Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

I have a pretty ancient Dell Dimension 9200. It's got a Core 2 Duo 6600 @2.4GHz in it.
At the moment I'm running a Radeon HD 5750 but with the birth of BF3, it's struggling now.
My question is, how fast a gfx card can I put in this PC before the CPU becomes the bottleneck (if it hasn't already!?).

For instance, I was thinking of a HD 6850?

Matt

ScoobyJawa

CPU defo a bottleneck, overclock to 3.2Ghz the E6600 was great for that and it will help out. (I had a 6600 @ 3.2 before switching to a Q6600 also running at 3.2, that and my 5850 are running BF3 1920x1200 in high detail fine).

The 5850 is 2 years old and outperforms the 6850 for BF3 check out the link! (so should save you some notes, you may think its not a huge step up from your 5750 - but the performance tables in the link show its quite a bit better)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ance,3063.html

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

I looked (briefly) at overclocking the CPU but the dell bios doesn't allow it, as far as I could see?

ScoobyJawa

I believe its possible but a bit of a fudge!

http://www.starless.nl/overclock

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

oh cheers, I'll have a look. With my luck my PC will be one of the ones you can't o/c

billythekid

I have a 9200 and you can over clock. 3ghz is the sweet spot ime.
Pm me and i will send you the cpu code which will allow you to change the clocks.
You can't push it though as you can't change the bios.

Also be aware the psu is only 450w iirc..

billythekid

Forget that, looks like the link above has everything you need.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Hi Billy
I tried that link, changed the hex code ok, but when I click on the PLL controller I get nothing other than a window 4 speed dials that I can't change?
I've changed the PSU in it already in order to run the 3 hard drives and gfx card.

Miniman

iTrader: (2)

I have BF3 running on my PC @ 1680x105 with all settings set to high. I've a new 6850 (with 1GB gfx memory), but still my old Core 2 Quad 6600 @ 2.4Ghz. So far I've not overclocked anything. Also my mobo/hard drive is as old as the CPU and I've only 2GB ram currently.

It runs fine at like this. There is some stutters at the beginning of a game (possibly loading some textures?), but 5 minutes in and all is stable and it's ok after that.

Sound like with your hardware and a newer GFX you could comfortably run BF3, although you may have to sligthly peg it back from all "High" settings. Not a problem for some, but I know others want everything set to high the whole time!

billythekid

The main thing you need to do is read the clocks.
Open PLL control.

In the clock generator set up press it and it will open a drop down.
Find SLG505YC56D which is near the bottom and press that.
Then press read clocks.
Press apply selection to save the HEX codes into the software.
Then, close this box, then press PLL control.
You will then have a slider for main CPU speed and another for memory.
Leave the memory as is.
If you have the 2.4GHZ chip, select 2.8GHZ using the slider.
Press apply.

Then, open your windows system / hardware settings and you should see the clock speed at 2.8.

Before you change the clock speed ensure the system is stable, allow it to boot up and then leave for at least 5 minutes to ensure its fully booted and its not doing anything like a virus scan or windows update. Because if it is then your over clock attempt will prob crash the machine. You will need to reboot and start agian.

Also, note that your overclock will only apply until you re-boot as the bios wont be changed. Or it wont save it on my PC anyway.

Re the PSU, no its still the factory one. But be careful as the newer GFX cards can realy push the PSU... you want a stable system really.

Also this will generate more heat, ensure your machine is free of dust and the fans are working. Consider an extra fan also.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

I've been reading some of the benchmarking articles about BF3 and it's GPU limiting not CPU, so it looks like the graphics card is going to be worth upgrading and not worry about the processor

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Not sure whether to start a new thread or not but I've decided, in the end, rather than try and breathe new life into this aged dog of a PC I would invest in a new one.
I'm quite into my gaming so it's got to be capable of BF3.
However, I work from home, using AutoCAD, photoshop, illustrator so I don't want a PC that sounds like a jet about to take off either.
Budget is ~£750-£1k for the base unit alone.
I quite like the sound of the Chillblast Fusion Whisper, the only thing I'd add to that spec is a 120Gb SSD as the primary drive.
However, looking at Scan (their Scan G30 system seems good value @ £908 with a SSD?), Ebuyer etc it seems everyone has similar priced PC's, I just want to be sure whatever I buy will be reliable, fast and not noisy.

Ideally I would want a pre-built system rather than have to build it myself, but I have looked at Scan's 'today only' and they've got a barebones i5 based system for £456, that if I put a 560Ti into would get me almost to the same spec as the Chillblast but for a lot less (but have to build it myself etc).

Can anyone recommend a PC supplier that I've not thought of? I don't want to use Overclockers.

Matt

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Scan is good

Tony

ScoobyJawa

Aria, Novatech?