[Advice] PC Gaming FAQ, a guide for first timers.

[>Omen<]

OK, after suggesting it following Yellowboy's frustrations after building his PC, this is my rough draft of a guide to help other first time PC gamers avoid such a fate by learning what's involved and accepting it, or avoiding it entirely. At the very least avoiding it until they have the knowledge and/or patience to deal with it properly before spending a lot on a gaming PC.

Keep in mind this is just a rough draft and I may have missed some things, as I sit here in a 100+ degree swelter with no AC racking my brain. I'm posting here with the intent of getting other experienced PC gamers involved in tweaking this guide until we agree on a final draft for the Filefront Gaming FAQ. Feel free to suggest additions or changes, including the title.

It is my feeling, esp in these times of recession, that such a guide is essential to those whom may not know or fully understand what they're getting into regarding a first time gaming PC build as far as what's needed AFTER the initial assembly to get the most out of their system and/or games. I think it best it be kept fairly straight forward and not too deep and intimidating.

Spoiler:

Things You Should Know About Owning and Operating a PC Gaming System

(Note that much of the following where rare circumstances are mentioned are not recommended unless you have a fair amount of experience with such things. To a degree this guide is an example of how complex PC gaming can be in some cases to get the most out of it, and what steps you may need to learn about and use for optimal performance in some games.)

PC Maintenance, Preparation & Optimization

Common Steps
So many problems can be avoided by simple common sense PC maintenance. This includes checking for malware (preferably BEFORE installing a game), defragging the harddrive after installing the game, turning off background programs (and even unnecessary system services), and ensuring you have adequate swap file space. You can also free up more RAM via a simple reboot.

Boosting Performance
AlacrityPC is an excellent tool originally packaged with MS Flight SIM 10 and now standalone freeware that can be configured to stop and later restart all background programs and non essential services with one easy click. It also has a very good RAM defragger and uses the acclaimed BlackViper.com site for suggested service settings. There are also certain Windows features that can actually be problematic if left enabled, like XP's Dr. Watson debug tool. You can also use one of many available free GPU monitoring/overclocking tools such as RivaTuner, nTune and ATI Tool to set your GPU fan speed higher than it came from the factory. Both Nvidia and ATI for some time now have clocked their GPU fans to well below 50% of their full speed to keep their product as quiet as possible. Cranking the fan speed up can make them run considerably more cool and stable, as well as reduce overall case temperatures. Many have said W7 offers a performance increase over Vista and XP, especially on systems with modern hardware, so OS choice can be critical too.

Further optimization can be achieved by locating high resource games on a secondary harddrive if you have one, all the better if it's a high performance one. You can also use a RAID config, but that can get fairly complex for first time PC gamers. Another simple way to optimize however is via the use of a defragmenting tool that optimizes placement of high resource files such as games, which many do now. Perfect Disk will even optimally place and defrag critical system files upon reboot.

There are other tools which can help speed up overall PC performance via removing unused and/or duplicate files and registry entries, which can also be very helpful to do thorough game uninstalls. These include Auslogics BoostSpeed, Glary Utilities, and CCleaner, the latter two of which are freeware. Driver Cleaner's Cab Cleaner can also speed up your PC by removing driver cab clutter in XP. Some good anti malware tools are Avast AV, SpyBot, HijackThis, and GMER, all of which can be had free and the latter of which is a great anti rootkit tool, essential for avoiding identity theft bugs, which are some of the worst.

You can of course overclock your CPU and/or GPU as well, and depending on your part selection, it can even be the only means of achieving a completely bottleneck free gaming environment, especially where the CPU is concerned on modern rigs. It is highly recommended to use better than stock cooling for moderate to high overclocks though, to avoid high processor heat. Hardware overclocking needs a guide in and of itself though, which I will not cover here. It's best a first time PC gaming rig builder/user gets to know his hardware and software well first anyway before embarking on such a task.

Software, Guides & Workarounds

Patches
Always check to see if there's a patch for the game you're installing. Some patches can even fix problems causing the game to not install. Read the release notes in the patch to see if there's a particular fix for your specific hardware, and/or features you don't need. In the case of the latter, it's best to only apply it if you're having problems, as patches can often lower FPS slightly. Applying and/or finding the right patch can be time consuming and often requires much patience. Patches can be a lot like drivers, some may work better than others, and often you have to uninstall the whole game to remove one to try another in the case of rolling back to a previous patch version. For this reason it's best to apply one patch, test, then apply the next build version if you're still having problems. Going straight to the most current patch can leave you taking lengthy steps to find a better one if you have problems with it. However if you read the forum chat on what patch version works well with what hardware, it can avoid a lot of this.

Drivers
Always ensure that you've installed or have at least tried the latest driver versions for your GPU, sound card, MB chipset, DirectX, NIC (for mp gaming) and even peripherals such as display and mouse. You may in some cases have to try older GPU drivers, especially if the latest one is a beta or you're using an older GPU. Also ensure that you install them properly. It is best and recommended to do a thorough driver removal before installing a new one via a tool like Driver Sweeper (free) or Driver Cleaner.

