This guide will show you how to connect your Playstation 2 to your computer monitor and easily switch between the two on the fly. This guide has been migrated from my old guides site to here.

HDMI is not covered, but there are now HDMI switch boxes you can get, which will be a little simpler as long as your monitor has an HDMI input.

Some things to know before you start

When talking about audio and video signals, it is best to get familiar with some common terminology:

• A/V: Audio and video.
• Source: Where the video or audio signal originates from. This can be the computer or the Playstation 2. These devices send A/V signals to the inputs of the VGA box, monitor, or sound system depending on how you setup your system (usually just to the VGA box).
• Input and output: The signal that a device receives is the input, and the signal that is sends out is the output. The VGA box has inputs to receive signals from the PC and PS2, and outputs to send signals to the monitor and sound system.

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This is a comparison of desktop computer 7200RPM 3.5" SATA hard drives. Prices were obtained at Newegg and include shipping and discounts where applicable (mail-in rebates not included). All drives have a 70% or greater 5/5 egg rating. I consider the ratings to be a good indicator of how many people are receiving drives DOA or are having drive failures. I chose the best priced and rated drive in each size category. The Ratio is the number of gigabytes each dollar purchases, so naturally the higher the better.

Drive	Size	Cache	Price	Ratio
WD Caviar Blue	80 GB	2 MB	$50.28	1.59
WD Caviar Blue	160 GB	8 MB	$43.98	3.64
WD Caviar Blue	250 GB	16 MB	$44.99	5.56
WD Caviar Blue	320 GB	16 MB	$41.98	7.62
WD Caviar Blue	500 GB	16 MB	$49.99	10.00
WD Caviar Black	750 GB	32 MB	$69.99	10.72
Samsung Spinpoint F3	1 TB	32 MB	$59.99	16.67

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Why build you own?

There are many reasons to build your own PC instead of buying a Dell, HP, or other pre-assembled PC. The most common reasons are that it's fun, it gives you a sense of accomplishment and confidence, it gives you more control over what goes into your PC, and it usually costs less.

What parts do you need?

Let's first take a look at the components that typically go into a PC (plus some common abbreviations for them). Note that this list does not include the monitor, keyboard, mouse, or other external hardware, just the PC box itself.

• Computer case
• Power supply (PSU)
• Motherboard (Mainboard, MB)
• Processor (CPU)
• Memory (RAM)
• Hard drive (HDD)
• Optical drive (CD/DVD/Bluray reader/burner)
• Graphics card (GPU) - can be "integrated" or "discrete", more on that below

There are additional things you can purchase, such as a sound card, wireless card, additional hard drives, etc. These won't be covered in this guide.


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This is a comparison of desktop computer 7200RPM 3.5" SATA hard drives. Prices were obtained at Newegg and include shipping and discounts where applicable (mail-in rebates not included). All drives have a 70% or greater 5/5 egg rating. I consider the ratings to be a good indicator of how many people are receiving drives DOA or are having drive failures. I chose the best priced and rated drive in each size category. The Ratio is the number of gigabytes each dollar purchases, so naturally the higher the better.

Drive	Size	Cache	RPM	Price	Ratio
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10	80 GB	2 MB	7200 RPM	$42.28	1.89
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11	160 GB	8 MB	7200 RPM	$42.28	3.78
Western Digital Caviar Blue	250 GB	16 MB	7200 RPM	$44.99	5.56
Western Digital Caviar Blue	320 GB	8 MB	7200 RPM	$44.99	7.11
Western Digital Caviar Blue	500 GB	16 MB	7200 RPM	$54.99	10.00
Western Digital Caviar Black	640 GB	32 MB	7200 RPM	$64.99	9.85
Western Digital Caviar Black	750 GB	32 MB	7200 RPM	$69.99	10.72
Samsung Spinpoint F3	1 TB	32 MB	7200 RPM	$69.99	14.29
Seagate Barracuda *	2 TB	64 MB	7200 RPM	$169.99	11.77

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Newegg had a 10% off graphics cards sale the other day as part of their Black November sales. I figured now would be as good a time as any to pick up a 6850, so I did just that. Total cost was $169 after shipping. Great price for the performance level, especially at launch. This will be my first AMD/ATI graphics card in a long time. I've always been a Nvidia guy (5700 Ultra, 6600, 7600GT, 8800GT, and before that some 2 and 4-series cards that I don't remember) and haven't had an ATI since the days when I used to use a Macintosh G3.

