Seeking a PC that'll give great Fo3 performance

[garthmarenghi]

Hi guys,

 

Fallout is just one of a number of games that isn't performing too well on my 3-year-old rig right now. I seem to be plagued with hardware issues, so I'm thinking of upgrading.

 

I've spent some time looking around at parts and settled on the following combination. I'm not all that computer savvy, so please let me know how well you expect Fo3 to perform on this machine, and if there are any glaring omissions, clashes, bottlenecks or inefficiencies in this rig!

 

Chip: Intel core 2 duo e8600

Mobo: Asus Maximus II formula p45

Video card: Radeon HD5870

RAM: 2x 4GB pack Kingston ddr3 1066

HD: 500 GB Seagate Barracuda

Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme

Powerpack: 750W

OS: Win XP 64 bit

 

PS - is win xp 64-bit still the best OS for gaming, or doesn't it really make any difference anymore?

 

Thanks for your suggestions! :thumbsup:

[gsmanners]

I doubt it matters to Fallout 3 whether you use 64 or 32 bit (the game itself is 32-bit). The question is whether that hardware is well supported in XP 64. I find USB to be problematic even with 32-bit XP SP3. I'd hate the thought of having to rely on something attached to USB with 64-bit XP.

 

The hardware itself looks to be overpowered, if you want my opinion. That's three times as much RAM as you can use with Fallout 3, and a nice mid-range (a 4600 or 4800) card might actually be better for this game, but then I'm using nVidia myself. You may have a good use for the hardware in a future game, so if you can afford it, why not?

[spammster]

Hi guys,

 

Fallout is just one of a number of games that isn't performing too well on my 3-year-old rig right now. I seem to be plagued with hardware issues, so I'm thinking of upgrading.

 

I've spent some time looking around at parts and settled on the following combination. I'm not all that computer savvy, so please let me know how well you expect Fo3 to perform on this machine, and if there are any glaring omissions, clashes, bottlenecks or inefficiencies in this rig!

 

Chip: Intel core 2 duo e8600

Mobo: Asus Maximus II formula p45

Video card: Radeon HD5870

RAM: 2x 4GB pack Kingston ddr3 1066

HD: 500 GB Seagate Barracuda

Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme

Powerpack: 750W

OS: Win XP 64 bit

 

PS - is win xp 64-bit still the best OS for gaming, or doesn't it really make any difference anymore?

 

Thanks for your suggestions! :thumbsup:

 

well, lets work through the list shall we

 

for the chip:

Intel core 2 duo e8600 <-- now WTF is that ? a 3.33GHz dual core ? buying the latest graphics card but a craptastic cpu, don't do that, buy a quad core (core2quad or core2extreme or i7)

if its a question of the prices, you might wanna consider AMD, phenom II X4 940 BE (4 cores, 3 Ghz per core) costs 200 bucks (at least here it does, it should be cheaper in the USA) and that chip easily runs on 3.4 GHz with the right cooling (which is what I'm doing right now).

 

towards the mobo:

i don't know that one and I'm too lazy to google it, as long as it has about 8 USB ports , 7.1 Dolby audio and E-SATA support its all fair game.

 

videocard:

small tip: never buy the latest in videocards, the HD4870 (or 4890) is plenty for pretty much every game that is out there and costs a lot less than the new ones. if at some point in the future the quality drops, you can then buy the 5870 which at that point will be a lot cheaper. (also there is no point in buying a DX11 card now, cause there ain't no game that even uses DX11 and WinXP can't even use DX10 (at least not officially))

 

Ram:

you should calculate your RAM always like this: what is the maximum the mobo can handle (its usually either 8 GB or 16 GB) and normally has 4 DIMM slots. so if your Mobo can handle 8 GB tops and has 4 slots, buy 4*2GB (which also is cheaper than 2*4GB), always fill all slots with RAM and even it out (so don't do something like: 1*4GB, 2*1GB, 1*2GB <- thats pure horror and the system will let you now it)

