DiabloFans

I've noticed an increasing amount of people looking into purchasing new parts for either building a new PC, or for upgrading their current PC. So, like the title says, this is where I'd like as much of the future discussion as possible to happen in regards to computers and builds (maybe eventually we can get our own subforum:cool:).

I think condensing some information will really help with some of the new builders. So I'll start by giving a "quick" rundown on how to pick out the parts to build a gaming pc. Mind you, this guide is mostly for beginners, and some things are generalized or completely skipped over. I will follow this up at a later time with an Overclocking guide.

The first thing to building your own pc is to have the right tools ready.

1. Screwdrivers, phillips and flathead. Preferably with magnetic heads. One long, one stubby, and one pencil screwdriver of each would be advised.
2. Flashlight.
3. Tweezers/Needle nose pliers
4. Anti-static mat/Anti-static wrist strap - I'm a hypocrit, since I have never used one, but it is still advised whenever touching any PC equipment to avoid shorting out parts with static electricity. If you refuse to get one like myself, I would suggest working on a tile surface, washing your hands before working on the system, touching a piece of bare metal on the case, and not moving around a whole lot while working on the PC. For my work surface, I simply turn a motherboard bag inside out and lay it on my desk. The inside is the only part of the bag that is actually anti-static.
5. Ambition and a little bit of a mechanical mind:thumbsup:

These are the individual parts that you will need in order to actually run your PC. I will be discussing each in detail.

1. PC Case
2. CD/DVD Drive(I don't think anyone is using Floppy drives anymore)
3. Hard Drive (HDD)
4. Motherboard (MB)
5. Central Processing Unit (CPU)
6. CPU Heatsink/Fan/water cooling solution and additional case fans/WC solutions
7. RAM modules
8. Power Supply
9. Video Card
10. Monitor
11. Keyboard & Mouse
12. Speakers

1. PC Case

This is the part of the computer that houses all of your pc components. Things you'll want to look for:

A. Case Size - This depends on the space in which you will be keeping your case, and what size of components you will be using. Such as your video card, your CPU heatsink/fan, MB, your PSU, and how many HDD's and disc drives you are planning to run. Make sure your case supports the size of MB your are looking to run (ATX, MicroATX, ITX, etc)

B. Case Cooling - This is important because there are a slew of cases out there that have inadequate cooling. Lots of small fans (80mm or less) in a case isn't really that efficient. The smaller the fan the faster it needs to spin in order to push the same volume of air as a larger fan. You should look for a case with the smallest size fans being 120mm. Although I prefer 140 mm fans and larger for a quieter case. More recently there have become a lot of cases offering fan slots of up to 250mm.

C. Front Panel I/O ports - Every case comes standard with 2 USB ports and a headphone and mic jack. Some PC cases have additional ports which could be necessary to you if you need an eSATA port or Firewire. But with USB 3.0 out now, most people will ignore eSATA and Firewire.

D. Miscellaneous Features - This includes things like case color, case design, cable management features, water cooling capability, upgradeable design (aka future proof), no tool drive bays, removeable motherboard tray, outwards facing hard drive enclosure, etc. These features shouldn't be worried about when you are first choosing the above features of the case. These should be considered bonuses to the case, so they should mainly be used as a tiebreaker when you can't choose between 2 or 3 cases.

2. CD/DVD Drive

Choosing one of these is pretty standard. The options for these are few. CD, DVD, DVD writer, BlueRay, BlueRay writer, DVD/BlueRay, and finally Lightscribe. Most people will need at the very least a DVD drive. You might want a BlueRay/DVD combo, or even a BlueRay burner. But mainly this choice is dependent upon what media you have or plan on using.

3. Hard Drive (HDD)

The HDD is where you will be storing all of your files and documents. Size is the biggest factor, with speed being the second factor in buying one of these. Companies are now making HDD's up to 2 TB in size, which is more than any average person will ever need. Speeds of HDD's currently range from 3,200rpm, to 15,000rpm. The faster the rpm, the faster the transfer rate of files, and also faster loading times/boot times.

Now there is also another kind of HDD, which is the Solid State Drive (SSD). These actually don't have a spool or RPM. They are closer in design to your RAM modules, in the way that they store information. Since these SSD's don't require the read head to move to different places, there is virtually no delay when opening several high demand programs. Also, the boot times are significantly dropped. The drawback to these is that they are still a fairly new technology, so the prices are much higher, and the storage capacity is much lower.

