Im looking at getting a new pc (For $500 NZD/ $332 USD) and im just wondering would this be alright for playing games (Call Of Duty 4,Company Of Heroes,Etc.) But most importantly i want to know what upgrades i should get im looking at mid range stuff as i dont really care to much for flashy visuals and AA. Im mainly looking at upgrading the CPU,RAM and the graphics card to either a 4870 or a 9800gtx or something along the lines of that but then again im new to gaming and PC's in general so just tell me what you think? So here are the specs -AMD AM2 4800X2 Dual-Core CPU @ 3Ghz -Asus M2N-SLi Motherboard -G-Skill 2GB RAM -XFX 8600GT (at 8600GTS speeds) 256MB -Cooler Master 500 Watt Power Supply -Cooler Master Centurion Case Oh and should i get Full Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit?
Hello and welcome to HWF I have just a few questions/advice for you: Get a 4870 but for a mid range PC a 4850 should do the trick if you have the extra cash then go for 4870 of course. if your going to get Vista ultimate 64bit then i suggest you get 4GB or more of memory. If less then 4gb then stick with XP
will the 500 watt power supply be enough to power the 4870 and what cpu should i upgrade to or should i just leave it in there and yes im going to get at least 4-8gb of ram with it, Ram is cheap enough to be able to get 8gb any specific type of ram i should get within reasonable price? Oh and the pc comes with heaps of games on it (Crysis,Stalker,COD4,BF2 and of course counter strike source)
Some good questions and hopefully i will answer them well - I don't know the particular model PSU you are using so i can't say if it's any good but the most important thing to make sure that it has TWO 6 pin PCI-e connectors because the 4870 and i think the 4850 also needs two of them. As for power consumption i think you should be fine, i mean your PSU peak wattage will probably be something like 560watt but you better check. If you click on my computer near my profile name then you can check out my rig and im powering quite a lot of stuff including the 4870 with a 580watt PSU. For memory i recommend you get DDR2 6400 (800MHz), they are very cheap to get so indulge your self lol As for upgrading the CPU why don't you consider getting a Phenom with a new mobo???
One quick thing.... you might not be able to achieve playable framerates with that single 256 vid card for a game like crysis. If you have extra $$ to spend (as the RAM upgrade was a good call and I'm still partial to Win XP), I'd start with a higher end vid card. Newegg and TigerDirect run specials all of the time so it's worth checking out. I have one pc with an 8600GT and it still tends toward the choppy side on any real resolution settings. Don't get me wrong... I love that card for the price (buy 2 and SLI them), just not sure you'll have enough horsepower for high-end games. I think with the SLI config, however, you'd need a heartier psu. Maybe something like the following.... Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N975-AR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards In any case, good luck.
