^}Attica{^ 0 Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 Useing the system test i pass on all aspects except the video card. I have a GT 6600 128Mb card. In all honesty how much of a difference will this make? My system specs are: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 1.5 Gig 3200 ddr Nvidia Soundstorm Soundcard 10,000 RPM Sata Drive Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Logos 0 Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 Uh... not necessarily... dual core is an advantage to amd... for intel's not as much... here is what it will do for him. When playing... if he alt tabs to TS or opens a website while he is dead, he can surf and such. You see... before dual core... amd was Very slow at this. ← I have an AMD64 single-core. Believe me, I can alt tab out to my browser just fine. I can burn audio CD's while I surf and instant message and run Photoshop and whatever else, and the only time I ever have a combination of things running and I bog down is when the HD is the bottleneck, and dual-core won't help that. The exception to this is video-encoding. If I'm encoding video, I pretty much have to leave it alone. Dual-core would help that. Basically, a modern proc is more than fast enough to handle any and all of that stuff you just mentioned simulataneously -- except video video encoding. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
agentkay 0 Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 I have a GT 6600 128Mb card. In all honesty how much of a difference will this make? The game will play fine on your card, but most likely at 1024x768, no AF/AA, and medium details. Is that good enough for you? If not, then you need to upgrade. If you are unsure, then just wait until the game or demo comes out. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Freshmixture 0 Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 (edited) I posted a similar topic over in the "computer discussion" thread of GR.net, please have a go at it and help me out as well. LINK Hey mate, The suggestions that I've received so far is in my case is to wait and see how the game runs. But as I see in your case, the video card upgrade looks obvious to me. Then save the rest of your money to upgrade whats "really" needed once you play it. Laters! Fresh Edited April 9, 2006 by Freshmixture Quote Link to post Share on other sites
^}Attica{^ 0 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 (edited) Judgeing by what we have seen, and been told they were on medium settings... I can live for now. Thanks for the response Edited April 10, 2006 by ^}Attica{^ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cpl Ledanek 247 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Not badmouthing VeLocityChaos post on Cyberpower, but I read on Epinion that actual customers who posted pics of their Cyberpower PC ARE NOT satisfied with their tech support. They DO like the PC though. I do agree with VeLocityChaos that building IS THE CHEAPEST way to getting a gamer rig. Its scarry at first but GR.NET has build guide, yes its older but the same principle. There's plenty of ppl who gladly help you. Maybe too many sometimes that its confusing. My recommedation if you having someone build it for you is a Mom and Pop store. NOT GEEKSQUAD from BestBuy or Compusa. I mean a small store that can cater to a few, to keep things personal. One company I've personaly dealt with is Falcon-NW's Talon. Their PC is straight gamer, their staff are gamers, the person that built your PC is ALSO your Tech support. Which make sense since he/she built it, right? Skip the paint jobs and window etching. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
KRP 56 92 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 I don't really wanna be playing GRAW on the minimum settings. I get nausious if i have to play on anything below 1280 res. ← Spend your money on a new vid card if you have to play on high resolutions. I'm sure a 5950U will be able to play GRAW just fine at 1024X768. Higher than that would be a big maybe. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
smokin 0 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 (edited) I just built my first computer and I had about 2 weeks enjoying it. Its definetly been an experience, but eh thats another story, for now ill just add my 2 cents on dual cores. I upgraded to an AMD 4800X2, I know thats a lil steeper than most are looking for, but I chose that because the dual core 4800 out perform the more expensive FX57s in most benchmarks if not all depending on where you look. I've done some HEAVY research, and while I agree that alot of gamers would prob be better of with say an AMD 3800 VS an AMD 3800 X2, as you go up the X2s list, the performace matches that and even exceeds alot of the single core AMD chips available that are priced closly to the x2 counterpart. UMMMMM hope that made sense, .... in a nut shell, you dont need "dual core" software to experience the power of dual core chips. Also, while I cant confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt, games like oblivion do infact take advantage of dual cores. ____________________________________________________________ Ok, based on my experiences building this computer, _If you decide on a windows 64 bit OS, make sure everything you got will have drivers available for it, or be prepared to lose that stuff. (I cant use my old video card PCI,my scanner, or ati's HDTV tunner card, and am actually going back to using windows XP pro when I can.) _Call and make sure they have the parts you are ordering, (DONT BELIEVE WHAT THE WEBSITE SAYS, In Stock = In Stock...... possibly) _I ordered my OS through Royal somthing, for 80bucks all I got was a CD and a cd key, I obviously thought this was too good to be true, it turned out it wasnt. And it did not have the OEM restrictions the more expensive OS software ive seen. _I found that there are shops that dont charge tax, and some that do,...... that should be considered when buying online. Thats all I can think of really, building it wasnt that bad or too hard, just alot of research to find the parts right for you. Edited April 10, 2006 by smokin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
VeLocityChaos 0 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 (edited) Not badmouthing VeLocityChaos post on Cyberpower, but I read on Epinion that actual customers who posted pics of their Cyberpower PC ARE NOT satisfied with their tech support. They DO like the PC though. I do agree with VeLocityChaos that building IS THE CHEAPEST way to getting a gamer rig. Its scarry at first but GR.NET has build guide, yes its older but the same principle. There's plenty of ppl who gladly help you. Maybe too many sometimes that its confusing. My recommedation if you having someone build it for you is a Mom and Pop store. NOT GEEKSQUAD from BestBuy or Compusa. I mean a small store that can cater to a few, to keep things personal. One company I've personaly dealt with is Falcon-NW's Talon. Their PC is straight gamer, their staff are gamers, the person that built your PC is ALSO your Tech support. Which make sense since he/she built it, right? Skip the paint jobs and window etching. ← Hey, no worries. I had a friend that bought a pc from cyberpower last year. He had no complaints. The pc was well put together and shipped very securely. I think he even got it 2 days early. It may be true with the tech support. I dont think he even had to call them. Its good that you checked on that though. I probably would have checked to before making a decision to do business with them. With the small stores, they usually are higher in prices. Due to them having to pay more than the chain stores. Mostly because they don't buy in bulk. At least they are more that way around here. So, he wont get as much for his money. Either way, like we both agree, he would be much much better off just building himself a computer with the 400 bucks. Edited April 11, 2006 by VeLocityChaos Quote Link to post Share on other sites
