Computer Upgrades

I posted a thread about computer upgrades ages ago in the Help! Forum. But it appears that the game that I upgraded my computer for, which is coming out in a couple of weeks, requires much higher specs than I first thought. I want to be able to play this game on the hioghest settings, with a decent frame-rate.

The game is "Medieval 2: Total War".

So, I'm wondering if any of you have any advice for computer upgrades. Here's my current system:

Motherboard: ASUS A8V AGP Socket939
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Socket939 2.0Ghz
GPU: ATI Radeon 9600pro 256MB AGP
Memory: approx. 1.5GB DDR RAM (I'm not sure if my ram is DDR or DDR2)


This game is way more CPU-intensive than GPU-intensive, I've decided to splash out and purchase the following:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual-Core SocketAM2 2.6Ghz
GPU: GEForce 7600GT 256MB PCIe

The CPU is pretty high-end and should give me heaps of processing power, whereas the GPU is a good value graphics card which shouldn't cost me too muich, but should be able to allow me to crank up all the graphics settings to high. In this game, the CPU does Most of the work, so that's the main focus of the upgrade. I should also get a few years out of my CPU before it becomes outdated.

Because I'm changing to PCIe and SocketAM2, I'm going to need a new motherboard. But, I know absolutely NOTHING about motherboards. So, ANY advice here would be appreciated.

I will also probably need a new power supply (My current one is 300W) So what should I be looking for?

Also, what about RAM? I'm not sure if my current RAM is DDR or DDR2, how does this change what I should do about RAM?



Thank you in advance for ANY advice you guys can give me.

the following is from a UK computer parts distributor, but it'll give you manufacturers and model numbers that you can source yourself locally

http://www.dabs.com/productlist.aspx?&...electedId=11143

the table in the link above shows all motherboards stocked by my retailer that support AMD Socket AM2 processors, and have at least 1 PCI-Express x16 slot

in the "specification" tab for each model, you can view detailed lists of what each has got
you'll need to decide on a few things
for compatability with existing hardware, yet being future prove

SATA or ATA (for hard disks)
onboard sound (it's hard not to get onboard sound these days)
some of the boards have onboard video, will this suffice? (bearing in mind they all have slots for video cards, anyway, so in the future - when finances permit, you can bung a seperate graphics card in there)

again, check the "specification" tab for compatibale memory (ram)
but double check this on the manufactureres website, just to be sure

you will need generic RAM not proprietary (it's not special in anyway - laptops and other specialist computers sometimes need specialist proprietary memory for power / heat reasons - but this is a normal desktop, yeah?)

you will need between 2Gb & 4Gb of RAM

if this really is a processor intensive game, you don't want lack of ram preventing the CPU from performing properly

think "future proof", as well
if you go for 2Gb of ram - can you get this on 2 sticks, rather than 4?
this leaves 2 free for the future
that sort of thing

Ooh, Ps.

Ram can be confusing to choose between
you will see stuff like ECC and Non-ECC
and numbers all over the place

the ECC stands for Error-correcting code
personal opinion, but you don't need ECC memory
others may say different
but I'd recommend non-ecc ram

numbers:
basically, bigger numbers = faster
these days, the numbers tend to mean Mega-bits per second
so 6400 would be 6400 Mb/s = 6.4 Gb/s

hope this all helps :wink:

I'm seriously doubting you'll need a Dual Core 5000+ Athlon64 for a game.

The graphics card is nice though. I have a GeForce 7800GT myself, and I'm loving it :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TweaK

I'm seriously doubting you'll need a Dual Core 5000+ Athlon64 for a game.
[/b]

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Need? Heh, no. A dual-core 4400 would be all I NEED to run the game at high settings. But the 5000 is only a little bit more (well, a hundred, but meh) So I figures, screw it, let's get a top-of-the-line processor that will last me ages.

But this game is WAY more CPU intensive than most. Basically, you have 10,000+ troops fighting it out, all animated in 3d. There's simply millions of calculations the CPU has to make, so much work it has to do. This game could probably run on a pretty average graphics card as long as the CPU is powerful. It's not as GPU-intensive.

As for the comments on the video card: Thanks. I was considering going for the 7800GT actually, but it was slightly more expensive. I may still yet, it depends what I can get that's affordable.

WOOHOO!!!!

Well, I've just bought all the components today, except an LCD screen which I'll get next week, and am putting together my rig now. It looks SO awesome. I might be able to get a hold of a digital camera during the week so I'll take pictures. Once I've put it together tonight, I'll post specs. It's WAY more powerful than what I first was aiming at. :bigteeth: :fro:

Yee-haw!

Got my new computer fully running. (Dunno if anyone on the forums really cares, but meh, I'm posting this anyway)

SPECS:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2x2.4Ghz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 7900GS 256MB
RAM: 2GB DDR2-800 PC-6400
MOBO: ASUS P5B
Screen: 19" Phillips LCD
HDs: 250GB SATA, 200GB PATA/IDE, 80GB PATA/IDE
Pioneer DVD-R/CD-R
PSU: 550Watt Thermaltake, 12cm fan - VERY quiet.
Case: Thermaltake Soprano - glass sides, cool neon LEDs.
Mouse, keyboard, and my old stereo system's speakers using my stereo system as an amp. Pretty jury-rigged with bad sound, but I'll get a decent audio setup later.

Basically, I decided to go with the Intel Dual-core over the AMD, because from my research, it seemed Intel's higher-end dual-cores are WAY ahead of AMD, buck-for-buck. The GPU is good but nothing splendiferous. That's okay, I can always later get a new MOBO, buy another 7900GS, and run the two graphics cards in SLI.

What REALLY makes the difference is the processor. It's like a soldering iron carving through butter. So powerful. I'm going to test M2:TW on my rig now and see how it runs... *holds breath*

You do know, many games hardly take advantage of multi-threading, hence a dual-core is pretty much utterly worthless in today's gaming market, but given the fact they are cheap now, there's no reason to not have the second core.

The Intel Core 2 is THE processor to get right now if not just because it's technologically superior to all of AMD's dual-core line, but also because it can be overclocked to hell on stock cooling if you're into that thing... lots of bang for your buck.

I'm looking at the drives and thinking... "why?" Unless you took old PATA drives and put them in there, i can't see why you wouldn't take two decent size SATA drives and RAID0 them together for max speed.

The only thing AMD has better right now is memory speeds, and looking into their server line I would stick with them there.

Above, ECC vs. non-ECC was mentioned. ECC has no place on a desktop, additionally it is going to cost more and in the end might end up running slower. So stick to non-ECC and especially NEVER MIX! That is very bad to do, so don't ever do it.