General Computer Help Discussion

[Eileen]

Yes, your specs are required for fine tuning but for your game requests I can recommend for someone on a budget to find parts for or buy a premade PC with these specs:

A good processor (1.5GHz MINIMUM for XP)
512MB RAM minimum (for XP)
A decent video card (I'd go for the Albatron 7800GT, great value and performance)
A sound card is nice but not necessary, and will improve framerates if your game includes a lot of background sound or music (in particular .wav files). An example of such a game would be MS Flight Simulator.]

But generally, the better your raw processing speed and RAM, the faster things should be.

Nvidia Geforce 7800GT is expensive.... and it might not even work on that computer...

I suggest a Geforce 6600 GT or 6800.

 

[melvin]

my computer came with windows xp and runs fine.

I dont know the specs and cannot get them right now.

how do you find the specs?

 

[melvin]

ok here we are:

it says 1.81GHz and 384 MB of RAM

 

[ShiningClefairy]

ok here we are:

it says 1.81GHz and 384 MB of RAM

What about your video card? Read the last sentence of Latios's post.

1.81 and 384 are below the minimum recommended. The minimum you should have these days are a 2.4GHz processor and 512MB of RAM (PC2700 at least for it's type) if you want to even be able to run most games at an acceptable rate. If that was a prebuilt, I'd assume that the graphics card is outdated as well (no offense dude... though it might be better than the one on my old computer )

 

[melvin]

What about your video card? Read the last sentence of Latios's post.

1.81 and 384 are below the minimum recommended. The minimum you should have these days are a 2.4GHz processor and 512MB of RAM (PC2700 at least for it's type) if you want to even be able to run most games at an acceptable rate. If that was a prebuilt, I'd assume that the graphics card is outdated as well (no offense dude... though it might be better than the one on my old computer )

I did that and it didnt say anything about Plug and Play Monitor on...

your saying it wont even play empires lll

 

[ShiningClefairy]

Okay, right click the "My Computer" icon, click Properties, then the Hardware tab, then click the Device Manager button. Then go to Display Adaptors. It'll tell you there.

I don't know if it'll run Empires 3. Do you mean Age of Empires 3, or is there a different one? Let me go check the recommendations:

-1.4ghz Processor
-256 RAM
-64 MB Video Card that supports HW T&L
-WinXP
-And for the demo, approximately 370MB of Hard Drive space. (2 Gigabytes for the full version)

<EDIT> I've modified what I had for the system specs. The stuff I had was unconfirmed. This is what it actually is. 1.8GHz processor is cutting it pretty close, especially if you have a Celeron (which hopefully you don't. You also only have 50% more RAM than the minimum, which also cuts it close. I don't know if it'll run at a smooth rate, even on minimum, so you'll have to have someone else give you an opinion. Also, please post what kind of video card you've got after you've followed my instructions.

Download the demo and see. Google is your friend.

 

[melvin]

it says I have SiS 760.

I downloaded the demo but before unzipping it, my computer messed up and I had to turn the switch off then on. The demo isnt on my computer anymore so I will try again.

 

[Eileen]

SiS... thats a horriable intergrated graphic card.... It most likely that it won't contain a AGP slot... You may need to replace your motherboard with a AGP slot... or a PCI Express.

 

[chuboy]

A good idea, but a good motherboard may blow your budget.

RE: Allyssa

The Albatron 6800GT is a separate manufacturer. It uses the nVidia GPU but the rest is from Albatron. You get some free software etc and it's a steal if you buy online (AUD$609). It runs only marginally worse than a regular 6800GT, but for $200 less it's well worth it.

 

[Eileen]

A good idea, but a good motherboard may blow your budget.

RE: Allyssa

The Albatron 6800GT is a separate manufacturer. It uses the nVidia GPU but the rest is from Albatron. You get some free software etc and it's a steal if you buy online (AUD$609). It runs only marginally worse than a regular 6800GT, but for $200 less it's well worth it.

I did not recommend a GT model, I meant a regular 6800... no letters on it..

I own a VGA Geforce and it runs great.... no more choppy graphics I had with the Radeon X300SE (which came with my computer). =o

Somehow, I get some graphical glitches when I play The Sims 2, with glowing objects. It's from bad drivers....

 

[ShiningClefairy]

My turn to ask for help! One thing I've never been able to figure out is how to find the wattage of your PSU without opening the case. I plan on upgrading my PC someday but I don't want to overpower it!

 

[Eileen]

Your computer manual usally shows you what is the wattage is... Most likely you have to update your PSU....

A PSU calculator would help...

 

[melvin]

SiS I believe doesn't even make desktop integrated graphics, more like for "Monitor PC's", you can't even upgrade those. Even so, I believe most motherboards past 2001-2002 had some form of AGP, and that sounds like a 2002 PC.

Anyway bub, to get even past required specs, you have to be willing to spend at least $500, and that's for a new case, CPU, motherboard, RAM, and video card.

So I might as well forget about playing games on the computer. Im not going to spend that kind of money just to play age of empires lll for a couple months.

I downloaded the demo and it works. It has bad graphics and is a tiny bit choppy but it works good enough to have fun.

 

[ShiningClefairy]

I wouldn't go that far, melvin. You could play some of the older games, like Age of Empires 2, Command and Conquer (up to Red Alert 2 and Renegade), and Diablo 2. (No matter what people say about it, Command and Conquer: Renegade has an incredible multiplayer)

 

[Eileen]

The SiS645 and SiS650 are very similar and contain integrated (chipsets) graphic cards. For a long period SiS branded integrated graphic cards and add-in boards, enjoyed a reputation for low performance, poor compatibility, and buggy drivers.

That explains the problem. =p

 

[melvin]

I wouldn't go that far, melvin. You could play some of the older games, like Age of Empires 2, Command and Conquer (up to Red Alert 2 and Renegade), and Diablo 2. (No matter what people say about it, Command and Conquer: Renegade has an incredible multiplayer)

I could but I have played empires 2 and now want to start with the 3rd.
Im not a PC gamer but I wanted to do something fun for a month because im stuck here at home.


I will stick with the demo with poor graphics until I buy a new computer with good specs.

 

[Zathire]

Simple question: How do you rename a link so that it doesn't look all messy?

 

[Dragonair]

Okay, I don't exactly know what I did two months ago, but any Microsoft-made application stopped working in terms of going online to do anything. What I mean is that a program like Internet Explorer will not work, but Mozilla Firefox will. MSN will not work, but AIM will. I tried to update my version of Windows via manual download, but the verification program that you have to download thought my version of Windows XP was illegitimate. Also, certain games do not work; I'm assuming that's because they were built specifically for Windows and is using the file that has been messed up or something.

I'm quite sure it's not spyware or a virus as I've ran through that dozens of times already, so I really doubt that's what's causing this. Suggestions?

 

[Kal-El]

Never heard of Windows hating itself or its company. I'm not really sure about this but until you can solve this if you want to use MSN you could try using AMSN.

EDIT: Actually, IE could be taking out MSN too. Checked net settings?

 

[Alchemist]

So.... I'm building a computer for my brothers birthday... I have all of the stuff, the case, HD, RAM, processor, motherboard, graphics card... How do I put it together? All of the wires and things confuse me.