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Official "I need a new PC!!" 2009 Edition

B

Bebpo

Banned
Here are my specs from the Crysis Warhead Benchmark (note I don't have CW, so I can't benchmark it)

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 4000+ @ 2410 Mhz
CPU ID: x86 Family 15 Model 39 Stepping 1
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3
Physical memory: 2.00 GB
Display adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB
Video Processor: GeForce 7600 GT
Driver version: GeForce Release 084 (084.21) (20060309222900.000000-000)
Motherboard: ASUS A8N-VM CSM Rev 1.xx

I would like to finally play Crysis, Crysis Warhead, and maybe Last Remnant if I don't get around to playing the X360 version before the PC release. I don't want to spend money right now with the economy the way it is and such. I am not a hardcore PC gamer. I play maybe 1 non-adventure game PC title a year.

If I just spend ~$150-200 and upgrade my Geforce to an 8800 or 9800, will that be sufficient? Or is the rest of my setup too weak and will bottleneck the cards?

Worth noting I only need games to run well (preferrably 60fps with all effects/settings on high) at 1152x648 because that is the resolution of my CRT HDTV that I output to. My PC monitor is a crappy 10 year old LCD and I have no room to get a new one, so I'll stick to playing games on my HDTV.
 
F

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
Ok, what gives:

I just got a P5Q Asus mobo, made some stability test, my 12V stayed at 11.85V even when CPU and GPU were under 100% load. And my CPU never went over 40°C so I still have a lot of headway.

But... for the life of it, I can't oc my E4400 one bit. FSB 1000Mhz, DDR-2 @800, CPU@2.5Ghz,1.4Vcore... no go.
I get to windows, it starts loading, then tossed me a bluescreen for a fraction of a second and then reboots.

Could it be the RAM, though it works fine with normal 800MHz and I oced it in a way that it would at precisely 800MHz again o_O

I'm at a loss, there should be enough power, enough everything... gah -.-
 
L

Labombadog

Member
FoxSpirit said:
Ok, what gives:

I just got a P5Q Asus mobo, made some stability test, my 12V stayed at 11.85V even when CPU and GPU were under 100% load. And my CPU never went over 40°C so I still have a lot of headway.

But... for the life of it, I can't oc my E4400 one bit. FSB 1000Mhz, DDR-2 @800, CPU@2.5Ghz,1.4Vcore... no go.
I get to windows, it starts loading, then tossed me a bluescreen for a fraction of a second and then reboots.

Could it be the RAM, though it works fine with normal 800MHz and I oced it in a way that it would at precisely 800MHz again o_O

I'm at a loss, there should be enough power, enough everything... gah -.-
Click to expand...
First off, did you reformat your pc after installing your new mobo?

Can you state your PC specs?
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Bebpo said:
Here are my specs from the Crysis Warhead Benchmark (note I don't have CW, so I can't benchmark it)

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 4000+ @ 2410 Mhz
CPU ID: x86 Family 15 Model 39 Stepping 1
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3
Physical memory: 2.00 GB
Display adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB
Video Processor: GeForce 7600 GT
Driver version: GeForce Release 084 (084.21) (20060309222900.000000-000)
Motherboard: ASUS A8N-VM CSM Rev 1.xx

I would like to finally play Crysis, Crysis Warhead, and maybe Last Remnant if I don't get around to playing the X360 version before the PC release. I don't want to spend money right now with the economy the way it is and such. I am not a hardcore PC gamer. I play maybe 1 non-adventure game PC title a year.

If I just spend ~$150-200 and upgrade my Geforce to an 8800 or 9800, will that be sufficient? Or is the rest of my setup too weak and will bottleneck the cards?

