Associate
- Joined
- 17 Apr 2006
- Posts
- 3
Hi guys (and gals),
I'm new here and would like to run a few questions by you experts. I'm not a total hardware noob - I know most of the terms and usually have at least some idea of what most are about - but I'm not at the cutting edge and nor do I know what's considered the best in the way of graphics cards, RAM etc. at the moment.
Here's my system:
ASUS A8N-E
AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 2.41 Ghz, Socket 939 (Venice)
Club 3D ATI Radeon X800 XL PCIe 256 MB
Memory: 1.5 GB total: (using 3 out of 4 RAM slots)
1 x Kingston HyperX 512 MB module DDR 400 (PC3200)
2 x generic modules 512 MB DDR 400 (PC3200)
Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)
Ultron UN-550PFC PSU (550W)
40 GB Samsung SATA II HDD, 8 mb cache
40 GB Hitachi SATA I HDD, 8 mb cache
160 GB Western Digital HDD, 8 mb cache
NEC 1760NX 17" TFT monitor
Sony DVD-RW + Samsung CD-RW
Logitech Z 560 400W, THX surround sound speaker system
Antec P160W-EU mid-tower ATX gaming case
My first question is: if I made one single hardware upgrade (e.g. more RAM, new video card) and my aim was better overall gaming performance (fps I suppose), what would you recommend? Let's say I've got £300 to spend.
If you say a new video card, what would you recommend? I play Rome Total War most of the time so I really want better performance in that (and I've heard elsewhere that Nvida cards are better for RTW), but I also play Call of Duty, Freelancer, various WW1 flight games, American Conquest. I'd also like a card which will handle Medieval 2: Total War, the successor to RTW well.
I hear that ATI cards are better for AMD systems - would you agree?
If more RAM is the best choice, what would you recommend?
In this connection, I'm probably looking to move up to 2 Gb anyway at some point. Would I be better off buying up HyperX (3 more 512 MB sticks) and discarding the generic RAM, or should I forget HyperX and buy a 2-Gb dual-channel set by someone else? How do you rate HyperX? I don't see it much mentioned in these forums.
At the moment, my 3DMark scores are as little as half the scores for some other systems using similar or even identical components. I have no idea why this is, but I'm not overclocking any of my hardware.
I may try later when I feel more adventurous, but right now, I'm interested in buying my way to better performance.
Thanks for any advice you may have!
Cheers, Englaender31
I'm new here and would like to run a few questions by you experts. I'm not a total hardware noob - I know most of the terms and usually have at least some idea of what most are about - but I'm not at the cutting edge and nor do I know what's considered the best in the way of graphics cards, RAM etc. at the moment.
Here's my system:
ASUS A8N-E
AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 2.41 Ghz, Socket 939 (Venice)
Club 3D ATI Radeon X800 XL PCIe 256 MB
Memory: 1.5 GB total: (using 3 out of 4 RAM slots)
1 x Kingston HyperX 512 MB module DDR 400 (PC3200)
2 x generic modules 512 MB DDR 400 (PC3200)
Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)
Ultron UN-550PFC PSU (550W)
40 GB Samsung SATA II HDD, 8 mb cache
40 GB Hitachi SATA I HDD, 8 mb cache
160 GB Western Digital HDD, 8 mb cache
NEC 1760NX 17" TFT monitor
Sony DVD-RW + Samsung CD-RW
Logitech Z 560 400W, THX surround sound speaker system
Antec P160W-EU mid-tower ATX gaming case
My first question is: if I made one single hardware upgrade (e.g. more RAM, new video card) and my aim was better overall gaming performance (fps I suppose), what would you recommend? Let's say I've got £300 to spend.
If you say a new video card, what would you recommend? I play Rome Total War most of the time so I really want better performance in that (and I've heard elsewhere that Nvida cards are better for RTW), but I also play Call of Duty, Freelancer, various WW1 flight games, American Conquest. I'd also like a card which will handle Medieval 2: Total War, the successor to RTW well.
I hear that ATI cards are better for AMD systems - would you agree?
If more RAM is the best choice, what would you recommend?
In this connection, I'm probably looking to move up to 2 Gb anyway at some point. Would I be better off buying up HyperX (3 more 512 MB sticks) and discarding the generic RAM, or should I forget HyperX and buy a 2-Gb dual-channel set by someone else? How do you rate HyperX? I don't see it much mentioned in these forums.
At the moment, my 3DMark scores are as little as half the scores for some other systems using similar or even identical components. I have no idea why this is, but I'm not overclocking any of my hardware.
I may try later when I feel more adventurous, but right now, I'm interested in buying my way to better performance.
Thanks for any advice you may have!
Cheers, Englaender31
