones sold at around 200-300$! That's a lot of money and I think it is totally pathetic.

Problem Number 2

If you can't afford a very nice computer, and your parents won't buy one for you, how will you get it? We all know that money does not grow on trees and paying 5000$-10,000$ for a computer is just bogus. Most of us would never spend that much on one anyways. But why do computer brands have to have so many different models? Some models are nice, of course, but why charge 5000$ for them? Does it really cost 100$ to make a gigabyte of ram? Probably not! I have the feeling that greed has gotten to most brand names and that's why it is so much money. For all of you reading this right now, look up on Google how to make a computer from scratch. It'll make you want to join electronics class and make your own ram! It really annoys at least 50% of people the fact that a computer with the latest graphics card, latest CPU, latest motherboard, lots of ram, ETC, is at minimum 2100$. Many people are constantly looking for cheap deals, and finding them extremely disappointing. Enough said, they cost too much money.

Problem Number 3

The gaming district. I have researched tons about this specific topic and it doesn't appeal to me very much. The game district has spent too much money on games, and will continue to do so. As the games get more and more advanced the computer brand names want to meet at least the standards of the games to get a peak effect of the graphical environments and whatnot. 100% of new games will always be better than what there is to sell, require so much ram that a new computer must be made. It's crazy, and exactly like Far Cry 2, unless you have 4000$ to spare there's no point in buying the new games. Go buy a darn Xbox 360, buy the same game, and you'll only spend 300-400 dollars! A new console won't be out for another while right? Plus you can always sell it for slightly less and people will buy the console from you. But the thing is, playing an Xbox may be different for some people than playing PC. There is a wide variety of PC games for cheap whereas Xbox games are very expensive. So many people want a PC, which will always have the best graphics of all Xboxs and Playstations, and have the biggest capability of them all, but they don't want to spend so much! Why can't people see this!? I hope this helped some of you out there, knowing that you're not the only one who dreams of owning an awesome computer! Sometimes I'm happy to own a PC instead of an Xbox, since the technology is way more advanced, it is still not cost worthy to make, so why charge much? I think this question will irk us no matter who we are! Your informative--RJ

Many would have you believe that to achieve this it costs at least £1000, probably. In reality, you can have it for far less.

In this article, I will show you components that you can install to seriously speed up your computer, for a few hundred pounds. Granted this could still be quite a bit too much for many people, so I’ll also be posting some cheaper alternatives, in case you don’t have quite as much cash as you would like.

The components

Motherboard (ASUS PSN-E SLI) =£56

This motherboard is one of the cheapest SLI motherboards available. This is important as it means that you can attach two or more graphics cards to it, which will mean you can buy one graphics card now and a second at a later date to boost the power, and to delay the time before your computer needs another upgrade. It can also take up to 8gb of ram, has support for up to a quad core, and has onboard audio which supports 5.1, meaning you won’t have to purchase a sound card, at extra cost.
If you don’t need two graphic card slots, and you aren’t planning on getting a quad core any time soon, then a motherboard that can handle a core 2 duo can be bought for around £30.

Processor (Intel Core 2 Quad, Q6600 2.4ghz) =£116

This is probably the cheapest quad core processor going, but that doesn’t mean that it lacks quality. It has four processors working together, at a decent 2.4ghz, meaning that games that are very processor dependant (such as real time strategies), will work perfectly, and documents and pictures will open very quickly. For the tech geeks, this is also a great model for over clocking, and can be over clocked to between 3ghz and 3.2ghz with a decent amount of cooling).

If you can’t afford this, or you just reckon that a quad core is a bit over the top, then a decent core 2 duo running at 2.4ghz can be picked up for about £75 and would be fine for gaming.

Corsair 2gb DDR2 667mhz PC2-5400 Memory =£29

2gb of ram isn’t a huge amount, but is more than sufficient for most games, and meets the recommended spec even for Windows Vista Ultimate. More can always be purchased at a later date, to increase the machine’s gaming power further.
If you can’t afford this a good alternative would be to buy just 1gb of ram, then add an extra 1gb at a later date, but just remember that 2gb will increase the speed of your computer by quite a considerable amount. 1gb of ram can be picked up for under £15 if you shop around.

Maxtor Stm3250310As 250gb Hard Drive =£28

 

This is a standard 250gb hard drive. It spins at a decent 7200rpm, which is a standard for most desktop hard drives. 250gb of space should be more than enough for the average gamer, and short of downloading blue-ray discs onto it you will have a hard time filling it. If you feel you can fill it though, then you could always get an extra to give you a total of half a terabyte.

