Computer Upgrade
By
Call Me Awesome,
Posted on: 2010-03-12 13:41 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Honestly, the only thing you may want to keep would be the case, hard drive & DVD drive. Pretty much everything else in the box ought to be replaced.
For sure you want a Motherboard, CPU, RAM & Video Card... almost certainly you'll want a new power supply as well since your old one probably isn't up to running a new video card.
I'm not sure about your case, lots of manufacturers have tight semi-proprietary cases. The good news though is you can get a decent case pretty cheap at Newegg... last I looked adequate ones could be had under $50.
Frankly I'm not current on the latest hardware; I know the intel I7 series have been getting good reviews but they're pricey... the I3 apparently are considerably cheaper and still decent. Video wise ATI seems the way to go with the 5770 being a popular choice in price/performance.
RAM... pick up 4 GB of it for WinXP... 6 GB or more if you also upgrade to Windows 7.
A lot of this depends on your finances, Father Xmas has some nice guides for a $600 & $1,200 machine.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
*whistles* Wow, I'm a little surprised that thing still runs CoH even with the shineys turned off.
I did a quick Google search to find the specs, and judging from those I'd say that computer model came out a good 8+ years ago. In the last 4-5 years, there has been a lot of switching of standards (AGP video cards were forsaken in favor of PCIexpress, SD RAM gave way to DDR, then DDR2 and now DDR3 is the standard...).
Long story short, just like Call Me Awesome said above, there's pretty much nothing you can do to upgrade that system in this day and age simply because the parts it would use are all long out of production. Even if you find the necessary components, your system has a maximum RAM cap of 1GB (note that CMA recommended 4GB above), meaning that at its absolute best, it's going to lag behind a modern computer.
It would almost certainly be a better use of time and money to buy or build a new PC; even if you're not looking for a serious gaming rig, far better computers than the one you're using now can be had refurbished for under $400. If you try to upgrade your current computer, the only difference you'll really notice is that your wallet is lighter.
Main Hero: Chad Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1396 Badges
Main Villain: Evil Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1193 Badges
Mission Architect arcs: Doctor Brainstorm's An Experiment Gone Awry, Arc ID 2093
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!
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Its a 2004 and was $1,200.|
Originally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man
*whistles* Wow, I'm a little surprised that thing still runs CoH even with the shineys turned off.
I did a quick Google search to find the specs, and judging from those I'd say that computer model came out a good 8+ years ago. In the last 4-5 years, there has been a lot of switching of standards (AGP video cards were forsaken in favor of PCIexpress, SD RAM gave way to DDR, then DDR2 and now DDR3 is the standard...). Long story short, just like Call Me Awesome said above, there's pretty much nothing you can do to upgrade that system in this day and age simply because the parts it would use are all long out of production. Even if you find the necessary components, your system has a maximum RAM cap of 1GB (note that CMA recommended 4GB above), meaning that at its absolute best, it's going to lag behind a modern computer. It would almost certainly be a better use of time and money to buy or build a new PC; even if you're not looking for a serious gaming rig, far better computers than the one you're using now can be had refurbished for under $400. If you try to upgrade your current computer, the only difference you'll really notice is that your wallet is lighter. |
what would be a rough cost estimate for a comp at or above minimum specs?
I have an average 6 minutes load and dc, map-serve, or crash about once every 2 hours and takes like 10 minutes to get to login.
1: What is your budget?
2: Are you comfortable building your own or looking for pre-built.
- How much would you LIKE to keep it under?
- How much can you afford if a small bump in price made a major performance difference?
3: Any companies you'd prefer to do business with or prefer NOT to do business with?
4: Any hard and fast wants/needs? Stuff you just GOTTA have?
Answering these question should help provide a much better fit of computer for you than just "go buy a Dell" or "get these parts and you're good".
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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Well, if you build it yourself it's really whatever you want to spend.|
Originally Posted by psycheout
Its a 2004 and was $1,200.
what would be a rough cost estimate for a comp at or above minimum specs? I have an average 6 minutes load and dc, map-serve, or crash about once every 2 hours and takes like 10 minutes to get to login. |
Here's Father Xmas' guides, he's already gathered all the info together:
$600 machine
$1,200 machine
And his well written guide to components
If you're shopping for a new machine already put together there's a few criteria:
Quad Core CPU, ideally intel I3 or I7 series, as fast as you can afford.
RAM - minimum of 4 GB, with a Windows 7 machine I'd push that to 6 GB.
Video Card - I'd say at least an ATI 5770 or higher or an Nvidia 260GTX or higher.
You'll pay a little more for that because you'll be buying a new monitor, keyboard, mouse and the like along with the machine itself. Actually that may not be a bad idea since your monitor is pretty small and a 4x3 ratio instead of a newer widescreen. I'd want at least a 20" widescreen monitor... of course I'm a bit spoiled with a pair of 24" monitors on my personal machine and three 27" monitors on my work computer.
In any case a modern machine will be a really MASSIVE improvement over your existing computer, frankly I'm somewhat surprised it manages to run COH at all at 1024x768 (your monitor's resolution).
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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At minimum specs? You probably can't even BUY anything that LOW anymore. Any hardware that the game recommended has been replaced by newer, better things.|
Originally Posted by psycheout
Its a 2004 and was $1,200.
what would be a rough cost estimate for a comp at or above minimum specs? I have an average 6 minutes load and dc, map-serve, or crash about once every 2 hours and takes like 10 minutes to get to login. |
If price is a concern, you can make a machine that'll run CoH (as is,probably not including Ultra Mode) for around 400 bucks. However, when upgrading your machine, you want something that's a little more future-proof. After all, why spend money on a new computer if it won't run any new games?
