Hardware suggestions?

[TopCover 0]

Okay, i got a lil money to spend and its gonna be a new pc.

I got about 600 Euros and i am looking for a new system and OS, no peripherals. Any suggestions on processor, mainboard and videocard are greatly appreciated. The main reason for this upgrade is pretty simple: i want Better, Faster OFP.

[868 0]

1GB of RAM (DDR)

2000Ghz or faster Processor

Win XP or users pref.

128 MB Graphics card

and a fast HD should be sufficient.

That is what I based my recent purchase for OFP.

Since OFP requires the bare minimum PC hardware, anything in the same ball park should be more than enough.

But that is just me, others might have better suggestions.

My spec is as follows;

AMD Athlon XP 2700 (at 2.17Ghz)

1 GB DDR RAM

128MB Geforce card

120 GB of HD

Win XP Pro.

[D34N 0]

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache(socket 754) $149

ABIT "KV8 Pro" K8T800 Pro(socket 754) $89

XFX nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 Video Card $225

2xCorsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series 512MB (1GB total) $200

Total:

$663.00 Yank Dollars

or

$486.64 Euros

I got all the equipment at newegg.com, I've left open a $113 euro gap, because If I remember correctly it cost more for hardware in Europe.

[EiZei 0]

My spec is as follows;

AMD Athlon XP 2700 (at 2.17Ghz)

1 GB DDR RAM

128MB Geforce card

120 GB of HD

Win XP Pro.

There is quite a difference between Geforce FX 5200 128MB and Geforce 6800 128MB you know..

[bonko the sane 2]

its well worth spending a few more euros and NOT buying a FX series graphics card, i speak from experience, they are not that good.

[EiZei 0]

its well worth spending a few more euros and NOT buying a FX series graphics card, i speak from experience, they are not that good.

The cheapest 6xxx-series card is over 250e, you must be quite more richer than me.

[Madus_Maximus 0]

FX Cards are only crap if you get anything BELOW 5700. Anything above is sweet! It's like the MX and Ti range of the old cards... MX being 5600 and below and Ti being the 5700 and above. Also the faster models are good for overclocking, most manufacturers give you the ability to auto clock it so it sets safe overclocking speeds for your syste.

[BraTTy 0]

I actually consider the FX5600 (not se or le or such) the entry level as its a close match to a Ti4200.

I run a FX5600 and a 5600ultra and the ultra is quite a bit faster than the regular 5600 and a decent card.

There again my Raedon 9800pro is twice faster than the 5600ultra

Like I tell my friends, don't buy below a:

Geforce 5600 (5700 ultra and above is ideal)

Ati 9600pro (9600xt is a good buy,9700 and above is ideal)

I was offered a radeon 9600 for free about a month ago,I said nah as its sub ti4200 performance and not usable in our house,lol

[Leveler 0]

No matter what rig you set up, you will never play OPF in very high detail and with acceptable framerates. It will always look worse from newer games. Bah! OPF is obsolete.... BIS should hurry with the sequel

[Billabong81 0]

I got an AMD Athlon 64 3500+, MSI K8T800 pro motherboard, 1gb PC3200 Mushkin RAM, and a 9800pro 128mb card all for $750 + shipping on newegg.  That equals around 600 euros I believe .  I suggest you look at the AMD vs Intel thread I posted earlier (will get link and edit this post ).

EDIT: AMD vs Intel Thread

[Milkman 1]

I actually consider the FX5600 (not se or le or such) the entry level as its a close match to a Ti4200.

I was offered a radeon 9600 for free about a month ago,I said nah as its sub ti4200 performance and not usable in our house,lol

I must have had a different Ti4200 than you. Mine couldn't run Halo or any Dx9 game higher than 800x600 without slowing to a crawl, and it wasn't even Dx9 compatible.

Since then I bought a Sapphire 9800 256mb. It runs twice as fast as my old card, and aslong as I don't pump up the antialiasing settings, I can run HL2 and CS:S at 40-75 fps.

its well worth spending a few more euros and NOT buying a FX series graphics card, i speak from experience, they are not that good.

The cheapest 6xxx-series card is over 250e, you must be quite more richer than me.

