Microcomputer Games Software
Computer systems
Desktop computer plays a big part in every day life either for work, socializing or for entertainment. In this assignment I will be looking at contemporary microcomputer system architecture and what is needed to create and play video games on them.
Every computer is made up of several key hardware components and can be divided into sub categories. Software is also used in conjunction with hardware in order to maintain functionality and compatibility with other components EG the operating system and drivers.
The modern microcomputer system hardware consists of a Processor “CPU”, Motherboard, RAM, Hardrive, Floppy disk drive, power supply unit, Optical CD disk drive, monitors, mouse, keyboard and speakers.
Modern Computers
CPU
The CPU “central processing unit” controls system task in order of priority, on the current market there are two types of brands that are available which are AMD or Intel 775 socket. As with any hardware there are many variations of CPU on the market such as dual and quad core CPU's or single core. Dual and quad core CPU's utilize several CPU's but in the same package which are of all equal processing power making the processing time quicker than a single core CPU.
E.G an Intel quad core that has a clock speed of 2.66GHz with a multiplier of 4 with an would cycle at 10.64 million a second with 8mb L2 cache (2mb L2 cache for each core) which is far more quicker than a Pentium 4 with a clock speed of 3GHz with an 2mb L2 cache as there is no multiplier as it is a single core.
Motherboard
The motherboard can dictates what can be achieved with any computer with respects to it design as motherboard is the central point where all hardware is connected. There are two main variations of motherboards which either supports Intel 775 sockets or AMD processors and come in the form of BTX or ATX, another dictation is what type of RAM can be used and how much it can supported which could be DDR or SDRAM. Apart from the dictations of processors and RAM subsequent hardware is entirely open to interpretation or what you can afford, though contemporary motherboards do feature onboard graphics, sound, Ethernet and USB ports freeing up PCI expansion slot available for more needed hardware such as graphics cards “GPU”.
RAM
The purpose of RAM “random access memory” is to support the Processor “CPU”, as task is initiated by the user data is stored in the RAM temporarily until it has been processed by the CPU and is not used for permanent data storage. RAM comes in two forms either DDR or SDR yet the DDR series has evolved more as DDR2/3 are now available in the forms of either single or dual channel kits. The size of the RAM can vary by multiples of 2 i.e. 16, 32, 64 and so on to 512+
Hardrive
Hardrive are primary sources of data storage and their sizes can vary depending on their cost which could be £40 for a 320GB Sata 2 hardrive. The hardrive utilizes and internal magnetic disk that is used to record the data digitally and Hardrive's can also be used externally via USB or Fire wire though I believe that the hard drive will eventually be phased out due to solid state technologies replacing them.
Case
The case is an important part to any system as this is where all hardware is mounted and has built in fans to help with cooling and there are many variants that to compensate for different types of motherboards such ATX and micro and BTX.
Floppy disk drive
The Floppy disk dive maybe considered being outdated due to CD drives but the floppy can still be used when installing new hardware as hardware vendor still use floppy disk with drives on them.
Power supply unit
The power supply unit is needed to power up all the system hardware, as with any hardware there are many variations to it due the amount of watts that are put out by it. When selecting a power supply unit for a system a consideration to upgrade potential must be taken into account as the more hardware used requires more power and if underpowered the power supply could burn out.
Optical CD drive
CD drive are obviously used in order to play CD and there are many variations of the drive such and CD/DVD drive which can also create CD and speeds of them can vary. Though faster the drive is the quicker data can be accessed.
It is very evident that the CD has effectively replaced the Floppy disk and Zip disk as a portable medium yet with increasing developments of Solid state storage this may replace the CD as a portable medium but is not practical data back up.
Monitors
Obviously the monitors display the user interface yet without one a user cannot interact with it, again there are many variations of monitors yet as technologies are developed some design fadeout. The current trend is TFT and LCD monitor and come in many sizes as in either a standard or wide screen aspect ratio yet these can be easily damage compared to it predecessors monitors.
Mouse and keyboard
The mouse and keyboard are essential to any system as this is the input controls between the user and system and are used to navigate through a user interface.
Speakers and Sound Cards
Modern motherboards have on sound board and this usually 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound at 24bit, though this was the standard for most sound cards and this has once again been broken with even high specification.
Graphics and physics cards
Although modern motherboard do come with onboard graphics, graphics card are used to take graphical processing away from the CPU freeing up system resources, apart from freeing up system resources the graphics card has its own CPU or GPU that visual enhances all aspect of a GUI as well as having it own RAM making visual and graphical application faster.
