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Post by supercollide on Aug 31, 2011 9:38:23 GMT -5
I've got the Ok to buy a new PC and I've got a budget of £500.00, there's a deal on at Dino PC that seems good and they have a decent reputation as well, I'll need to act swiftly to get the deal so I'm asking everyone's quick opinion. It'll need to run Champions Online with high graphics settings Star Wars: The Old Republic Guild Wars 2 WH40K: Space Marine Transformers: War for Cybertron Batman Arkham Asylum & City WH40K Dawn of War II (all games & DLC) and if it actually arrives Half Life 3/Episode 3 It will mostly be used for gaming and running MS Office (probably the 2007 version) Vent etc, basic music recording and editing software as well as some fairly hefty backup and DVD authoring software. It will also be hooked up to a flatscreen TV at the moment Here's the PC I'm looking at: www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/Gallant-AMD-955-94p766.htmGallant AMD 955 List Price: £639.00 Price: £485.00 inc. VAT Standard Specification:CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Motherboard: Gigabyte 870A-USB3L Memory: 8GB DDR3 1333mhz (2x 4GB) Hard Drives: 1TB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA Graphics card: NEW! NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio Case: Xigmatek Asgard PSU: 400W Xigmatek Warranty: 3 Year Bronze Warranty CustomisationsGraphics card: NEW! ATI Radeon HD 6790 1GB - Add £8.10 (prefer ATI to Nvidia) Programs: Nero and PowerDVD £5.95 PSU: 500W Xigmatek - Add £8.30 (doesn't currently need the upgrade here but I'll be looking at adding Wifi card, Blu-Ray & 2nd hard drive in the relatively near future) TOTAL Customisations £22.35 Grand Total £507.35
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Post by KenpoJuJitsu3 on Aug 31, 2011 14:12:23 GMT -5
The 6790 and 550 are relatively close in performance. Looking at their customization options and your budget I'd sacrifice 4GB of the RAM and go for the 4GB 1333MHz option and put that difference into getting the 6850 card instead. I don't know what else you intend to use the PC for (or rather the extent of your editing) but for strictly gaming you won't likely need the 8GB of RAM but the 6850 is a significant upgrade to the 550ti and the 6790.
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Post by xitan on Aug 31, 2011 22:41:42 GMT -5
I'm in agreement with Kenpo on that. The only reason I'd get the extra RAM, as a gamer, is for multiple applications being open at once which can chew up memory fairly quickly. Having said that, we don't know how the newer titles will address and allocate memory in the coming year or so, since 64-bit has great flexibility in that regard. And yes, I totally recommend upgrading the power supply to the 500 or better. With your planned upgrades, I'd even hazard to say go with a 650 because the wattage listed is peak not continuous. Anyways, that's my two L's worth on that one ^_~
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Post by supercollide on Sept 1, 2011 4:00:31 GMT -5
Cheers! I usually end up maxing RAM after about a year. 8gb is the standard on that machine so was happy to leave it but yes I guess upping the graphic card would be more advantageous right now. The advice I'm getting everywhere else is in agreement with you there (but Kenpo's the only one to give potential model numbers - extra thanks there dude!) I'm half gearing up for having to run Vent, Origin , an Origin personal details blocking app, SW:Tor, web browser, probably a batch MP3 renamer as well as the usual anti-virus, firewall & spyware killer and I hate long waits in alt-tab switching. Between CO and notepad (for names to SG invite) it takes my current machine 15-20 seconds to switch between them. Music Editing is mostly me converting the hundreds of tapes and vinyl I have to MP3, it's a relatively low impact program except for the final conversion, which I usually set up as a batch run when I'm sleeping. Gonna plug some of those options in an see about ordering something this weekend.
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Post by KenpoJuJitsu3 on Sept 1, 2011 8:21:25 GMT -5
I'm half gearing up for having to run Vent, Origin , an Origin personal details blocking app, SW:Tor, web browser, probably a batch MP3 renamer as well as the usual anti-virus, firewall & spyware killer and I hate long waits in alt-tab switching. Between CO and notepad (for names to SG invite) it takes my current machine 15-20 seconds to switch between them. Music Editing is mostly me converting the hundreds of tapes and vinyl I have to MP3, it's a relatively low impact program except for the final conversion, which I usually set up as a batch run when I'm sleeping. Gonna plug some of those options in an see about ordering something this weekend. ROFLMAO!!!
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Post by supercollide on Sept 14, 2011 9:41:04 GMT -5
Just ordered it. Mrs collide wanted me to wait a bit as we might be able to move the PC out of the front room (plugging into TV atm) and onto it's own monitor but sub 5fps during Blood Moon and 3 crashes last night forced my hand!
Took the 6850 card and took the Ram down to 4GB (will probably upgrade ram before the blu-ray drive or 2nd HDD as I do like to be able to run several programs at once but not so much when gaming tho) Due to the deal I can't push the PSU any higher than 500W with spending significantly more on it. Got £10.00 discount so spent that taking the better motherboard option.
So in a couple of weeks I should actually be able to see the subs in Lemuria!
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Post by KenpoJuJitsu3 on Sept 14, 2011 9:45:14 GMT -5
Woot! Maybe next time I wonder what the **** Hilst Delee is shooting at!
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Post by Brick on Sept 14, 2011 18:24:09 GMT -5
This is my current setup, as reported by EVEREST Home Edition, trimmed for relevant content...