Worth noting I only need games to run well (preferrably 60fps with all effects/settings on high) at 1152x648 because that is the resolution of my CRT HDTV that I output to. My PC monitor is a crappy 10 year old LCD and I have no room to get a new one, so I'll stick to playing games on my HDTV.
Click to expand...
Upgrade to a 4850 which is faster than a 9800. That will give you the most performance increase for the price, and it is around $150 too. For Crysis Warhead you will also be CPU bound. Upgrading for Crysis is a tall order. If you want to, you could try overclocking your processor, but unless you can get it to OC beyond 3.0GHz, I doubt it will help.
FoxSpirit said:
Ok, what gives:

I just got a P5Q Asus mobo, made some stability test, my 12V stayed at 11.85V even when CPU and GPU were under 100% load. And my CPU never went over 40°C so I still have a lot of headway.

But... for the life of it, I can't oc my E4400 one bit. FSB 1000Mhz, DDR-2 @800, CPU@2.5Ghz,1.4Vcore... no go.
I get to windows, it starts loading, then tossed me a bluescreen for a fraction of a second and then reboots.

Could it be the RAM, though it works fine with normal 800MHz and I oced it in a way that it would at precisely 800MHz again o_O

I'm at a loss, there should be enough power, enough everything... gah -.-
Click to expand...
Maybe its your motherboard southbridge chip, or you need to raise the volatge. Or in the worst case you just got that 1 chip out of 8 that won't OC.
By how many MHz are you trying to raise the clock at a time?
 
B

Bebpo

Banned
godhandiscen said:
Upgrade to a 4850 which is faster than a 9800. That will give you the most performance increase for the price, and it is around $150 too. For Crysis Warhead you will also be CPU bound. Upgrading for Crysis is a tall order. If you want to, you could try overclocking your processor, but unless you can get it to OC beyond 3.0GHz, I doubt it will help.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Looking at the Crysis benchmarks with those cards and my CPU bound setup, I think I might just wait a year and do a full PC upgrade in 2010. I already missed the party for Crysis, so a year won't make much of a difference and as I said I don't really play PC games.

It looks like if I did upgrade I could probably play Crysis with most settings on high at 2x AA ~30fps with dips. Which is playable, but I'd rather wait and experience it at 60fps later on when I can afford a better setup.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Bebpo said:
Thanks. Looking at the Crysis benchmarks with those cards and my CPU bound setup, I think I might just wait a year and do a full PC upgrade in 2010. I already missed the party for Crysis, so a year won't make much of a difference and as I said I don't really play PC games.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that is a good idea. Also, with a new built next year you will be able to max other games such a SC2 or Diablo 3.
 
F

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
godhandiscen said:
Upgrade to a 4850 which is faster than a 9800. That will give you the most performance increase for the price, and it is around $150 too. For Crysis Warhead you will also be CPU bound. Upgrading for Crysis is a tall order. If you want to, you could try overclocking your processor, but unless you can get it to OC beyond 3.0GHz, I doubt it will help.

Maybe its your motherboard southbridge chip, or you need to raise the volatge. Or in the worst case you just got that 1 chip out of 8 that won't OC.
By how many MHz are you trying to raise the clock at a time?
Click to expand...

Specs:
E4400 with Zalman cooler
Asus P5Q mobo
Samsung E6400 ram (yeah, they are not specifically on the comp list)

And the least I tried was 220x10 with the RAMs running at 880, I think.
 
B

brain_stew

Member
FoxSpirit said:
Specs:
E4400 with Zalman cooler
Asus P5Q mobo
Samsung E6400 ram (yeah, they are not specifically on the comp list)

And the least I tried was 220x10 with the RAMs running at 880, I think.
Click to expand...

Try upping your MCH and northbridge voltages by one notch. Set your RAM multiplier to its lowest setting at first (labeled either 1:1 or 2.0) with slack timings so that you can take that out of the equation. Only look into OCing your RAM once you've got a stable CPU overclock. Use OCCT CPU test, or Prime/Orthos small FFTs to test your CPU overclock.

