new pc build- input/recommendations very welcome

[namehater]

i got shadowrun and vista home premium last week, but my pc wont run shadowrun worth a crap, vista scores my pc at 2.5 i think and shadowrun says it needs 4.0+, im gonna rebuild my pc very soon, but money is a bit of an issue, im wanting cheap, but maintain upgrade ability, all my pc experience points me towards nvidia video cards, amd processors, and asus motherboards



heres my current pc build-

processor- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Newcastle 2.2GHz Socket 754

motherboard- ASUS K8N-E DELUXE Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb

video card- PNY 6800GT 256mb AGP 4x/8x

memory- 1gb Kingston Hyper-X

power supply- Antec TRUE550 ATX 550W Power Supply



heres my cheap build, just something to get my foot in the door with the newer socket sizes and pci video

processor- AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA3800CUBOX - Retail

motherboard- ASUS M2N-E SLI Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 500 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

video card- ASUS EN8500GTSILENT/HTD/256 GeForce 8500GT 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

memory- G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL6S-2GBMQ - Retail



does this look like a solid enough build to get me playing shadowrun on my pc? once i get my foot in the door, ill be able to upgrade mobo, pro, video, and ram later, but as it is i have to buy everything at once right now so i cant do what i want heh, btw im gonna sell my old parts if anybody is interested

[Peench]

Those specs look pretty good, but what does the performance index indicate are your weak points in your system. My system here at the office scores a 2.5 also, but that's only b/c of the video card (which is weird b/c its a fairly good 512MB card). Everything else in my system scores at 4 or so, but the overall rating is dragged down b/c of the graphics card. If you check out the individual ratings, you might be able to get away with minor upgrades for now to only those components that are scoring low.

But if they are all scoring low, then rock out with a new system!! If you can drop another 2 GB of RAM in there I would do that. I would also see if you can focus on a video card that is recommended for game play and has all the bells and whistles for it. That should bring up your performance rating quite a bit.

[Crippler]

Good lord, your current PC isn't bad. I would try bumping the RAM to 2Gb first and see how that helps, if at all. Then try upgrading the video card. A dual core CPU is great, but is anything really coded for these dual core processors yet? Frankly, I'm waiting for the quad core AMD parts.

[dmiller68]

My laptop scores 4.8... Maybe thats why I only get 2 hours of battery life.

Yeah I would look at the sub items it well tell you where you need the upgrade and you can work from there.

[namehater]

well, the thing was really throwing me off is the fact that shadowrun calls for dual core processor, the only way for me to achieve this is to change out my entire motherboard, and if im doing that, might as well get ram and video a little more up to date, id hate to buy more ram for this setup just to find it not work, and then have more stuff to sell, i think i actually have a 512mb stick of kingston hyperX that im not using just because its a step down in speed, i think it is 2700 and the 1gb im using is 3200, ill slap that stick in and see what the game does

unfortunately i built this beast of a pc at the end of the socket 754's life and PCI video was just starting to come out, what a bad investment that was heh

[namehater]

and my case is a ThermalTake XaserIII, big bulky and case alone weighs like 30lbs i think, another mistake on this build lol

[Crippler]

Originally Posted by namehater

unfortunately i built this beast of a pc at the end of the socket 754's life and PCI video was just starting to come out, what a bad investment that was heh

That's one reason why I decided to do all of my gaming on a console. I was tired of all the upgrading. Plus, sitting on my couch gaming on a 46" HDTV beat my monitor hands down.

[namehater]

crippler- i totally agree with you, thats why i fell head over heals for the 360, but i wanna play shadowrun on both heh

btw, i found the actual system req for shadowrun HERE

from the looks of it, im barely skatin by on all the minimum specs

[Peench]

Wow, those are pretty steep!

Component	Recommended system requirements	Minimum system requirements
Operating system	Windows Vista	Windows Vista
Computer processor	Intel Core Duo CPU or AMD FX Dual Core CPU	3.2 gigahertz (GHz)
Memory	2 gigabytes (GB) of random access memory (RAM)	1 GB of RAM
Hard disk space	7 GB of available hard disk space, the dedicated server and the map editor require more hard disk space	7 GB of available hard disk space, the dedicated server and the map editor require more hard disk space
Video card	ATI X1800 or NVIDIA 7800 or higher, NVIDIA 7800 display adapter with 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM or more Vertex Shader Model 2.a, 3.0, or higher Pixel Shader Model 2.b, 3.0, or higher	ATI X800 or NVIDIA 6800 display adapter with 256 MB of RAM or more and the following features: • Vertex Shader Model 2.a • Pixel Shader Model 2.b
DVD drive	32x speed	32x speed
Sound	Sound card, speakers, or headset	Sound card, speakers, or headset
Pointing device	Microsoft mouse or a compatible pointing device	Microsoft mouse or a compatible pointing device
Internet connection for online play	Network adapter for LAN multiplayer gameplay Broadband Internet access for Windows Live multiplayer gameplay	Network adapter for LAN multiplayer gameplay Broadband Internet access for Windows Live multiplayer gameplay

[namehater]

ya, its pretty crazy, last pc game i played only required 512mb, oh how times have changed...

[namehater]

ok, so now that im at home i can give you my pc ratings according to Vista

processor- 4.1
memory (ram)- 2.5
graphics- 5.9
gaming graphics- 4.8
hard disk- 5.9

i added that 3rd 512mb stick of kingston, which is 2700, my other 1gb is 3200 and my memory dropped to 2.4, i double checked and my pc is recognizing the ram and everything just fine, any ideas on this?

[namehater]

i pulled that pc2700 512mb stick back out and overclocked my ram as much as i could and got my memory rating up to 3.3, so ive pretty much decided to just upgrade my ram and run with it, i can actually play shadowrun with it now, its just not up to my par yet heh

[Peench]

Sounds like you're money would be better spent upgrading your RAM with new sticks and/or more memory. That should work well!

[lovekeiiy]

Originally Posted by dmiller68

...I only get 2 hours of battery life. ...

I only get 45 minutes on my laptop that I use most. It drops to about 30 minutes when I've got the wireless card plugged in. So, it could be worse. Note: I wasn't expect long battery life out of this Alienware area 5700.

[Peench]

I just re-checked mine. Man, my graphics card either sucks or its having a hard time keeping up with both of my monitors:

[namehater]

what cpu and ram you running peench?