Anyone can stroll into an Apple Store
and drop a month's wages on a Mac Pro - but only the Geek Elite can build
something better.
Case
Corsair
600T
Building a PC without a case is like baking
a pie without pastry - messy and pointless. Our PC pastry of choice is the
Corsair 600T (www.corsair.com). It comes with plenty of expansion room and
three fans to keep things cool. A dial on top will boost the fans if you’re really
crunching pixels.
Motherboard & CPU
Intel
Extreme Board DZ77GA-70K
The brains of our binary-busting monster
are a 3.5GHz, quad-core Intel i7 3770K processor and DZ77GA-70K motherboard
(www.ebay.com). That processor sits near the top of the Ivy Bridge hierarchy,
so throw in a CPU cooler too. Cooler Master’s V6 (www.ebay.com) should do it.
Graphics
Nvidia’s
GeForce GTX 690
When it comes to graphics, don’t accept
half measures. Nvidia’s frankly ridiculous GeForce GTX 690 (www.nvidia.com) is
the fastest card ever made. With dual GPUs and 4GB of onboard RAM it’s a bit
like jamming two nuclear- powered PS3s into a silicon sandwich. Hence, it has
the largest GPU fan ever too!
Storage
128GB
Kingston SSD
Pairing two separate types of storage gets
you the best of both worlds. Windows 7, games and anything that needs to run
quickly are loaded on to a 128GB Kingston SSD. A more capacious, slower 1TB
Seagate Barracuda HDD handles movies, music and photos.
Memory
G.Skill
Trident X 16GB
Want your PC to multitask like a workaholic
octopus with a lengthy to-do list? You’ll want to pack it with a shedload of
RAM. We’ve gone for G.Skill Trident X 16GB of RAM ($345, www.ebay.com), which
should keep things running smoother than a butter-slathered worm. You can almost
never have too much RAM.
Power
Corsair’s
TX750M
Of course, without a power supply you might
as well fill the case with hair. Corsair’s TX750M power supply (www.ebay.com)
delivers 750W of juice and has a modular system that allows you to remove any
cables you don’t need. After all, with that big window on the side of the case,
you’ll want it all looking neat and tidy.
Built it? Now add these
1. BenQ M2700HD
BenQ
M2700HD
This 27in, 16:9, 1,920x1,080 LCD monitor
has a mighty 170° viewing angle, while a 50,000:1 contrast ratio makes it great
for video and photo editing. A 5ms response time is one of the best for gamers
too.
2. DayZ
This zombie survival MMO might not test the
graphics to their limits, but DayZ is the hottest game around. It’s a
mod for ArmA II: Combined Operations, available for $29.99.
3. LG BH-12LS38
LG
BH-12LS38
With most software and games available to
download, an optical drive is no longer essential - but they do make it easier
to install your OS. They’re also as cheap as chips, as this 12x Blu-ray drive
proves.
DO
Any geek can live a happy virtual
life - but to join the Elite, you need to master Twitter, learn to code and
treat the net like your own personal fiefdom.
How to bridge the gap between Apple and Android
So you own an iPad but make your calls from
a Galaxy S III?
Here are six ways to wave the white flag on
the Second Great Apple -Android War, and get both platforms working together...
1. Use a Google account
With iCloud running a door policy stricter
than a Berlin nightclub (only Apple kit is allowed in) the obvious way to sync
contacts, calendars and email accounts between gadgets from opposite sides of
the fence is to use your Google account on each. Sync your Google contacts by
checking the option in iTunes, or setting up an Exchange account from your
iThing. There's a guide to that here: bit.ly/GooglelOS
2. Ditch Airplay, get AirSync
An extension for the free Android/Mac media
player double Twist, AirSync (doubletwist.com) allows you to wirelessly sync
songs and iTunes playlists to your Android phone or tablet. Better still, you
can stream music, movies and pics straight to your Apple TV. It probably makes
Apple furious, but we rather like it.
3. Use Google Docs right
The Google Drive app for Android is
powerful enough to edit docs, but the iOS version has had its wings clipped.
Get around the issue with iDocs Pro ($4.99, i-c-soft.com) instead, which comes
with full support for creating and tinkering with the docs saved on your Google
Drive.
4. Swap FaceTime for Skype
FaceTime is another Apple invention that
won't play nicely with others. Switch to Skype, though, and you can make video
calls from iOS to Android (and vice versa). It also allows you to send text,
pictures and videos over the internet, effectively replacing iMessage as well.
Two birds - meet one stone.
5. Auto-upload your photos
Install Dropbox's mobile app (free,
dropbox.com) on any Android or iThing with a camera and it can auto-upload any
pics you take to the cloud, over 3G or Wi-Fi. That way you'll always have a
Photostream-style, cross-platform backup of your photos.
6. Go for cross-platform multiplayer
Unless you're half-octopus you'll probably
need a friend for this one. Some mobile games, such as MMO Star Legends
(free, starlegends.com) and the turn-based strategy Greed Corp (from
$0.99, vanguardgames.net) offer cross-platform multiplayer, allowing Android
and iOS users - and sometimes PC/Mac users too - to play against each other.
How to disappear completely
When you live your life online it's all too
easy to leave binary paw prints everywhere you go.
Here are four ways to cover your tracks and
take the power back (or at least keep a bit more of a low profile than
before...)
1. Step 1
You only have to look at
weknowwhatyouredoing.com to see how many people don't understand Facebook's
(admittedly convoluted) privacy settings. At the very least your sharing
settings should be as strict as possible, public search should be disabled and
secure browsing (which uses the less-hackable HTTPS protocol) should be on.
2. Step 2
No, the Onion Browser ($0.99,
onionbrowser.com) isn't an AR app for picking out the finest shallots at your
local Nature's Basket. It's an iOS web browser that should keep you safer than
a beer party in a bank vault. It encrypts your online activity and hides your IP
address, so you'll be able to browse the internet completely anonymously.
3. Step 3
If you don't believe you're being tracked
online, download the Collusion add-on for Chrome, Safari or Firefox and watch
as your browsing activity spreads across the web.
Limit which sites can track you with
Disconnect (free, disconnect.me), a browser extension which stops Facebook,
Google and Twitter from spying while you surf.
4. Step 4
Looking to drop off the grid once and for
all? Deleting your Google account is a pretty big step - but if you want to
retain a record of your time online (just in case), Google's Data Liberation
Front has created Takeout (free, google.com/takeout), a one-click tool for
downloading all the docs, pics, contacts and data on your Google accounts.