Bitq I'd just stay with the 4850 and put the extra cash aside for future upgrades personally. At 1440x900 you're not going to benefit from the extra bandwith and RAM of the 4870, so your bump is only going to be affected by the small clockspeed bump between the two. The significantly higher cost just doesn't justify the difference you'd experience at your res. imo.
 
B

bitq

Member
Can anyone find a vga cooler that will fit the Visiontek Radeon HD 4870? All the compatibility lists for these things are out of date...
 
B

brain_stew

Member
Hazaro said:
Accelero S1 v2

Hands down the most amazingly cheap and kickass performance GPU cooler ever.
:D
Click to expand...

Be sure to strap a low RPM 120mm fan (I'd recommend Yate Loons) to the back of it as well. You may be better off buying a card with preinstalled custom cooling. There's plenty on Newegg with pretty nice cooling setups for quite cheap.

This 1GB MSI quad heatpipe version looks a great buy for $205 after rebate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127397


Crazymoogle said:
Hmm. GTX285 or GTX260 Core 216? What's the better idea for 1680x1050 gaming...
Click to expand...

Core 216 in terms of price: performance ratio. Its hard to justify the extra cost and power requirements of the 280 for its inflated price.

Personally I'd avoid both though. The 4870 1GB is cheaper than both and performs on par with the Core 216.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Crazymoogle said:
Hmm. GTX285 or GTX260 Core 216? What's the better idea for 1680x1050 gaming...
Click to expand...
GTS285 of course. You won't have to even think about upgrading for 2 years, and it will give you crazy framerates in all games. The Core 216 will also give you high settings, but for some games you will have to accept to only have 30fps.

Also, I would recommend the 4870 1GB. It has the performance of the GTX260 and its cheaper at some places.
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
brain_stew said:
Core 216 in terms of price: performance ratio. Its hard to justify the extra cost and power requirements of the 280 for its inflated price.

Personally I'd avoid both though. The 4870 1GB is cheaper than both and performs on par with the Core 216.
Click to expand...

I need something with dual six-pin and preferrably something that's not running really loud/hot, though. Sigh. Is there a Core216 with native HDMI out?

EDIT: I suppose I should also say that while my board is Quadro SLI compatible, it's likely not GeForce SLI compatible (or if it is, Nvidia sure is hell doesn't want to say so.) I'll be running a 22" panel for the lifetime of the system, though. (Q6700)
 
B

brain_stew

Member
Crazymoogle said:
I need something with dual six-pin and preferrably something that's not running really loud/hot, though. Sigh. Is there a Core216 with native HDMI out?

EDIT: I suppose I should also say that while my board is Quadro SLI compatible, it's likely not GeForce SLI compatible (or if it is, Nvidia sure is hell doesn't want to say so.) I'll be running a 22" panel for the lifetime of the system, though. (Q6700)
Click to expand...

The 4870 1GB is in the same sort of power spectrum. pretty sure it uses LESS power than a 285, either way, power concerns are not a reason to choose between these three cards. They're all in the same sort of bracket.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127400

For $205 you really can't beat the performance you're getting there, and since its got 4 heatpipes, it should run pretty damn cool as well. You're talking about an extra $150 for a GTX 285, and there's no way you're getting anywhere close to twice the performance despite the price bump being nearly that large.

Edit: ABout HDMI. DVI and HDMI are electronically exact replicas, having one or the other is no reason to choose between certain cards.
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
brain_stew said:
The 4870 1GB is in the same sort of power spectrum. pretty sure it uses LESS power than a 285, either way, power concerns are not a reason to choose between these three cards. They're all in the same sort of bracket.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127400

For $205 you really can't beat the performance you're getting there, and since its got 4 heatpipes, it should run pretty damn cool as well. You're talking about an extra $150 for a GTX 285, and there's no way you're getting anywhere close to twice the performance despite the price bump being nearly that large.

Edit: ABout HDMI. DVI and HDMI are electronically exact replicas, having one or the other is no reason to choose between certain cards.
Click to expand...

