New computer?

M

Maruno

Council of Heroes
Staff member
I'm wondering about whether I should get a new computer. Here's my current (4 years old) one:


Dell Dimension 8300
  • Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz (16kB primary cache, 1MB secondary cache)
  • Motherboard: 0W2562; Bus clock: 800MHz
  • 1GB RAM
  • 2 x 80GB hard drives
  • 128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
  • Creative SB Live! sound card
  • Windows XP Home SP3

My current computer is unable to play the game TimeShift (which I got last Christmas). I don't know if my computer's just not good enough for it, or whether my copy of the game is just somehow broken. It also has difficulties playing Star Trek Legacy at anything above fairly minimum settings. On the other hand, Portal and Half-Life 2 play fine (although I'm not sure how high the graphics settings are on those).

What's the current standard for computers? What kind of level should I be looking to get, given that I won't particularly want to upgrade for another few years (and would still want to play any games that come out that I fancy in that time).

Also, how likely is it that I'll be able to get XP instead of Vista? Or has Vista been clawing its way up the respectability charts since last I checked, and is now safe to get?

In particular, I want to know what the best graphics cards around are. Memory and processors seem fairly easy things to understand, but graphics cards are a world unto their own. I also know nothing about sound cards, but I assume they've not been changing much.

Alternatively, how feasible is an upgrade? I presume a new graphics card and a new power supply would be needed, and perhaps also some more memory.

Opinions?
 
Sadly I'm not much in the gamer line anymore, so I can't give you a decent evaluation of that. Although I know that if you're serious about gaming, the high end cards are going for $200 US easily these days. I don't know what the prices are in the UK.

But as couple of more general points, I would at least look at something with a dual core motherboard/processor. They are pretty much the standard now and you get oodles of power of it, still yet to be truly tapped by applications for the dual processing capabilities. I'd say go a minimum of 2MB of RAM, though you most likely will be able to get more for cheaper.

Outside of that, it becomes more of your preferences. I'm sure you'll still be able to use the SB Live card. If you buy from a 3rd party, most still have an option for an XP install over a Vista install, but outside of that, I think buying a seperate hard drive to get XP at OEM prices may be by the wayside.

That said, I purchased a refurbished Dell laptop earlier this year for $600 US that was a dual core x64 1.6 GHz and had 2 GB of RAM. I opted out for a slightly smaller hard drive to get my 17 inch display and it came with an ATI graphics card that sucks out some of the RAM from the total package. It runs Vista just fine and I can play a decent selection of games, such as Half Life 2, but I started hitting a few slowdown issues in multi player mode for Call of Duty 4 and I couldn't touch Unreal Tournament 3.

But at the same time, I'm doing programming far more these days and most of my slighly older Star Wars games run just fine when I need a break. 8^D Oh, and definitely find something 64bit (like the Turion x64 for AMD or an equivalent Intel). You shouldn't have to pay more money for it and there are significant performance increases when running 64bit programs. You'll have to make sure to get a 64bit version of the OS, but even if your original purchase comes with 32 bit, you can get a copy of the 64bit media, reformat, and use your existing license.

Sorry it's not the most directive of advice, but hopefully it puts you in the right direction.
 
I'm looking around Dell at the moment, seeing what kind of computer I can piece together. I like Dell, because you can mix and match components to suit you, rather than having to buy a set system that may be lacking in one particular way.

  • Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core Q6600 Processor (2.4GHz, 8MB cache, 1066MHz FSB)
  • Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 - English
  • 4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [4x1024]
  • 500GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
  • 256MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 3650 graphics card
  • DVD+/-RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
  • Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy ADVANCED HD Audio

That's just under £550. Vista is 32 bit (there is no 64 bit option in Dell, it seems). Does that look as though it's about standard for today (or, preferably, better than today's standards - I have no idea what would be considered acceptable today)? Would you change anything? There's lots of options.

It comes without a monitor (I've already got a 22" one), and no speakers (again, already got some, albeit they came with my last Dell computer 4 years ago).
 
I'd say that is a step up from the standard machines you're finding today. Amazing at what prices are going for nowadays 8^D That'll probably do well for you for a while and if you go hard core, you can easily upgrade the RAM or the graphics card.
 
Upgrade the RAM from 4GB? I can understand that the graphics card may need a boosting after a while, but as I understand it, most modern games only need a maximum of 2GB memory, even with Vista. I think my memory should be safe for a while. :D

I'll have a bit more of a think about it. Going to Vista would be an annoying step, but it seems more and more inevitable. The only thing I've got against buying a new copy of XP is that it's too expensive (Vista even more so, obviously). And I'm not fond of trying out one of the many variations of Linux - they just seem like a programmers' OS, and I'm not one.

What's the maximum kind of system that XP can handle? Can it cope with dual and quad-cores?
 
To my knowledge, yes, XP can handle the dual and quad cores. I forget where the limit to RAM goes, but in general the way to best handle anything over 3 or 4 GB of RAM is to go to 64bit. It is something weird I read somewhere.

Don't forget, unless you're planning on using it elsewhere, you can always buy a system and use your existing XP license on it. You'll need to do a reformat, but the service should pick up the key and let you do things just fine. Then you'll have a legit Vista license to upgrade to later on or throw on a Virtual machine if you're into testing.

All in all, I really haven't had any issues with Vista and the whole user security thing hasn't been gotten in my way that much. But I've heard varying stories from all over the spectrum.
 
Go Mojave.

Yes, the dule cores came out while XP was still the standard operating system on them thar "peecees".
 
Well, if you REALLY want to go cutting edge, you can get ahold of Windows 7 and get the "Blue Badge" unlock so you can see some of the spiffy new features. But alas I digress. 8^D
 
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