I will, starting next week, be going to work for Target as a night-stocker. I'll be working 10:30-6am four nights a week (Wed. night through Sunday morning). It pays $9.35 an hour or so, and I'm hopeful that my finances will be back on track within two months. When they are, I need to work on upgrading my computer. Please read on.
As many of you know, I'm an avid player of "Counter-Strike", the mission oriented Half-Life mod. I've recently been given admin on the server I play on (Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow - [EGBT]), but I've been having difficulty playing certain maps with the post-1.4 texturing (as well as two oldies: cs_office, and cs_italy).
While the problems are lessened on the two "older" maps, it essentially boils down to the same thing: my computer lags horribly, and visuals and sounds repeat for quite some time before refreshing. I don't have the problem when I open a map as a LAN game where I'm the only guy running around, but attemtping to play maps like Torn, Chateau, Piranasi and Havana is impossible.
Speaking with some of the more technical minded folks on [EGBT], I've learned that I need to boost my ram, and change my video card to handle my problems on the maps. I've got 96 RAM, and the stock video card of a HP Pavilion 8655c. Essentially, I'm looking for a second opinion. Boost RAM and get a new video card? If so, what?
Thanks.
Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :
What CPU is in that thing? If it's a P3, you'll do fine with a GF2 or a GF3. If it's a P4, a high end GF3 or 4. Don't waste your money on a state of the art card when upgrading an older system.
You want no less than 256 megs of memory.
Posted by Snay (Member # 411) on :
How do I find out what CPU is in it?
Also, I figured I could take the vid card out and put it in a hypothetical new computer.
Posted by Ultra Magnus (Member # 239) on :
The Pavillion 8655c would have a Pentium III @ 533mhz. Your RAM maximum supported size'd be 256MB.
Also, ATI.
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :
Excuse me? I said we don't need another targetemployee around here! B(
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
?
Posted by E. Cartman (Member # 256) on :
The 8655c has an integrated graphics chip, so you can't take it out. Not that you'd want to, anyway.
Alas, there's a catch in upgrading: your motherboard isn't fitted with an AGP interface bank, meaning it will only take to older PCI display adapters. Nvidia GFx*/ATI Radeon** cards that are tailored to PCI slots do exist, but they're a rarity -- in addition to being less powerful, as the PCI bus can't offer enough bandwith to utilize their full numbercrunching potential. Then again, a P3-533 won't exactly push them to their performance extremes, so it's safe to buy one if you don't plan to carry the thing over to a new rig in the future.
* 1/2/3/4 (Don't bother with the first two unless you're really stretched for dough, and stay clear of the MX types.) ** 7500/8500/9000/9100 (Don't, incidentally, be fooled into thinking a higher number equates to a faster card. ATI's 8500 chipset packs by far the biggest punch of the four listed here... that's marketing for ya.)
Without replacing the motherboard, you're looking at a limit of 256 megs of memory, which is the bare minimum you can get away with in this Day And Age. Should be adequate for large CS maps, but I'd avoid crowded areas if I were you.
Cartman's economic advice for happy gaming: GF3 Ti500 or GF4 Ti4200, two 128MB RAM sticks. (Be sure to get the older SDR (PC-133) memory modules, or you'll deepfry them... assuming you could somehow insert DDR units into SDR banks and not break both in the process.)
[ February 24, 2003, 10:00 AM: Message edited by: Cartmaniac ]
Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :
... or you could just save up about $1500 and just get a new kickass system...
Posted by E. Cartman (Member # 256) on :
"?"
"I will, starting next week, be going to work for Target..."
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Ah!
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
I agree with most of what Cartman said, apart from...
quote:Originally posted by E. Cartman: Without replacing the motherboard, you're looking at a limit of 256 megs of memory, which is the bare minimum you can get away with in this Day And Age.
...because it's clearly bollocks. 128mb is the minumum you can get away with in this day and age. He's playing Counterstrike, not Doom III. 256mb on a computer that old won't really make much difference.
