Is this PC worth buying for gaming?

[mortified_dodo]

Okay, here are the specs:
Sony Vaio RB30
Intel Pentium 4 Processor 530J HT (3.0GHz, 1MB L2 Cache)
800 megs front side bus
Intel 915G chipset
200GB 7200rpm drive
512 megs SDRAM (256mbx2)
Dual layer DVD-RW, CD-ROM
Software (Windows XP home, MS Office and the like)
and finally:
ATI Radeon X700 Pro PCI-Express 256MB Card

Is this worth $1,300 canadian? ($1,077USDollars)
I thought so, but I need a second opinion.

[RaisinBran.Ck]

If I were you:

Bump your RAM up to 1 Gig.
Bump your Graphics Carp to highest within financial range. I don't know about cards using the new PCI-Express yet, so if that is the highest, then good job.

If you're not planning on burning DVD's, you can save some $$ by getting just a DVD player.

Other than that, I would say that's a good buy for the money. Go ahead and get it if you can't make any of the other adjustments.

[germ1234]

his vid card is up to the task i think

if it fully supports directx9 and above then it should give out quality graphics. and 256mb video ram is above average too.

[RaisinBran.Ck]

I'd still bump up his RAM to a gig. That's just me though. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[SirGimpAlittle]

Personally i think its an ok setup, but definately bump the ram up. the difference between 512 and 1 gig is tremendously noticable these days. Used to be the diff between 256 and 512 a few years ago. but now games require much more caching and what not.

Though i'd recommend perhaps going with something other than a vaio. Try to get a custom built machine (either build it yourself or get someone you know to put together the parts for you).

And skip the PCI-E for now (friend of mine went to it for his x800 pro, took him 2 weeks (though he wasn't constantly working on it) to get all the kinks out of it. And imho drop ati for nvidia. Games tend to be a little more friendly towards em with the exception of HL2 (which my 6800gt still puts out blazing performance with almost the same set up you got, except i got the 3.2)

But I'm biased, as my 9800xt sucked, felt like i wasted the money, performance wasnt that much more over my ti4200, but when i went from the 9800xt to 6800gt i noticed it right away. And actually features showed up in PT after i made the switch http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif just minor details here and there that the ati wasnt drawing. And the fact the card runs about 30 degrees cooler.

[Lhorkan]

Phew, your computer's performance is somewhat the double of mine, and than you're asking if it's good enough playing on it http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/16x16_smiley-indifferent.gif

[sb85]

ur pc is just fine, the x700pro is gud, no pixel shader 3.0 though..
and yea u need 1gb ram

[braiog]

I think the rig will get you 1024x768, 2xAA, 8xAF, All settings on, and about 30-60 FPS easy.

For comparison, I have:

AMD64 3500 2.2Ghz 90nm
Asus A8V Deluxe Rev.2
Gainward GeForce 6800GT 400/1100
2GB Mushkin PC3200 DDR400
Audigy 1 PCI 24bit

I run 1024x768. 2xAA, 16xAF, All Settings on and maxed, and I get 75-100 FPS (via FRAPS)

[quillan]

I have to agree, definitely increase the RAM, to a minimum of 768 megs and 1 gig would be better. You're not saving that much money by going with a DVD-ROM drive instead of the burner (I just bought an NEC ND-3520 online for $56 USD including shipping. That's basically the best DVD burner you can buy for a computer right now). For the video card, I don't know what options they give you, but I'd recommend a 6600GT over that X700 Pro. It's cheaper, and performs better. If they don't give you the option, try reducing the vid card to the minimum they allow, and then buy the 6600GT separately, or whatever you can afford. Right now, the nVidia cards are cheaper than whatever Ati card matches their performance figures.

And Gimp, that's really strange. I upgraded from a ti4200 to a 9800 Pro about 2 years ago, and I REALLY noticed the difference. The 9800XT would outperform the 9800 Pro by about 10%, so it should have been noticable, unless there was some other problem.

[Tejo.hr]

I would suggest 6600GT over x700 also.

[Osman_H]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SirGimpAlittle:
Personally i think its an ok setup, but definately bump the ram up. the difference between 512 and 1 gig is tremendously noticable these days. Used to be the diff between 256 and 512 a few years ago. but now games require much more caching and what not.

Though i'd recommend perhaps going with something other than a vaio. Try to get a custom built machine (either build it yourself or get someone you know to put together the parts for you).

And skip the PCI-E for now (friend of mine went to it for his x800 pro, took him 2 weeks (though he wasn't constantly working on it) to get all the kinks out of it. And imho drop ati for nvidia. Games tend to be a little more friendly towards em with the exception of HL2 (which my 6800gt still puts out blazing performance with almost the same set up you got, except i got the 3.2)

But I'm biased, as my 9800xt sucked, felt like i wasted the money, performance wasnt that much more over my ti4200, but when i went from the 9800xt to 6800gt i noticed it right away. And actually features showed up in PT after i made the switch http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif just minor details here and there that the ati wasnt drawing. And the fact the card runs about 30 degrees cooler. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
well, obviously you'll notice a huge difference between the 6800 and 9800. the 9800 is last gen, now the 9800 is slightly worse than a x700

[mortified_dodo]

Thanks a ton guys! This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for. Now yes, this is a pre-built sony, so there are some options that aren't open that would be if I built it myself.

I will ask if I can upgrade to 768mb-1gig RAM. As for asking about the video card, I don't need to, because as it is this Sony comes with integrated graphics. However, it has a 16x PCI-E slot at the back, and I picked the X700 Pro to buy because it is PCI-E only, which will work on this comp, even though I could technically get a X800 in PCI-E instead of AGP, it is simply too much money. From doing my homework, I found that the X700 is *just* lower in tests compared to the 9800 and the X800 in almost every game on the market besides DOOM3, and I'm planning on getting that game on XBOX instead anyways, so no trouble. A X700 with PCI-E is based on the exact same architecture and is almost exactly the same as a X800 with AGP, but it has 8 pipelines instead of 12, dropping the price by half! A steal of a deal if you ask me for a top-of-the-line card. Thanks for your responses everyone, it's great to hear info on things I didn't know about or wasn't sure of. You guys are great! http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/25.gif

[ScreaminEagle.]

My 2 cents:
1. In my experience, AGP has always worked significantly better for gaming, and
2. Nvidia always over ATI, at least for me.

[quillan]

I still think you'd come out a little better with a 6600GT. Online, they're about the same price as the X700Pro (Newegg has them from about $180 in PCI-E), and the performance is better. Not by a lot, but better. The 6600GT performs about the same level as the X800 (no suffix). THe X700XT was a good match for it, but that ran about $250, and has been discontinued now, to be replaced by the X800, which is better but even more expensive. It is, however, your money, and if you're happy with the Ati card, go for it.