Worried my PC wont be nearly enough for Oblivion :o

KPeh · 17 Mar 2006 at 01:27

You GH'ers did a stellar job on my friends spec here, and all that has made me realise quite how pathetic my own rig is! So want to upgrade for Oblivon, as I doubt it'll run in any resolution other than 800*600 at the moment, and even then on low settings.

So, what I have at the moment is:
A p4 2.8e
9800 Pro
1gb ram (2*512 PC3200 sticks, can't remember manufacturer though)
Abit IC7

And ideally I want to run Oblivion in 1280*1024 with high graphics (not AA/AF particularily). Want this upgrade to last a couple of years. Only other games I'm looking forward to are NWN2 and Spore.

So! On my incredibly tight student loan budget, I'm thinking of getting this:
Asus A8N5X nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
Price: £49.95 (£58.69 Including VAT at 17.5%)
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
Price: £174.95 (£205.57 Including VAT at 17.5%)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
Price: £175.95 (£206.74 Including VAT at 17.5%)
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
Price: £46.95 (£55.17 Including VAT at 17.5%)
***(So 4x 512mb of ram, when added to my current)

Total = £447.80

But if it's not enough to run Oblivion / NWN2 etc, I suppose I could stretch that further if absolutely necessary? Ideally like to spend no more though.

Also, I have a Sparkle FSB 400W PSU. Enough? And compatible? It's probably 2-3 years old.

Thanks

ACESHIGH · 17 Mar 2006 at 02:20

Thats a well specced rig.
I think you should be fine with that spec.
the PSU should be fine, though probably need the 24-20 pin converter.

valerian · 17 Mar 2006 at 05:24

watch out for the 4 x ramsticks pitfall

FrankJH · 17 Mar 2006 at 07:46

valerian said:
watch out for the 4 x ramsticks pitfall

just to explain incase OP doesnt realise - is that AMD's run slower clocks and i also believe this limits oc'ing also , if you use four sticks of ram

To be honest with your constraints ( budget) it wont really bother you, that proposed rig will serve you well although I would try and squeeze in a much better psu myself - never trusted sparkle but thats only personal choice

Otherwise you should have a decent upgrade there

Jokester · 17 Mar 2006 at 07:50

Running 4 sticks won't make that much difference, maybe a 2% difference at most. Having 2GB instead of 1GB will give a more significant boost.

400W might not be enough, dual core + X1900 is going to require a lot of power.

Jokester

Dutch Guy · 17 Mar 2006 at 09:54

Have a look at the specs of your PSU, especially the Amps the PSU gives on the 12V rail, this needs to be well over 20A to have any chance of a stable system.

KPeh · 17 Mar 2006 at 10:34

Apparently there are serious problems with AMD CPUs/chips and 4 sticks of ram, so I guess I'll have to get 2x 1gb. And evidentally a new PSU as well. Can anyone recommend one? Hmm :s.

Also, I'm just wondering how much of an upgrade the 3800+ is from a p4 2.8e? Thinking it might not be worth it, or at least bad value getting one that slow.. Compared with the huge leap between the two graphics cards.

RichieUK · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:01

I've never heard of any problems running 4 sticks of RAM with an AMD CPU? I have 4x 512 Geil Value RAM modules and never had any problem at all :confused:

KPeh · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:06

I'm guilty of posting this thread on two forums (admittedly the other was the oblivion one), but (here):

By someone else in the other thread
Be carefull here. Running all 4 memory slots filled with any Athlon 64/X2/FX can cause reduced performance. If any of the 4 memory modules are double sided, your memory will be forced to run at 333Mhz and command rate of 2T. If they're all single sided sticks, you can run at 400Mhz or higher, but you'll be forced to run a command rate of 2T (significantly slower than 1T)

It's a limitation of the AMD memory controller and is well documented. To get around this you need to run 2 larger capacity sticks instead of 4 smaller ones.
I'm in the same boat btw... I have a fast pair but cant add another 2 without it dropping me to 2T, I've tested it and it's no lie. On my system 2T = about 30% slower than 1T. Even 2gigs at 2T is slower than 1gig at 1T.
I'd advise either buying 2x 1gig sticks right away, or stick with what you have until you can afford them.

RichieUK · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:11

Never heard anything about that. Thanx for the info. Whenever i read anything about upgrading RAM, it always said stuff like - 2gb is ALWAYS better than 1gb, no matter what the speed is. Maybe i read it wrong or something

Fx-Overlord · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:22

KPeh said:
I'm guilty of posting this thread on two forums (admittedly the other was the oblivion one), but (here):

Isn't that 333MHz bug only in revision below Winchester? Or at least, the current cores (Venice and San Diego) have that fixed and you can run 4 x double sided at 400MHz at 2T and 4 x single sided at 400Mhz at 1T

Dutch Guy · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:43

The memory defaults to 333Mhz when it's set to AUTO, most of the time setting it to 200Mhz manually worlks just fine with 4 sticks, especially on newer A64 CPU's

1T however is not possible

G.O.A.T · 17 Mar 2006 at 12:00

Well, i've heared rumours that oblivion will just about run OK on a 1900XTX at 1280*960 with most of the eye candy on. Which means it's more of a performance hog than F.E.A.R?! Could be interesting for those trying to run it with 9800's.

ACESHIGH · 17 Mar 2006 at 12:58

The X2 Dual Core 3800+ will be a decent step up from your prior CPU, but if concerened the next best CPU to get would be the X2 Dual Core 4400+.

also if worried about PSU, i think it should be fine, but as your getting new gear maybe go for something like ...Thermaltake PurePower 560W Silent Power Supply (W0023R) (CA-024-TT)

KPeh · 17 Mar 2006 at 17:00

Right, well I've decided not to take the risk with the memory. I've gone for a Tagan PSU as people seem to like them about here (would have prefered FSB - I've used 4 of them in the past and they've all been fantastic - but the current ones have a blue LED

). So,

Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£70.44
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£105.69
Asus A8N5X nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-120-AS)
£58.69
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£206.74
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£205.57

**Edit: total: £650, ouch, a bit pricier than I expected, hmm**

So, hows that? Only other thoughts are, that's an awfully cheap motherboard. Seems fine spec wise, but I'm looking for a catch

- the top motherboard is £80 more ! Also, if I wanted to overclock it a little (not much, and probably wont) will the motherboard/value ram hinder that?

ACESHIGH · 17 Mar 2006 at 21:21

For moderate overclocks should be fine.

The topend mobo's cater to extreme overclocking so prices are higher.

fornowagain · 17 Mar 2006 at 21:28

What are you going to use to cool the CPU?

ACESHIGH · 17 Mar 2006 at 22:08

the retail cooler i would imagine, that should be fine for mild overclocks.

fornowagain · 17 Mar 2006 at 22:18

ACESHIGH said:
the retail cooler i would imagine, that should be fine for mild overclocks.

It the stock 3800+ stock cooler good enough, always chucked mine. Figure they would want the most from the CPU to stop graphics card bottlenecks. Don't the 3800+ get to 2.6Ghz with a good cooler?

If you do want one the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 is supposed to be good value, £15 ish. And the OEM 3800+ is £15 cheaper, yay.