Acknowledgments | p. XI |
Foreword | p. XIII |
Introduction | p. XV |
Welcome to the World of PC Games | |
How PC Games Affect Performance | p. 3 |
Aspects of PC Performance | p. 6 |
Genre Issues | p. 12 |
The Soul of a Great Gaming PC | p. 15 |
The CPU | p. 17 |
Core Logic | p. 23 |
Motherboards | p. 25 |
Memory | p. 28 |
Graphics Hardware | p. 30 |
Storage | p. 32 |
Audio | p. 37 |
Chassis and Power Supply | p. 38 |
The Evolving PC | p. 40 |
Operating Systems for PC Gaming | p. 43 |
Supporting Software | p. 44 |
Operating Systems | p. 46 |
Multiplayer Gaming with Your PC | p. 53 |
Friday Night Follies | p. 54 |
Enabling Multiple Players | p. 55 |
Small-Scale Multiplayer Gaming | p. 57 |
Medium-Scale Multiplayer | p. 58 |
Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming | p. 58 |
Do-It-Yourself Gaming | p. 61 |
The Mod Scene | p. 62 |
Do It Yourself | p. 63 |
Creating the Perfect Gaming PC | |
Tuning Your PC to the Types of Games You Play | p. 75 |
Mainstream Games | p. 76 |
Strategy Games | p. 77 |
Role-Playing Games | p. 79 |
Simulations | p. 81 |
Action Games and First-Person Shooters | p. 82 |
Controlling Your World: Game Controllers for Every Game | p. 87 |
Connecting Game Controllers | p. 88 |
The Force Is With You | p. 90 |
Gamepads | p. 90 |
Flight Controllers | p. 92 |
Wheels | p. 93 |
Other Controllers | p. 95 |
Voice | p. 96 |
Mouse and Keyboard | p. 97 |
Developing an Upgrade Plan | p. 101 |
Upgrading Versus Replacing | p. 102 |
What's Your Budget? | p. 106 |
Next Steps | p. 107 |
3D Hardware and Game Performance | p. 109 |
Confusion in 3D | p. 110 |
Making It Real | p. 114 |
Programmable Shaders | p. 122 |
Pushing Pixels and Polygons | p. 123 |
Choosing the Right Hardware | p. 124 |
We're in the Chips | p. 126 |
More PC Hardware Choices | p. 131 |
Processors, Motherboards, and Memory | p. 132 |
Audio | p. 136 |
Displays | p. 139 |
Storage | p. 140 |
How to Buy Hardware | p. 142 |
Now for the Screwdriver... | p. 143 |
The Easy Upgrades | p. 145 |
Electrostatic Discharge | p. 146 |
Installing a New Graphics Card | p. 147 |
Replacing Your Monitor | p. 156 |
Upgrading Your Sound System | p. 157 |
Adding Memory | p. 162 |
Major Surgery | p. 169 |
Preparation and Tools | p. 170 |
Upgrading Storage | p. 171 |
Replacing Your CPU | p. 179 |
Upgrading Your Motherboard | p. 189 |
The World Awaits | p. 195 |
Installing Windows | p. 197 |
Installing Windows XP | p. 198 |
Installing Windows Me | p. 208 |
The Upgrade Install | p. 209 |
Setting Up a Home Network | p. 210 |
Be Your Own Dell | p. 215 |
Chassis and Power Supply | p. 216 |
Building Your Own Game PC Is Easy | p. 220 |
The Path from Upgrading to Building | p. 221 |
Assembling Your Masterwork | p. 222 |
Tweaks and Troubleshooting | |
Common Problems and Solutions | p. 225 |
Troubleshooting Techniques | p. 226 |
Can't Boot Up | p. 228 |
System Lockups and Crashes | p. 233 |
Performance Problems | p. 236 |
Network and Multiplayer Problems (LAN) | p. 241 |
Multiplayer Problems (the Internet) | p. 242 |
Hardware Tweaks | p. 249 |
Tuning Your PC | p. 250 |
Updating the System BIOS | p. 252 |
Overclocking CPU and Memory | p. 257 |
Graphics Card Overclocking | p. 260 |
The Quiet PC | p. 263 |
The Personal Touch: Case Mods | p. 264 |
Software Tweaks | p. 269 |
Operating System Tuning | p. 270 |
Additional Resources | p. 278 |
Online Resources | p. 283 |
Game-Specific Tweaks | p. 284 |
The Future of PC Gaming | |
Where to Next? | p. 289 |
Internet and Web Games | p. 291 |
Compact PCs | p. 292 |
The Impact of Wireless | p. 292 |
Handheld and PDA Gaming | p. 293 |
Gaming Across Platforms | p. 294 |
Final Thoughts | p. 295 |
Index | p. 297 |
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