Gaming PC suggestions

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

My PC is pretty crap atm, but I have just downloaded Steam and plan to game on it. Nothing like crysis on full settings but things like TF2, L4D and Fallout 3 etc.

My current specs:
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.20Ghz
RAM: 1GB
HDD: 70GB (Low I know, and I've used most of it up.)
Graph card: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT
(Running XP Media Centre Edition)

Now I need advice on what to upgrade and if I need to upgrade it, what to.

Sorry if you get loads of these threads, but I really am clueless when it comes to certain PC aspects..
Thanks in advance.

 

[crimsondynamics]

If you plan on running Source engine games, you're good to go. I might add an extra 1GB of RAM, though - it's cheap as chips nowadays and games can use it.

Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead are Source engine games, so I wouldn't worry too much if I were you.

At the end of the day, you are the best judge of what is acceptable performance. Install Steam, install the game, and run it. Source engine games will give you recommended settings based on your system and screen resolution - see if you can live with those settings first. I'm betting you will be fine with what you have - and an extra 1GB of RAM.

Don't upgrade for the sake of upgrading - you might not need to for those games.

 

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

Thanks for the advice
I really am useless.

 

[Nimbus]

An Intel e8400 is great value for money in the CPU department.

You are sorted in the graphics card department; no need to upgrade there.

Triple your RAM. Do it. Do it now. Actually, Quadruple it.

 

[crimsondynamics]

Thanks for the advice
I really am useless.

No worries. And it's not uselessness, you just don't know about the subject. (We can't know everything!)

Actually, you can answer your own question: I don't know if you are aware of this, but there is a recommended system settings for each game sold in Steam. Take Team Fortress 2, for instance. On the bottom of the page within the Steam client, you have the System Requirements:

Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

You might want to clean out your hard drive though: if you're like me, you'll buy a couple of games in one go and it's startling how quickly your hard drive can fill up!

An Intel e8400 is great value for money in the CPU department.

You are sorted in the graphics card department; no need to upgrade there.

Triple your RAM. Do it. Do it now. Actually, Quadruple it.

Your operating system is only 32 bits, and can only efficiently access 4GB of RAM in total - that includes your graphics card.

Since your system is most likely using DDR RAM, you want to run your ram in identical pairs to benefit from the Double Data Rate (hence, DDR). Running 2x2GB RAM is a waste, since you have to factor in the 256 or 512 MB of RAM from your graphics card, and you will be paying more to use less than what you paid for.

For 32-bit operating systems, 2GB of system RAM is the sweet spot.

 

[ianuam]

Upgrade the ram to 2gb and (unless you have high grade fast ram at the moment) you'll see a marked improvement. It's super cheap, just make sure you're getting the right sort before you go out and buy. You'll notice the difference immediately. Apart from that, it's a decent rig.

 

[Aries_Split]

Your soooo lucky your pentium is 3.2 ghz.
A little less and you'd have to get a new CPU to be serious about source.


Not much to add as crimsondynamics pretty much has you covered.

Good luck and we'll see you on steam.

 

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

Looks like Santa will be carrying a new RAM upgrade in his sack this year.

(I find it funny how firefox spellcheck insisted that I capitalise Santa)

 

[Dele]

Thanks for the advice
I really am useless.

No worries. And it's not uselessness, you just don't know about the subject. (We can't know everything!)

Actually, you can answer your own question: I don't know if you are aware of this, but there is a recommended system settings for each game sold in Steam. Take Team Fortress 2, for instance. On the bottom of the page within the Steam client, you have the System Requirements:

Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

You might want to clean out your hard drive though: if you're like me, you'll buy a couple of games in one go and it's startling how quickly your hard drive can fill up!

Thanks to crappy rate system TF2 actually requires constant 60-70 fps to be enjoyable on big servers when playing classes like scout or sniper.

 

[Aries_Split]

Thanks for the advice
I really am useless.

No worries. And it's not uselessness, you just don't know about the subject. (We can't know everything!)

Actually, you can answer your own question: I don't know if you are aware of this, but there is a recommended system settings for each game sold in Steam. Take Team Fortress 2, for instance. On the bottom of the page within the Steam client, you have the System Requirements:

Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

You might want to clean out your hard drive though: if you're like me, you'll buy a couple of games in one go and it's startling how quickly your hard drive can fill up!

Thanks to crappy rate system TF2 actually requires constant 60-70 fps to be enjoyable on big servers when playing classes like scout or sniper.

Umm...No.

The brain can't even detect FPS beyond like 55.

 

[spazzattack]

You need more RAM and more Hard Drive. The graphics card looks good enough for high level setting on Steam games.

 

[curlycrouton]

You've actually got a pretty good rig, you might want to get a new CPU, say an Intel Core 2 Duo E7200?

And an extra gigabyte or two of RAM, GeIL Black Dragon maybe? Or perhaps OCZ PC2-6400C.

And maybe think about peripherals, perhaps a Logitech G5 mouse, and a new monitor like a Hann-G HW191D-SB-F?

Oh yes, of course, you need a new HDD, you should definitely get a Samsung Spinpoint F1 500Gb.

 

[Virgil]

My current specs:
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.20Ghz
RAM: 1GB
HDD: 70GB (Low I know, and I've used most of it up.)
Graph card: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT

The biggest, and most easily fixable, weakness in your system is the amount of RAM you have. You should definitely bump up to 2-3gb if you can. Make sure you get the right kind though - if you still have the original documentation it should have the type and speed of RAM you need, and you'll want to open up the PC to find out how many slots the motherboard has.

