Top 5 Anime 2014

2014 is coming to an end and there is no better time to look back and see which Anime stood out above the rest. This list will only contain anime that started and ended in 2014. This year had it's ups and downs, The fall 2014 season being a fair bit worse than the others this year.  Without further ado let's get into the Top 5 Anime from 2014. 

Gin no Saji 2

Synopsis : Hachiken Yuugo is a mild-mannered academic who chooses to move away from his sub-urban lifestyle and enrol at the Yezo Agricultural High School in the country because of strained relations with his family. He soon finds himself slowly getting used to his new environment with a short learning curve and grows into an empathetic and compassionate individual as he struggles to understand the world of agriculture and how it affects the lives of his new friends.

As the new semester begins at Yezo Agricultural High School, Yuugo is now used to the tough lifestyle of a rural high school, while still wondering what he will do in the future...

Tags : comedy, manga, shounen, coming of age

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G_XfzePevQ

Thoughts : The second season of Silver Spoon starts off where the first finished without missing a beat. I was a big fan of the first season and it was an absolute joy to see them expand even more on the characters and the agriculture in Japan. The second season has a fair bit of emotional up and downs and some really cute romance.

Barakamon

Synopsis : Calligrapher Handa Seishuu moves to the remote Gotou Islands off the western coast of Kyushu, interacting with various people of the island.
Tags : Comedy, Manga, Shounen
PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2KYJRshRdQ
Thoughts : Barakamon started off really strong with a really fun first episode. The premise behind the show kind of reminded me of Silver Spoon which I loved. Barakamon was probably one of the most feel good shows out this year and I highly recommend everyone to watch it. The characters are loveable, the music was fantastic and the voice actors really did a stellar job!

Ping Pong The Animation

Synopsis :Two long-time friends Smile and Peco are both members of the ping pong club at their high school and are both very talented at the sport. However, Smile's quiet personality keeps him from being able to win against Peco. The club's teacher takes notice of Smile's talent and works to change his attitude toward the sport.

Tags : manga, seinen, coming of age, sports
PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmZVuMDlw-w
Thoughts : Ping Pong the Animation really blew me away, at first I was skeptical about the art work itself,
but the animation, music and story more than made up for it. I previously did a full review on it which can be found here

Knights of Sidonia

Synopsis : It has been a thousand years since the Gauna, a strange alien race with no known method of communication, destroyed the solar system. A portion of humanity managed to escape using enormous seed ships like the Sidonia, which have allowed them to maintain the population while drifting through space. Tanikaze Nagate is a young man who has been raised deep in the bowels of the ship. When he goes into training to pilot the huge robotic weapons known as Gardes, Nagate is entrusted with piloting the legendary unit known as Tsugumori. Nagate and his fellow pilots put their lives on the line against the Gauna, in the desperate battle for the survival of humanity...

Tags : violence, genetic modification, alien, human enhancement, action, mecha, piloted robot, sci-fi, manga, seinen, military, tragedy
PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFVaxGqCN9k
Thoughts : Ahh Knights of Sidonia a moody, futuristic anime filled with aliens, mecha and a very grim outlook on humanity's fate. Even though heavy CGI was used in this show, making the faces look more than just a bit strange, it didn't feel out at all, as this show features some of the best visuals I've seen this past season. For a full review click here

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

Synopsis :  High school student Sakura Chiyo has a crush on schoolmate Nozaki Umetarou, but when she confesses her love to him, he mistakes her for a fan and gives her an autograph. When she says that she always wants to be with him, he invites her to his house, but has her help on some drawings. Chiyo discovers that Umetarou is actually a renowned shoujo manga artist named Yumeno Sakiko, and agrees to be his assistant. As they work on his manga Let's Love, they encounter other schoolmates who assist them or serve as inspirations for characters in the stories.
Tags : Comedy, Daily Life, High School, Manga, School Life, Shounen
PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK04iGEpovk
Thoughts : Probably one of the funniest shows this year, first episode had me laughing out loud. Really loving the characters in this show. Sakura is beyond adorable and the mockery of the typical shoujo romance cliches made for some great scenes that made me laugh till my sides hurt. Great animation and music combined with some well thought out jokes and characters that do a bit of a spin on the typical tropes makes for a must see series.

