Help! I need input on what I should look for in a computer

[Unicorn's Lady]

Hi Everyone!

I just got told by my hubby that we can afford to buy a new computer system for our son. I tried to check C/Net.com, but they mainly want to babble about video consoles this time, not PC gaming systems.

So I'm turning you very knowledgable folk for information on what I should be looking for in a system that will run Horizons well.
([:$] Yup! All 3 of us are fans of Horizons)

What graphics card or cards love Horizons? How much is good for memory? What should I avoid like the plague??

This is what I got last Jan. after studying what all of you suggested in here, is there anything I should do differently this time?

CU-125-109 INTEL P4 3.4GHZ 800FSB 512K
HD-134-112 MAXTOR 200GB SATA150 7200RPM 8MB HD
RM-140-102 CORSAIR 512MB PC3200 PC400 DDR (2 of them)
FA-104-102 CASE FAN W/ 4 NEON LED (2 of them)
FA-108-101 INTEL PENIUM 4 478PIN CPU FAN
CS-202-105 WINDOW GREEN X-BLADE 450WATT
CD-116-129 GREEN SONY 16X DVD ROM EIDE
CD-124-121 GREEN SAMSUNG 16 X DVDRW
CABLE-201-101 24" IDE ROUND CABLE WITH 3 HEADS
FD-101-111 GREEN FDD 1.44 MITSUMI FD
KB-105-105 GREEN PS2 INTERNET KEYBOARD
MO-103-113 GREEN MS OPTICAL EXPL. MOUSE
MB-142-131 ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE I865PE MB
MN-111-109 VIEWSONIC 19 INCH E90 .22 MM SVGA
SW-120-115 WINDOWS XP HOME SP2 COA
SW-120-113 WINDOWS XP HOME SP2 LICENSE
SW-120-114 WINDOWS XP HOME SP2 (CD & MANUAL)
SC-102-125 CREATIVE SB LIVE! 24BIT 7.1 VARPAK
SK-102-102 SPEAKER 600WATT PMPO W/ SUBWOOFER
SW-141-107 MICROSOFT WORKS SUITE 2004 LICENSE
SW-141-108 MICROSOFT WORKS SUITE 2004 MEDIA
VC-127-136 XFX GEFORCE FX-5700LE 256MB 1 61.00 61.00

[Y]Thank you for all the help!!![Y]

Nellie Lovett/Ochre Tekton
of Azure Twilight in Carmo on Order

[Imayo]

RAM: 1Gb minimum, preferabbly 2Gb. On my system, I noticed a HUGE improvement when I upgraded my ram to 2Gb.

Windows XP Pro seems to play nicer than XP Home does. Hubby and I have the exact same setup except I have Pro and he has Home and I get less CTDs and lockups.

If sound is important to you, you might want to consider a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS. I noticed a sound quality difference and I used to get occassional sound stutters on the Live card which I haven't seen since I upgraded to the Audigy.


The video card is the minumum you want to go with. a 6600 or the equivalent ATI card would be better. Some swear by nvidia, some by ATI, some just at them. I personally have had better luck with nvidia cards.

[Fratricide]

I agree with Imayo. My actual system I play on isnt much different then the one you appear to be abandoning, and I'm not really having any issues on my system. I do have 2GB of RAM and have had since Beta... It does definately extend your game play as you have more memory for the game to use up. Also I as well use Win XP Pro, and do not have many CTD's if any at all.

I personally am currently using an FX5900 w/128 MB ddr... Which keeps my FPS at around 45-50 in most places. I would personally go with Nvidia, If I remember right.. there was mentioned way back when that they were using Nvidia in house for their testing, so would tend to be that they would work better, plus I have had way way less problems with my nvidia cards working with games in general then with ATI. Make sure you Mobo has PCIx graphics as AGP is going by the wayside.

As for sound, I upgraded recently from a 5.1 live card to a SB audigy2 card and noticed a little bit of a performance increase, though not currently set up in surround mode, I don't think that the game is currently supporting 3d audio anyway because of client crashing issues associated with it ( look on update notes from beg of Dec I think ) so unless you play another game while the servers are down for maint... well I wouldn't worry too terribly much about sound.

And I know that currently there isn't a 64bit client out for the game, however with all the new things becomming available in 64bit in the reasonably near future, you might think about getting an AMD64 (socket 939) so that you can be ready to jump that gap when the game is allowing. Plus, the AMD uses less power for the same performance, and hence generates less heat.

Anyway... I just do PC's for a hobby and if your going to completely replace your old machine every year, then dont worry about the 64 bit just yet.. as it wont be til 2007 when it really hits strong.