Once again, if this is going to cost too much then you can pick up an 80gb or 160gb hard drive for slightly cheaper, but the savings are minimal, and the extra memory really helps with future proofing.

Nvidia 8800gt 512mb DDR3 =£95

This is by far not the best graphics card on the market, but by no means is it the worst. At just under £100 it’s pretty cheap (compared to many), but the power it packs is great. It has 512mb of DDR3 memory, which is considerably faster than its DDR2 equivalent. For maximum power you can get two of these cards, and use them in SLI to have enough graphics power to run the latest, graphics intense games such as Crysis on high detail. But by itself its more than enough to run HD movies, and do any other picture and video work you need it to do, as well as play most games recent games at a decent resolution with decent graphics, and any older games you should be able to max out with ease.

If you don’t have a £100, but still want to play older games, or newer games on low detail, then cards such as the 7600gt can be picked up for as little as £40, even cheaper if you shop around or buy them second hand.

FINAL NOTES

The total cost for the more expensive components listed is £324.
The total cost for the less expensive components listed is approximately £180.

I hope this article gives you a better idea of how you can upgrade an old computer, and turn it into a gaming pc that can run games with decent settings, for a few hundred pounds; and even less if you use cheaper alternatives.

Please remember that the components listed here are only the internal components.  A monitor, mouse, keyboard, case, speakers and power supply are not included in this: using ones from your original PC are a great way to save a lot of money, and can easily be upgraded at a later date.

There are many programs available for defragmenting separate files. Some good free ones are Defraggler, and a command line utility called Contig. Rapid File Defragmenter works the best, but it costs money.

In my case, for Supreme Commander, doing this has improved performance a lot, most noticeably loading times, which were now about four times shorter. My case is somewhat of a worst-case scenario; the data files had over 40,000 fragments.

The CPU

No changes in my CPU selection., though the Core2Duo E8200 dropped in price again

Low-budget: Intel Core2Duo E8200 (€140)
Mid-range: Intel Core2Duo E8400 (€180)
High-end: Intel Core2Duo E8500 (€260)

The Video Card

No changes this month in the video card selection: the GeForce 9600GT 512MB is still the best card for the low-budget system for a very reasonable price. The GeForce 8800GTS 512MB remains the best choice for the mid-range system, having the best price/quality VERHOUDING. After the introduction of the new GeForce 9000 array, the 8800GTS 512MB will probably disappear from the markets soon. If you still have some doubts, this is the moment to buy a 8800GTS 512MB, since there is no card in the 9000 array having the same price/quality (which is probably why nVidia wants it to disappear). In the high-end system, the GeForce 9800GX2 rules. This dual core GPU solution on a single video card, is currently the fastest 3D-card, making it the right choice for the high-end system. If you are a bit more economical, you could also go for a GeForce 9800GTX, which only costs €300 while still being a very nice video card.

Low-budget: Asus GeForce 9600 GT 512MB (€150)
Mid-range: Asus GeForce EN8800GTS 512MB (€210)
High-range: Asus GeForce 9800GX2 (€460)

The Motherboard

No changes for this month.

Low-budget: Asus P5K (€90)
Mid-range: Asus P5K (€90)
High-end: Asus P5k-E (€120)

The Hard Disk

The Samsung Spinpoint hard disks with their low price and excellent performance have even dropped more in price. The difference in price with Western Digital and Seagate hard disks is really growing a lot.
Note: in the high-end system, the two disks should be configured in raid.

Low-budget: Seagate 320 GB 7200.10 SATA-300 (€60)
Mid-range: Samsung 750GB 32MB SATA-300 (€90)
High-end: Samsung 750GB 32MB SATA-300, 2 pieces (€180)

The Memory

No changes. Gamers with Vista might even consider buying 4GB

Low-budget: 2048MB Corsair Twin2x DDR2 C4 6400 (€50)
Mid-range: 2048MB Corsair Twin2x DDR2 C4 6400 (€50)
High-end: 2048MB Corsair Twin2x DDR2 C4 6400 (€50)

The Rest

Not much to say about the other parts of your computer (computer case with power supply, DVD-player, keyboard and mouse). One thing you should pay attention to: a power supply of at least 400Watt, which can be bought for around €90. Also make sure your case is large enough if you want to buy the 8800GTX. You shouldn't spend more than €25 on you DVD-player either. A mouse and keyboard can be bought for €30, but if you want those with special design or wireless, you will easily be paying over €100. But that's just about taste.

Conclusion

No changes in the configurations, only lots of price drops. Question is how long these prices will keep dropping, though the dollar course seems to have reached its limit.