And there you have it, the 5 Anime that stood out above the rest this year, this wasn't an easy list to compile as 2014 had really great anime in general, so instead of me giving all the shows notable mentions I'll add an extra year summary of sorts for you.

As I didn't make a list for Winter 2014 I'll quickly mention the shows from that specific season that stood out for me as the best : Space Dandy, D-Frag!, Gin no Saji 2, Noragami and Saki : Zenkoku-hen. The bad apples where Mahou Sensou and Super Sonico the Animation.

• Best of Spring 2014
• Worst of Spring 2014
• Best of Summer 2014
• Worst of Summer 2014
• Best of Fall 2014
• Worst of Fall 2014

How did you experience all the anime from 2014? Did you watch a fair bit or only a few shows throughout the year? As always share your thoughts with me!

Best Anime from Fall 2014

2014 is coming to an end, and with it the Fall 2014 anime season. That means it's time to look back and see which was the best anime from the fall 2014 anime season. It also means taking a look at which Anime was the Best of 2014 as a whole but that's for another blog post. Let's get this list started shall we.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis

Synopsis : Mistarcia is a magical world where humans, gods, and demons mingle together. In the past, the black-and-silver winged Bahamut has threatened to destroy the land, but humans, gods, and demons overcame their differences to fight together and seal its power. The key to that seal was split in two, one half given to the gods and the other to demons, so that they would never be united and Bahamut never released. Now, two thousand years later, the world is in an era of peace - until the day a human woman steals the gods' half of the key.

Tags : magic, fantasy, dragon, high fantasy, angel, deity, adventure, action, demon

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_yX_VAdch0

Thoughts : Shingeki no Bahamut : Genesis took me by surprise, as it's based on a Card Game I had fears that it might just be another Card Battle anime that we've seen so many times before. But instead to my surprise and great joy they decided to rather focus on the world portrayed in the card game instead. The characters in Shingeki no Bahamut : Genesis are solid and varied. Bahamut features good music, nice visuals and takes you along on it's adventure.

Psycho-Pass 2

Synopsis : Having learned the true nature of the Sybilla System, Tsunemori Akane chose to obey the system, believing in both humanity and the legal order. She's part of a new police section and spends her everyday life facing down criminals. Unbeknownst to Akane, however, a monster who will shake the system to its core is about to appear before her.

Tags : violence, angst, thriller, sci-fi, seinen, cyberpunk

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfQipxKwPbo

Thoughts : Tsunemori Akane is back in the sequel to the very well received Psycho Pass. In Psycho Pass 2 she has grown immensely as a character and is a bit of a bad ass herself. The new villain introduced in Psycho Pass 2 is a worthy successor to Makashimi. Fans of the first season would be glad to know the animation and audio standards were kept the same.

Amagi Brilliant Park

Synopsis : Kanie Seiya, a high school boy, is invited on a date in an amusement park by a mysterious beautiful transfer student named Sento Isuzu. He is introduced to Latifah, a real princess and the park's manager, and is asked to be the acting manager of this "disappointing amusement park in the Tokyo suburbs".

Tags : magic, contemporary fantasy, fantasy, comedy, novel

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGMLDSTkvDo

Thoughts : KyoAni's Amagi Brilliant Park was one of the anime I had high hopes for, especially seeing the Full Metal Panic Fumoffu mascot. Amagi Brilliant Park had great comedy, a ton of lovable characters, some super cute moments and a bit of seriousness thrown in. KyoAni did a great job with the visuals in Amagi Brilliant Park.

Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu.

