System reccomendations.
By
Father Xmas,
Posted on: 2011-04-20 22:26 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Missing parts.
Optical drive. Pick a SATA DVD burner for around $20 at NewEgg.
Video Card.
Copy of the OS. Win 7 SP1 OEM disk is $100 at NewEgg.
A "better" CPU cooler.
Depends on what you are planning to scavenge from your old box.
From the product FAQ on Thermaltake's website, that case can handle a heatsink no taller than 163mm. That means the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ can just fit at 159mm, assuming the product sheet isn't fibbing (FrostyTech review says it's 161mm). It's currently $35 at NewEgg.
FrostyTech is a good source for reviews that include size if you go another way with the CPU cooler (Zalman, Xigmatech, Thermatake or other brand).
In the $150-200 range for video cards it's basically either an HD 6850 or a 1GB GTX 460 (NOT the 460SE), both in the high end of that range (before rebate) and are about 3x as powerful as your HD 4650. In the low end of that range it's either the HD 6790 or the even slower GTX 550Ti. They are 15-25% slower than the HD 6850 or 1GB GTX 460. Note that there are some insanely overclocked 1GB GTX 460s in the 850MHz range that are well worth the price.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Thanks for the advice. I was planning to scavenge my dvd burner for my old machine, and forgot to mention that. It doesn't look like that MB supports PATA, though.
The 1GB 460 GTX is what I was leaning towards if I did go for a new card. It didn't look like there was much performance gain over it without spending a lot. The ATI cards do look like they might have better performance, but I've been hearing a lot of complaints about drivers locking up/crashing lately from people I play with.
Had been considering upgrading my system lately, apparently it decided to act first. Main disk is toast and formatting it fails to fix the problem. Need to back up data on the secondary drive before I attempt to use it as the main disk. Assuming its the motherboard and not the disk, and maybe even if it is just the disk, considering going with a new machine.
This looks interesting to me, but I havent really followed hardware in a while, outside of basic specs:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.614427
I would add win7, and it needs a vid card. Out side of that, it seems to be everything, except perhaps for a better CPU cooler? It tends to top 80, sometimes 90 degrees where the machine sits in the summer.
On the video card, what is a good deal at the moment? I don't really want to spend more than $150-$200 on top of the rest. If there isn't a good deal, I currently have a radeon 4650, which seems a little lightweight for that, but it should work for a while and its good enough to make coh look good enough for me, just no AA.
Thanks