Still, I've put together a "cheapo wish list" for you. This will run CoH with no problems, and maybe even some modern games, too. The video card is the highest-end part, but the processor and memory may bottleneck your performance...
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=14238326
Note that this does not include a case or a cd drive. However, this rig, which is a bit better than my current one* (which runs CoH fine at medium settings), costs UNDER 400 bucks. If you want more RAM or a better processor or more bells and whistles on your motherboard, you can always go for something better. Also, the HD is bare-bones, which means you may not get a SATA cable to go from it to the motherboard, you you may have to buy one of those.
The main thing to remember when putting together a new computer is to make sure everything matches up! Do NOT get an AMD processor and an Intel-based motherboard. Do NOT get ddr2 memory if the motherboard supports ddr3 (the one i gave you uses ddr2). Do NOT get an AGP-type graphics card if your board only supports PCI-E (these are slot types that the cards will slide into). That's the main reason I made a list for you, so that you could see all the common threads that link the components together so you don't end up ordering parts that are incompatible with each other.
Note that, AMD/Intel aside, that brand names don't matter for compatibility. You CAN get an ATI motherboard and use a Nvidia graphics card. You CAN use any power supply with just about any case.
Hope this helps!
* My current rig: 2 gig single-core proc, 2 gigs of DDR ram, Ge-Force 6600GT. So yeah, the computer i recommended for you is arguably twice as good as mine!
-STEELE =)
Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)
Thank you all very much, might post a few questions(and answers) later but as this is mom's computer can't speak for budget. Weird thing about loads though is at say 1 am PST the loads can drop to about 2-3 minutes and have got a 30 before loading into Winter Lord's Zone without dcing.(wished that one would have dced and saved me the time)
Getting job during the summer and will be able to get a non-budget comp then, Dad works in Hawaii and every day I can will be doing clean up stuff at his work-site.
Deleted
bookmarked all of this for future reference but my mom got laptop for an online class and for now using that is more then good enough.(she only needs 4 hours a day max)
On this comp (new one is being used by someone else presently) my gaming experience was as follows:
-->it would take about 12 minutes to get to login screen
-->about 3 minutes on first load in after I opened it and average 6 after that in low average traffic zones on freedom, best loads were like 2 minutes and anything considered near busy and it averaged about 10 minutes.
-->I had the graphics down to a point I don't think it will let me get to on the new comp
--> had 504 mb of ram and many people commented it was a miracle I could play
--> it was average for me to disconnect, map-serve, or crash ever 4 loads
-->It was a danger for me to use WW and would take 4-10 minutes to load it and was extremely slow to use.
--> when I dced if I did not close and reopen CoH I would dc upon reloading
Now:
-->recommended graphics looks like I upgraded from Nintendo(original) to a 360
-->about a minute to load login screen and less then 20 seconds to zone
--> I load WW in just a few seconds
Its so beautiful and fast I cried.
Quote:
Minimum specs? $50. You're at minimum, unless you're talking ultra mode. (Honestly. Had a system .... two systems ago, 32 bit Sempron CPU, Geforce 6800, 1.5 Gb Ram, ran "ok." The system that replaced *it* I could probably build for under $500 now, and even though it's retired - acting as my TV |
Originally Posted by psycheout
Its a 2004 and was $1,200.
what would be a rough cost estimate for a comp at or above minimum specs? |
- it still ran COH rather well.)Follow the links to FatherXmas's guides, for a start. $600 and $1200. Here's the parts list (minus win7, monitor, etc.) for my current system - it was a bit cheaper with the sales I used, too. (Doesn't show the G110 keyboard added later, either.)
Upgrading computer and wanted to know what would be best things to get to be around recommended lvs.
What can I keep and just add the upgrades to it?
I know I need ram, graphics card, and maybe a better processor.
Here is the technical readout from the CoH Helper:
---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.8---
DxDiag gathered at February 7, 2010 19:56 (-08:00)
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090804-1435)
System Manufacturer: HP Pavilion 061
System Model: PS578AA-ABA A1016X
BIOS: BIOS Date: 03/31/05 20:06:54 Ver: 08.00.10
Central Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz
Memory: 504MB
.Net Memory Report: 103MB out of 503MB available
Page File: 346MB (879MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST3160023AS) 104344MB out of 145478MB (71%) free
D Drive: (ST3160023AS) 1882MB out of 7125MB (26%) free
E Drive: (HP DVD Writer 640b) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DirectX Diag version: 5.03.2600.5512 (32-bit version)
Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.
Monitor: HP vs15 flat panel monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: 1024,768
Video Device Name: Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer / Chip: Intel Corporation / Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Controller
Video Memory: 128.0 MB
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.3943
Driver Date: 11/2/2004 8:19:48 AM
Driver Language: English
Sound Device Description: Realtek HD Audio rear output
Driver File: RtkHDAud.sys
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.5033
Driver Date: 10/13/2004 4:33:20 PM
WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: Goldfish3
Motherboard Version: 1.xx
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 03/31/05 20:06:54 Ver: 08.00.10
BIOS Version: A M I - 3000531
BIOS Release: 20050331000000.000000+000
Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 800x600
3D Resolution: 800x600 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: No
Physics Quality: None
Maximum Particles: 100
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No
Anti-aliasing: None
Anisotropic Filtering: None
Texture LOD Bias: Crisp
Water Effects: None
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: No
Shader Detail: Lowest
World Texture Level: Low
Character Texture Level: Medium
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 0.500
Entity Detail Level: 0.300
Shadows Enabled: No
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: No
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: Yes
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes
Audio Mode: Compatiblity
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600
Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.000
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 106189 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1600.20091102.9T4
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes
Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found