Jump to content
NEurope
Sign in to follow this  
The Bard

PC Building

Recommended Posts

Hey guys, thinking of getting a new gaming PC, and I'm getting it built. Was just wondering, should I go for 64bit Vista with 4gigs of RAM or 32bit with 2gigs?

 

Also, getting a 512MB GEFORCE 9600GT, you guys reckon it'll be good enough to run...say, Bioshock?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Hey guys, thinking of getting a new gaming PC, and I'm getting it built. Was just wondering, should I go for 64bit Vista with 4gigs of RAM or 32bit with 2gigs?

 

Also, getting a 512MB GEFORCE 9600GT, you guys reckon it'll be good enough to run...say, Bioshock?

 

It should be easily good enough - by the looks of things it's only a bit worse than the 8800GT. I have the 8800GTS (original) which is worse than that, and it ran Bioshock absolutely fine on the highest settings.

 

64bit with 4GB RAM sounds like the obvious choice...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Go with 64 bit.

All of the programs I have have all run with 64bit perfectly fine.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Cheers guys, the only reason I was thinking of going with the 32bit is cause it's about a hundred quid cheaper lol. It's all coming up to 650quid so far which is fair I guess.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Go with 64 bit.

All of the programs I have have all run with 64bit perfectly fine.

 

I know it may sound stupid, but should (computing doesn't always make sense like it should) anything 32 bit run fine on 64 in theory? I am too building a computer which can run 64 bit software and can't decide on what OS to get.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Hey guys, thinking of getting a new gaming PC, and I'm getting it built. Was just wondering, should I go for 64bit Vista with 4gigs of RAM or 32bit with 2gigs?

 

Also, getting a 512MB GEFORCE 9600GT, you guys reckon it'll be good enough to run...say, Bioshock?

 

You can get 3GB with 32bit Vista. You can have a maximum of 3.2GB.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Isn't the Radeon 4850 only a few pounds more expensive than the 9600GT? The you should definitely go for the Radeon, it's like two times as fast. Radeon cards perform really well in Bioshock.

 

And you can actually run a full 4 GB in Vista 32 with a trick, but you might as well go for Vista 64 anyway, as it actually runs a wee bit faster.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Cheers guys, the only reason I was thinking of going with the 32bit is cause it's about a hundred quid cheaper lol. It's all coming up to 650quid so far which is fair I guess.

 

A hundred quid?!?!? Who are you buying this from? Vista 64 packages retail at the same price as their 32-bit counterparts!

 

Normally i'd say get 64-bit regardless of the amount of RAM, there's no disadvantage to using it over 32-bit Vista. In this instance though i'd say stick with 32-bit (assuming that £100 isn't including the extra 2GB RAM). You won't actually need 4GB anyway and the £100 would be better used elsewhere in the system.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nooo, I mean that you can only buy 32bit with 2 gigs of ram, and the extra 2gigs of ram with 64bit come at an extra 100quid.

 

Normally i'd say get 64-bit regardless of the amount of RAM, there's no disadvantage to using it over 32-bit Vista. In this instance though i'd say stick with 32-bit (assuming that £100 isn't including the extra 2GB RAM). You won't actually need 4GB anyway and the £100 would be better used elsewhere in the system.

 

What do you use? I'm really looking for an awesome gaming PC that'll last me through uni. The games I'm looking to get to start off with are; Company of Heroes, Crysis and UT3, and I want them to run at full specs (apart from Crysis obv).

 

Oh shit, and last question, should I go for:

 

Intel® Core™2 Quad Q9550 (4 X 2.83GHz)

 

or

 

 

 

Intel® Core™2 Duo E8500 (2 X 3.16GHz)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Nooo, I mean that you can only buy 32bit with 2 gigs of ram, and the extra 2gigs of ram with 64bit come at an extra 100quid.

 

 

What do you use? I'm really looking for an awesome gaming PC that'll last me through uni. The games I'm looking to get to start off with are; Company of Heroes, Crysis and UT3, and I want them to run at full specs (apart from Crysis obv).

 

Oh shit, and last question, should I go for:

 

Intel® Core™2 Quad Q9550 (4 X 2.83GHz)

 

or

 

 

 

Intel® Core™2 Duo E8500 (2 X 3.16GHz)

 

I'm on 2GB with 32-bit Vista Ultimate, but i didn't have any choice on the version of Vista (it was free). When i overhaul in the new year i'll be adding 64-bit Vista and 4GB RAM.

