Is this comp good enough?
By
Father Xmas,
Posted on: 2010-12-30 22:26 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Yes, the graphics is sad. Not as sad as a system with integrated graphics but the HD 5450 is more suited for a quiet home theater system where playing back Blu-ray and DVDs without stressing a low end CPU than serious 3D gaming. I would say the HD 5770 is the minimum (they also offer the HD 5670) if you want to scope out the Ultramode settings.
Memory is fine. But do you really need Blu-ray (understandable option if you tend to watch movies on your PC)?
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Thanks for the response Father Xmas and no I dont really need the blue-ray. The comp is in my den/office and I thought maybe later down the road I might up the size of the monitor and use it to watch an occasional movie but it is certainly not a neccesity. I will drop it down to the standard drive and see if I can up the graphics card. |
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Yes, the graphics is sad. Not as sad as a system with integrated graphics but the HD 5450 is more suited for a quiet home theater system where playing back Blu-ray and DVDs without stressing a low end CPU than serious 3D gaming. I would say the HD 5770 is the minimum (they also offer the HD 5670) if you want to scope out the Ultramode settings.
Memory is fine. But do you really need Blu-ray (understandable option if you tend to watch movies on your PC)? |
Thanks again. I would have been PO'd if I ordered and been disappointed with the graphics. From what I can gather, the AMD processors shouold work fine. Is that a good assumption?
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Originally Posted by PapaSlade
It still fires up and does what I need it to but it is time to add a new machine to the fleet and put the old one into reserve status.
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| Monitor Dell IN2020M 20-inch HD Widescreen Monitor with LED |
6GB is plenty of RAM but I'm wondering, why 6? If it's dual channel, I would have expected 4 or 8 GB.
Regarding the CPU, you might want to check if dropping to 4 cores would save you any money. Six sounds like a lot more than you need, based on your description of your computing activities.
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Well, I plan to rework the den so we can use the existing comp if the other is using the new one. She currently uses my laptop if I am on the main comp but when summer rolls around, and work picks back up, I have a tendency to not drag it out of the truck, in the garage, every night since I have a platform to mount it as a work station in my truck.|
Originally Posted by Ironblade
Since the old one is going into 'reserve status', and it sounds like you have additional computers, do you really need another monitor? If that "with LED" means 'LED backlight' that sounds like a recent model monitor. Ditching that and putting the $$ toward the video card might be the way to go. Also, limiting the size of the monitor means less work for the video card.
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Originally Posted by Ironblade
6GB is plenty of RAM but I'm wondering, why 6? If it's dual channel, I would have expected 4 or 8 GB
Regarding the CPU, you might want to check if dropping to 4 cores would save you any money. Six sounds like a lot more than you need, based on your description of your computing activities. |
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6GB because Dell has a warehouse full of 1GB sticks they need to unload and 4GB (as 4x1GB) would tick people off.
Also it's relatively cheap to do but seems premium to the average user.
Also possible due to Intel i7-9xx CPU models come in 6 or 12GB from other manufacturers.
Upgrades for Studio XPS 7100.
CPU: Base 2.7GHz Phenom II X6 1045T
Upgrade: 3.0GHz Phenom II X6 1075T for $50
Upgrade: 3.2GHz Phenom II X6 1090T for $90
Graphics: Base HD 5450
Upgrade: HD 5670 for $50; ~2.8x faster than HD 5450 in games
Upgrade: HD 5770 for $130; ~ 4.7x faster than HD 5450 in games
Upgrade: HD 5870 for $290; ~ 8.0x faster than HD 5450 in games
Dropping the Blu-ray saves $100.
Video card performance estimates based on figures from TechPowerUP.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Thanks for checking in again Father Xmas. Going from memeory I went with the 3 GHz 1075, the HD 5770 and bumped up from 6 to 8 GB. I dropped the blue ray player.
I also suggested to the wife that, intead of returning the Intuos professional pen tablet she got as part of her Xmas bonus from work and adding a couple hundred bucks for a new flat screen in the family room, we add 50 bucks or so and put that towards a monitor and speakers at best buy and she went for it!!! So no monitor and speakers from Dell.
System should be here around the 18th. I am sure it is not ideal but I am close to my budget and it should be a big improvement over the current machine.
Thanks again for the input.
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Any reason for going with Win 7 Ultimate - that offers very little over the Professional version if you need the enterprise connectivity or Home Premium which would be the best option for most people.
Also insist on original CDs/DVD for all software - don't rely on recovery discs - if the HD fails and you lose the recovery partition it will be useless.
Dell make decent Office spec machines but they are easily beaten for anything that will run games well and anything that will run games at all will run Office.
I'd suggest looking around for a gaming spec PC and then installing an OEM copy of office on it. You will want a better graphics card even if its at the expense of the CPU speed.
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I played CoH with a 5670. Under normal graphics it handles it no problem. Ultra mode forget it. You have to scale everything down to the point it looks ugly. 5750/5770 is the minimum ATI card I would stick in the game if you intend to play the game in Ultra mode.
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Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Yes, the graphics is sad. Not as sad as a system with integrated graphics but the HD 5450 is more suited for a quiet home theater system where playing back Blu-ray and DVDs without stressing a low end CPU than serious 3D gaming. I would say the HD 5770 is the minimum (they also offer the HD 5670) if you want to scope out the Ultramode settings.
Memory is fine. But do you really need Blu-ray (understandable option if you tend to watch movies on your PC)? |
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
And that's why I didn't recommend it. Upon further examination they also offered the HD 5870, but at $290 that's a little much for a recommendation.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
I know this gets asked repeatedly and I have spent the better part of today looking over various comp configurations online and here on the forums and quite frankly....my head hurts.
I have been playing on a Dell XPS 400 since I bought this game almost 5 years ago. It still fires up and does what I need it to but it is time to add a new machine to the fleet and put the old one into reserve status.
I know squat about computers. I want to be able to experience the new graphics and still be able to use the comp for basic office applications as the wife and I both do some side consulting in our fields. I was hoping to max out at $1200 but that seems to be impossible. This is what I am thinking about:
Studio XPS 7100
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
Module Description Show Details
Studio XPS 7100 Studio XPS 7100 Minitower
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
Processor and Graphics AMD Phenom II X6 1045T + ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB
Memory 6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMS
Keyboard Dell Consumer Multimedia Keyboard
Monitor Dell IN2020M 20-inch HD Widescreen Monitor with LED
Hard Drive 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
Mouse Dell Laser Mouse
Network Card Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Modem No Modem Option
Adobe Software Adobe® Reader 9.0
Optical Drives Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Sound THX® TruStudio PC
Speakers Dell AY511 Attached Speaker w/ 5.1 Surround for Dell Monitors
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft® Office Home and Business 2010
Security Software McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
Hardware Support Services 2 Year Basic Service Plan
Datasafe DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
Recovery Tools Recovery DVD for Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
Sub total:$1,382.99
Am I shorting myself with the graphics card? Is the memory enough? Did I miss anything or do I have something I dont need?
Any help would be great.
The Revenants and Vengeance Imperium-Triumph, Champion & now flavoring Justice!
Tanker Tuesdays & Brutal Thursdays. If you like fun, look'em up!
Shhh! Rangle is plotting.