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2 GHz Motherboard Name MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (MS-7125) System Memory 2048 MB (DDR SDRAM) Video Adapter ATI Radeon X300 (RV370) DirectX Version DirectX 9.0
C: (NTFS) 35000 MB (3045 MB free) E: (NTFS) 120001 MB (22838 MB free) F: (NTFS) 131163 MB (18286 MB free) Total Size 279.5 GB (43.1 GB free)
I'm aware of how woefully underendowed it is, but I've never really needed to upgrade before now (the system is six years old, a gift from an old family friend, and was a HUGE upgrade at the time from my previous machine), as the most I ever played was WoW, which seemed to handle things fine, and it wasn't until I got interested in Champions Online that I really realized just how far behind my box really was.
So what do you recommend?
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Post by Jaxton Dragoon on Sept 14, 2011 18:39:18 GMT -5
Honestly Brick yours doesn't sound much worse than mine. Though admittedly mine is not a powerhouse by any definition. It initially came with XP MCE2005 and when I reinstalled I moved up to XP Pro as I had a student copy.
Athlon 64 3500+ (2.19Ghz) 2.0 GB RAM C: 186GB (love how much you "really" get on a 200GB disk) GeForce 8400GS @ 512MB RAM
Almost forgot, before I added the RAM and Video Card it was a stock Compaq SR1830NX.
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Post by Brick on Sept 14, 2011 18:51:42 GMT -5
I know for a fact I need a new vid-card and more RAM... the X300 isn't even supported anymore by the manufacturer - last driver update was mid-2010 - and half the stuff in the game I can't even see because the card can't display it - Hello, invisible lampposts, and other ridiculous missing items. Sometimes I can't even see quest objectives like computer terminals until I literally bump into them and see glowing light-panels floating in midair. It's hard to be sure how your character looks when things like cloth/leather/metal differences and wrinkles and such don't show at all.
To be honest, I'm surprised it can even run CO at all; but then again, I've had computers do the improbable in my presence before - I once got Windows 95 to run smoothly on a 486 with 4MB RAM, when the minimum recommendation was a Pentium with 8MB... and I still don't know how I did it.
Frankly, I'm unsure whether I should try to upgrade, or just buy new and transfer stuff off my old harddrive. My motherboard is a bit behind (and the fans get noisy and stall occasionally - I had to download a temp monitor so playing didn't make me overheat). It's ironic... I need upgrades in the worst way, but literally can't afford even the cheapest replacements. Damn SSI/Disability appeals taking forever to go through... but that's a rant for a different place and time.
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Post by supercollide on Sept 15, 2011 4:43:07 GMT -5
My current PC is a funny old beast. Actually aside from the chip it looks like your's kicks mine into submission Brick!
While is has nearly 3Ghz on the chip it's a small Dell office machine that was never meant to be upgraded. (Optiplex GX280 Small Form Factor)
The PSU (160W) was rated such that there was only pretty much one graphic card it would run (256Mb Radeon HD2400) and that needed such increased airflow I had to dismantle the entire back plate. When I was on Vent Stratosphere was being drowned out but the PC fan alone....
The initial ram was 512Mb but I boosted that to max at 2Gb. Hard drive was stuck at 80Gb as windows was preinstalled and I didn't have a spare disk copy. Replacing it would also have had power usage issues. CO & the PTS take about 15Gb of that 80Gb - I've got about 5Gb spare on the HDD and I have to keep that free for backing up files to DVD.
Mrs Collide wanted us to move to using a Laptop so the desktop was only really meant as a backup for my converting my tapes and vinyl to MP3 and running converstion overnight. However since then we've broken two Laptops and I've lost days trying to fix/set them up right we ended up getting her a contract smartphone and I fixed up one laptop with a usb keyboard so that's kinda ok, (I can dual box on CO with it) but I hate laptops now.
Brick - I'd seriously see what complete PC you can pick up cheap 2nd hand, it'll probably work out cheaper in the longer term than appling plasters to your current system.
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Post by KenpoJuJitsu3 on Sept 15, 2011 8:04:46 GMT -5
Mrs Collide wanted us to move to using a Laptop so the desktop was only really meant as a backup for my converting my tapes and vinyl to MP3 and running converstion overnight. Your age hath been shown. Brick - I'd seriously see what complete PC you can pick up cheap 2nd hand, it'll probably work out cheaper in the longer term than appling plasters to your current system. Agreed.
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Post by supercollide on Sept 15, 2011 8:19:25 GMT -5
Mrs Collide wanted us to move to using a Laptop so the desktop was only really meant as a backup for my converting my tapes and vinyl to MP3 and running converstion overnight. Your age hath been shown. I still remember them darn new fangled SeeDees coming out after I'd amassed quite a collection of records. (yes I did end up buying some albums on both and still have both as well) To think there's more than one generation out there now who will never know the wamth of sound you only really get with vinyl. Sadly after a decade and more of playing in loud heavy metal bands I can't say I hear it anymore.... Still insist on recording onto analogue tape in the Recording Studio, that I can hear...... at volume anyway.
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Post by thelurkerabove on Sept 15, 2011 11:28:20 GMT -5
Brick, what's your budget? Given your system definitely get a new one. Upgrading is not going to do any good.
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Post by Brick on Sept 15, 2011 13:35:05 GMT -5
Brick, what's your budget? Given your system definitely get a new one. Upgrading is not going to do any good. That's the tricky bit - until/unless this govt. appeal goes through, I'm flat broke. Only reason my wallet is not cobwebby right now is a neighbor paid me $25 to mow their lawn today. I do have my eye on a customized setup from ibuypower.com but even that's a fair bit out of reach, being priced at $800. Why is it you never seem to need stuff until you can't afford it?
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