A PC for Bioshock

Ok, here's the new setup. Keyboard chopped off the top as it wouldn't fit on screen.
Total cost has gone up from the initial list. :( It's now at £943.33

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Id still alter the ram for the slightly cheaper OCZ stuff, but thats personal preference.

And i would still be seeing a 640MB GTS in there, the stutter issue with the 320MB is enough to put me off. But then oc the GTX is only £50 or so more than the GTS 640MB at £290 hence I recommended it.

I personally would also go with the Abit board, but thats just me as I've used it and was quite impressed for a budget board. The Asus im sure would be just as good.

Other than that, looks spot on to me.
 
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If there's motherboards/RAM that's slightly cheaper that will do the same job, I'll gladly go for that.

But over £200 for a graphics card is far too much, in my opinion.
 
Personally, I'd go with this...



Overclock the E2160 to 3GHz and your away. You could swap the 8800GTS for the 640MB, but this would push the total just over £1000.
 
manic_man said:
Why though?

I have one myself and am getting sick and tired of the popping and crackling personally!

Presuming the PCi-E one doesnt loose EAX, as it certainly doesnt seem to, why is that one for £20 more the best one?
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what setup have you got running it, never had any issues on mine and had it for a while.

presuming the pci-e one doesnt lose eax is ok as long as it doesnt when you get it, more games seem to be looking to included it so it depends on you're hearing, as to whether you actually notice the difference, or you dont care to have eax.
 
its on a 680i C2D setup.

I thought it was the speakers (Z-5400) and creative relaced them for me (had a few other issues too) but it hasnt been solved. Its like a low thump at random intervals.

Its quite well documented across lots of different platforms, currently most agree its due to a total lack of EMI shielding, something all manufacturers other than Asus are guilty of at the moment.

Anyway, I dont own the PCI-E one, im only going off the reports in the Sound forum. Certainly if Vista is going on this new machine then DirectSound EAX is less of a consideration anyway, EAX wont die as a concept but it will be implemented through OpenAL from now on, the branding itself might dissapear also, really depends whether Creative want to kill EAX or not.
 
Looks like a good setup all in all, still think you stump the £50 for the 640MB GTS ;) ;)

Anyway re: drivers, I dont think so. I installed XP onto a P35 setup that used the Abit board i mentioned before, from what I recall no third party driver disks were required during XP install. That was a XP SP2 disk though.

All you should need in total are:

Intel INF drivers
Creative X-Fi drivers (Software will come on a CD for XP)
Nvidia Drivers
*Any other peripherals you may have

Should about do it!

All of the above are available from the manufacturers website.
 
I think, from a conversation about XP and SATA I had a while ago, that the service pack 2 disk might be the important bit. I haven't got an installation disk with service pack 2, but I can probably borrow one.
 
I wouldn't get the 320mb GTS not if your intending to keep it a while, only get that if your intending to upgrade it again in a couple of months or so when Crysis gets here, and the other Dx10 games start appearing, as the 320mb GTS won't always cut it it 1680x1050, and especially not in Dx10 games that need more memory for the bigger textures they use, so either 640mb GTS or 2900 XT (which is faster), or if you can afford it the GTX.
 
If I do anything to the video card, it will be downgrading. There's nothing demanding I can see on the immediate horizon that I'm interested in, so the only question is if it can run Bioshock. I'm fairly sure a lesser card than the one I've got in the list currently could run Bioshock, and if that's true, maybe I should get something lesser and upgrade in a couple of years when there's actually something I want to play that needs a better card.

Or, y'know, I could get a smaller and cheaper monitor.
 
Trust me, you dont wanna be running BioShock on that monitor using anything less than an 8800 series.

I have tried the demo on my 7900GTO and whilst its.. ok.. my monitors 1600x1200 res is just too darned slow.

First thing ill be buying is an 8800GTX when i have some more money :)

The 320MB GTS should be ok, I think all people are saying is that given how much components loose value, the 640MB one will see you through for longer and for not a huge amount of extra outlay now given you are already spending near on a grand.
 
I havent used a PCI-E Soundcard before,

But i presume you have it in the first PCE-E 1x slot directly under the main PCi-E 16x black one? (going from the pic)

If so could try the two at the bottom as well?

It sounds like something is currently showing up in Windows XP as a device at least, as you say you have the drivers installed? Whats this called in Device Manager?

Have you installed the newest Intel INF and ALL available XP updates?

Edit: Also make sure the onboard sound is totally disabled when you are trying to use the creative card, having both enabled is almost invariably likely to cause problems.
 
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