Guides
Guides and/or advice from some of the more technical oriented forums can be a wealth of information, even if you're not having out of the ordinary problems with games. Some of the more popular games have settings and tweaking guides written for them on sites like TweakGuides.com. It's also good to try the official forum for a game or other common game forums as there are lots of people whom have via trial and error or their reading found solutions that work well for common problems. Even if you don't register on them, visiting a game's official forum right after installing it often avoids lots of problems on down the road. Sometimes however the most visited and comprehensive forums for a game are those not hosted by the developer or publisher. Google is your friend, always check for better alternatives if you're not finding the info you're looking for.

Workarounds
These are basically out of the ordinary (usually temporary hopefully) fixes for game problems while waiting for patch support, which sometimes never comes, so they are essential. Some of the more common ones to check in case you can't find a specific one that's been tested by others are setting CPU affinity via Task Manager on multi core CPUs, trying compatibility modes, renaming the game's exe, relocating the game's install and/or save directories, and even lowering the game's system priority in Task Manager has been known to work (Ghostbusters on i7s).

Games with fairly active forums and tech savvy members will often have various performance config tweaks posted too, with instructions on how to use them, especially for games that have files that are fairly easy to tweak, like those using Unreal Engine 3. Such tweaks commonly include a whole new set of texture LOD settings, like the tweak many use for Gears of War PC. Always remember to save a copy of the original file before editing though.

On rare occasions there are much more elaborate workarounds that may or may not work for most. They can include extracting and even renaming compressed game files that do not stream well in game, or even extracting an OpenGL driver to the game's directory. The latter was a common fix when the ATI Cat drivers suddenly stopped working on all Medal of Honor titles circa Cat 5.7. Other rare workarounds can include adjusting hardware acceleration for your sound card, disabling HID devices, eliminating IRQ conflicts, or even adjusting BIOS settings.

Never underestimate the possibility of using simple workarounds though, like those which can fix problems caused by mere program compatibility issues. If all else fails, try seeing if turning off your AV, firewall, or even the game browser you're using (if there's an alternative) fixes the problem. Being as we're in the modern age of gaming where high tech features such as SLI and Crossfire are common, it also makes sense to try running just one GPU or changing SLI/Crossfire profiles too.

There are also workarounds for things such as poor widescreen support in some games. This can be done in various ways such as editing the resolution values in the game's config or ini files, or using a 3rd party tool made for adjusting resolutions in certain supported games. Go to WideScreenGamingForum.com for a master list of widescreen workarounds for many game titles.

Troubleshooting

Don't forget to troubleshoot if you're at the end of your rope and nothing else has worked. It could be something simple like a plug not fully inserted in a socket, a GPU and HDD connected to the same power rail on a multi rail PSU (can rob performance), poor cable management blocking air flow, inadequate case ventilation, the need to clear the CMOS on some MBs when building a new system or replacing a major part, BIOS settings that need to be adjusted, wireless devices interfering with one another, front panel case cables not connected to the right pins, etc, etc. There is always a long laundry list of things that can be tried with PC troubleshooting and it often takes patience and commitment. Sometimes it's necessary and never a bad idea to read up on your MB manual. It will explain key things like how to clear the CMOS.

Summary

Well I hope this guide has been useful and enlightening to those seeking advice on a first time PC gaming build. Regrettably there's not room to include detailed info on all the above tweaking methods or overclocking, but it is a start to get you pursuing reading and/or asking about such things that may not have occurred to you or you've yet to try. There's always a bit of a learning curve with any first time PC gaming build, but a little patience, diligence and understanding can go a long way to your getting started right and having many enjoyable years on gaming's greatest platform.

[kow_ciller]

Not bad sir. Good job

[computernerd]

Definitely a great job.

[Zamamee]

Here, have a sticky.

[>Omen<]

Geez guys, I thought this would be scrutinized over by the tech crew. Guess I did OK then. I just hope costly mistakes can be avoided by it.

[Mr. Pedantic]

Good. Thank you for that. The only thing I might add is that ATI cards don't have their fans set to 40-50% by default. It's even worse. Unless it gets over 100 degrees, you won't ever see the fan topping 30% at default settings.

[Zamamee]

You sure you aren't thinking of nVidia? Because my 8800GT stays at 29% no matter what unless I manually set it in RivaTuner. My ATi Mobility Radeon 4570 in my laptop, though, fires up to full speed often.

[Mr. Pedantic]

You sure you aren't thinking of nVidia? Because my 8800GT stays at 29% no matter what unless I manually set it in RivaTuner. My ATi Mobility Radeon 4570 in my laptop, though, fires up to full speed often.

For my 4870, on default settings under 60C the fan doesn't even run. At about 80 it goes to 16%. It fires up to full speed for a few seconds when the computer POSTs and when Windows starts up, but that's it.

[kow_ciller]

Yeah, my 4890 does the same. However, once you get above 60*C is fires up and continues to increase on fan speed.

[>Omen<]

If you like I could reword it to something like well below 50% factory fan settings for both Nvidia and ATI. That would likely cover a broad range of models and dates of release, unless they somehow come up with super quiet fan designs that they set to much higher speeds.