Pre Modded Xbox Article

Note: The following is apocryphal, but it’s based on encounters with real people over the years. Since it’s not completely accurate and true, I hereby voluntarily forgo my shot at the Pulitzer this year.

Over the years, Joe’s become quite knowledgeable about his PC. In fact, he now builds his own computers and upgrades them himself. He blows off pre-built systems, particularly from larger OEMs. “I’d tell my mother to get a Dell,” he says, “but you’d never catch me owning one.”

Joe keeps up on the latest 3D graphics technology, and he even understands most of the settings in his graphics control panel. “If I can’t play with 4x AA and AF,” he tells his friends, “I just don’t play. Games look like crap without AA and AF.”

Recently, Joe’s also gotten into online gaming, especially now that he’s got a broadband connection. He’s added a router to his network, too, because he wanted to offload the firewall. While he was pretty happy with Zone Alarm, he really preferred to not have those CPU cycles sucked away from his gaming experience.

In his quest for the Ultimate Gaming Experience, Joe’s really tricked out his hot-rod, homebrewed gaming rig. It’s got a pair of Serial ATA drives set up in a RAID 0 array. He’s got the latest audio card, so he can have surround sound and save a few more CPU cycles. He couldn’t afford a high-end surround-sound speaker setup, so for the time being, he’s settled on a decent stereo speaker setup—though he spends most of his gaming time wearing headphones. “Headphones sound better than surround-sound speakers anyway,” Joe says.

In his quest for the Ultimate Gaming Experience, he’s also dropped some serious coin on his input devices. His mouse sampling rate is second to none, and the keyboard is perfect for gaming. “None of that ergonomic crap for me,” Joe tells his buddies. “I want to know where my keys are.”

However, Joe’s latest discovery is overclocking. He’s got a water block on order, but even his air-cooled rig gets 20 percent over the rated CPU clock. He’s started fooling around with his graphics card, too, and has replaced the native cooling solution with a heat-pipe solution, which allows him to run his GPU 15 percent higher. “My framerates are silky smooth,” Joe boasts.

So, Joe has really built himself one killer rig. Fully modded, it’s not cheap, but hey, he’s after the Ultimate Gaming Experience. But what about games?

“I don’t have as much time to play as I used to,” Joe says, “But I have a great time when I do play.”

So, Joe, what is your game of choice these days?

“Counter-Strike.”

***

At CGW, we spend a lot of time reviewing hardware and helping you wring just a bit more performance out of every game. That’s our job. But I’ve talked to a lot of Joe Gamers in the world, those who seem to have lost sight of the fact that the PC is there as the platform.

Sure, tweaking and tricking out your PC can be a great game on its own. And if you like doing that, we’re happy. But I’d just as soon have a straightforward system that just runs so that I can play a boatload of games instead of spending too much time maxing out the hardware. After a full day of work, I’d certainly rather be booting up Halo or KOTOR or Battlefield 1942 than pushing the memory on my graphics card. When you fire up a game and get so into it that you forget about the world around you—that’s the Ultimate Gaming Experience.

Loyd’s Top Picks

Games the 9600 does really right

Halo, KOTOR, and Battlefield 1942 aren’t the only games that look good and run well without having to over clock your graphics card. Here are a few recently reviewed games that are sure to look great and run well on that Radeon 9600 graphics card.

Silent Storm

This tactical strategy title by JoWood was good enough to earn an Editors’ Choice award from none other than Robert Coffey.

Civilization III: Conquerors

With nine new historical campaigns, Firaxis’ latest Civ title looks great and is addictive as hell. And for all of you who want multiplayer that works, Firaxis managed to fix all the problems that plagued the Play the World add-on.

Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre

Forget about realism. BHD: Team Sabre is about one thing and one thing only: killing. Leaving the ill-fated streets if Mogadishu, BHD: Team Sabre takes you to Columbia and Iran, where you’ll go about the business of ridding the world of drug dealers and terrorists.