PC Help

[iBilo]

I looked through stuff again and decided to change some things, I chose this: Anything worth changing or could be cheaper etc?

 

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k103/SodaChris/2645d848.png

[macd79]

buy a regular 512mb 4850 should knock £20 off

[iBilo]

What is the difference between graphic card sizes btw? I've never known :S

[Iced_Bullet]

You mean Video RAM? (Well I kind of answered it now :p)

[iBilo]

So its just RAM in a Graphics card basically? :P

[Iced_Bullet]

To my understanding, yes.

[kalniel]

Unless you have a retail copy of XP to put on there in the first place then you want to make sure to get Vista proper, not the upgrade package.

 

Video card ram is a bit like system ram, but is used to hold all the texture information etc. 512mb is loads and more than enough for most purposes - especially on an ATI card which is more efficient.

[iBilo]

Is this better?

 

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k103/SodaChris/719e4b26.png

[macd79]

yeah looks good you could save a bit of cash and improve performance by buying this Hard Disk http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124734 its not alot cheaper but should be faster anything above 512mb will only make a difference at high resolutions like 1920x1200

[The Queen]

I would avoid WD as their customer support is non-existant so if anything does go wrong with it then your pretty much screwed.

 

Btw, why do you want Vista 64 and not 32? 64 is meant to be worse or maybe I have heard wrong?

[macd79]

64 bit allows you access more ram but the driver support in the past has been rubbish but microsoft seem keen to keep their drivers upto date recently

[Nodz86]

I have heard that TSS but ive had no problems. Also if he is getting 4GB RAM then he'll only be able to utilise 3gb of it as thats all it'll recognise

[kalniel]

Is this better?

 

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k103/SodaChris/719e4b26.png

 

Yup, nearly there :) You can save another £10 by getting this otherwise identical graphics card:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146705

 

You'll be fine whatever hard drive you choose - they're all pretty good. Maxtor are Seagate's budget brand these days, but that's OK. Western Digital and Samsung are also very good.

 

Don't forget DVD player if you don't already have one.

 

I have heard that TSS but ive had no problems. Also if he is getting 4GB RAM then he'll only be able to utilise 3gb of it as thats all it'll recognise

Yeah, for that reason 64bit is a good choice. Driver support is practically there - it's mostly old games that have the problem these days. 64bit is a bit more annoying to work with in terms of more stringent driver checking etc. but the performance and stability are better than 32bit.

[KoenigseggBG]

Can I ask something. I`m going to buy a new comp soon. I`m thinking of Dual-Core processor (will decide which one later) and the RAM will be Kingston (3 GB). The problem is that I can`t decide which graphic card to buy. I`m sure it`ll be nVidia and I think 256 MB. So if you have any suggestions on some good cards, I`ll be very grateful. Oh, and I`ll be playing :

 

TDU, NFS : Most Wanted/Carbon, Prince of Persia : The Two Thrones, GTA : SA, The Sims 2, Sacred 2 : FA, FIFA 2009, Battlefield 2142, Juiced 2...and others...;)

[kalniel]

Can I ask something. I`m going to buy a new comp soon. I`m thinking of Dual-Core processor (will decide which one later) and the RAM will be Kingston (3 GB). The problem is that I can`t decide which graphic card to buy. I`m sure it`ll be nVidia and I think 256 MB. So if you have any suggestions on some good cards, I`ll be very grateful. Oh, and I`ll be playing :

 

TDU, NFS : Most Wanted/Carbon, Prince of Persia : The Two Thrones, GTA : SA, The Sims 2, Sacred 2 : FA, FIFA 2009, Battlefield 2142, Juiced 2...and others...;)

Probably best to start your own thread (though a mod can split these posts off if they want to). Why do you need an nVidia card specifically? There's nothing wrong with them, but you could be cutting your choices down if you mandate that.

 

Performance wise you'll be more than happy with anything from the 4830 upwards by ATI, or the 8800GT upwards by nVidia. Best deal I could find was this 9800GT at £92 :

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB-Palit-9800-GT-PCI-E-20-(x16)-1800MHz-GDDR3-GPU-600MHz-112-Cores-2xDL-DVI-I-HDTV

 

Though you could get away with a slower card certainly (what resolution are you playing at?). In some ways your needs are best served by the last generation of mid-high ranged cards, which are hard to find new - I would honestly be tempted to grab a bargain 8800GT from ebay if I were you.

[iBilo]

Btw, why do you want Vista 64 and not 32? 64 is meant to be worse or maybe I have heard wrong?

 

I have heard that TSS but ive had no problems. Also if he is getting 4GB RAM then he'll only be able to utilise 3gb of it as thats all it'll recognise

 

That's basically why and also because I've never tried 4GB RAM and 64bit before.

[KoenigseggBG]

Probably best to start your own thread (though a mod can split these posts off if they want to). Why do you need an nVidia card specifically? There's nothing wrong with them, but you could be cutting your choices down if you mandate that.

 

Performance wise you'll be more than happy with anything from the 4830 upwards by ATI, or the 8800GT upwards by nVidia. Best deal I could find was this 9800GT at £92 :

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB-Palit-9800-GT-PCI-E-20-(x16)-1800MHz-GDDR3-GPU-600MHz-112-Cores-2xDL-DVI-I-HDTV

 

Though you could get away with a slower card certainly (what resolution are you playing at?). In some ways your needs are best served by the last generation of mid-high ranged cards, which are hard to find new - I would honestly be tempted to grab a bargain 8800GT from ebay if I were you.

 

1) I prefer them, because my previous 2 cars were nVidia and I`m very happy with the results.:)

2) Thanks for the link. I also though of 512 MB but though they were expensive but actually that`s a very good deal.

3) I`m currently playing at 800x600 in most of the games.

4) I think I`ll might get 8800 GT, thank you.

 

No need to split posts, as I now got the answer...;)

[iBilo]

In future can you make your own topic for it please? :)

[KoenigseggBG]

In future can you make your own topic for it please? :)

Sorry, I just saw the thread is 4 pages and thought everyone can post in it...:o

[Guest RB26DETT]

which leads to me concluding you didn't read the first post as it's his thread. :p

[iBilo]

I have another question..

 

I'm tempted to get the Intel Q6600 Quad, I've heard they're can be overclocked to 3GHz+ and they're very good performance wise, and they can be overclocked more with the fan that Iced sent me the link to. Is it worth the extra £30 (including the fan)?

[macd79]

yeah you will probably need a 3rd party HSF if you plan on overclocking

 

but the E8400 is generally faster overall than the Q6600 as it is based on the penryn architecture

 

you will only see the advantage of the extra two cores in heavily mutithreaded apps like video encoding etc.

[iBilo]

I know I'm pestering with questions but this should be my last one, does my RAM work with my mobo?

[macd79]

yes it will as it is DDR2 and so is the motherboard

[Nodz86]

Just make sure the RAM has the right amount of pins as the mobo socket for it and that the the mobo is compatable with that type of RAM (by that I think I mean speed the Ghz bit)