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Jaraknarn

PC Tech questions

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hey guys im not fully PC tech savvy and im just wonderin if this Pc im looking at is up to scratch, iv been burned more times than i like to think about by poor graphics cards, poor speed and crappy reliability and i really wanna get it right this time, iv done a bit of research but im not any clearer.

I will mostly be using it for gaming and internet use and i usually play rts on it and save my fps and 3rd persons for my console.

most pressing of my concerns is whether 2GB of ram is enough nowadays and if it will need instantly upgrading?

the listing is here

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dell-745-2-8-GHZ-Dual-Core-2GB-500GB-XP-ATI-256MB-SFF_W0QQitemZ160406318358QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item2558f62d16#ht_3760wt_1016

all help is welcome, thanks guys

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With an ATI 2400 graphics card and a pentium D processor... no. How much do you have to spend?

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i find RTSs to be more computationally demanding than shooters nowadays, possibly because they aren't as cross platform-y and designed to run on 4 year old hardware (ie xbox).

The machine you linked to will disappoint. guaranteed. You can put together an awesome brand new gaming machine for $500~600 so if you can spare some more I'd totally recommend that route.

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i see, i think its become apparent how little i know wat im doin, ha, so that number does make a difference? wasn't sure if it was just an affectation.

well i was hopin to keep it under 300 pounds which is about 500 dollars, my friend has recently bought a base from currys for 230 with a 4gb graphics card, so that sounds promising, its a dual core 2ghz processor 3gb ram, ill try an get more spec as they come in, any specifics i should look for or avoid? x

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oh man, you live in UK. I have no idea how much things cost outside north america. you might end up spending a bit more. I don't really have a shopping list handy, but as a very rough guideline: get a fast CPU, a fast GPU, and don't cheap out on the power supply.

Any CPU and GPU that cost less than $100 aren't probably very good for gaming. Don't bother with fast motherboard/ram/harddrive because they won't affect your gaming in any significant way (and anybody who tells you otherwise isn't your friend). Amount of RAM isn't all that important either actually. 2GB is good enough for a budget gaming rig.

If you don't want to assemble your own PC then look for one with decent CPU (if you want to say safe... intel core2duo, around 3Ghz?) and a PCIE expansion slot so you can slap in a nice $100 video card in there like GTS250 or something. (though I'd probably spend a little more and get radeon hd 5770)

some helpful benchmarks:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-2009-high-quality-update-3/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-1920x1200,1702.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts-update-1/benchmarks,60.html

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i see, i think its become apparent how little i know wat im doin, ha, so that number does make a difference? wasn't sure if it was just an affectation.

well i was hopin to keep it under 300 pounds which is about 500 dollars, my friend has recently bought a base from currys for 230 with a 4gb graphics card, so that sounds promising, its a dual core 2ghz processor 3gb ram, ill try an get more spec as they come in, any specifics i should look for or avoid? x

With £300 you are going to struggle. If you could up it to £400 you could build the rig here with 2gb of ram. I managed to spec you for £370 including vat and shipping. Obviously you may not be comfortable building it yourself, though it is quite easy.

789.png?t=1268822904

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Question for everyone out there, I've got a pretty decent machine, 4 gigs of ram, 2.8 ghz dual core, 512 MB graphics card, but I run a low resolution on my cheapy monitor, just 1024x768, I can typically run any game on high or ultra right now because of this, if I upgrade to a nice 22 inch LCD that's high def and all of that, how much will my performance drop? What kind of power do you need to run modern games at that kind of resolution?

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You will prolly end up, depending on the game and it's demands, a range of low-medium to medium settings I think.

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Question for everyone out there, I've got a pretty decent machine, 4 gigs of ram, 2.8 ghz dual core, 512 MB graphics card, but I run a low resolution on my cheapy monitor, just 1024x768, I can typically run any game on high or ultra right now because of this, if I upgrade to a nice 22 inch LCD that's high def and all of that, how much will my performance drop? What kind of power do you need to run modern games at that kind of resolution?

Many things. Exactly what GPU do you have? 512mb is a small buffer and you may well see a reduction in framerate moving up the resolution scale. Different games work differently depending upon your hardware. For instance any given game may 'prefer' to work with nvidia over ATI, Intel over AMD etc. Some games are more dependent on CPU processing power than graphics grunt.

Your performance in any game will be relatively individual to your system. As far as upgrading goes (if you feel you need to), you should look to balance your system. If you have a fast GPU, your CPU may be throttling it's performance, so buying a faster GPU won't help and vice versa. If you post your computer specs, the games you want to play and at what resolution, we can find out the likely performance.

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I'd up the PSU for that rig Patters. But yeh - that will see you right for games.

I second that; recommended PSU for single 4850 is 450w (see link). No room for overclocking with that either.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-4000/hd-4850/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-4850-system-requirements.aspx

Could try this instead: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-037-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1098

Edit

Or stick with that PSU and go for this card which gives comparable performance:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-117-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1434

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With £300 you are going to struggle. If you could up it to £400 you could build the rig here with 2gb of ram. I managed to spec you for £370 including vat and shipping. Obviously you may not be comfortable building it yourself, though it is quite easy.

789.png?t=1268822904

thanks man this looks great i may end up just buying it in parts, but im gonna go check out the rig my mates just bought, install a few games on it and see how they run tomorrow night, from wat hes told me it seems to have a lot of multi tasking power, ill let u know how it runs, but i wouldn't mind maybe just buying some super high tech stuff just a piece at a time and then have a future proof finished product, we'll see, from wat i heard on the podblast star craft 2's not got that high spec needs does it?

just the one iv got at the moment struggles with rome total war, textures poppin in and out like it was a disco, and my old one couldn't do even that.

any sweet rts' i should know about?

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The thumbs crew and a lot of us enjoy Dawn of War 2, it's kind of like playing an RTS without having to worry about building a base while attacking. Almost like playing Diablo with 5 characters at once in a way, fun game.

There's also this little game called starcraft 2, if your ego doesn't mind being brutalized by Korean schoolchildren.

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thanks man this looks great i may end up just buying it in parts, but im gonna go check out the rig my mates just bought, install a few games on it and see how they run tomorrow night, from wat hes told me it seems to have a lot of multi tasking power, ill let u know how it runs, but i wouldn't mind maybe just buying some super high tech stuff just a piece at a time and then have a future proof finished product, we'll see, from wat i heard on the podblast star craft 2's not got that high spec needs does it?

just the one iv got at the moment struggles with rome total war, textures poppin in and out like it was a disco, and my old one couldn't do even that.

any sweet rts' i should know about?

Go for the Power supply armchair suggested, The ModXstream is good and allows for upgrades to graphics to be done without too much hassle. It costs more but is worth it.

As for good RTS's DoW II, Empire Total War, Civ 4, Company of Heroes are all good.

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The R.U.S.E. beta is avail for another 14 days or so on steam. It's quite good, and don't just trust me... Bridger of Tales of Heroes fame has started Tales of Deception!

Get stuck in.

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It's not worth buying in parts because there isn't a part that you could live without... and by the time you buy the final piece, everything else is cheaper than it was before.

My suggestions would be to wait until you have some more cash and get something in the US$750 range, which would probably cost more in the UK (after conversion). A VERY good guideline would be to read tomshardware value gaming rig building articles:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/value-gaming-pc,2578.html

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