I created a spreadsheet based on Anandtech's test results of the new HD 6850, HD 6870 and all the current mid-range graphics cards they tested. I plugged in the Crysis frames per second (achieved at 1680x1050) and the load and idle power consumptions. I then went to Newegg to find the least expensive card in each model, ignoring mail-in rebates. After running a few ratios I got a good look at how each card performs in terms of performance per dollar, performance per idle watt, and performance per load watt (Crysis load). I could then rank each card on how well it does in each category and get a total rating for each one. Here is a snippet of the spreadsheet (download the full spreadsheet here):



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They cost almost twice as much as a high-end custom-built PC that has equal or better equipment.

These sorts of comparisons are always fun.

Custom Intel PC vs Mac

I chose the i7 equivalent of the Xeon that comes in the Mac.

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October 15, 2010 Update -- It's only been 10 days since I wrote this post, and there's already been a considerable change in the availability and prices of these processors. Notably, several AMD processors have been deactivated and the Phenom II X4 955 has dropped in price considerably. I have updated the below chart to reflect the changes. Needless to say, the 955 is now an even better value.

Processor	Speed	Socket	Newegg
AMD Athlon II X4 620	2.6GHz	AM3	$89.00
AMD Athlon II X4 630	2.8GHz	AM3	$95.99
AMD Athlon II X4 635	2.8GHz	AM3	$99.00
AMD Athlon II X4 640	3.0GHz	AM3	$99.99
AMD Phenom II X4 810	2.6GHz	AM3	$115.99
AMD Athlon II X4 645	3.1GHz	AM3	$120.99
AMD Phenom II X4 945	3.0GHz	AM3	$135.99
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition	3.2GHz	AM3	$139.99
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300	2.5GHz	LGA 775	$149.99
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition	3.4GHz	AM3	$159.99
AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition	3.5GHz	AM3	$180.99
Intel Core i5-750	2.66GHz	LGA 1156	$194.99
Intel Core i5-760	2.8GHz	LGA 1156	$208.99
Intel Core i7-860	2.8GHz	LGA 1156	$279.99
Intel Core i7-930	2.8GHz	LGA 1366	$288.99
Intel Core i7-870	2.93GHz	LGA 1156	$289.99
Intel Core i7-950	3.06GHz	LGA 1366	$294.99
Intel Core i7-960	3.2GHz	LGA 1366	$579.99
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition	3.33GHz	LGA 1366	$1,039.99

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This is a comparison of desktop computer 3.5" SATA hard drives. Prices were obtained at Newegg and include shipping and discounts where applicable (mail-in rebates not included). All drives shown have a 70% or greater 5/5 egg rating. I consider the ratings to be a good indicator of how many people are receiving drives DOA or are having drive failures. I chose the best priced and rated drive in each size category. The Ratio is the number of gigabytes each dollar purchases, so naturally the higher the better.

Drive	Size	Cache	RPM	Price	Ratio
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10	80 GB	8 MB	7200 RPM	$42.28	1.89
Western Digital Caviar Blue	160 GB	8 MB	7200 RPM	$45.28	3.53
Seagate Barracuda	250 GB	8 MB	7200 RPM	$44.99	5.56
Western Digital Caviar Blue	320 GB	8 MB	7200 RPM	$47.99	6.67
Samsung Spinpoint F3	500 GB	16 MB	7200 RPM	$54.99	9.09
Western Digital Caviar Black	640 GB	32 MB	7200 RPM	$64.99	9.85
Western Digital Caviar Black	750 GB	32 MB	7200 RPM	$69.99	10.72
Samsung Spinpoint F3	1 TB	32 MB	7200 RPM	$74.99	13.34
Seagate Barracuda	2 TB	64 MB	7200 RPM	$199.99	10.00

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Starcraft II offers a very refined and lengthy campaign mode with wholly unique and fun to play missions. For those upset about only having a Terran campaign (with the Zerg and Protoss campaigns saved for future expansions), let me quell your distress by saying that the campaign mode is easily more in-depth and lengthy than all 3 campaigns from the original combined. Each and every mission feels as though it was given individual attention, and most missions will take you between 20 minutes to an hour to complete, depending on your skill level.

The time spent in-between missions allows you to dive into the Starcraft lore a bit, without requiring you to. You also access new upgrades and techs during this time, and can take on missions in the order you choose (mostly). The campaign has 4 difficulty levels, and you can change the level for each mission. I completed the campaign on Normal difficulty, and found it to be fairly easy with a few later levels having some tough parts. Veteran Starcraft players may want to play on Hard or even Brutal (Brutal will require exceptional skill and planning to beat each mission).

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