Posted February 16, 2006 Hi all ive built this pc and wondered if its good enough specs for good gaming, has it got good memory, ram and all of the rest. thnx guys! CPU INTEL® PENTIUM® 4 630 (64 BIT) @ 3.0GHZ 800mhz FSB/HTT/2MB Memory 512 MB DDR400 PC3200 WITH LIFETIME WARRANTY! Motherboard HIGH END ASUS®: DUAL DDR, SATA, x16 slot, 3 PCI ETC USB Options SIX USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) Hard Drive SATA 160 GB HARD DISK @ 7200rpm 8mb cache Second Hard Drive NONE CD/DVD Writer 4x +R DUAL LYR DVD WRITER (16x +/-R) (& RW) + 40x CD-RW (£25) Graphics Card 256MB GEFORCE 6600 PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT Sound Card HIGH END ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL SOUND (RECOMMENDED) Network Facilities 10/100/1000 NETWORK CARD FOR BROADBAND Floppy Drive/Card Reader 1.44MB FLOPPY DISK DRIVE Case Stylish Silver/Black Ventilator case + 2 Front USB Power Supply & Cooling Silent 400W PSU + 80mm internal Fan (£11) (Recommended) Monitor 17 INCH TFT SILVER/BLACK 1280 X 1024 RES: 12MS (£145) Keyboard Black Logitech® Internet Keyboard + Hotkeys (£8) Mouse Black Logitech® Premium Optical Mouse (£5) Warranty 1 Year Return-to-Base Warranty + 1 Month Free Collect & Return and thats around £600. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 16, 2006 Its pretty good, you could do with more ram, the gpu isn't the best either, not bad mind, just not the best. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 16, 2006 I agree with JonSt, it sucks for ram. You'll need a gig or so, and the same with the graphics card. It'll hold the entire machine back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 so what graphics card shall I go for? and how about 2gig ram? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 600 quid?? Woah, everything looks good. Except RAM, get more Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 I would say this to all those who are having doubts about how good their pc is: Play your favourite games, if it's constantly at 10-30 fps you should upgrade, or just scale down the graphics. I have reasonably old system, but it runs the games I want at 1024*768 at 60fps with reasonable eye candy. (AMD Athlon 64 2800+ , 1gb RAM, Radeon 9700 pro.) Wouldn't try f.e.a.r on it though. It would have an athlon xp 2600+, but I kinda messed up the motherboard for it, so I had to get a new mobo+CPU. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 You dont really need a gpu that displays more that 60 FS, since the human eye cannot distuingish above 60 FPS. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 so what graphics card shall i have? or shall I stick to that one? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 It's much better than my machine (mines only 1.2 gtz). You could manage pretty much any game out now. Would be a lot better if it had a gig of ram. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 The leap from 512 to 1GB RAM is worth the money - from 1 to 2GB you hardly gain performance (except for certain applications). If possible I would either have 2 x 80GB Raid0 instead of a single 160GB HDD. Smaller HDDs are mostly cheaper and faster and with Raid0 you gain even more speed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 Ther perfromance gain by using raid 0 in a domestic setting is hardly noticable, plus you increase the risk of losing your data if just one of the drive fails. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 CPU utilisation and access time are enhanced with Raid0 - read/write speed is not that much affected. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 Try seeing if you can change processor - Athlon 64s perform slightly better than Pentium 4s for games. In the Netherlands you can get this for 900 euros (~ 600 pounds) CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (roughly equal to the P4 you have for less money) RAM: 1 GB DDR PC3200 Dual Channel (two times is always better) GPU: Radeon X800GTO (definetely better than the one you have now) And the rest is basically the same as you have. Along with a 17" screen by Acer. You can probably do better than the specs you got of that site (it's Dell right?) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 CPU utilisation and access time are enhanced with Raid0 - read/write speed is not that much affected. Over all raid 0 is better, there is no doubting it. But for anyone other than enthusiast i dont see the need for it. The system will be fast enough for him without risking data on raid 0. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 thnx guys and this is http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk you build your own on there. can you plz make a list of the changes i should do to it then plz because you are all saying confusing things lol! thnx agen Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17, 2006 In a nutshell, Add more RAM, and if you can afford it, change the graphics card to a 6800GT. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 18, 2006 Just tell me one thing: have you actually bought the compenents you mentioned in your first post? If you have, don't bother changing the processor/mobo/graphics card. It'll be just a waste of good money. Although you could add ram but that's about it. But if you haven't bought them yet, then you probably should think about changing some components. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 18, 2006 no i havent bought anything yet I just want a list of what I should change to be a good pc and can run extreme graphics smoothly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 18, 2006 a X850XT (PE if u find one) is good not bes but good my bro has a X800GTO and it runs fine get a amd 64 3500+ and up (my bro has an 3700+). id recomend a X1900XTX or GF 7800 but those card are a bit expensive EDIT: btw get more RAM 1-2gigs Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 19, 2006 sry angel I dont understand what your saying. whats a x850xt PE? Im confused. :s Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 19, 2006 X850xt PE is an ATI graphics card. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 19, 2006 Oh thnx and bogbas plz plz plz would you be so kind in doing a list of things I should change to the spec? I would be most thankful! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 19, 2006 In a nutshell the ram to 1024Mb, a better graphics card. The 7800GT has probably the best price/power ratio. But it's still a bit expensive. A geforce 6800 GS (don't think about 6800XT, that card is slow) is cheaper and reasonably fast for gaming. And as said before the x850xt (pe) is probably a good option also. And a 3500+ AMD athlon 64 should be a cheap and powerful enough for gaming. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 19, 2006 And a 3500+ AMD athlon 64 should be a cheap and powerful enough for gaming. mhm i can vouch for that, its an awesome processor. Don't spend a fortune on a proc that'll go out of date in a couple of months! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 19, 2006 thnx guys I can finally make my dream pc! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
