New 'puter help needed [Archive]

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gamelover996

11-18-2003, 05:54 PM

I'm too new to be starting a topic! Where's my tech thread?
To the point. I'm looking at getting a new computer. Yes, URU is the reason. I do want to get online at some point and test the waters of online gaming.
I've come up with the following configuration. It's a bit pricy, but I don't see anything cheap that will run the newest games.
So, if you gurus would look at the following specs and let me know if I'm in the ballpark or have more than I need, I'd appreciate it.

Motherboard Asus P4P800
CPU Intel Pentium4 2.4 GHz 800 FSB
Ram Samsung 512MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM (2)
Hard Drive Western Digital WD800JB 80.0GB
Video Card ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
CD / DVD Rom Pioneer DVD-RW/CD-RW A06 Drive
Communications Jaton WinCOMM 56k v.92 Modem
Operating System Windows XP Home
Power Supply Enermax 430W Whisper Power Supply

Thanks folks!

gamelover996

11-18-2003, 05:54 PM

Kosh-

11-18-2003, 06:05 PM

Good choices so far. the video card should be "future-proof" for the next 12-18 months, or so.

What sound card are you picking?

____________________
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Ki #34018

Dillenger69

11-18-2003, 06:08 PM

I'd only make two changes to that.
1. Bump the HD space up to 120 or put in a second 120 drive.
2. Go with XP Pro instead of Home.

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An administrator at Clockwork Orange BBS (http://www.clockworkorangebbs.org/) - The censorship free place to be.
Fah tehrthtehs trehahno pahrah ... one of the group at the big water, an Uru neighborhood.

maztec

11-18-2003, 06:28 PM

1. Go with linux instead of XP, but then you won't be able to play URU, but who cares you'll have linux which is much better.

2. Western Digital drives are prone to failure. Then again so are Maxtor. IBM tend to be the better at this point in time. Seagate is starting to put out some good drives also. Also you may as well make sure your drive is at least 7200rpm and if you can find one with an 8mb cache you'd be really happy.

gamelover996

11-18-2003, 06:29 PM

Thank you. Notes are being takin'.
Guess I should get a 10/100 card too seeing as I have a DSL connection! DUH
Kosh, Am I 12-18 months proof with the 9800?
Sound card...onboard won't fly???

maztec

11-18-2003, 06:51 PM

Onboard sound is fine but you may experience some problems and oddities. For truly killer sound get one of the newer TurtleBeach soundcards.

Dillenger69

11-18-2003, 07:24 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by maztec:
1. Go with linux instead of XP, but then you won't be able to play URU, but who cares you'll have linux which is much better.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
HAW http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>2. Western Digital drives are prone to failure. Then again so are Maxtor. IBM tend to be the better at this point in time. Seagate is starting to put out some good drives also. Also you may as well make sure your drive is at least 7200rpm and if you can find one with an 8mb cache you'd be really happy.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I disagree there ... IBM drives are some of hte worst you can get.
I'd got with Western Digital or Maxtor first, IBM only if nothing else is available.
Plextor, if you can manage it for the optical drive. or one of the Sony everything drives that do all formats.

- - - -
http://www.wonderwedge.org/images/banners/milkad2.jpg
An administrator at Clockwork Orange BBS (http://www.clockworkorangebbs.org/) - The censorship free place to be.
Fah tehrthtehs trehahno pahrah ... one of the group at the big water, an Uru neighborhood.

sutsujsti

11-18-2003, 07:26 PM

sounds good im using a asus p4pe/L /2.5 and it easly over clocks to 3.o1 stable!stock cooler/ same hd/onboard sound /radion 9000 128 pro and all works great also the lan is built in. as far as xp Im xp pro ntfs

kurtg1265

11-18-2003, 07:34 PM

I dont know that you can really have more than you need. I personally would max out the amount of memory to what the motherboard will allow. That way you should be set right off the bat and wont ever have to worry about that again.