4. Motherboard (MB)

This is the part of the computer that everything runs off of. Power flows into this board, and is distributed to everything else from here. MB's have several options.

These are the main ones to look at:

A. Size - ATX, Micro ATX, ITX, etc. ATX and MicroATX are the standard sizes right now, and most people will be looking for the ATX size, simply because they usually have better features and are more cost efficient. Make sure your case supports the type of board you plan on using.

B. Chip support - There will come a point when you need to decide whether you want an AMD platform or an Intel platform. Both Intel and AMD have their strong points, and both will get the job done equally well. This is dependent upon which CPU you plan to use.

C. PCI Express - These are what you use to plug in your Video Card. Basically every modern MB has at least 1 PCIe x16 slot. x16 stands for the actual slot, but what gets confusing is that not all slots run at that x16 width. Most MB's only have the 1st PCIe slot wired for x16, and any subsequent slots are wired at either x8 or x4. The difference in these is amount of the bandwidth that the information travels on. Now the only reason you would really need to worry about the additional slots being x8 or x4 wired, is if you are running multiple cards in SLI or Crossfire. But even then, the difference is negligible. The reason is that the only cards that fully max out the x8 bandwith consistantly are the super high end cards such as the ATI 57xx series and the Nvidia 285 and 295. But the 295 barely maxes out the x16 bandwidth at full load. l your different add on cards, such as a video card, a sound card, fan controllers, internet connectors, etc. Video cards are only made with the PCI Express connector now, so how many PCIe slots are on your board will determine if you only want to run a single card, dual SLI/Crossfire, Triple SLI/Xfire, or even Quad SLI/Xfire for ultra gaming capabilities.

D. Features & PCI slots - SATA ports, IDE ports, RAM slots, 3pin fan connectors, I/O back panel, all of these will influence your decision. SATA ports and IDE ports are the slots used to connect your hard drives and CD drives to the MB. SATA 2.0 is standard currently, but SATA 3.0 is just starting to be added to boards, and it is significantly faster data transportation. Getting a board with 2+ of these will be necessary in the near future, but at the moment will cause the price of the board to be slightly higher than a similarly equipped board. Same goes for the new USB 3.0 ports.

IDE is what was once used in place of SATA. It is pretty obsolete now, and should only be looked for if you have an old HDD with that connection.

RAM slots come in DDR2 and DDR3 currently. DDR5 is not far off, since it is currently used in Video Cards. DDR2 and DDR3 are not interchangeable, so it would be wise to figure out which one you need and stick with it. DDR2 is on its way out the door, so most of you will be looking at DDR3, which generally have higher speeds and greater capacity. 4 ram slots is standard on a board, but some high end boards have 6 or even 8 slots. 3 pin fan connectors are a nice addition and most board companies are adding at least 3, which leaves some room open on your Power Supply connectors.

Finally the back panel has all of your ports that you connect your onboard sound, USB, eSATA, SATA, Keyboard & Mouse, ethernet cable, etc. Which of these is on your board is entirely up to what your devices use.

5. Central Processing Unit (CPU)

This is the part of the PC which does all the operations. Again you must choose between AMD or Intel, and match that with your Motherboard slot. AM2+ and AM3 are the newest slot for AMD, and the 1366 socket (with the i7) is the newest for Intel. It would be wise to look into purchasing within those sockets, as the older AM2, 939, 775, and 1156 are all the older sockets which will soon be outdated, especially with the new 6+ core CPU's on their way to market as this is written. Once your brand and socket type are decide upon, core quantity and core speed are the two main factors to look at.

A. Cores - CPU's are available in single, dual, and quad cores currently. Dual cores are the standard right now, with Quad core CPU's starting to replace them. As stated earlier, Hexa core will be available by late 2010 to early 2011. And in the year 2012, 12 and 16 core processors will be available.

B. Speed - Faster is better. You can find CPU's sold with speeds up to 3.4Ghz. Although it should be noted that with overclocking, speeds of up 4.0+Ghz can be achieved, given the right skill and components.

Note: I will be covering how to overclock CPU's in a future article.

