Picking the right RAM
With RAM pricing currently at historically
low levels, now is a great time to invest in some extra memory. It’s very
unlikely you actually need any more than 8GB of RAM – even in the highest-spec
gaming system – but with modern motherboards supporting between 16 and 32GB,
there’s little harm in buying some extra if you have the budget available. If
you do lots of work that involves multi-tasking, or make use of virtual
machines, obviously extra RAM is an important consideration, but for most PC
users, any extra memory over 8GB probably isn’t going to be used.
Corsair Vengeance RAM
The performance of a PC isn’t enhanced by
having extra RAM. This additional capacity will simply sit unused until
required, but it won’t harm performance either. Rather than going for an
excessive amount of cheap, slow memory, you should instead consider investing
in faster 1600MHz RAM. This will enhance the performance of your PC and is a
well-established any highly compatible speed of memory. At speeds above 1600MHz
you generally get diminishing returns in terms of performance, and are much
more likely to run into problems – especially if installing more than the
mandatory two modules of memory.
When choosing your RAM, you should always
double-check that is has a lifetime warranty. Most good-quality name-brand
memory has a lifetime warranty, and it’s worth paying a few extra pounds for
this piece of mind. Flashy gaming RAM like Corsair’s Vengeance series have
attractive heat spreaders. In all truth, these do little for cooling, but they
look great and do protect the memory when you’re handling it. Before investing
in these taller-than-average memory modules, make sure your choice of CPU
cooler doesn’t preclude their use!
Picking the right cooling
Thermolab Tranquillo
Although most CPU coolers come with a CPU
fan, you probably shouldn’t use it unless you want your system to be
unnecessarily noisy and hot. QuietPC.com have a wide selection of third-party
coolers, any of which will greatly reduce your noise levels and improve
temperatures to boot. If you’re not planning to overclock, a modestly priced
heatsink like an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro or a Gelid Tranquillo would be a
great choice. These are compatible with all current socket types. If
overclocking is something to factor in, then spend a little more and choose a
premium cooler designed with this in mind. Some of the best models we’ve used
are made by Corsair, Titan, Thermolab and Thermaltake, each of which offers
products to cater for a variety of budgets.
SLI and CrossFire
SLI dual GPU
Both AMD and NVidia offer the facility to
increase the performance of your video card setup with CrossFire or SLI
dual-GPU solutions respectively. SLI requires use of a motherboard with a
special SLI certification (for which the firm charges a royalty), whereas
CrossFire works on any current motherboard with dual PCI-Express slots. When
multi-GPU works well it can increase performance by as much as 50% over a
single GPU, but as both technologies require game-specific support, not all
games show any benefit and your mileage will vary hugely from title to title.
Whichever solution you choose, you should think long and hard about whether you
actually need all this power. Unless you have a screen capable of at least
2560x1440, we would argue there’s absolutely no point in having a high-end
multi-video card setup, and that a single more expensive GPU will invariably
give you a more consistent and predictable gaming experience than two mid-raged
solutions.