 

If this rig is primarily for gaming then it'd be more sensible to drop the CPU down to something like the Q6600 and spend the extra on a better graphics card (assuming there's a fair price difference). Likewise, you'd get better performance by buying 2GB RAM and spending the extra £100 on the graphics card.

 

Also, you do know Intel have a new architechture due out in like 2 months, right?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I did not know that o_0. So should I wait for that? What even is it? Should I care? I don't knoooow.

 

Also, yeah, this PC is only for gaming, so the Q6600 be alright? It's the lowest spec quad core I could find, and I know basically fuck all, so you you're saying that the Q6600 (4X 2.40ghz) is still better than even a 2x 3.33ghz? The thing is, I want to be able to run most new games on full specs.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I did not know that o_0. So should I wait for that? What even is it? Should I care? I don't knoooow.

 

Also, yeah, this PC is only for gaming, so the Q6600 be alright? It's the lowest spec quad core I could find, and I know basically fuck all, so you you're saying that the Q6600 (4X 2.40ghz) is still better than even a 2x 3.33ghz? The thing is, I want to be able to run most new games on full specs.

 

Clock speeds aren't necessarily guidelines to the overall speed or quality of a processor

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Isn't the i7 going to be mega expensive?

 

I don't think anyone knows yet. IIRC they are releasing the high end parts this year and then the mid-range in January/February '09.

 

There's no reason why they should be mega expensive, it's just a tweaked Core2. They've added a memory controler, brought back hyper threading, made a few other tweaks and made DDR3 standard. I would expect the parts will be the same as their current gen counterparts.

 

I did not know that o_0. So should I wait for that? What even is it? Should I care? I don't knoooow.

 

Also, yeah, this PC is only for gaming, so the Q6600 be alright? It's the lowest spec quad core I could find, and I know basically fuck all, so you you're saying that the Q6600 (4X 2.40ghz) is still better than even a 2x 3.33ghz? The thing is, I want to be able to run most new games on full specs.

 

I'm not sure how much difference i7 will make, nobody really knows until the parts make their way to reviewers and undergo proper independant testing. Early reports say they crunch numbers a lot better than Core 2, but that might not make much difference to video games.

 

As for dual core vs quad core, if the game is optomised for 4 cores or you are running a few background applications (music, fraps, teamspeak etc.) whilst gaming then the quad will win out. Otherwise the dual core will edge it. Right now the dual core is probably a better chip to have, but the quad core is going to be more usefull in the future as more games are written to use the extra cores.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Isn't the i7 going to be mega expensive?
Kind of. CPUs aren't going to be mega expensive, but you'll have to chuck out $250 for a mainboard as there'll only be a high end chipset until Q2 next year.

 

If you want to be able to play games for a while, you'd best buy an Intel chipset (P45 or something) with a Radeon HD 4850. It's much faster than a GeForce 9600GT, and if it starts failing at games in the future, you can add in another Radeon card in CrossFire.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks a bunch guys, it's been mega helpful. Finalish question, Should I go with DDr2 or DDr3, seeing as the latter is fucking hugely expensive? Truly ceebs waiting for i7

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Thanks a bunch guys, it's been mega helpful. Finalish question, Should I go with DDr2 or DDr3, seeing as the latter is fucking hugely expensive? Truly ceebs waiting for i7

 

DDR2 is perfectly good, 3 aint really worth the monnies

 

QFT...

 

If you buy a decent speed of DDR2 it will do you fantastically.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This pretty much summed up my fears. but describes perfectly the rig i am buying. Also I have been told that the Q6600 is easy to overclock and works well with the stock fan. I have been wondering though what would be a smart choice for a graphics card. Am looking to spend around £100 on one and have found a BFG nvidia 9800gt card for around that price. Is that a good purchase that should last me for about 2 years?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Go for the 4850, Overclockers are selling a HIS one for just under £110.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Go for the 4850, Overclockers are selling a HIS one for just under £110.

 

Generally dont like radeon. Just..don't know them you know. Plus, I am looking to buy everything from ebuyer as I have an account with them and can get free shipping.

 

here is the card im looking at.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Generally dont like radeon. Just..don't know them you know. Plus, I am looking to buy everything from ebuyer as I have an account with them and can get free shipping.

 

here is the card im looking at.

 

Whats not to like? The card runs faster than the 9800GT, it's DX10.1 compliant and has the usual extra features you find in ATi cards.

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146428

 

The 4850 is a 9800GTX+ competitor, it wipes the floor with the 9800GT.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Sign in to follow this  

×