6. CPU Heat sink/Fan/water cooling solution

If you are reading this, most likely you are not a PC building veteran. So in that case, put water cooling out of mind right now. Sure water cooling has an awesome potential for working great, and cooling your system to new low temps so that you can overclock the system to new highs. But it also has just as much potential for having a difficult install, and more importantly, causing catastrophic failure of every single expensive part in your PC. If your water cooling solution develops even the slightest leak, you can kiss all your money goodbye. So I highly recommend waiting until you have completely finished your first PC build, then when you start an entirely new build, you can consider starting with CPU water cooling and working into full water cooling from there.

CPU heat sinks should be entirely avoided. Make sure you are purchasing a CPU heat sink andfan combo. Be wary of the "Rifle" style coolers because they are usually MASSIVE, and if you don't have a case greater than 9", you most likely won't be able to utilize a side fan on the case, or you might have other clearance issues. You will also need to check to make sure it clears any RAM you plan to use, and also the North-bridge cooler on your Motherboard (the largest heat sink built into the motherboard).

Things to look for when choosing a heat sink/fan combo:

A. Fan size - Plan on getting a heat sink with a minimum of a 92mm fan. Any smaller, and it will do nearly an identical job of cooling as the stock CPU cooler, and ends up being a waste of money. Also, if you go larger, you will be able to overclock your cpu more, while being able to bleed off more heat.

B. Heatsink Material - Gold, Silver, and Copper are some of the best conductors, but since this is a pc and not a Rolls Royce, you will only see Copper, Nickel, and Aluminum. Copper is ideal, with Nickel being virtually tied with Aluminum, and it depends on construction for their conductivity.

C. Heat Pipes - These are hollow metal rods that work their way through the heatsink fins in order to bleed off the heat into a greater surface area, fascilitating cooling. They are usually made of copper, but can be coated in nickel, made from nickel, or made from aluminum. Copper is ideal.

Additional Notes: Ideally, get a CPU Direct Contact cooler. This is where the heat pipes directly touch the top of the CPU when mounted. This maximizes the ability for heat to transfer into the heat pipes, and away from the CPU.

Also, look into getting a brand of high quality thermal paste. I use Tuniq TX-2 paste, which works incredibly for my application. But Arctic Silver is outstanding followed closely by Antec, Cooler Master, and Zalman pastes.

7. RAM Modules

Random Access Memory is what RAM stands for. These are used to temporarily store massive amounts of data, and can be accessed in any order. When looking at RAM, you will need to look at a few things:
RAM Type - DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and in the near future, DDR4 (2011-2012). Each of these has a different key slot on the RAM, so they are not interchangeable. (DDR4 hasn't been revealed yet, so compatability is questionable) Make sure your MB supports the correct RAM before purchasing.

Speed - 1066Mhz, 1200Mhz, 1333Mhz, 1600Mhz, etc. These are the rated speed that the RAM can operate at, but it is not limited to these particular speeds. All RAM can be slowed down to a certain extent, and most RAM can be overclocked to faster speeds. But you will need to match this speed up with your motherboard.

Example: The MSI 770-G45 MB is compatible with DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600(OC). This means that have to use a RAM with a minimum speed of 800, but anything greater will work. The MB will automatically detect the standard settings. In the case of Corsair DHX XMS3 1600, the MB detected it as a 1066 RAM at timings of 9-9-9-28-37. I had to adjust the RAM multiplier in the BIOS, RAM voltage settings, and also the timings to reach an optimal speed of 1333 with timings of 7-7-7-22-29. I will cover how I reached these settings in a future Overclocking Article.

8. Power Supply Unit (PSU)

This could be the most import part of your PC. The PSU is what delivers the power directly to your components. It is imperitive that you purchase a quality brand, high performance PSU. Many of the high quality brands will offer low end PSU's, so be wary.

Things to look for:

A. Wattage - This will NOT be the standard advertised maximum wattage. 500w, 600w, 700w, 1200w, etc. What you are looking for is the actual continuous maximum wattage which will almost always be lower, and an odd number (Example: 750w rated PSU, cont rated 744) Once again, the higher is better (aside from Amperage). Ideally you should look for a PSU with a maximum continuous wattage of double what you are planning to draw from the PSU. This will increase the life of the PSU, the stability and quality of power delivered, and the PSU will be significantly quieter.