Also, remember that a GeForce 4 MX != a smaller GeForce 4. A GF 4 MX is actually slower than a GeForce 3.
I would also recommend looking at ATI cards, but their numbering system confuses and frightens me. Can someone do a rough ATI to nVidia card equivalent list? Please?
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Well, Liam kinda makes an interesting point. See, I've found that the difference between 256MB and 512MB is actually relatively useful....but not so much for games, especially FPS games. Ironically, the most demanding game on my computer is Simcity4, easily outclassing Max Payne, Morrowind, etc. However, the main area where additional memory shines is when doing work with lots of multitasking (i.e. JBuilder Java programming, plus 3 or 4 browser windows open, a SSH connection, and whatever else).
Roughly speaking, performance best to worse is: Radeon 9700 PRO / GeForce FX (not out yet) Radeon 9700 Radeon 9500 PRO / G4-4600 / various flavours of G4-4200-8x G3-Ti500 Radeon 8500 G3 Radeon 9000 ... and I'm getting bored. The naming convention is basically like this. Numbers starting with 9 are DX9 capable hardware, starting with 8 means DX8 capable. The PRO indicates that ATI manufactured it, meaning slightly higher clock speeds, quality, etc...but it will be more expensive. Note that: The ATI cards are usually much cheaper as well, at least here in Canada.
On a P3, a Radeon 8500 or a plain-Jane Geforce 3 should be more than you'll ever need before your processor becomes a problem. Good luck finding any that will go into a PCI slot though.
Posted by Snay (Member # 411) on :
Oh, I do have other games I'd like to play -- I can barely play Sim City 4 at all, it crashes all the time. I'd also like to play BF1945.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Note that my personal pick was the Radeon 9500 PRO. Cheaper than the 9700 (PRO or otherwise) and the G4-4600 but with nearly the same performance. Roughly equivalent to a Nvidia 4600 in base performance, but clearly much better when using FSAA and AA. (Probably a case of, if you don't know what they are, you probably don't need them)
I wouldn't suggest pairing it with anything less than a 1.X Athlon or P4 though.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mucus: However, the main area where additional memory shines is when doing work with lots of multitasking (i.e. JBuilder Java programming, plus 3 or 4 browser windows open, a SSH connection, and whatever else).
That's almost certainly true, but really, how many PC users do you think actually do all that? Jeff can barely read his e-mail.
If he had a lightning fast PC and GPU, then yeah, more memory would probably be useful. But as it is, I don't think that the memory is being the bottleneck. Upgrading to 128 or 192 mb might help, especially for the memory intensive games (like SimCity, as you say), but overall? A faster CPU, GPU, hell, even a new hard drive might be better.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
*sniff* So what I was doing all of last night was an optical illusion? Actually, that might make me feel better considering how stupid the CS assignment was...but I digress.
See, you also have to consider cost/benefit. Memory is pretty much the cheapest upgrade you can get now, especially for an older computer such as a PIII, which would only take normal SDRAM. For $50 (Canadian mind you) you can get like 256MB of RAM which would help with multitasking, games, anything.
A hard drive is going to be at least $100 and probably won't do anything for games.
A new CPU will most likely imply a new motherboard....and thus newer types of RAM....and then it would be a waste not to get a new graphics card.....so that could easily run you $1000+. As CC pointed out, you might as well get a new computer.
Just getting a new video card is an idea, but limiting yourself to PCI cards pretty much kills anything newer than 2 years. About all the local computer store has are: ATI Radeon 7000 32MB for $84, 64MB versions for $98, ATI Radeon 7500 64MB Dual Display for $119, and Pine TNT2 M64 32MB for $50.
They should all be on the comparison graph that I posted earlier, except the TNT2 which falls off the bottom. So a realistic economic solution would be the ATI 7500 + two sticks of 256MB SDRAM, which would be 219 CDN or 144.54 USD. Thats about 16 hours of work at your Target job.
PS: I think UM noted that you can only get a max of 256MB RAM, which would translate into two 128MB sticks? That will drop you by $30 CDN...
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