help with spec plz

[benjef]

hi i have a hp media center pc the spec is processor : intel pentium 4 3.20GHz memory :1024mb ram

directx version: directx 9.0c graphics card: radeon x600 pro what would i need to do to play top end games and how much would it cost to do so many thanks ben like crysis and cod and badcompany 2

 

[Sleinous]

my Gtx 470 plays bfbc2 nicely, for stuff like this, with crysis especially id say no less than gtx470 and an i5, 4gb or 6gb 1600mhz preferably of RAM, will post a spec when on pc tomoz if noone else has by then ok?

 

[benjef]

thanks so i can get away with just replaying intel 4 with i5 and graphics card

 

[Sleinous]

intel 4? no the i5 is the replacement of the intelp4 in this example. Pairing a gtx 470 with a p4 would be like mixing cows and pears. You will have to ditch that p4 or just keep as a trophy, u need an i5 or quad core really to pull off crysis on ur gtx 470 othrwise everything will just bottleneck at the cpu as it wont cope with the gpu's requests

 

[benjef]

so all i need to do is replace proseser and graphics card and ram and i will be ok so if i got radeon hd 5770cucore with 1tb harddrive and amd phemon II x4 955 that be ok run on wat spec pc i have

 

[Sleinous]

no, you would need to change motherboard too as the socket would be completely different. (the slot the cpu sits in)

Also yout power supply unit may need changing to accomodate these new power hungry hardware parts

 

[benjef]

cool sorry guys so wats the parts i need to replace and do uthink it will be cheaper to get one built or to upgrade mine

 

[Sleinous]

new one built as youre gonna need to rip everything out of your old one anyway, all youd save is the case and besides uou want gd air circulation when beasting away at crysis, ill knovk u up a spec tomorrow ok? im off for a bit now

 

[benjef]

cool thanks alot for the help thanks amd phenom II x4 955 3.20ghz black edition 4gb samsung ddr3 dual-ddr3 1333mhz 1gb radeon hd 5830 and 1.5tb harddrive

 

[LDUK]

You need a whole new PC dude.

 

[Sleinous]

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE (£59)
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A79XTD EVO: DUAL DDR3, S-ATA II, 2 x PCIe x16, 2 x PCIe x1, 2 x PCI
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5830 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1.5TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 650W PSU (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£76)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EXTREME DIRECT TOUCH COPPER CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £828.00 including VAT and delivery.

Things i've taken into account:

A 650W PSU will be ample should you want to add another 5830 in Crossfire mode.

Things i'd change:

The graphics card, to atleast a 5870 or GTX 470 (however you can only crossfire on this motherboard, no SLI, so i'd recommend the 5870 so you can add a second one later). This is because Crysis, bfbc2 etc have NO chance of running anywhere near max settings on that card, and I remember you said you wanted top end somewhere I think, not much point playing top end on low settings . Remember you will need to up the PSU too if you do this.
The RAM, i'd pay the extra £90~ to get 8GB, reason: when I had only 4GB of RAM showing in my system, GTA IV (for example) would bring my RAM usage up to 89% which doesn't leave a huge margin. For future proofing i'd go for 8GB on this.
The warranty, to silver, 1 year collect and return is very handy! I made the mistake of not doing this, now I have to upgrade to gold if I want to upgrade at all

Price with the following changed: 4GB RAM upgraded to 8GB - £917.00 including VAT and delivery.
Price with silver warranty, 8GB RAM an ATI 5870 GPU, TX850 PSU instead of: standard warranty, 4GB RAM, an ATI 5830 GPU, a 650W PSU - £1,088.00 including VAT and delivery.



There we go

 

[Matt]

Hey Slein, about GTA IV and memory usage its still only a 32bit app so it would only use 2 gig mem maximum, hence the high usage. 4 gig is still plenty

 

[Meds]

Hey benjef,

Just read through this post and agree with the other members. To upgrade your current PC, you would need a new Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Graphics Card, PSU and possibly even better cooling also. It would be less stress and probably cost efficient to just buy a new PC.

If you reply with a rough budget you have and we can put together a quotation for you?

 

[Sleinous]

Hey Slein, about GTA IV and memory usage its still only a 32bit app so it would only use 2 gig mem maximum, hence the high usage. 4 gig is still plenty

My Logitech G15 measures all the RAM windows has detected on startup (and obviously when I had that issue with my RAM and only 4GB showed it was using 89% RAM, but when 6GB showed, it was using about 57% RAM, so i'm sure GTA IV uses more than 2GB, besides its optimised for 64bit Says on teh back of the box. Also, even though some g cards have huge amounts of DDR5 RAM, like my GTX 470, still seems to use some system RAM too, for tasks other than the actual main game.

Below, another price, for the same just with 4GB RAM instead of 8GB as per Matt's suggestions. Now you're equipped with a real selection of different setups.

Price with silver warranty, 4GB RAM, an ATI 5870 GPU, TX850 PSU instead of: standard warranty, 4GB RAM, an ATI 5830 GPU, a 650W PSU - £1,000.00 including VAT and delivery.