mj

ok, so my p4 1.7 / radeon 8500 is a bit long in the tooth to do the game justice.

just looked at alienware, but theres no way I am spending £1600 sheets on their area 51 extreme machine.

I have 5.1 sound card, thats about all I can pillage from my existing machine before I flog it.

so...


Intel Pentium 4 560 3.6GHz
1GB DDR SDRAM PC-4300
120GB Seagate Serial ATA 8MB Cache
ATI RADEON™ X800 XT PCX 256MB
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1



how much will it cost me to build an equivalent if I source the bits myself, and best places to source them. Is the spec above total overkill?

thanks in advance,

mike.

EddScott

I would say the above quoted machine will give HAL9000 a run for its money!

I'm not too clued up on what you can and can't swap over with regard to Intel CPUs. In my case I've got an AMD CPU (XP2000, KA7 motherboard, 512MB DDR2700 RAM< GF3 graphics card)

The above copes fine with Unreal 2 but will need a bit of a boost with Doom 3, Half Life 2 etc.

What I plan to do is upgrade bit by bit. First replace the CPU and motherboard, then memory and finally graphics although I might do graphics first as its not reliant on what other bits I have.

So I don't know if you can upgrade your insides at cheaper cost rather than starting again but it may be worth a look.

Dr Nick

I am sure it will run very nice on that spec machine but it all comes down to how much money you have.

That is pretty much the latest kit and hence the price.

I always stay one step behind the latest thing. The cost saving is considerable.

If you want to save money just buy a new mobo, processor, memory and graphics card. Then build your other stuff back around it.

I'd currently go for a 3.4 ghz processor, 1 gb memory. I'd have to do a bit more homework to advise on graphics card at this stage. But would defo go for a Radeon 9800 ultra or better.

Cheers

mj

cheers chaps, I'll try and post up a better spec of my machine later.

"I always stay one step behind the latest thing. The cost saving is considerable." - that is good advice, so based on that line of thought, what should I be looking at assuming I want a complete new set up?

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

current machine on which far cry runs in full glory which

amd64 3000+
asus k8vse
corsair xms3200 1gb
twin 120gb sata samsung drives (v quiet)
antec sonata tower (v quiet)
pioneer dvr-107
sony 16x
radean 9800 pro 128mb with silent heatsink

just about £900 to get all the parts a few months ago.

runs as fast as f and sooooo silent

again no need to go top end

Dave.

MJW

I totally agree with Dr. Nick - staying one step behind the latest spec is the most cost effective way. Besides, the newest most expensive kit generally drops considerably in price after 12 months on the market.

You can get the Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card for around £120 (twice the price at this time last year) which should run Doom 3 adequately. A P4 3.2ghz chip can be had for around £200, a socket 478 motherboard for £120 and a gig of PC3200 RAM for £100. If you can keep your old case and drives and transfer the new gubbins to it, you can give yourself a substantial upgrade for less than a third of the cost of the Alienware setup

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

£1760 for a base unit, keyboard & mouse!!

DazV

Don't you think the PC games market is dying and this scenario won't be happening in say 5 years time?

It seems more and more people are accepting the idea of buying an XBOX and not ever having to constantly upgrade it, like you do with a bloomin' PC - just so you can play Doom3 at 60fps!

FragaL

iTrader: (1)

Can't wait for HL2 & Doom 3

My Spec

Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz (800FSB)
ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB DDR3
GeIL 1GB PC3500 Golden Dragon Memory
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX

Iain Young

People have been saying this for years (when the PS1 arrived they were all saying the PC is dead, and again with the Dreamcast and PS2). Howeverver, the PC games market is just as strong as it ever was, so no I don't think it'll make too much of an impact.

I disagree. They appeal to a different kind of user. The Xbox has the convienience factor, but I hate controlling FPS games with a joypad. You simply can't beat the mouse / keyboard combination.

There are games which work better on consoles than pcs, and games which work better on pcs than on consoles (try playing C&C with a gamepad - nightmare). The best idea is to have one of each , then you're sorted

Think I might need to upgrade my gfx card soon though. Still running a GeForce 128Mb 4600Ti on my system at the moment. Might get one of those new ATi ones - they look a bit tasty

InvisibleMan

p4 1.7 ghz long in the tooth jeez some people

InvisibleMan

if they are doing doom on xbox at 770mhz how much of a cut down version are they having to do? whats the min mhz spec for the pc? or are really just using 770 as a pc base too...

mj

invisible - chill bro, I said " do do it justice " - if my old chugger runs it ok then thats fine, but I cant see it - my machine didn't get on with IGI2 or the far cry demo. I can't seem to find any definates on minimum system though.