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Looking to build a gaming PC...
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Pangy
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16. February 2007 @ 12:23 |
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Well, as the titles says, I'm looking to build a gaming machine and I'm hoping to get a little help from you guys.
Here's my current machine:
Quote:
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Hard Drive: 550 GB Total
Video Card: RADEON X850 Pro
Monitor: 21" LCD [ViewSonic]
Sound Card: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [DF00]
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
I don't really know much about hardware (I only got the specs from my Xfire profile hehe...) so I decided to post here.
Basically, I want to be able to run most, if not all games at max capacity. Right now, it's getting to a point where the more recent games (Battlefield/GRAW/Oblivion etc) are too much for my PC to run at full power.
So, advice? Memory, graphics cards, all that stuff?
Hope this works lol, thanks in advance
Pangy
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wetsparks
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16. February 2007 @ 15:32 |
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Your current computer looks good to me, don't know why you would be having trouble playing some games. If your intent on a new machine, I would go with an AMD dual-core processor because they are better than Intel for gaming. Also a NVidea graphics card. The X850 is a 256mb card, which is what I use, but I use NVidea. You've got plenty of RAM for any game, and Sound Blaster is a good company also.
P.S. Try running a spy bot and ad ware program, see if that boosts your computing power.
http://www.spybot.net/en/mirrors/index.html
http://www.adawareresource.com/co/adawar...sid=M2AG0002cGS
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 16. February 2007 @ 15:35
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Pangy
Member
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16. February 2007 @ 18:13 |
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Thanks for the links. I'm taking your word for it here, 'cause everyone's telling me "you shouldn't have any problems" all the time. I've downloaded Spybot, I'll try it out and see how things are running tomorrow. I'll post back with an update.
I've also taken your AMD comment to heart (I have a little notepad started full of reminders >.>) and when I update (probably at the end of this year, I wanna wait for the "tru quad core" announcement hehe) I'll be referring to my little notes.
Originally I had bought an nVidia card, back when I was upgrading the gfx card, but I got one from a bad manufacturer I guess (actually, two in a row). After two faulty cards I decided to try ATI, and I like it, though I'm not loyal to either company, at all, really.
Is nVidia actually better suited for gaming than ATI? I'm really curious about this. I've seen polls and stuff, and some of my friends argue different sides, but I don't know enough about hardware to read and learn -yet-. Anyway, just wondering if one is actually better than the other.
Thanks again for the prompt response, and the linkage.
Pangy
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Pangy
Member
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16. February 2007 @ 18:42 |
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Spybot came up with some cookies, and it can't seem to get rid of them. I'm gonna look further into it in the morning, it'll be really cool if this leads to better gaming :o
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wetsparks
Member
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17. February 2007 @ 10:20 |
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Sometimes when Spybot cant remove something it asks to run at startup so that whatever is keeping it from removing the cookies will be less likely to stop their removal, so hopefully that will work for you. Download Ad-Aware, it might be able to get those cookies and a few others.
I dont know your level of computer expertise, so I'll add this in here, right click on the "c" drive in your My Computer folder and go to properties. It will show your drive usuage in a pie chart and right next to it is a disk clean up option. My neibor had some problems with his computer and he had 8,000,000 bytes of junk files slowing his computer down. So check that out and see if you can clear up some computing power that way.
In the properties folder you can also defragment your hard drive and check for errors. If your hard drive is really fragmented that would slow down your games and other programs.
And about the graphics card, its not that nVidea is lots better than ATI, they are both good quality, but I prefer nVidea because they havent done wrong by me. From a magazine that I like, they did some kind of test and found that nVidea was only slightly better than ATI, but that was some months ago.
Also, nVidea had a deal going with Dell and I got a good 256mb card for, I think, $120 because I got an XPS. I got my XPS the week before AMD and Dell made a deal to put AMD processors into their machines. >.< Kind of a downer but, it happens.
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Pangy
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17. February 2007 @ 11:50 |
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I defragment about once a week, maybe a little less, but I'll try the disk cleanup thing. On my old machine, my C drive was pretty full, so on this machine I've got everything installed on the other drive. My games, movie backups, software, everything is on F. Would it be better to have games on C (or, to have everything else on C, with games on F?)
When I was trying to upgrade my graphics card, I had a pretty crappy one. I got two nVidia cards that didn't work so I tried ATI and it worked, and it was such a huge jump in performance I never thought about the nVidias again, 'cause my problem was fixed hehe.
I think the nVidia card I had been trying to get was like... "6600GT". Do you know how that compares to my ATI X850 Pro?
And thanks again for all the help. My games seem to be the same still, but everything else runs a little nicer haha.
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wetsparks
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17. February 2007 @ 16:09 |
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Which drive they are on shouldn't matter. Still don't know why the games wouldn't play any better if the rest of computer is doing better. As for comparable cards, on the nVidia web page most of the 256mb cards are in the 7000 range except for the 6600 you mentioned. So take from that what you will. And sorry I can't help you more.
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