B. Amperage - On the 12v rail to be specific. The best power supplies still use a single 12v rail. This is so that all the amperage is combined, and you don't have to worry about how much power is going to each component. Use the equation Wattage = Voltage x Amperage to determine if the power supply will work for your application. If the PSU does have multiple 12v rails, add those up. So these are approximations to what you will need for a PSU in a given system:

Mild -Average Performance system - 35A (400-500W) SIngle Nvidia 8800/9800 or ATI 4870 will do fine with this.

Average -High Performance system - 40A (600-650W) Nvidia 275, ATI 5870. Or low end SLI/Xfire.

High - Ultra High Performance system - 60A (850W+) High end 5890 Xfire/295 SLI

Note: These can vary a bit depending on how many HDD's, optical drives, CPU, and if you have components overclocked.

C. Modular vs Non-Modular - Cables disconnectable (modular) vs cables permanently attached (non-modular). Modular used to be less stable than non-modular, but advances in technology have brought modular up to par. This choice is mostly preference. Modular does offer the advantages of removing cables that you don't need, making the PC case cleaner, and less cluttered. The side effect of this is that removing excess cables allows air to flow better in the case, effectively cooling components more efficiently.

D. Connectors - Basically every main brand PSU (Antec, XFX, Silverstone, Rosewill, Thermaltake, Corsair, Apevia, Coolermaster, etc) above 450w has every cable you will ever need.

Cables to double check:

1. 24 pin power cable
2. 4+4 pin power cable
3. 6+2 pin cables for Video cards
4. 4 pin power periferals
5. SATA power connectors

E. 80 Plus Ratings - I would highly recommend a PSU with a minimum of an 80+ rating. This rating system is just a measurement of how efficient and stable the power is coming from the PSU to the MB. 80+ is will run at approximately 80% efficiency. Meaning that only 20% of the energy moving through the PSU is being disappated through heat. The levels of the ratings are 80+, 80+ Bronze, 80+ Silver, 80+ Gold, with each step up being approximately 5% more efficient.

9. Video Card

This is probably what most people are concerned about when playing video games, and rightfully so. The first thing you should choose between is if you want an ATI card or an Nvidia card. Both have their pluses and minuses, and they are always in a power struggle for who has the best, fastest, most powerful video card. As a generalization, Nvidia cards will be more expensive than an equal performance ATI card. At the time of this writing, Nvidia will be nearing their release of the new 300 series cards. This release will drop the prices significantly of all the current Mid-high to super-high end cards.

Things to look for when purchasing:

A. Connectors - Make sure that you have the correct power connection from your PSU. This is essential, as it won't turn on if you don't have the correct power. This could be a 6 pin connector, a 6+2 pin connector, or even a 6+2 pin with an additional 6 pin connector.

B. Size - This is very important as well, because if you can't fit the card in your case, you can't use it. Check clearances inside your case and match it with the length of the card. Also check how far your HDD's will stick out, and which direction the power supply cable will extend from the video card.

C. Performance - This pretty much comes down to what you can afford. The faster (Mhz), and higher the number (ATI 5890, Nvidia 295), the better.

D. Cooling - Most name brand video cards (XFX, HIS, ASUS, EVGA, Sapphire, MSI) come with quality cooling, but some off brands (Powercolor, Biostar, Sparkle, Zotac, BFG Tech) will come with cheap cooling that will inevitably fail.

10. Monitor

Pretty simple, the thing you look at.

Things to look for:

A. Connections - Does your video card have the HDMI, DVI, and/or VGA inputs? You'll need to match these up with your video card in order to, well, to see what's on the screen, obviously.

B. Screen Resolution - How big do you really want to go? How much detail do you want or need?

C. Type of screen - Do you want to go with the old Cathode Ray Tube monitor? Probably not. You will most likely be looking for either an LCD or an LED screen. The differences are minute, although LED is supposed to be more accurate, brighter color. Although LED screens are brand new technology, so they are quite a bit more expensive still.

11. Keyboard & Mouse

There are a lot of impressive gaming keyboards and mice out there. This is something nobody can really tell you what to pick. It all depends on what feels good to you, and how many buttons you need, and how many macros you want to set.

12. Speakers

What sounds good to you? It is kind of difficult to pick out a good sound system these days with so many cheap systems being produced. Generally the cheap ones are cheap for a reason.