Synopsis : Mitsuka Souji is a first year high school student who greatly loves twintails. One day, a beautiful girl named Thuearle, who comes from another world, suddenly appeared in front of him and gave him the power to transform into the twintails warrior Tail Red. Now Souji must fight in order to protect the peace on Earth with the help of his childhood friend Tsube Aika, who can becomes the twintails warrior Tail Blue, all while keeping the twintails warriors' real identities hidden and dealing with the fact that Tail Red is actually female.

Tags : super power, fantasy, comedy, romance, action, small breasts, large breasts, novel, school life, high school

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRHGrTieWL4

Thoughts : Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu or Gonna Be the Twin-Tail!! as it's known in english is one of those anime that doesn't really take itself seriously. I mean a show about power ranger like "girls" protecting the earth from aliens that want to steal their twintail affinity? The show features a fair bit of fanservice but not overly much so. The ending track is also catchy.

Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

Synopsis : Arima Kousei is a former child prodigy who lost his ability to play the piano when his mother died. His daily life is monochrome, but it begins to gain colour when he meets a female violinist by chance. Miyazono Kawori is an audacious go-getter who is overflowing with personality. Enchanted by the girl, Kousei starts to move forward with his own legs at the age of 14.

Tags : manga, shounen, music, the arts 

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnE2sYAJaHY

Thoughts : Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso first gained my attention with it's characters and music. As the character driven story progresses it draws you into their world and shows that not everything is it initially seems. Some foreshadowing has appeared that gives me the impression that the end will be far from happy. I really like how even though there some complicated relationships going on, it isn't overly forced like in Glasslip. This is possibly my favorite show from the Fall 2014 season.

There you have it, my list of top anime from fall 2014. What was your favorites? Did you enjoy fall 2014 as a whole? Let me know in the comment section! And keep your eyes peeled for the Top 5 Anime of 2014 post soon.

Anime Spotlight : Worst Anime of Fall 2014

The Fall 2014 Anime Season was a bit lackluster compared to previous. It had it's gems though but there was a lot of bad to terrible shows. That are just a waste of time. I'm going to compile a list of the Best shows this season in the next week as more shows come to an end. But here is the three worst shows of Fall 2014.

Hi Scoool! Seha Girl

Synopsis : The story of the anime will revolve around Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, and Mega Drive, who have just enrolled in SeHaGaga Academy at Tokyo's Haneda Ootorii station. They are given an assignment needed to graduate by a suspicious teacher, and to clear this assignment, the girls need to enter the world of Sega games. The girls must try their best to graduate without incident.

Tags : short episodes, school life

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWbuw-BxF2A

Thoughts : This show feels like the brainchild of someone who saw Neptunia and decided they can better it in some obscure way, by using MMD like animation, horrible script writing and annoying characters. There is absolutely no reason to watch this show. 

World Trigger

Synopsis : A gate to another dimension has burst open, and from it emerge gigantic invincible creatures that threaten all of humanity. Earth's only defense is a mysterious group of warriors who have co-opted the alien technology in order to fight back!

Tags : manga, shounen

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE43j_bIELs

Thoughts : World Trigger is what you end up with when you take a run of the mill shounen manga, add paper-thin characters, lazy animation, ill fitting music and bad pacing. World Trigger is the perfect example of what not to do. Watching this show is seriously less fun than drowning.

Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete 

Synopsis : Uchihama Academy is growing by leaps and bounds. With the construction of a new school building, there will be one last General Club Festival at the old building that is slated to be closed. The students vow to go all out to make this final cultural festival a success.

The Astronomy Club of which Akiyama Sou is a member is filled with the big names on campus. Just before the festival on October 1, the club receives a request from the student executive committee to calm the uneasiness among the students. There are reports of ghost sightings, accidents, sleeping sickness, and other mysterious incidents at the old building. When Furukawa Yui, a quiet girl who transferred late into the school, appears before Sou, the gears of fate slowly begin to move.
Tags : romance, time travel, erotic game, visual novel, tragedy
PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv1_Tsv4iig
Thoughts : Going by the synopsis and the tags, one might be forgiven for thinking. "Hey this sounds like it has similar elements to Stein's;Gate!" But the truth is far from it. Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete is a mess filled with every romance cliche in the book, voice acting that's painful to listen to, terrible animation and uninspired characters. Everything in this show feels cheap and forced.