A 6600 GT 128mb card is 225 american on Newegg Eizei.

http://www.newegg.com/app....&DEPA=0

Personally I am saving up for a x800pro 256mb PCI-Express. The two biggest reasons are that it is 256bit memory and has 12 parallel pipelines thanks to the PCI-E slot. Ofcourse this will require a new mobo, but I was planning on getting a new one anyways.

Anyways I also Recommend www.pricewatch.com to help in your search for affordible hardware.

[Billabong81 0]

Personally I am saving up for a x800pro 256mb PCI-Express. The two biggest reasons are that it is 256bit memory and has 12 parallel pipelines thanks to the PCI-E slot. Ofcourse this will require a new mobo, but I was planning on getting a new one anyways.

I believe the Nvidia 6800 has 16 parallel pipelines, but I may be mistaken. From what I have heard, the best deal on the market right now is the 6800GT 256mb which is around $399. It is easily overclockable to 6800 Ultra speeds and all that tech stuff .

[D34N 0]

Quote[/b] ]Personally I am saving up for a x800pro 256mb PCI-Express. The two biggest reasons are that it is 256bit memory and has 12 parallel pipelines thanks to the PCI-E slot. Ofcourse this will require a new mobo, but I was planning on getting a new one anyways.

Hooahman is correct, the 6800GT and 6800Ultra have 16 pipelines the 6800NonUltra 128MB has 12pipelines. PCI-E has nothing to do with pipelines, If you buy a X800 Pro ViVo there is a good chance you can flash the BIOS and Volt-Mod it to X800XT PE speeds and beyond and it can unlock it to 16 pipes (with proper cooling of course), but this is risky and voids the warranty. Me?, I'm just waiting till I have the $$$ to buy the BFG 6800GT OC and OFP GOTY in one swoop.

[shadow 6]

You can put whatever fancypants gfxcard into your computer. It won't do you much good if its a GF4TI4600 (or FX5700) or better. The bottleneck is the CPU

I upgraded from a TI4600 to a 6800GT. No improvements whatsoever in OFP except now I can set any AA settings I want without affecting the fps. If I was to buy a new cpu today I consider a Athlon 3000 a weak processor. I'd go with a 3400 minimum. Preferably a 3500 or a P-IV 3.4GHz.

Buy whatever floats your boat. Just don't expect OFP to be "all that" with a new CPU. You're not going to play with 3000+meters viewdistance and high terrain detail with a playable fps.

Just a friendly advice

I'm playing 1280x1024, 1500meters, normal terrain, 8xAA.

P-IV 3GHz, 2GB, 6800GT.

[TopCover 0]

Heh! Right now i am happy if i get playable framerates with a few addons ingame at the following setting: 1200 meters, no shadows, and low terrain so i expect some improvement.

Btw, I take it newegg is reliable? i have no experience in buying stuff online, Archaic as i am. Any European shops online worth checking out?

And oh, just this: INFIDEL! OFP is NOT obsolete!

[Billabong81 0]

Newegg is one of the best out there, but it will cost you an arm and a leg to ship all that stuff to europe . I suggest finding the European equivelant to newegg, even if the hardware is a tad more expensive it'll save you a lot because of shipping.

NOTE: I am not sure Newegg even ships to Europe actually .

[Milkman 1]

You can put whatever fancypants gfxcard into your computer. It won't do you much good if its a GF4TI4600 (or FX5700) or better. The bottleneck is the CPU

I upgraded from a TI4600 to a 6800GT. No improvements whatsoever in OFP except now I can set any AA settings I want without affecting the fps. If I was to buy a new cpu today I consider a Athlon 3000 a weak processor. I'd go with a 3400 minimum. Preferably a 3500 or a P-IV 3.4GHz.

Buy whatever floats your boat. Just don't expect OFP to be "all that" with a new CPU. You're not going to play with 3000+meters viewdistance and high terrain detail with a playable fps.

Just a friendly advice

I'm playing 1280x1024, 1500meters, normal terrain, 8xAA.

P-IV 3GHz, 2GB, 6800GT.

Well I'm not buying it for OFP. Since ofp will never run well I have pretty much given up on it. These upgrades are for HL2.

Oh yeah, and I am going for a Pentium 4 3.2ghz 800fsb HT 1mb l2 cache etc. And then I will overclock it to 3.8 and beyond.