I have never had a problem with WD hard drives. I've found them to be the most stable. My one is over 3 1/2 years old and the other is about 2 years old, and I use them constantly.Definately find one with the biggest cache you can find on it though. I thought I read something where they came out with a 16mb cache but I could be wrong.

Not to say that you will, but my dad had a Turtle Beach sound card and had nothing but problems with it(mostly compatability with other hardware). I use an Audigy card from soundblaster and love it.

Mainly I guess it comes down to what you can afford. If you can afford it, go top of the line with everything and it should last you for quite a while anyway. Unless you are really into MP3 steal....um I mean downloading, and playing tunes with your computer, you dont really need the top of the line sound card with dolby surround sound and a 5.1 speaker system. But it will definately make the games sound better. And while your at it, pick up a good set of headphones and a mic.

Kurt

gamelover996

11-18-2003, 07:53 PM

Gee Maztec, all your help and I still won't be able to play! Thanks buddy...Linux...When Snoopy flies!
ok, sound card for not stealing songs off the internet. Got it.
Looks like the HD is a touchy subject. I've never lost a hd but, I have lost a motherboard.
I really appreciate the help.
Thanks for letting me know the LAN card was already there. That's $40 I can spend for dinner next week!

Srikandi

11-18-2003, 08:13 PM

Just got a new rig myself...

I wound up going for two 80Gig hard drives in a RAID0 configuration... data gets read off both in parallel, halving access times... dramatically reduces loading times (which are a big deal in many games).

Of course, that's a bit pricey. The other thing I would do though is get 1 gig of RAM. I had 512 on my last computer, and had no trouble filling it up.

maztec

11-18-2003, 08:36 PM

Srikandi, is your RAID chipset/card on the motherboard or an extension (PCI)?

I personally refuse to go with onboard RAID, I've had the mobo die twice and lose everything on the drives because of it -- have to get exact board again, blah blah blah .. didn't want to would rather upgrade/etc.

Marck.

11-19-2003, 04:00 AM

Don't forget that Ubisoft does not recommend the use of an optical R/W drive for Uru. Remember those problems with copy protection...

Marck

Kosh-

11-19-2003, 07:23 AM

okie dokie...

Lots of contradictory advice in here.

gamelover996, depending what kind of chipset the onboard sound it, you may or may not be fine. I'm unfamiliar with ASUS mobo's, being an A-Bit user, myself. http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

I would recommend either an Audigy2, or one of the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound cards. I have used the Creative Labs sound cards exclusively for my entire PC-building career, but the Santa Cruz has gotten some amaing reviews, and word of mouth from some of my friends. And that's only if the onboard sound causes you problems. If you're experiencing no issues with it, might as well use it and save yourself a few bucks. http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

The video card will be 12-18 months future proof, yes. Beyond that, you start running into new Direct-X versions, new chipsets on graphics cards, and new technological advances. I think that even 18 months is pushing it. Of course, that's if you want to keep playing the "latest-and-greatest bleeding-edge" games. If all you're concerned about (for the most part) is Uru, then you'll be fine for a good while. http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

The 10/100 card... yes, I'd recommend one. http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif I usually go with 3com, but I've also had good experience with LinkSys (haven't tried their products since Cisco bought them, though, so can't comment on that).

As for the WinXP Pro vs WinXP Home stuff, I would recommend the WinXP Pro. For an oversight of the differences, that a look at the Microsoft comparison (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/choosing2.asp) page.

Good luck!

____________________
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Ki #34018

Blue Max

11-19-2003, 01:57 PM

Hi Gamelover996,
just stepping back from all of the nuggets of info that we've all provided, let me say that the config you put into your post, all-in-all, looks quite decent and should be perfectly fine to run Uru with.

We can argue all day concerning the hard drive brand, but really it's not enough to 'kill the deal' over no matter what it is. If you want to get technical over it, two slightly smaller (or the same size or larger!) drives, where the system OS is on one and Uru is on the other, is a nice way of not burdening the computer with having to access the same drive for low-level OS functions while reading/writing Uru at the same time. The RAID0 suggestion is even better, but it certainly is a cost issue to go that route and truly isn't necessary to play the game well.