The price doesn't really impact me because I would have to order from the Canadian shop, but yeah, seems to be priced okay. The lack of side-casing is a bit of a concern for my setup though. I'm not really concerned about power-consumption, but heat (the card will be pointing upright) and noise (Previous diamond/sapphire/msi cards I've had get ridiculously loud at spinup, like they forgot to use adjustable fan hardware.)

I'm also not entirely sure if I should be running a Radeon in a board with Nvidia frills (and likely Nvidia onboard video), but that's probably no big deal. Likewise, HDMI is more of a casual interest; my previous board does absolutely nothing on DVI-HDMI-TV links, so I was wondering how a native setup might do.

EDIT: To continue my wandering stream of thought, it seems as though the 260 comes pretty much in the same price bracket. The 285 is clearly more expensive, but Far Cry 2 bundles are tempting since I don't own that yet.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Hazaro said:
I have a GTX 260 at 1680x1050.
The only game I have to take at 30FPS is Crysis Vanilla.
Click to expand...
I was talking about the future. Not right now. What is your processor speed though?
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
Still would rather not get burned with a Radeon part again, but just in case I would, are the Radeon parts still clearly better for IQ? Or encoding? Any issues there or has the playing field leveled?
 
N

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
Okay, just did a new built using old and new parts. PC is not turning on. What is the bare minimum I need to connect to get it to turn on? I'm thinking I did those colored wires wrong, could that be it?
 
Y

Ysiadmihi

Banned
Teetris said:
Okay, just did a new built using old and new parts. PC is not turning on. What is the bare minimum I need to connect to get it to turn on? I'm thinking I did those colored wires wrong, could that be it?
Click to expand...

For the PC to start you have to have the CPU, RAM, motherboard and some sort of video. Make sure you connected the power for the motherboard, CPU, PCI-e card (if needed) and check to make sure you properly connected your case's power button to the motherboard.
 
A

Alcander

Member
Hey guys, I'm sure this has been asked many times, but I just bought a new computer (Core 2 Quad Q6600, 3G RAM) but I decided to buy the graphics card separate to try to save some cash. What would be the best card I could get (bang for the buck style) right now? I saw one posted above, the Sapphire... would that be a good option? I basically want to be able to play most games on the market right now. Crysis would be cool, but is not a must. I've been out of the hardware scene for so long that I have no idea now :x
 
Z

zoku88

Member
Alcander said:
Hey guys, I'm sure this has been asked many times, but I just bought a new computer (Core 2 Quad Q6600, 3G RAM) but I decided to buy the graphics card separate to try to save some cash. What would be the best card I could get (bang for the buck style) right now? I saw one posted above, the Sapphire... would that be a good option? I basically want to be able to play most games on the market right now. Crysis would be cool, but is not a must. I've been out of the hardware scene for so long that I have no idea now :x
Click to expand...
Do you know anything about your PSU?
 
N

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
Ysiadmihi said:
For the PC to start you have to have the CPU, RAM, motherboard and some sort of video. Make sure you connected the power for the motherboard, CPU, PCI-e card (if needed) and check to make sure you properly connected your case's power button to the motherboard.
Click to expand...
The power sw wire needs to be on powerbtn and gnd pins right? Does it matter if the cable is turned?

Alcander said:
Hey guys, I'm sure this has been asked many times, but I just bought a new computer (Core 2 Quad Q6600, 3G RAM) but I decided to buy the graphics card separate to try to save some cash. What would be the best card I could get (bang for the buck style) right now? I saw one posted above, the Sapphire... would that be a good option? I basically want to be able to play most games on the market right now. Crysis would be cool, but is not a must. I've been out of the hardware scene for so long that I have no idea now :x
Click to expand...
4830 if you want the best bang buck, 4850 if you got more money to spend.
 
Z

Zyzyxxz

Member
godhandiscen said:
I was talking about the future. Not right now. What is your processor speed though?
Click to expand...