Did you watch any of these three shows? What were your thoughts on them? Let me know in the comments and keep your eyes open for the Best Anime of Fall 2014 post!

Valkyria Chronicles \\ First Impressions Friday \\ #ReefTV

Gaming on a Budget : Buying/Building a PC - Part 4 - Storage Solutions, Optical and Physical

In previous parts of this Gaming on a Budget Guide about Buying/Building a PC. We've talked about what CPU options there are, choosing the right Motherboard and RAM. as well as looking for the right CASE and PSU. In this part I'm going to talk about the Storage Solutions for your PC, as you'd need somewhere to store your games and a way to install them.

Optical Storage

First things first, no you do not need a Bluray ROM/RW drive, the majority of Games are still released on DVD and most probably you are going to end up downloading the game anyhow via services like STEAM or HumbleBundle. If you want to watch Blurays I suggest buying a dedicated player as they work out a lot cheaper. You may write the odd CD/DVD from time to time, but most of the time your Optical Drive is just going to be used to install your OS of choice. Be it Windows or Linux on your rig.

That being said here are some DVD RW drives that won't break the bank the LG GH24NSB0 Internal DVD Writer and the Liteon - iHAS324

Solid State Drives

Solid State Drives or SSD's are the bees knees if you are looking for Super Fast Read and Write Speeds, making your PC boot in seconds and cutting down your games loading times considerably. But they can also be extremely expensive. That being said if a SSD is something you want in your rig I'd suggest a size of about  120gb. As this is big enough to easily store your OS and a few games without it going into crazy price range.

Some Value for money SSDs are the Transcend SSD370, the OCZ Arc 100 2.5' SSD - 120GB and the Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5 inch SSD. Keep in mind though that an SSD isn't a MUST HAVE part of a gaming rig.

Hard Drives

Hard Drive pricing these days are quite good. It's also the cheapest way to get more storage space currently. 

The minimum hard drive size I'd suggest buying these days is 1Tb as the price difference between a 500Gb drive and 1Tb is tiny. You'll also notice that there are different spin speed drives. The most common being 5400RPM and 7200RPM. I suggest going for the 7200RPM drives, especially for your games and Operating system if you don't have an SSD. As the higher speed does help a lot. The 5400RPM drives are better suited for Music, Movies and Pictures.

That being said here are some hard drives to consider. All of which have a 2 year warranty. Toshiba Hard Drive Desktop 3.5 inch - 1TB, Seagate Desktop 1TB HDD and the WD Blue 1TB 3.5 inch SATAIII Hard Drive. Your mileage may vary with personal experiences on the reliability on any of the hard drive brands. Personally I've had drives from all brands fail on me, and drives from all brands that are still working for over 5 years. Just make sure to always keep important data Backed Up.

In the Next part of this Guide I'm going to take a look at possible Monitor options for value minded gamers. Things may change in the future as prices fluctuate and technologies change but I hope this guide has thus far been useful to you. 

If you are looking for other Gaming on a Budget related posts check out :

 * Graphics Cards for Under R2500 * Gaming Mice Under R400 * Gaming on a Budget : Where to Begin?

Deadrun \\ First Impressions Fridays \\ #ReefTV

Gaming on a Budget : Buying/Building a PC - Part 3 Cases and PSU

In the previous parts of my Buying/Building a Gaming PC series I have talked about choosing whether to buy or build your own rig, possible choice when it comes to Processors, what to look for in Motherboards and the right kind of RAM you'd need. In part 3 I would like to talk about Cases and Power supplies.

