Suggestions for New Computer

[Legrandchef]

Somewhere buried in this board is the same question but I cannot remember where I asked it.

I'm planning on buying a new computer and the money has arrived and is now in my bank account. I'd like your suggestions for a computer which is good enough to handle crowded situations in either AO or AoC without suffering lag; if such a thing is possible. What kind of chip, graphics card, CPU etc would you recommend. I am aiming to have a pretty good standard of machine.

thanks in anticipation,

Chef

[Ukulele]

Are you going to buy a laptop or a desktop PC?

You can choose each part if you get a desktop PC and you also get more power for the same money. Also remember that gaming laptops are fairly heavy and big and they also generate a lot of heat. You also might want to buy an external monitor, keyboard and gaming mouse since those in laptops usually aren't optimal for gaming.

[swordster]

My suggestion are a desktop PC, becouse its a lot easier and cheeper to get a decent desktop then a laptop.
My second suggestion is that you load it with RAM memory, 4 Gb is the lest but i would recomend 8 Gb. We all know that FC love there memleeks...
When it comes to a CPU i would recomend a quad core. 4 cores are always better then 2...
A decent grafikcard are also nice... 512 Mb of RAM or more on it is highly recomended.
Harddrive... Remeber that AoC takes a lot of space... On my harddrive AoC and AO takes about 30 Gb of space together...
OS. I would recomend the 64-bit version of Vista. It have better support for multiple CPU-cores, and if you have more then 4 Gb of RAM you must have a 64-bit OS as a 32-bit OS cant use more then 4 Gb of memory. (2^32 = 4 294 967 296 bit)

If i you have any other questions about other parts, plz write them here and I or anyone of the other "geeks" will try to ansver them...

Here are the specs of my comp... Its a OK gaming computer... The only thing im thinking of changing are the grafikcard. Its a bit slow...

INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 2.4GHZ 8MB 1066MHZ S-775
ASUS P5K PRO P35 SOCKET 775 ATX
CORSAIR 4GB DDR2 PC6400 XMS2 XTREME (2X2GB) HEATZINK
CORSAIR 4GB DDR2 PC6400 XMS2 XTREME (2X2GB) HEATZINK
ASUS GEFORCE 8600GT 512MB SILENT 2XDVI HDTV PCI-E

[Psymonator]

sword has pretty much given a great description, but i would just like to add, that you should buy an nVidia graphics card, the GTX 280 1GB would be the best option as it is the most stable. Although if you opt for the 9800 GTX+ you couldn't go wrong either as it is only 55nm, resulting in lower temperature, using less power, and faster clock speeds that the regular 9800 GTX. But i would still recommend using the GTX 280 1GB, as it is still a bit better.

[lynett]

i aggre with sword, but be carefull with the memory... 32bit windows is a pain in the *** with more then 2gb ram... and xp_x64/vista_64 can be a pain with device drivers and old applications (no more 16bit apps unless your running vmware, each devicedriver musst be a 64bit version)
btw, its only 2^31 on 32bit windows, and google pae/awe/3gb for more info on the "pain"

[Legrandchef]

Thanks for the suggestions so far; they are already a good help to me.

Chef

[Legrandchef]

I have been to the computer shop and pretty well got what I wanted as a plan from them although they tried to steer me towards an amd chip and a radeon graphics card. But, they do not build just what you want them to, they only build from a selection of components and the motherboard mentioned above was not on them. They are trying to steer me to an Asrock 4-core 1600 GLAN motherboard instead. I have no idea about how good or bad it is and will be doing some research on it when I have finished this note.

Chef

[Kehaan]

Hey.

Radeon cards shuld be better then Nvidia now. The Radeon cards use a lot less power then Nvidia.. And they is stronger or sometimes equal to the Nvidia cards, and cost less then Nvidia. So if i shuld buy a new comp, it would be one of the Radeon cards, thats for sure.

From Kehaan.

[Cogs]

Did a quick search for Asrocks mobo's on Toms Hardware guide, and came up with among other things, this:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/247 ... -ddr3-1600

I dont think you can go very much wrong with this motherboard brand, Chef m8. Dig around that site abit, and you should be able to find lots of info, but it seems like a solid mobo to me

[Jasper2002]

I got a quad core phenom machine with 640gb hdd, 4gb ram and nVidia 9500gs dedicated graphics for £391 from Comet, Acer Aspire. Add a 9800GT for another £90 from PC World and you have a decent rig for pretty much anything. Without the better card it plays Fear with everything maxed and graphics set to high at 40+ fps. Vista rating 5.4 due to graphics, 5.9 for all else. That doesn't include a monitor, but a cheap 22" 1680x 1050, 5ms response with DVI/VGA interface can be had for £130 from Misco