This Month's Configurations

Note: As I'm from Europe, all prices are in euros. Converting them would be too much work and since the euro/dollar course is doing weird, it would also not be correct. Still, the systems listed here are the best to buy, though their price may vary in dollars.

The CPU

No changes in my CPU selection.

Low-budget: Intel Core2Duo E8200 (€155)
Mid-range: Intel Core2Duo E8400 (€180)
High-end: Intel Core2Duo E8500 (€260)

The Video Card

A lot of changes in the video card selection: the Radeon HD 3850 in the low- budget system will be replaced by the new GeForce 9600GT 512MB, which is faster and has twice as much memory. In the mid-range system we'll swap the GeForce 8800GT with the GeForce 8800GTS 512MB which is faster and has dropped in price this month. In the high-end system the Radeon HD 3870X2 is replaced by the new GeForce 9800GX2 which, just like the HD3870X2, is a dual core GPU on one video card. The price of the 9800GX2 is a lot more, but it's also a lot faster than the HD3870X2

Low-budget: Asus GeForce 9600 GT 512MB (€150)
Mid-range: Asus GeForce EN8800GTS 512MB (€230)
High-range: Asus GeForce 9800GX2 (€480)

The Motherboard

No changes, though the prices have dropped

Low-budget: Asus P5K (€90)
Mid-range: Asus P5K (€90)
High-end: Asus P5k-E (€120)

The Hard Disk

We'll keep the Seagate Barracuda discs for the low-budget system, but the new Samsung Spinpoint have a larger capacity, are cheaper and have 32MB of onboard cache. In the high-end system, the two discs are supposed to be configured in raid.

Low-budget: Seagate 320 GB 7200.10 SATA-300 (€60)
Mid-range: Samsung 750GB 32MB SATA-300 (€100)
High-end: Samsung 750GB 32MB SATA-300, 2 pieces (€200)

The Memory

No changes. Gamers with Vista might even consider buying 4GB

Low-budget: 2048MB Corsair Twin2x DDR2 C4 6400 (€62)
Mid-range: 2048MB Corsair Twin2x DDR2 C4 6400 (€62)
High-end: 2048MB Corsair Twin2x DDR2 C4 6400 (€62)

The Rest

Not much to say about the other parts of your computer (computer case with power supply, DVD-player, keyboard and mouse). One thing you should pay attention to: a power supply of at least 400Watt, which can be bought for around €90. Also make sure your case is large enough if you want to buy the 8800GTX. You shouldn't spend more than €25 on you DVD-player either. A mouse and keyboard can be bought for €30, but if you want those with special design or wireless, you will easily be paying over €100. But that's just about taste.

Conclusion

A slight price drop for the low-budget and the mid-range systems and a slight price raise for the high-end system. See you next month!

This Month's Configurations

Note: As I'm from Europe, all prices are in euros. Converting them would be too much work and since the euro/dollar course is doing weird, it would also not be correct. Still, the systems listed here are the best to buy, though their price may vary in dollars.

The CPU

As the new Core2Duo 45nm Wolfdale processors have been introduced, these become the best processors, with a larger L2 cache of 6mb, less power usage and a slightly higher clock rate, while still costing the same as their predecessors. All these advantages makes me choose these processors.

Low-budget: Intel Core2Duo E8200 (€160)

Mid-range: Intel Core2Duo E8400 (€175)

High-end: Intel Core2Duo E8500 (€250)

The Video Card

This month, the Radeon HD3870 X2's prices has strongly been reduced, making this card very attractive. It's solid performance and very reasonable prices makes it the perfect video card for the high-end system. For the low-budget system, I would choose the Radeon HD 3850-256mb, but if I could change one thing about the low-budget system, I would swap the HD 3850-256mb for the HD3850-512mb or the GeFore 8800GT-512mb, because 512mb of video memory will soon become the new standard requirement for games.

For the mid-range system, I choose the GeForce 8800GT-512mb, which currently has the best price/quality proportion.

Low-budget: Radeon HD 3850-256mb (€155)

Mid-range: Asus GeForce EN8800GT-512mb (€250)

High-range: Radeon HD 3870 X2 (€380)

The Motherboard

The Asus P5K for all systems.

Low-budget: Asus P5K (€105)

Mid-range: Asus P5K (€105)

High-end: Asus P5k-E (€135)

The Hard Disk

The Seagate Barracuda disks are currently the best offer there is. Attention: In the high-end system, the two disks have to be configured in raid.

Low-budget: Seagate 250 GB 7200.10 SATA-300 (€70)

Mid-range: Seagate 320 GB 7200.10 SATA-300 (€80)

High-end: Seagate 500 GB 7200.10 SATA-300, 2 pieces (€210)

The Memory

There's a lot of rumble on the memory market these days. This caused the price for 2GB of memory to drop strongly. Same for all systems.