Speakers will come in a whole slew of combinations from 2.0 to 4.1, to 6.0 to the ultimate in surround sound, the 8.1. For most gamers, a solid 2.1 setup will be sufficient. The first number stands for how many speakers are in the system, and the .1 is for the sub woofer.

Conclusion

There you go! A quick (or not so quick) rundown of everything you need to get started with building a gaming PC. Make sure you buy some compressed air to clean all the dust off your awesome new system!!! Good luck!!:thumbsup:

Feel free to post any questions, comments, concerns, or builds in this thread. That is what this is for.

Quote from "Ent1ty" »

Do you think id be able to get the phenom II x4 965 to 4GHz? And do you think its a good build?

I dunno? What exact MB and PSU are you going to use? What case? What cooling solutions aside from your CPU cooler?

There is a lot more that goes into overclocking than just what CPU it is.

I'm at only 3.8 fully stable with a 120mm core contact cooler, a 550w rosewill psu, a board designed for oc'ing, 2 140mm case fans, 3 120mm case fans, and 1 80mm back of the cpu slim case fan. That's 7 fans total. I've been playing with voltages and bios settings for a few months now, and I just barely hit 3.8 fully stable 2 weeks ago. Sure I can hit 4.0Ghz, but it isn't 100% stable. I don't want to risk the parts I dropped $600 on. Stability is key.

Sounds like you've got just about everything sorted out.

Look at the 3 cases I pointed out. Antec 1200 is awesome, but not quite as awesome as the other two. The Antec case is also about 3/4" thinner than the others. The reason I point this out is because with the V8 or V10 cooler, and if you put a fan on the case door, it will probably be a tight fit. The other two are well over 9" wide, so I foresee zero fitment issues. And all 3 cases have incredible airflow. So much, that with a simple cpu cooler, you will not need water cooling. Yet they all still have the capabilty of going water cooled. Expecially the Armorplus, with the tray on top of the case.

You better have an awesome power supply for all of those components.

BTW, I highly doubt that you'll get one of the 550BE to 4.0Ghz. You'll likely get to a point, 3.7-3.9Ghz, that it will require a jump of voltage of somewhere around 1.0v to get just 0.1Ghz. That is when it is just completely not worth it, especially if you want any kind of long term use and stability. Just my opinion.

Wow that Abbadon's legion idea is pretty friggin epic. Although since I never participated will I just have to make up a new character to kick the ass of?

Az- I think you would have needed to put teleportation as an ability if you want to use it.

Am I the only one that thinks the male Wizard looks friggin sick!!

His armor looks wicked!! Great color scheme, and that pauldron looks radical!

Except for the fact that it is so friggin big that you have to go out and buy different extensions for your PSU and it requires 24" SATA cables but they only ship it with 18". There is also virtually no room to improve cooling, and you can't go completely water cooled with the thing.

Waaay too much money for how many faults are in the case.

I would much rather buy something along the lines of XClio 2000 or Thermaltake ArmorPlus. Or hell, why not the Antec 1200?

Zethrael bellowed a deep wicked laugh at the sight of the Paladin squealing away what he had surely promised to never tell.

"Now, demons, we march upon Thurzen."

Damarus stepped out of the cavern, and light began to permeate through the black smoke, which was now dissipating out the cave opening. Zethrael, relaxed after the slaughter, followed the leader of the demon squad into the daylight.

Zethrael emerged into a world he had nearly forgotten. Foul skies of blue, a bright green growth covered the ground, even the animals that he could see were odd to him.

Damarus spoke again, "This will all be ours in time."

"Indeed"

The black charcoal smoke slowly billowed out of the cave, and started to cast a foreboding shadow that gradually engulfed the meadow as if predicting the spread of evil that would soon march across this world.

That completely works for me. I like the idea of them going out on seperate missions, sort of spy infiltration missions. You could send them out to see if they can get info on where Tyrael, Malthael, and the other Archangels are. Or something along those lines.

I will continue posting then.

As for what is going on in the story right now. I think the whole vortex to hell thing kind of just got a little mottled. Also, it seems a little odd that the vortex of that magnitude was opened without any difficulty, while it took a human sacrifice, carvings, and runes to send us to Sanctuary. Or maybe that's just my actor's mind thinking about story continuity.

Yeah, the Thuban is supposed to go on sale in April!!! Phenom II x6!!

