Best specs for gaming

J

jamie85

Geek Trainee
[edited]
On my upstairs computer i dont have any games but i was thinking of buying a graphics card and some extra memory so i can play games on it. i currently run:
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
256MB DDR-SDRAM
80GB HDD
Running Win XP and SuSE 9.0

Whats the best cost effective way of making games playable on my machine?

I was thinking of buying a 512MB memory chip but im not sure about the gfx card, dont want to spend to much you see!

also i am looking to buy FarCry and i imagine that would nead a half decent gfx card?
 
512mb (total) would be the least amount you want if you wanna play games. I suggest you buy a stick of the same brand and same speed.

As for the video card, a 9600 pro, or a 9600 if you're on a tight budget is what you want.
Anything below that and it's a waste of money, as far as gaming goes IMO.
 
Im guessing a 9200 isnt a good idea then. I found a 9600 Pro 128MB for £82 which i can stretch too. Will that be able to cope with a game like FarCry?

How much should 512MB memory cost because the prices i have seen have ranged from £50 - £100+??
 
It depends of the brand and speed but I suggest getting some Kingston ValueRam as it is what I'm using right now and I'm very pelased with it.

A stick of 512mb PC3200 costs $115 usd (£60) at newegg.com and $175 cad at ncix.com (£70) so expect to pay at least £70 for it.
 
I've bought this kind of RAM a while ago and it lasted 3 months.

I might have been very unlucky but I won't take that chance anymore.

The next RAM I bought is the one you're seeing in my sig (as well as the one I suggested) and I couldn't be happier with it.

RAM is one of the places you don't wanna try saving money on. Same goes for the psu and hdd imo. Why not the mobo ? Well you can get excellent mobos nowadays at very cheap prices.

EDIT: If you can't afford more for your RAM at the moment, I say you wait a bit more until you have enough money.
 
Agreed. If you want something inexpensive, Kingston ValueRAM is good stuff. If it doesn't say what brand you're getting, don't buy it. I'm not saying to go plunk down your life savings for some Corsair, but do make sure you buy a good brand: Crucial, Corsair, Kingston, Mushkin, GeiL... I'd avoid PNY and OCZ though. OCZ has a pretty bad rap from a few years ago, and I'm not sure they've cleaned up their act. PNY is overpriced crap, and you can get better memory for less cash.

You can spend time pulling your hair out because you're not willing to buy quality, or you can spend some extra money and have something high-quality that's backed by a solid company. GeiL is fairly new, but they have a lifetime warranty on their stuff and they seem to be a solid pick.
 
Looks good to me.

Black Hawk Down isn't a great game though. The Single Player is very short and I didn't like the multi.

It's not a bad game imo, I actually bought it, but I'm just letting you know.
 
Hmm ok ive only played the multiplayer demo and didnt think it was all that good, but was hoping the single player would be better. I might go for a different game instead, i just really want an Army type game.
 
Then there's Battlefield : Vietnam which is an excellent game IMO.

And there's also America's Army which I've never played but it's completely free !
 
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