Low-budget: 2048MB Corsair Twin2x DDR2 C4 6400 (€62)

Mid-range: 2048MB Corsair Twin2x DDR2 C4 6400 (€62)

High-end: 2048MB Corsair Twin2x DDR2 C4 6400 (€62)

The Rest

Not much to say about the other parts of your computer (computer case with power supply, DVD-player, keyboard and mouse). One thing you should pay attention to: a power supply of at least 400Watt, which can be bought for around €90. Also make sure your case is large enough if you want to buy the 8800GTX. You shouldn't spend more than €25 on you DVD-player either. A mouse and keyboard can be bought for €30, but if you want those with special design or wireless, you will easily be paying over €100. But that's just about taste.

Conclusion

Here I will compare the configuration with that of the previous month. As this is the first month, I can't do that now. So see you next month!

Note: As I'm from Europe, all prices are in euros. Converting them would be too much work and since the euro/dollar course is doing weird, it would also not be correct. Still, the systems listed here are the best to buy, though their price may vary in dollars.

The components needed are:

1. Case
2. Motherboard
3. Processor
4. Memory (RAM)
5. Hard Drive
6. Optical Drive
7. Operating System

Step One: Getting the Parts

I chose Dabs for this step, as I'd used them before, but there are plenty of good websites out there.

You want to find a cheap, but good, piece of equipment for each part. What I did was look for parts that matched the specs I needed, and had a 4 or 5 star rating.

Here is what I got:

• Dabsvalue Case: £20
  Fits all mainboards up to 244mm.
  400w power supply included.
  
• MSI Motherboard: £32
  Fits two DDRII simms, up to 2 GB in each RAM slot. (Up to 4 GB total)
  Socket AM2.
  Supports AMD Athlon 64 X2
  Supports 64-bit processors.
• AMD Processor: £48
  Socket AM2.
  64-bit.
  2.2 ghz (“3800+”)
  Dual core
  
• Corsair Memory: £52
  2 simms, DDRII
  Each simm 1 GB in size (2 GB in total)
  
• Hard Drive: £28
  160 GB
  7,200 RPM
  
• DVD-Rom / CD-RW combo drive: £15
  I actually salvaged this from an old PC, but the same drive was £15 on the net.

Step Two: Putting It Together

Firstly, make sure you anti-static yourself. (Touch a metal objects that is connected to the ground, and un-painted. Or, wear an anti-static bracelet, probably best.) This is important as any static shocks can harm the components.

Open up the case. You'll find many screws with your case or motherboard. Screw the spacers into the case, lined up with the holes in the motherboard. Make sure the motherboard does not touch the case, and screw it in place on the spacers. Plug in any case wires, such as power buttons, into the places as described in the motherboard's manual.

Now Take your processor. Smear on some heat-transfer paste (around £2.50), and line it up with the pins on the white square of the motherboard, making sure the arrow in one corner is lined up with the arrow on the motherboard. Making sure it is perfectly aligned, lower the lever (if it is AM2) to stick it in place. Your CPU may be different; I am writing this from using a socket AM2 processor. Read the instructions supplied with your CPU. Place the heat sink on top, and clip it in place. Connect the fan wires to the motherboard.

Connect the thick grey cable to the motherboard. Now screw the hard drive in to one of the small bays, and connect the thick grey cable, and one of the white power cables. Place the optical drive into the case, and screw it in place. Again, connect a white power cable and the thick grey cable.

Now the memory… Make sure the notch is lined up, and place it in to one of the slots. Don't force it. Push it down gently and the white clips will close on it. Do the same for any additional sticks if you have them.

Now turn it on and pray it works.

Step Three: the Operating System

You want a cheap, but effective, operating system.

I chose Linux as it has many free distributions. I then chose Ubuntu, for some reason. I went with Xubuntu, because I needed a visual system, that was low on resources. Download it, install it on the server, and run it.

Setting up the network should be straight forward, or you can check the OS's website for guides.

All done!

In the end, here's the specs:

• AMD Athlon 64-bit dual core, 2.2ghz 3800+
• 2 GB memory
• 160 GB hard disk drive, 7,200 RPM
• DVD-R/CD-RW drive
• 400w PSU
• Xubuntu Linux

Total cost: £197.50 - Not bad for a server of these specs.

Upgrading

Oh, we're not done yet! As your game makes money, here's some things to upgrade:

• RAM: 2 GB -> 4 GB
• Hard Drive: 160GB 7,200 RPM -> 80GB 15,000 RPM