[Unicorn's Lady]

Oops! I'm so sorry fratricide for giving the impression we're dumping the system we bought last Jan. I didn't mean that at all. [:$]

We're definately keeping that one and we are going to replace a 5 yr. old laptop our son has been trying to play Horizons on. (I figure he'll keep the laptop for travel, but this way he'll finally have a modern system again to decently game with)

Thank you both for helping me!!! [:D]



*Goes through her new checklist*

....Upgrade to 2Gb Ram,
stick with Nvidia
upgrade to a Nvidia 6600
Go with PCIx graphicsinstead of AGP
Go with XP Pro if possible
SB audigy2 card is a better sound card
and if the budget can afford it, get a AMD64 (socket 939) {motherboard??}

Otherwise than that, the system I'm playing on is still pretty good to use as a shopping list for my son's new system. [co]


Absolutely terrific!!!!!! If I shop carefully, maybe I can replace Herman's 5-6 yr. old HP as well! That would be a nice suprise!! Then all 3 of us will be upgraded. Shiny!!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!! Both of you!!! [Y]


Nellie Lovett/Ochre Tekton
of Azure Twilight in Carmo on Order

[Raeshlavik]

Yes, Nvidia drivers seem to be a bit more refined than ATI drivers and the 'bang for the buck' award certainly goes to AMD as far as processors go.

Slightly off topic, but you wouldn't happen to be the same Unicorn's Ladywho frequented a BBS in Denver, called 'Empire of the Dragon' (EOTD for short) back about ten years ago would you? If so, then it's certainly a small world. [:D]

Quite a few people from that BBS play Horizons these days I've discovered. Probably due to HZ being as close to that sort of community one can get these days.

[Imayo]

I've had an Audigy 2 since they came out and I have never had that problem.

[Unicorn's Lady]

Slightly off topic, but you wouldn't happen to be the same Unicorn's Ladywho frequented a BBS in Denver, called 'Empire of the Dragon' (EOTD for short) back about ten years ago would you? If so, then it's certainly a small world. [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-2.gif[/img]

Quite a few people from that BBS play Horizons these days I've discovered. Probably due to HZ being as close to that sort of community one can get these days.

Wow! Blast from the Past!!! Yes, I am that Unicorn's Lady. Wherever I can, I still use my old BBS handle, although you are the first in all these years to ask me about it. Herman is Unicorn and we still occasionally get together with Aset & Whiteknight. [H]


Nellie Lovett/Ochre Tekton
of Azure Twilight in Carmo on Order

[Unicorn's Lady]

Ok, how does this setup sound?


[co] The case: X-Discovery Mid-Tower Case 420W W/ Window & LCD Temperature Display

The cooling fans: AMD ATHLON64 CERTIFIED CPU Fan & Heatsink + 3 Extra Case Fans

The power supply: NZXT PF500 500WATT PERFORMANCE POWER ATX 2.0 Power Supply

The CPU: (939-pin) AMD ATHLON64 X2 4200 CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology

The motherboard: (Sckt939)ASUS A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio

The memory: 2048 MB (512MBx4) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)

The 1st video card: NVIDIA Geforce 6600 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS Video Card

The 2nd video card: NVIDIA Geforce 6600 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS Video Card

The monitor: ViewSonic® E90F+SB 19" .25MM Flat Screen SVGA Monitor

The hard drive: SATA150 - Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drive

The main optical drive: SONY DWQ-28A 16X DUAL LAYER DVD REWRITABLE Internal Drive

The secondary optical drive: House Brand 16x DVD-ROM Drive

The sound card: Creative Labs SB LIVE 24.bit 7.1

The speakers: 600WATT PMPO SUBWOOFER Stereo Speakers

The network card: ONBOARD 10/100 Network Card

The modem: None, we're on cable

The keyboard: PS2 MULTIMEDIA Internet Control Keyboard

The mouse: PS2 Internet Mouse W/ Wheel

The wireless card: PCI Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Interface Card

The media reader: INTERNAL 6in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer

The floppy drive: Mitsumi 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive

The OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional X64 Edition

The office suite: Microsoft® Works v8.0



Is having 2 video cards a good thing or would having one more powerful card be better? (such as NVIDIA Geforce 6800 GS 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS Video Card)

Or! Should I go with just one NVIDIA Geforce 6600 256MBand add a second hard drive?

Also I decided to spend more on the motherboard compared to the CPU. Is that a good idea or should it be the other way around?