SLI is a recent development with Nvida cards, this technology is where a two identical graphics cards and combined together using a bridge or ribbon that connects them and all the specifications are doubled. Though to implement this system the motherboard also need to support this by having two VGA slots on the motherboard as well as having the
Designing a system for game play and creation
To design a desktop with game play and designing them in mind the higher end the hardware is the better it would perform, for pure game play and design content a heavy focus on CPU, GPU and RAM power is paramount as these are the key components that are used when playing any game or building one. To design any system one must also make sure that the RAM, CPU and motherboard all support the same MHz as this could reduce latency when performing tasks.
The game Crysis is the new standard in PC FPS and I will design a system around this game while taking into account future upgrades and titles. The current requirements for this title are as followed
- Windows XP or Windows Vista
- 2.8 GHz or faster processor (XP) or 3.2 GHz or faster* (Vista)
- 1.0 GB RAM (XP) or 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
- 256 MB video card**
- 12GB hard drive space
- Sound Card - DirectX 9.0c compatible
* Supported Processors: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or faster.
** Supported chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported. Integrated chipsets are not supported. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.
Taken from Game.co.uk
http://www.game.co.uk/PC/Action/FirstPersonShooter/~r328543/Crysis/?recommended=true
Though this is a guideline on what should run the game i will try to design a system that goes beyond this so that the future high end games can be supported.
Processor
The processor that I have select is an Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 which has a clock speed of 2.40GHz a cache of 8mb L2 and a FBS of 1066. My reason for choosing this is that there is more than enough power for both windows Vista and XP 32-64Bit editions and retails at a very reasonable price of £170.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-161-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=
Motherboard
The motherboard needs to support the processor which needs to have a 775 socket and an FBS of 1066MHz. when selecting RAM this should also reflect the MHz of the processor uses as this could result in hindering the system.
Looking at the motherboards I have selected the EVGA nForce 680i SLi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard as this would use a 1066MHz all-round for RAM and CPU, this mother board also supports dual channel ram making breaking the traditional 4GB up to 8GB “3gb only recognized my 32-bit systems, 64-bit 4gb+”. The motherboard is SLI ready yet has an additional a third PCI-E slot for a Physics card and has built in networking adaptors.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-222-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=205
RAM
The RAM have select is the OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2
Case
I have selected Thermaltakes shark case as this will support ATX motherboards and has an open sided case to allow an increased air flow with addition front and rear 12 cm fans.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-008-TT&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=
PSU
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply will output enough power for the system
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-023-OC
GPU
The GPU I selected is the BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB GDDR3 which by itself is very powerful yet due to the motherboard it will be possible to upgrade with another via SLI. Using a SLI system for a game such as Crysis would have benefits but I feel this kind of power would be more beneficial to hardware rendering in applications such as 3DS max and Maya.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-059-BG
Sound and speakers
Though the motherboard's do come with sound support sometimes the quality can be questionable and I have decided that a sound card would be more appropriate so I have selected the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series 7.1 Sound Card with a Creative GigaWorks 7.1 S750 THX Speakers.
Hardrive
Samsung SpinPoint T 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Specification overview
CPU 2.66GHz, FSB 1066MHz, 8mb L2 cache
2GB DDR2 RAM dual channel
EVGA nForce 680i SLi (Socket 775)
GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB GDDR3
Samsung SpinPoint T 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
With these key componets there is more than enough power to run Crysis and subsequent games and effectively run 3D applications. Yet none of this would function properly with out an operating system.
The operating system
Currently on the market there are two main brands of OS which is either Windows or Mac OSX. Though due to processor being an Intel processor in my design I fear that the Mac OSX would not work at all so Window will have to do and desktop games for a Mac's OS's is nearly non existent as well. Currently there are Four main versions of window available which are XP and Vista both in 32/64-bit versions.
Currently Vista requires more system resource than XP to play Crysis assuming that these are both 32-bit systems yet the amount of resource that the systems has at its disposal I feel that a Vista would be fine yet if the 64-bit version where used or XP's version, future upgrades can break traditional 32-bit limitations like the 3GB of RAM or hard disk partitioning making requirement of games and software's virtually non existent.
Choosing an OS for this system I would choose Vista 64-bit edition as the OS is ready for next generation of hardware's and software's and can emulate 32-bit software's while breaking the conventional 32-bit limitation
Online play
Online play can be achieved by an ADSL or Cable modem and these are provided by various ISP and LAN game connections can be achieve with a router either by hardwiring or wirelessly. When a computer is connected to the internet a computer will download segments of computer languages like HTML and XML via TCP/IP protocols that will build an interactive page through you chosen web browser or give commands for a game Like GRAW as it uses XML to make the game function.
However when connect to the internet there are potential risk from Viruses, Trojans and being hacked yet with proper countermeasures this can be avoided with the use of firewalls and antivirus software's. Contemporary operating systems like XP have a built-in firewall but though this is not as effective as specialized software's. Antivirus software can protect a system through a yearly subscription and it updated regularly with new virus definitions.
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