Cases

A lot of you will probably have differing opinions on what is important for you in a PC case. Heck some might even want to build their own custom case from scratch, which mind you is pretty damn awesome if done right. Things I find important in any decent PC case is build quality of the case, you don't want it to be flimsy or full of rattles when the pc starts up. Space for all your hard drives and other goodies is also important, especially making sure it's big enough to fit whatever graphics card you want. Prices on PC cases range from very cheap to stupidly expensive, I've seen some cases go for above R6000.

Some possible options to look at is the Gigabyte IF 133 Gaming Chassis a no frill sturdy case that is cheap in price but not quality. The Coolermaster N300 slightly more expensive than the Gigabyte but has front USB 3 ports. The Coolermaster Force 500 ATX Chassis with CM Elite 500W ATX 12V V2.0 PSU which comes with a 500W PSU at a decent price. The Raidmax Smilodon which has been a firm favorite for those looking for a bit less boring case and the Zalman Plus ATX Mid PC Tower Case - Z11 which features some of Zalman's renowned hair cooling technology.

PSU

Most PC cases come without Power Supplies and usually those on the cheaper end of the scale, come with really weak 350w PSU's. The power supply is a very important part of your Rig, as it's the heart of your machine. Making sure all your hardware has enough juice to perform at their best. You get really cheap and really expensive PSU's out there. Just never buy one from a mostly unknown or unheard of brand. For the Most gaming PC's these days a proper 500W and upwards PSU would be all you need, depending on how many GPU's you want to run.

Some possible PSU's to consider are the Coolermaster Thunder 500W, Antec NeoECO 520C, Thermaltake LitePower 650Watt and the Corsair Builder Series CSM650.

One thing to keep in mind regarding PC cases and PSU's are, they are usually components that you can keep for a very long time IF you have decent ones, so don't be afraid to spend a bit more on them. In part 2 I said I would probably look at storage options and drives in this part but I decided I'll leave that for part 4!

Anime Spotlight : Top Anime from Yesteryear : 2007

On our Anime journey back in time from time to time you have a year that was full of great titles. 2007 was one of those years with shows like Gurren Lagann, Noein, Overdrive and Bamboo Blade to name few I knew this was going to be tough choosing my favorite 5 shows But here they are!

Moyashimon

Synopsis : Sawaki Souemon Tadayasu was born with an unique ability: he can see and communicate with bacteria and other micro-organisms - in fact they consider him to be their friend and are quite noisy. Together with his childhood friend Yuuki Kei, he starts a new year off as a first-year student at an Agricultural College. But none of his experiences so far could prepare him for what he would find in his college life!

Tags : contemporary fantasy, fantasy, comedy, manga, seinen, school life, college

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhjvCtS4KEI

Thoughts : I'll be honest, moyashimon caught me completely off guard. My initial thoughts when reading the synopsis about this show was that it's going to be just another silly kids show. Man was I wrong! Even though Moyashimon is an "educational" anime it's filled with tons of adult humour and really interesting characters. Don't let this one slip you by.

Nodame Cantabile

Synopsis : Chiaki Shin'ichi is the top piano student at his university and an excellent violinist, but Chiaki doesn't care about playing these instruments as much as he dreams of someday being a conductor. Chiaki, however, has several deeply rooted fears about traveling, and so finds himself trapped in Japan. Because he's trapped, Chiaki starts to question exactly how far he can possibly go in music, especially when he's passed over again and again for others he thinks are less worthy of musical scholarship and fame.

Recently dumped by his girlfriend for a sausage looking fellow, passed over for a chance to go overseas, removed from his star spot in the piano competition because he walked out on his piano instructor, Chiaki is at his limit. This is when he meets Nodame, or Noda Megumi. Nodame is a free — if filthy — spirit who reminds Chiaki that music can be fun. She reminds him what drew him to be a conductor in the first place and, in learning how to deal with Nodame, Chiaki learns how to deal with others. Chiaki begins to realize what is possible for him, even on the tiny island of Japan.