unwritt3n 50 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 all remember ur power supply is the most important internal device... no point having nice components all running off a ######ty powersupply. 400W-450W is prob wat u wanna aim for, with min 25A on the 12V rail... look at the Antec NeoHE/PurePower 2.0's, PC Power and Cooling etc.. 400W+ models cost around $180 AUS. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cpl Ledanek 247 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 My powersupply upgrade gallery shows eventhough I'm just running on a GF4 Ti4200, Strider almost guarantees me that my PSU is the last thing I have to worry about for the next 5 yrs. Zeus powers my SLI rig, with again the same mentallity that PSU is something that will NOT BE on my upgrade list 5 yrs down the road. Yes, its an overkill. So are life insurances and IRA for your retirements. Its good to have things that you don't need, than NOT HAVE and need it. Again, these are personal preferrences. Read and research YOUR needs. I'm not going to tell you what to get, coz I do not know your needs. My decisions and purchases are based on experts here or ppl with first hand knowledge or actually owns the products. Coupled that with months of reading and researching. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Logos 0 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 all remember ur power supply is the most important internal device... ← I will second this. For those who don't know, any problem you can have with a computer from software to hardware, can be duplicated by a power supply problem. In other words, any problem might be a power supply problem, and you're better off getting a high-end one and avoiding major headaches down the road. Also, for anyone building, you need to make sure you understand what type of power supply to get if you're going PCI-Express, which you most likely will be. You're going to want one with 24-pin connector for the mainboard. Most older PSU's only have 20-pin connectors. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CiASpook 0 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 (edited) My PC is getting on a bit. I can't afford a new full rig so looking at my specs what would you recomend. I guess i could spend $400 large. I don't really wanna be playing GRAW on the minimum settings. I get nausious if i have to play on anything below 1280 res. AMD Athlon 2 gig processor 1 Gig ram Nvidia Gforce 5950 ultra 256meg ram. Sound blaster live sound card. Creative 5.1 speakers. My mother board might go up to a 2.8 ghz processor but that hardly seems worth the bump. Any suggestions lads. ← Hmm...not sure how much you can get for $400. But, your graphics in dier need of an upgrade. You should be able to find a used 7800GT for a nice buck. Get a socket939 motherboard and a 3800/4000+ AMD64 CPU with 1 or 2GB memory. I guess you are stuck with a AGP motherboard also, so an upgrade wouldn't hurt with future upgrades in mind... EDIT: A 20-pin PSU works fine with a 24-pin motherboard... Edited April 10, 2006 by CiASpook Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Logos 0 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 EDIT: A 20-pin PSU works fine with a 24-pin motherboard... ← That is wrong. A 20-pin might work with a 24-pin motherboard and be stable enough, or it might not work at all, or it might work but be unstable and show up as all sorts of other problems that look like anything but a PSU problem. I've seen too many times in too many places with too many people since the intro of PCI-E where people's problems vanished the moment they installed a new PSU that was designed for PCI-E boards. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ROCO*AFZ* 0 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 (edited) I have an AMD64 single-core. Believe me, I can alt tab out to my browser just fine. I can burn audio CD's while I surf and instant message and run Photoshop and whatever else, and the only time I ever have a combination of things running and I bog down is when the HD is the bottleneck, and dual-core won't help that. The exception to this is video-encoding. If I'm encoding video, I pretty much have to leave it alone. Dual-core would help that Actually Logos, you must be one of the few... are you talking GR1 or other games as GR1 uses over 50% of the cpu even on hyperthreading intels. When in game, tab out, open a word doc and then internet explorer... tell me what your time is. I haven't seen an amd single core that can do that in under 5 seconds. P4's (even my old socket 478 can do it in under 2) Now top that off with photoshop and say have a nice day to the single core. This was one of my biggest complaints with Amd single cores and why my company did not sell them. As for dual amd... they are finally getting to a decent price after the sky rocketed beginning, but do some board research 1st...some are good, some are not... anything that says via or ali stay away from Edited April 10, 2006 by ROCOAFZ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lightspeed 273 Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 VelocityChaos said - I would do this if I was using 400 bucks. Asus A8N-SLI mobo: 90$ 400 Watt psu: 40$ AMD64 3000+: 120$ 1GB Ram: 65$(Can use your slower existing ram if needed) 7600GT: 160$ ______________ Total w\o Ram = 410$ (all prices taken from newegg) Total w Ram = 475$ Re-use your Harddrive,opticaldrives and case sounds good to me. ill take one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CiASpook 0 Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 EDIT: A 20-pin PSU works fine with a 24-pin motherboard... ← That is wrong. A 20-pin might work with a 24-pin motherboard and be stable enough, or it might not work at all, or it might work but be unstable and show up as all sorts of other problems that look like anything but a PSU problem. I've seen too many times in too many places with too many people since the intro of PCI-E where people's problems vanished the moment they installed a new PSU that was designed for PCI-E boards. ← I'm not gonna bother to argue with you on this. My experince (Having upgraded and build 10-20 comps in the last months) with this is that it works with 20-pin PSU. But that is my experience. You could ofcourse have experienced something else. The best thing is ofcourse to get a new PSU with 24-pin motherboard powerconnector... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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