PC gaming seems to hit a graphics dead end now.

With the fact that CPU's are insanely fast and we can run Crysis well on many cards.

I don't really see PC gaming going too far ahead since these days it seems many PC games are just ports from the consoles.
 
H

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
godhandiscen said:
I was talking about the future. Not right now. What is your processor speed though?
Click to expand...
E7200 @ 3.8Ghz

Nothing is going to happen for a while. We haven't seen any bullshots :lol
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Hazaro said:
E7200 @ 3.8Ghz

Nothing is going to happen for a while. We haven't seen any bullshots :lol
Click to expand...
Thats impressive.
Zyzyxxz said:
PC gaming seems to hit a graphics dead end now.

With the fact that CPU's are insanely fast and we can run Crysis well on many cards.

I don't really see PC gaming going too far ahead since these days it seems many PC games are just ports from the consoles.
Click to expand...
I want to believe in this, but then some fuckhead developer like Crytek changes this trend. Rage, Wolfenstein and Borderlands are the games for whic I upgraded.
 
N

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
Zyzyxxz said:
PC gaming seems to hit a graphics dead end now.

With the fact that CPU's are insanely fast and we can run Crysis well on many cards.

I don't really see PC gaming going too far ahead since these days it seems many PC games are just ports from the consoles.
Click to expand...
2009 - year of the strategy :D
 
N

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
Ysiadmihi said:
So you have the power button plugged into the top right pins of Panel 1 and it still won't power on?
Click to expand...
Yeah, the power sw wire is on the powerbtn and gnd pins which are on the top right of panel 1.

Though I got a little further. Led on the case turns on when I click the power button, that's the only thing though.
 
Y

Ysiadmihi

Banned
Teetris said:
Yeah, the power sw wire is on the powerbtn and gnd pins which are on the top right of panel 1.

Though I got a little further. Led on the case turns on when I click the power button, that's the only thing though.
Click to expand...

It's possible that one of the components is dead, though usually the fans will still turn on if that's the case. Try removing the RAM then video card and seeing if it boots any further.
 
N

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
Ysiadmihi said:
It's possible that one of the components is dead, though usually the fans will still turn on if that's the case. Try removing the RAM then video card and seeing if it boots any further.
Click to expand...
Did that, now the led goes on for a second then goes right off.

Could it be CPU?
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Question. Isn't the Nvidia control panel supposed to have a an icon in the right corner of the taskbar at all times? I think my Nvidia drivers have not installed successfully and this is why I cannot force AA for shit in games that don't support it. Nvidia users, does the Nvidia control panel launches at startup?
 
R

RattleHead_

Member
godhandiscen said:
Nvidia users, does the Nvidia control panel launches at startup?
Click to expand...
Not for me, I have to right click the desktop to access it.

Edit: Checked startup manager in TuneUp Utilities and there is one there for the taskbar icon but for whatever reason it never starts up.
 
H

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
godhandiscen said:
Question. Isn't the Nvidia control panel supposed to have a an icon in the right corner of the taskbar at all times? I think my Nvidia drivers have not installed successfully and this is why I cannot force AA for shit in games that don't support it. Nvidia users, does the Nvidia control panel launches at startup?
Click to expand...
I have it. I might of done something with my wallpapers though.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
RattleHead_ said:
Not for me, I have to right click the desktop to access it.

Edit: Checked startup manager in TuneUp Utilities and there is one there for the taskbar icon but for whatever reason it never starts up.
Click to expand...

Can you force AA on games that don't support it?

Hazaro said:
I have it. I might of done something with my wallpapers though.
Click to expand...
You mean you clicked on the desktop?
 
H

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
godhandiscen said:
Can you force AA on games that don't support it?


You mean you clicked on the desktop?
Click to expand...
It's always in my taskbar on start-up.

I've never run into any games that don't let me use AA or AF ingame.
I know it kinda works on UT3 (Or whatever some game was that didn't support it)
 
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