It is supposed to have HyperTransport 3.0 and 2.8Ghz is expected to be the highest speed CPU at release. And it also is stated to be backwards compatible with AM3 and AM2+ motherboards! I'm sure you'll need a 24pin and 8pin minimum motherboard to run the thing though.

I'm looking forward to 2011 and 2012 though with the x12 and x16 core processors coming out then.O_O

Works for me too.

I honestly really don't like it. I know that D1 had it, and even though some of you say DII had it, I never saw it there. It must have been a much much improved red/colored outline than DI. And now with DIII they seem to have stepped backwards. It looks like a little kid took a thick red marker and scribbled an outline of the monsters. You can't even tell what the monster is anymore, once it is highlighted. A bit extreme for me.

Now as long as I can completely turn it off I won't have a problem.

I've got a question though.

Why do they need it? I thought Blizz was geared towards making all the creatures stand out from the background with the shapes and colors of the creatures. If they have to add an outline then it means they failed at their first task.

Pryda is right. Do you want AMD or Intel. It is totally a up to personal preference. I would recommend AMD because of a better price to performance ratio and AMD processors use less power. GO GREEN!! :rolleyes:Plus my mom's best friend works for Intel and she said to not buy their stuff because they treat the employees like crap.

Correct assumption about DDR2. DDR2 and DDR3 are NOT interchangeable. The key slots are in different places, so they won't even come close to fitting in the opposite type of MB.

About the Mhz support, I'll explain a bit more. MBs support only up to a certain a maximum RAM frequency, for instance 1600Mhz. If you were to install RAM that can be run at 2000Mhz, it will usually be auto clocked lower by the MB. Otherwise, you would have to change it yourself in the BIOS (if you can get it to boot). Now there will also be a minimum RAM frequency, for instance 800Mhz. This number is much more important. Say you are trying to save money and got a stick of ram that runs at 667Mhz. It won't work, unless you can get it to post to BIOS, where you will have the opportunity to overclock the RAM, but then you run the possibility of frying the RAM completely. Just stay within the min and max RAM frequencies.

Look for 2x PCIe 2.0 slots like he said.

As for coolers, you can fit literally every single kind of cooler in that case, the only limitations will be from the MB layout. Your RAM slots might be too close, or your Northbridge heatsink might be too tall. Something like that.

Sound cards are pretty much not really needed anymore. I don't think they make a noticeable difference. Just find a MB with 8 channel on board digital, and you should be good to go.

I'll throw some ideas out there for ya. I mixed it up a bit with one low, one mid, and one high price/performance so you can mix and match for your price range. If you've got anymore questions, let me know.

Heatsinks/fans
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207004

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608014

Motherboards
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130250&Tpk=770-g45

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186168

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131402

CPU's
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103650

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103644

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

I wouldn't trust that to run SLI. I'm running the single fan 120mm version of that, and it has decent power for running my rig, but when I upgrade to the 5770 card, a solid 850w psu is going in (probably corsair). I mean 18 amps on the 12v rail just doesn't make me feel very comfortable with high performance, expensive parts.

^ lol. Why would a lvl 35 be trying to take on this many high demons in NM?!?! He'd get his ass wooped!! Which is kind of what should have happened to this pally. :rolleyes:

Come on guys, I lobbed up the pitch, now someone hit a homer!!

The pally is shieldless, fuck him up!:olddiablo:

Zethrael used the bone spear as the perfect distraction to get within reach of the knight, unseen.

In a deep, menacing voice, Zethrael muttered "Behind you" into the ear of the knight.

The Paladin, caught off guard, whirled around to meet face to face with the terrible shadow demon. But before he could deliver a single blow, Zethrael latched his flaming hands onto the holy shield and hurled the Knight of Zakarum sailing through the air. Zethrael's hands were seared from where they contacted the shield, but he dared not to show the slightest grimace. Not amongst these creatures of Hell.

"Join the fight, coward knight!" Zethrael mocked as he catapulted the Paladin into the fray. The warrior hit with a loud metallic thud which sent the shield clattering away from his grasp. And now the Knight of Zakarum was truly afraid, for he lie directly in the center of the demon warriors, and without his shield.

"Feast my brothers!!" The shadow demon announced with wicked glee.

A whip cracks. A beast snarls. They move in for the kill.