Steps to make the ultimate gaming rig?

[Oloh]

Few Questions:

1. My mouse comes as USB with PS2 adapter. Any reason to use one or the other? Its the Logitech 518 optical one.

2. I get the machine and pull it out of the box and everything works right. Do I format it and start over to get rid of all the junk, or do I just uninstall stuff, or do i leave well enough alone?

3. Should I download all of the newest drivers for all of the components and install them, or use the factory drivers?

4. Are there any other tricks and tidbits that I shoudl do out of the box? Do you think Virus software is a good idea? I have Mcaffe Online now...anything better?

[Fozzik]

1. My mouse comes as USB with PS2 adapter. Any reason to use one or the other? Its the Logitech 518 optical one.

Doesn't make a bit of difference. I'd probably go USB... just because with the PS/2 adapter on there, the connector is sort of long and bulky and could get knocked sideways...which would be bad for the motherboard. Also, four out of five nerds agree... USB is cooler.

2. I get the machine and pull it out of the box and everything works right. Do I format it and start over to get rid of all the junk, or do I just uninstall stuff, or do I leave well enough alone?

I would recommend wiping the drive. Although you will probably have to reinstall some of the Dell junk just to get the machine working (the companies aren't getting much better about locking you into proprietary things wherever they can sneak it in). Hopefully you'll get software and OS CD's from Dell... if they just send image CD's...you're going to have to either uninstall the junk manually (and leave the necessary things), or else use your own Windows CD and then use the Dell driver disk to put on any proprietary drivers. Pre-built machines usually come fairly loaded with junk, much of which will run in the background...which won't just cut performance, it also increases the risk of conflicts and bugs.

3. Should I download all of the newest drivers for all of the components and install them, or use the factory drivers?

Wherever you can, get the newest drivers from manufacturer websites, and use those. Probably at least the motherboard drivers, and any integrated devices you use (like sound if it's onboard), will have to have the dell drivers. For video, soundcard (if you got one) and other devices... The dell versions will probably work fine, but may not enable all features and may not get updated nearly as often as the manufacturer's drivers.

4. Are there any other tricks and tidbits that I should do out of the box? Do you think Virus software is a good idea? I have MacAfee Online now...anything better?

Anti-virus software, a firewall, and some sort of spyware/adware remover are critical. Don't use a computer without them. In fact, the best performance should not even be measured without anti-virus and firewall running in the background, because nobody should have a computer connected to the net and not running those things (and keeping them up to date!) MacAfee or Norton are both fine, although different people prefer one over the other. Like I said, the most important thing is that they are installed, updated, and running all the time. For firewalls, I really like ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonelabs.com). There is a free version, it's simple, straightforward, and works pretty well. Adaware and Spybot are good for spyware/adware removal.

As far as tricks... the less programs running in the background, the better. That's probably going to be the biggest issue you face with the new machine. Not much tweaking to be done in the BIOS, because Dell's BIOS won't really expose very many options to you. Hopefully someone else on the board will break in with some more ideas, I'm sort of drawing a blank for optimizations at the moment. I'll type again if I think of anything.

One thing... be careful where you place the machine. Leave plenty of room for ventilation (especially around intake/outflow fans) and don't enclose the computer in a cabinet or cover it with stuff if possible. The processor and video card you're getting, all by themselves, are going to be dissipating something like 200W of heat. It's always a tug-of-war between fan noise and cooling efficiency, and Dell generally leans towards making their systems quiet.

You're getting a dual-core chip, so one of the first things to do when you load windows is to check and make sure it's installed properly and recognizing the CPU the way it should. Probably the easiest way is to open the task manager (ctrl-alt-del) and click on the performance tab. It should show two CPU utilization graphs... if everything is working windows is going to believe you've got two processors.

[Dillgaar]

the only time USB vs PS2 will even be an issue would be in response time and for MMOs that isn't an issue... however in FPS games most players prefer usb mice and keyboards because of the quicker response times

[Heloisa]

the only time USB vs PS2 will even be an issue would be in response time and for MMOs that isn't an issue... however in FPS games most players prefer usb mice and keyboards because of the quicker response times

hey that's pretty cool I didn't know that...

just checked and I have a PS2 adaptor on my USB intellipoint mouse :(

doh! no wonder Havelock kills me so much