 

but yes DDR3 1066Mhz is the gaming standard, so you should buy it (4*2GB should be around 60-80$ so its most likely cheapest component in the PC, so if you got some spare caps buy quality brand RAM)

 

HD: 500 GB internal is fine, though you might wanna look into E-Sata drives (shouldn't cost all that much more, but the transfer speeds quite increased) if you need more HDD space, either buy a second HDD or buy an external one (1TB external should be around 150 $)

 

cooling: I'm using the same one (though obviously the AMD version) and it works fine for me

 

power: everything above 700 is plenty, so you're good there

 

OS: if you use 4 GB RAM or more, you will need a x64 OS, otherwise you waste money (32bit Windows can handle up to 4 GB RAM, everything above is ignored, 64bit OS can handle up to 128 GB I think)

 

and yes WinXP pro x64 SP3 works fine with Fallout 3 (it also works with Fallout 1 & 2 btw.)

 

you find 64bit driver for nearly everything, xcept webcams so consider that, a lot of older webcams don't have 64bit driver and it can happen that windows can't use the 32 bit driver (my old logitech is one of em)

 

@ gsmanners: Fallout 3 uses about 4 GB RAM if you use Hires textures and several mods in ultra details, so one should have at least 6 GB for continued F3 gameplay if you don't want it to slow down after an hour or so. (winxp uses around 512 MB RAM nother 512 MB RAM for background programs so you're at 5 GB after 1-2 hours of F3 gameplay)

 

and you do realize that 64bit couldn't care less bout USB right ? winxp x64 comes with all the USB driver you shall ever need and if an external USB device doesn't support 64bit, windows automatically uses 32bit mode (which for USB doesn't matter, if you use 32 or 64 bit, the transferspeed of USB 2.0 is still only 44 MB/sec)

 

the only problem with 64bit is as mentioned above the driver, old tech. often has problems in 64bit cause they don't offer 64bit driver and x64 uses a different filestructure than 32bit, so not all 32bit driver can be installed on 64bit OS.

though a general rule would be: if it has a sticker saying it supports Vista it most likely will work on x64 XP

 

you may also wanna consider windows 7 x64, its pretty much a XP/vista hybrid, looks like vista but works like XP (srsly. win7 ultimate uses less RAM than XP) and most new games run on Win7.

 

so you might wanna use a dualboot system (2 OS installed, during boot you select if you wish to use:

windows 7 or

earlier version of Windows (which would be XP, no idea why MS had the urge to call it earlier version instead of just calling it Windows XP)

 

so in conclusion: def. use a better cpu and consider an older graphic card.

 

I personally go with:

if its an AMD cpu i use an ATI (or now AMD) graphic card

if its an Intel cpu i use a Nvidia card

 

in the end it just depends on what you want, the good AMD/intel chips are pretty equal (if you ignore the latest i7's) with the AMD chips being much cheaper. (in general the AMD chips are about 100 bucks less than the intel ones (again excluding i7, those are faster but they at least double the price))

 

hope it helps

[garthmarenghi]

Thanks, you made me realise i didn't put nearly enough time into investigating AMD

 

How about this set up as an alternative:

 

Chip: AMD Phenom II X4 940 (AM2+)

Mobo: Asus M4879 Deluxe (AM2+) OR MSI DKA790GX Platinum (AM2+)

Video Card: Radeon 4890

RAM: 2x 4GB pack Kingston ddr2 1066 (same)

HD: 500 GB Seagate Barracuda (same)

Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 pro

Powerpack: 650W BE Quiet Straight Power (do these guys have cred?)

Case: Midi-Tower - Aerocool AeroEngine II (200x430x440) OR Midi-Tower - TSN-8301 (180 x 420 x 470)

OS: Win7 64 bit

 

So which motherboard has the better rep? Is this powersupply a more stable option? And do I really need an expensive case, or will I bake my components if i try to cut corners here?

 

Thanks again!