For Nodame, Chiaki is everything she isn't. Clean, neat, dedicated, studious and inherently arrogant about his accomplishments and capabilities, Chiaki constantly bullies her into being more serious about life. He sees potential in her and her abilities as a pianist that she doesn't care about. Nodame loves Chiaki and wants to be with him, but, because she's not serious about her piano studies nor her personal hygiene, Chiaki denies her affections again and again.

But Chiaki and Nodame complete each other in ways no other can, a musical complement that neither of them can completely escape entirely. Watching them grow as people and musicians, and even as a couple, is an interesting ride.

Tags : sudden girlfriend appearance, comedy, romance, slapstick, manga, josei, school life, coming of age, college, music, daily life

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uiAXKql0Nw

Thoughts : Nodame Cantabile will always have a special place in my heart. It's most probably one of the best romance anime out there at the moment. The quirky Nodame and the always serious Chiaki make a great pair and the other colourful characters, especially in the classical music setting, make for great entertainment. If you haven't seen it yet, what is wrong with you?

Seto no Hanayome

Synopsis : Nagasumi visits his grandmother near the sea during the summer. While visiting, he goes for a swim, and drowns right after entering the water. Fortunately for him he is saved by a young mermaid. Later as he tells the story to his family, a young girl named Sun appears at his home and begs Nagasumi to marry her.

She is followed by two large thugs and they take both him and his parents to Sun's home under the sea. If that was not strange enough, it turns out Sun's parents are mob bosses. Nagasumi is left with the choice of either death or marrying Sun. He chooses to marry a mermaid.

That would likely be that, except Sun's father and some members of the mob are not exactly thrilled to have Nagasumi courting Sun and are determined to bring an end to their relationship — or him. And there is also the matter of keeping it a secret that Sun is a mermaid.

Tags : parody, comedy, super deformed, slapstick, manga, shounen, mafia, middle school, yakuza, school life, coming of age, crime

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlrByu-E8mA

Thoughts : Seto no Hanayome is easily the funniest slapstick anime I've seen to date. Seriously this romance comedy with mermaids, gangsters and parody's of popular movies has non stop laughs. Ask anyone that has seen it and they will agree with me. Want to laugh till your sides hurt? This is your anime.

Baccano!

Synopsis : Baccano! (which translates to "ruckus" or "stupid commotion") focuses on the stories of different characters in the Prohibition Era of America. Originating back to 1711, a group of alchemists seeking eternal youth are given a special potion by a mysterious demon, making them immortal. However, alchemists began disappearing, and realizing the danger of being close to one another they scatter around the world.

Now in the 1930's, all of the immortals have come together once again. Baccano! tells the stories of each of these immortals, ranging from alchemists, street gangs, thieves, FBI agents and even the mafia.

Tags : violence, gunfights, action, contemporary fantasy, novel, historical, seinen, mafia, crime

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2PuTw1lTec

Thoughts : Baccano was a rollercoaster ride filled with crazy thieves, gangsters, gore, crime, laughs and great characters. All set in easily one of my favorite periods and with cool music to boot. The show might feel confusing at first due to how it plays out. But as it progresses and everything clicks into place one can't help but love it.

Seirei no Moribito

Synopsis : Once every 100 years, a water spirit implants an egg into a person who then becomes the Guardian of the Sacred Spirit. This time, the responsibility falls on Chagum, the Second Prince of the New Yogo Empire. The Emperor, fearing that the spirit's possession of Chagum could destroy the prestige of the royal family, attempts to have Chagum killed. As a result, the Second Empress secretly asks a female bodyguard, Balsa, to abscond with Chagum.

Tags : action, fantasy, adventure, novel, parallel universe, seinen

PV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo8TxQ4_MvI

Thoughts : If you are looking for a great fantasy Anime in a historic setting filled with adventure and great action scenes. Then Seirei no Moribito is for you. Production IG did a fantastic job, as always, with this adaptation of a Fantasy Novel by Uehashi Naoko & Futatsugi Saki. Seirei no Moribito also features some of the best music you can find in anime.