Your second biggest weakness is the processor, which unfortunately is not an easy fix. Any of the more recent Core 2 processors is multiple times faster than a P4, even a 3.2ghz hyperthreaded one. That would require a new motherboard and RAM as well. Unless you're familiar with mucking about with the interior of your PC though, you'd probably be better off getting a new PC before undertaking this, given how cheap you can get an off-the-shelf Dell with decent specs.

 

[Zer_]

Thanks for the advice
I really am useless.

No worries. And it's not uselessness, you just don't know about the subject. (We can't know everything!)

Actually, you can answer your own question: I don't know if you are aware of this, but there is a recommended system settings for each game sold in Steam. Take Team Fortress 2, for instance. On the bottom of the page within the Steam client, you have the System Requirements:

Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

You might want to clean out your hard drive though: if you're like me, you'll buy a couple of games in one go and it's startling how quickly your hard drive can fill up!

Thanks to crappy rate system TF2 actually requires constant 60-70 fps to be enjoyable on big servers when playing classes like scout or sniper.

Umm...No.

The brain can't even detect FPS beyond like 55.

Actually that's just conjecture since our brain and eyes don't function in Frames Per Second. Scientists aren't entirely sure how fast we can see. They have made rough estimates but they never held up since it depends on the situation.

http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_can_humans_see.htm

Now in Dele's case he is right. Some games are very FPS dependent, especially the faster games. I'm not sure how TF2 works, but in Quake III Arena, the game makes calculations per frame per second. It's a commonly known fact that in Quake III Arena you will jump slightly higher when setting your maximum FPS at 125. In later versions of the game this was alleviated by introducing the "pmove_fixed" command so users don't need to have 125 FPS to gain its benefits.

Thing is though, Quake III even now still works on a per frame basis, that means that your network settings are affected by it. A constant 60 FPS in most Quake-based engine games is recommended for both network and local game performance.

Our eyes may not always be able to see the difference, but many people can feel the difference.

 

[Aries_Split]

A new mobo virgil? He might not have to if he has a LGA775 socket in his motherboard.


In which case he can upgrade to a new dual core without much hassle.


^To the FPS comment, as a high end PC Gamer I will be the first to tell you that there is a big difference between 60 frames per second and 80 frames per second, but I will also tell you you can definitely enjoy a game at 45 Frames per second.

 

[crimsondynamics]

To stop this spread of a falsehood...

4gb RAM is certainly not useless on 32bit. You will lose some due to the addressing limitations. You'll lose some to devices using the bus, but for some reason some people seem to think 512mb GPU = 512mb lost from System RAM potential. That is not true. If you had onboard graphics using the system memory, that is true because there is no seperate card. Or anything else. But the graphics memory doesn't not drop from the main pool with cards.

Just so you know, i didn't lose memory space when i put a second 8800GTS 320mb in, going from 16x to 2x 8x PCI-E (address space used by cards is the same). It stayed the same.

I never said it was useless. I said you won't utilize all the 4GB of RAM (because the operating system needs to account for the video RAM regardless of whether or not it comes from a graphics card or from shared RAM; hence the "waste").

I can only surmise from what I have read on some websites:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/pae/paemem.mspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_xp
http://www.overclock.net/operating-systems/362784-windows-xp-4gb-ram-video-card.html

This is exactly what you are stating: that you lose some devices via bus and addressing limitations.

In other words, 32-bit Windows takes other memory using devices into play (audio, for example) in addition to the video card.

You can see the RAM in Vista but you cannot use all of it.

It seems we are stating the same thing in different words, so I'm not sure why you claim my statement is a falsehood. If you have a link that states otherwise, please share it with me.

 

[Zer_]

A new mobo virgil? He might not have to if he has a LGA775 socket in his motherboard.


In which case he can upgrade to a new dual core without much hassle.


^To the FPS comment, as a high end PC Gamer I will be the first to tell you that there is a big difference between 60 frames per second and 80 frames per second, but I will also tell you you can definitely enjoy a game at 45 Frames per second.

Yeah, especially now that games implement motion blur, and use the same techniques televisions and theaters use to give us the illusion that it is running smoothly. But going out and saying our eyes can't see beyond 55 frames per second is a load of bovine scat.

But you are right, some games can run perfectly fine at 30 FPS, others will feel like total ass at 30 FPS.

Initially when the 360 came out it enforced a minimum FPS of 60, nowadays it either runs at 30 FPS, or 60 FPS. To be quite honest, it's better to have the game at a constant 30 FPS then to have it jumping from 45 - 65 FPS.

 

[Virgil]

A new mobo virgil? He might not have to if he has a LGA775 socket in his motherboard.

Possible, but the base assumption I go by whenever someone posts detailed PC info without their motherboard info is that it's an off-the-shelf PC, and much less likely to be able to drop in a new processor.

Hey Shovenstuff, post the make/model of your PC or motherboard so we can help more

 

[MagnetoHydroDynamics]

Same as the others have said:
A little more ram and an extra/new HDD.

If you have the money (and cooling) you could go all out and buy a quad core, they rule ;D .

 

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

Hey Shovenstuff, post the make/model of your PC or motherboard so we can help more

Ah you see, it was originally meant to be a school computer.
*sigh* Its an E-system...
I'm not entirely sure how to find out motherboard details.