Hello Everyone, I want to start off by saying that, if you are reading this your obviously dedicated to becoming succesfull and that is more than half the battle to becomming an intergrated part of any team. As a leader, its my job to transform people that have a strong dedication to become "Good", into an intergrated part of our team. I want to give you a little granularity on the word "Good" for a brief moment here- "Good" serves as a word thats more complex than one may think. In order to become "Good", you realy need to cover a plethora of bases, a few of the key ones are:
Tools
Enviroment
Time
Attitude
On that, lets start on tools. When one thinks of tools, one's mind may jump to a hammer or a scewdriver. However, in online gaming, tools are much more complex. Its my belief that if you want to play on a fair and equal level with other gamers, you must have a computer setup that meets basic requirements. Theres several reasons for this, but the core of these reasons revolves around your ability to use your own skill to the best of its ability. As I am sure you know, technology changes on a weekly basis, but 1 thing will remain the same for the near future. Source will, for the near term, always be a single threaded application. When a program is written in a single threaded program language, it inferes that a dual-core processor will not increase your FPS too significantly. So, here are my personal suggestions if you are going to upgrade in the near future or wish to enhance your hardware interface:
Video: Its more then critical that your video card can supply you with 60+ FPS on all maps. If you wish to see your fps, go into your source console and enter: net_graph 3. This will show you your FPS, keep in mind that the human eye can only see ~60 FPS, Thusly if your getting over 60 at all times your good to go for Source. If your planning on upgrading after February and March of 2007, you want to look for a video card that supports Directx 10, this will ensure you a longer lifespan for future games and applications. When it comes to video card chipsets, I personally prefer ATI for their offerings and I feel they have great hardware, but Nvidia is also a worthy option for any seeker. So, as far as video cards go check all your options before commiting to any chipset.
Display:
Your moniter is one of your few ways to interact with your PC, Thusly its critical you have a moniter that meets your needs. Up to recent date, LCD's have been labeled incapable of supporting the refresh rates required by gamers. Today, LCD's are capable of providing remarkable refresh rates and this makes them the ultimate choice for gamers seeking stellar contrast ratios and space saving capabilities. If your going to buy an LCD in today's marketplace, you want to look for several things: One, A high contrast ratio (700+:1), Two, A low refresh rate (5-ms), Three, A 19+ Inch display area. If your current moniter, or the one that your seeking to buy meets these standards your capable of playing source to your full potential.
Memory:
For CS: Source, you should have 1 GB of RAM, though 512 will get the job done. When looking to buy additional RAM, you must first find out what your current RAM "Speed/Latency" is. You can find this out by calling your manufacturer, or by googling your PC's model number. When buying RAM, you will want to purchase RAM of the same "Speed". After you find out this speed, you will also need to find your possible upgrade capabilities for your PC from your manufacturer in order to ensure that your upgrade will be supported by your system.
Processing:
Processing plays a role in rendering FPS, but to play Source, most processors are capable of computing high FPS. This means your FPS is more likely to be held back by your video card, rather then your processor. Though, In some scenarios you may be held back by your processing power.If this is the case, or your looking to upgrade, I reccomend AMD microprocessors for your total PC needs, whether that may be Laptops, Desktops, or Mobile Devices. There are a plethora of reasons why I love AMD's offerings and I can ensure that if you chose AMD products as the backbone to your device you will be satisfied. To give you a more technical reccomendation for your processor, I suggest that you choose a dual-core, or quad-core Processor. This suggestion is not based soley on source, but its mainly due to the fact that almost all new engines that are being writen today are being tailored around Multi-Threaded software languages.
Human Interface Devices:
A great mouse and keyboard play a rather important role for you to be able to interact with your PC. When looking for mouses, anything from Razer or Logitech will serve as a sound choice. Optical mouses are basically the golden standard in gamming, and thusly I would strongly urge you to get an optical mouse over a "Ball Mouse". When chosing between wireless and wired, both are equaly good, though keep in mind if you buy a wireless mouse you will have to change out the battery with the second one the uasly supply you on a daily basis. The old saying that said, "Wireless mouses lag." has been proven wrong by new wireless technologies. If your going to get a wireless, I reccomend one with 2,000 mhz wireless interface, Also while looking at all mouses in general, you will want 1 that has a rating of at least 1800 DPI.
This basicaly wraps up what one needs as far as tools go, to be succesfull in gamming. I hope its helpfull when you evaluate your needs going forward as far as hardware!
The next thing that is very important to performing up to your own personal effiecent level is the enviroment in which you play. I personally feel this is probably the most under-estimated value of success. When you play any online game competitively, you need to have certain factors: Quite, Distraction-Free Time, Satisfied Hunger, Lighted Room, and lastly Energy. After these are met, in my opinion, you have your enviromental issues met!
The next factor that seems to be critical to gaming, is time. Now lets face it, we all are limited to the time we can dedicate to playing computer games, but the key is optimizing your available time. Now what I mean by optimizing is, spend the time you are on, playing the games you compete in. In basic terms this means, if you compete in source, don't play pure fun maps and other games. Spend your limited time studying CAL maps and working on in game strategies. All in all, the end fact is if your here to win and your dedicated to the idea of taking our team to a succesfull marker, then you know what you have to do. If your not here to get places, don't waste my time and others time, who are dedicated to success.
Now, we talk attitude. I hinted on this in the last section, but attitude is very important towards are success. You know and I know, a group of guys that are dedicated to an idea, can truely do remarkable things. This idea is one thats very important to us as a clan, and I can't emphisize it enough! End comments, If you want to go somewhere, and you have the dedication to succeed, I will help you and our team will help you. If your not dedicated to succss and winning, don't waste our time.
I hope these suggestions help you become more competitive and successfull in your gaming, if you have any questions feel free to contact me!