You do have a CD/RW/DVD combo drive listed; if you really want to be safe get a standard CD-ROM to use as a secondary (it also helps when burnin' copies of that latest CD album release your friend lent you). But I don't want to make you paranoid over it; my system is six months old and it's optical drives are a DVD and a CDRW (only), and neither of them have any difficulty with the copy protection issues as they are new enough. the 512MB memory is good, it'll help out, and concerning the sound card: a embedded-on-the-motherboard audio rig on most fresh & minty motherboards aren't the best, obviously, but they still still pretty good and won't spoil the Uru experience. If you DO want to get everything out of the ambience of the game however, an EAX-chip equipped card as others have listed above (turtle beach series cards, et al) really add a great additional "wow!" factor to the game.

If it's the only recommended change I would make, it's using XP Pro instead of XP home, for various reasons... Or, if you're into other things that would justify it, run 2000 Pro instead of XP at all. 2000 is similarly an NT kernal OS as is XP, but XP is so FREAKING HUGE in terms of storage space and also likes to run every little service and application in the background, thus lowering performance of the machine.

I hope this helps,
-Blue Max

-Blue Max
(No matter what my Login says)

www.metallicity.com (http://www.metallicity.com)
prophet@metallicity.com

gamelover996

11-19-2003, 11:15 PM

All the responses you've given me have been helpful. I've learned a few things in a couple of days.I'm still chewing on the suggestions and I think I'll sleep on them tonight. If I have a fruitful sleep, I should be joining you in the game in a couple of weeks. Have fun and don't everyone get too far ahead of me in the cavern. I don't have a flashlight and I hear the natural light isn't up to snuff yet!
Thanks all.

Kwartha

11-19-2003, 11:25 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Severinus:
Or, if you're into other things that would justify it, run 2000 Pro instead of XP at all. 2000 is similarly an NT kernal OS as is XP, but XP is so FREAKING HUGE in terms of storage space and also likes to run every little service and application in the background, thus lowering performance of the machine.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I'd really strongly recommend against W2K for game use. XP was much more carefully tuned and tested to be able to run older (w9x) games without crashing. W2K doesn't have nearly as much support for older games, and isn't going to be MS's target for future gaming technologys (i.e. DirectX upgrades). Windows XP was designed, advertised and sold as a home OS, optimised for gamers. It's also far more popular right now, and much better supported by hardware and software developers.

Just my $0.02

maztec

11-19-2003, 11:45 PM

heh, winXP = Win2k + WinMe

That's a whole different box of doughnuts

I personally use Win2k for playing URU and have not had any problems associated with the OS. Whereas I know plenty of people with problems in WinXP.

Then again, I'm mostly a workstation & linux user.

Alkyne

11-21-2003, 07:08 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by gamelover996:
I'm too new to be starting a topic! Where's my tech thread?
To the point. I'm looking at getting a new computer. Yes, URU is the reason. I do want to get online at some point and test the waters of online gaming.
I've come up with the following configuration. It's a bit pricy, but I don't see anything cheap that will run the newest games.
So, if you gurus would look at the following specs and let me know if I'm in the ballpark or have more than I need, I'd appreciate it.

Motherboard Asus P4P800
CPU Intel Pentium4 2.4 GHz 800 FSB
Ram Samsung 512MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM (2)
Hard Drive Western Digital WD800JB 80.0GB
Video Card ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
CD / DVD Rom Pioneer DVD-RW/CD-RW A06 Drive
Communications Jaton WinCOMM 56k v.92 Modem
Operating System Windows XP Home
Power Supply Enermax 430W Whisper Power Supply

Thanks folks!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

What is the RPM's on that 80 gig hard drive? For gaming you'll want 7200 rpm's.

derekpowles

11-23-2003, 02:21 AM

You dont mention USB ports. Most peripherals connect these days with USB v 2. Do you really need a 10/100 ethernet card?

Derek