Up to 150 pounds to play bioshock, crysis...

rulocal

rulocal

rulocal

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I am contemplating throwing about 150 quid at my set up as detailed below, if I can get it to run new and upcomig games at decent settings.

Epox 9nda3+ Socket 939 Motherboard
Opteron 146 @ 2.5Ghz
2GB Corsair PC3200
Geforce 6800

I was thinking of getting a x1950 AGP graphics card and if necesarry a dual core CPU, for example the 3800. Would this set up be up to the job or should I think of wholesale changes?
 
I'd wait and see how they play first. You have a decent CPU, plenty of memory and an ok graphics card, might not need an upgrade :)
 
Your rig will struggle to play new games at decent settings irrespective of resolution (which you haven't specified), however I wouldn't buy a new AGP card at this point. I'd save up for a PCI-E / C2D-based rig with a 1950 Pro.
 
Robbie G said:
Your rig will struggle to play new games at decent settings irrespective of resolution (which you haven't specified), however I wouldn't buy a new AGP card at this point. I'd save up for a PCI-E / C2D-based rig with a 1950 Pro.
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Thanks for you feedback.

What would you specifically recommend if I went this route? Why would this be a significant step up from a well clocked 3800 and 1950 agp?
 
I'd say try your current setup first too.

Bioshock at high settings ran fine on my 6800 (1440*900), I normally stick to CSS tho.

As said a 3800 X2 and 1950 might work well, if you wait till crysis comes out you may even be able to afford a 8800 in that budget.
 
Shimmy said:
I'd say try your current setup first too.

Bioshock at high settings ran fine on my 6800 (1440*900), I normally stick to CSS tho.

As said a 3800 X2 and 1950 might work well, if you wait till crysis comes out you may even be able to afford a 8800 in that budget.
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Can I get an 8000 with AGP?
 
rlocal said:
Why would this be a significant step up from a well clocked 3800 and 1950 agp?
Click to expand...

Because any C2D is much faster than the Athlon and overclocks like a beast. Make no mistake you'd be able to play things like Crysis O.K. on that rig, but high settings? Nope. By then hopefully the GTSs should be slightly cheaper also making it a potentially viable alternative to a 1950 Pro as you will also get DX10. However the 1950 Pro is an excellent card and if you have no intention of upgrading in the near future I'd get one, but bare in mind you won't be able to hit max settings.
 
Robbie G said:
Because any C2D is much faster than the Athlon and overclocks like a beast. Make no mistake you'd be able to play things like Crysis O.K. on that rig, but high settings? Nope. By then hopefully the GTSs should be slightly cheaper also making it a potentially viable alternative to a 1950 Pro as you will also get DX10. However the 1950 Pro is an excellent card and if you have no intention of upgrading in the near future I'd get one, but bare in mind you won't be able to hit max settings.
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Thanks, that is very helpful. Much food for thought...
 
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;)
 
At 1440x900 the extra RAM isn't all that important. If you feel like spending 10 more it certainly wouldn't hurt performance. You should be able to get that to 3.0+ GHz without too much hassle, provided you have sufficient cooling.
 
I'd agree with the setup above, but you'd save some cash by getting the Gigabyte P35-DS3.

I'd definitely recommend selling up and upgrading.
 
The IP-35E will overclock to similar levels, or at least it won't limit your overclocks before the CPU does. It costs around £20 less, which you could put towards an 8800GTS (or just keep :p).

OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £44.99
(£52.86)
Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard ) £64.99
(£76.36)
OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £61.99
(£72.84)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £37.99
(£44.64)
Sub Total : £209.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £38.31
Total : £257.22

Saves £30 and it's good for 3.2ghz with a half decent cooler, possibly even with the stock if you get a decent CPU.
 
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I've got a 3800x2 2gb and X1950 pro, runs Bioshock+ Moh:Airborne no bother at all.

And much cheaper than the above :)
 
I suppose if you wanted to keep upgrades in mind...but not spend tooooooo much. You could get a new 939 board as well but with pci-e I guess =/

Only problem is then, you can only go so far with the 939 chips in terms of upgrading.

If you could get a cheap 939 board with pci-e....get a graphics card and see how things run. Then if you feel the need upgrade the cpu to a 4400+ or something.

But as many will say if your going to upgrade now, you may as well save up a bit more and just go to core2duo...rather than fathing around =]
 
mosfet said:
I'd agree with the setup above, but you'd save some cash by getting the Gigabyte P35-DS3.

I'd definitely recommend selling up and upgrading.
Click to expand...

I suppose I would get around 100 for my current kit, leaving an upgrade cost of about 150. Seems a good idea, rather than keeping on pouring money into what is, essentially, a dead end system, given the AGP motherboard. I have always had AMD over the years, though. However, reading through some of the threads here, it appears Intel is the way to go at the moment.
 
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