That concludes my list of 5 favorite anime from 2007. What is yours? Please let me know in the comment section below! And if you need a refresher as to what anime aired in that year I provided a nifty chart below! 

Gaming on a Budget : Buying/Building a PC - Part 2 Motherboards and Memory

In Part 1 of Gaming on a Budget : Buying/Building a PC I talked about where to start when you want to get into PC gaming, and also talked about CPU choices. In Part 2 I would like to talk about the most important part of any PC the motherboard and also RAM.

Motherboards

The motherboard is the most crucial of all parts in your computer, it allows all your peripherals to communicate with each other and is a component that not a lot of people put too much time into when deciding on PC components for some reason. Going for the cheapest Motherboard available for your processor is rarely a good idea, as they are usually on a lower specified chipset and components, can become a performance bottleneck, and most probably don't have the features you'd want in the future like they only have 2 slots for RAM, or they only have a few SATA ports. On the otherside of the price spectrum the rules of diminishing returns also applies, where the added features and performance don't really justify the increased costs.

By now you are probably wonder, so what kind of motherboards should I look for? Well here are a few suggestions based on the CPU choice on the previous blog post. For the AMD A8-6600K Quad Core Processor APU I suggest a motherboard like the MSI A88X-G43 AMD Motherboard - Socket FM2+ or the MSI AMD A88X G45 Motherboard - Socket FM2 plus both are under R1500 and offer a good mix of performance and features for the price, with both rocking 8 SATA ports for example, with the G45 board having 8 USB 3 ports over the G43's 4 USB 3 ports and a few other nifty features.

On the intel side of things to motherboards that would work well with the Intel Core I5 4690 would be the most motherboards with a Z97 chipset. Personally I feel buying a motherboard that doesn't allow overclocking can come back to bite you in the future. With that in mind here are two Z97 chipset boards that don't break the bank. The MSI Intel Z97 PC Mate and the Gigabyte Z97-D3H ATX Motherboard. There is also the MSI Intel Z97 Guard-pro which is closer to the Gigabyte motherboard price wise. One of the things personally like that the Gigabyte has over the MSI is the 3 year warranty, where as the MSI has a 2 year warranty. 

Keep in mind these are just suggestions and the majority of brands out there make really good products.

RAM

So now you have your CPU and Motherboard of choice and it's time to choose how much RAM and which type to get. Luckily it doesn't matter which of the above CPU's and Motherboards you have chosen as all of them support DDR3 which makes things a bit easier. Though there is still a truckload of different Memory manufacturers out there with different specs for DDR3 RAM.

When it comes to choosing DDR3 RAM for a gaming PC. these days most new games prefer rigs with 8GB ram, you can buy more if you want but it's not needed. It's usually two buy a pair of 4gb sticks over a single 8gb stick as two sticks running Dual Channel mode does outperform a Single Stick. I personally prefer DDR3 RAM at 1600mhz as it offers a good mix of performance and price.

A few possible options to look at when buying RAM are Crucial Ballistix S XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1866MHz DDR3 Gaming or possibly two Corsair Value Select A - 4GB DDR3 DRAM Desktop Memory - 1600Mhz. I'm personally using Corsair Vengeance DDR 1600mhz and can recommend them to anyone. There is also the Apacer Black Panther DDR3 1600mhz in the price bracket on Takealot.com but I don't have much experience with them and they only have a 1 year warranty. But if anyone reading this uses them please be sure to share your thoughts on them in the comment section.

This concludes part 2 of the Gaming on a Budget : Buying/Building a PC series. In Part 3 I would like to talk about Cases and Storage options like Harddrives and SSDs. Keep in mind this series is only a guide to help you get into PC gaming and the only reason I'm using products from one store is to keep things simple. If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to post in the comment section.