I went with a slightly less expensive Creative Labs cards and cheaper speakers so I could use that money in the system it's self. (If he wants better speakers we can get them as a b-day present in March [;)] )

Sorry for more questions, but I sure do appreciate all this help!!!! [}] HUG!!


Nellie Lovett/Ochre Tekton
of Azure Twilight in Carmo on Order

[HAG]

Is having 2 video cards a good thing or would having one more powerful card be better? (such as NVIDIA Geforce 6800 GS 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS Video Card)

It is consensus that HZ doesn't profit much of Graphic-cards. Besides that - if you don't really want to burn a lot of money, take a MoBo without SLi and go for a single card in mid-class. Those new Graphic-monsters are loud and produce awful heat, just to give some more fps. You'll get same power on one card in one year - for half the bucks.

... and add a second hard drive?

Also I decided to spend more on the motherboard compared to the CPU. Is that a good idea or should it be the other way around?

Both is definitely the right choice. Most PC's have too big - and too slow - storagemonsters in them, slowing down the rest of the machine. Top-of-the-league would be a RAID-array, but having one smaller - but fast - HD for Windows, and one big - but slower - HD for all the rest is surely fitting for a home-user. And talking of better MoBos to stabilize the whole system, well it should be well known ...I

Enjoy your new PC

[Raeshlavik]

Wow! Blast from the Past!!! Yes, I am that Unicorn's Lady. Wherever I can, I still use my old BBS handle, although you are the first in all these years to ask me about it. Herman is Unicorn and we still occasionally get together with Aset & Whiteknight. [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-11.gif[/img]

(chuckle)

Well, I have an unfair advantage over most folks as Icedragon and I ran EOTD, so I was fairly well versed in all of the five thousand or so accounts we had. Yep, I'm Flint, and Ice is supposed to be showing up on Order some time over the holidays.

Anyways, nice to see you're still about and have yourself a great holiday!

Is having 2 video cards a good thing or would having one more powerful card be better? (such as NVIDIA Geforce 6800 GS 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS Video Card)

Or! Should I go with just one NVIDIA Geforce 6600 256MBand add a second hard drive?

Also I decided to spend more on the motherboard compared to the CPU. Is that a good idea or should it be the other way around?

I went with a slightly less expensive Creative Labs cards and cheaper speakers so I could use that money in the system it's self. (If he wants better speakers we can get them as a b-day present in March [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-5.gif[/img] )

Sorry for more questions, but I sure do appreciate all this help!!!! [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-48.gif[/img] HUG!!

Two video cards in SLi mode just doesn't have the performance per dollar yet. I ran Horizons and several other MMOsquite nicely on a single 256Meg PCI-e Nvidia 6600.

Two hard drives are really the way to go, especially if they're eachon a separate channel (read: not in a master/slave setup). What this does is allow the OS and swap functions to operate on one channel/drive and the application to read and write all of its information on another channel/drive. This speeds things up quite a bit.

Now, Horizons is very hard drive intensive as it spends a lot of time reading and writing to the world cache and, once you've ported a few times, swapping out memory. So a hard drive with a faster rotaional speed (which gets you a faster access time), a bigger buffer, and a high speed interfacewill gain you fairly impressive performance gains. Take a look at something SATA/SATA2, if the motherboard will support it, and 7200 RPM if possible.

Spending more on the Motherboard can be a good decision as long as the processor it supports isn't at the end of its development life. A higher quality motherboard will often let you upgrade the CPU two or three times before the CPU type is obsolete. Also, higher quality motherboards often have some very nice built in equipment such as 7.1 sound, gigabit network, USB2 and firewire2, and so on. This actually saves you money in the long run as you won't have to purchase separate cards for these functions.

The biggest thing to make sure of these days is that the motherboard you're buying will really support the CPU you're buying. Far too many times now I've been called in to figure out why 'board x' doesn't work with 'processor y' as they've made it darn confusing these days. Intel is the worst with their new naming convention... What exactly *is* a 530 processor? (chuckle) And AMD often has three CPUs that are the same speed rating (eg. 3500+), but all three have different motherboard requirements due to bus speeds, bit width, or package type.

[Ulkesh]

the one thing i would recommend is upgrading the hard drive you have chosen.

the 300gb sata-ncq drives with 16mb cache will make a difference in speed and who doesn't need an extra 100gb of space.... hehe

i prefer maxtor, but everyone has their own special brand that they love and other brands that cause nothing but troubles, but just make sure it has native command queuing. ncq, any new motherboard should support it.

btw i also will never own another creative labs card due to the hardware defects in the audigy line. really gave me hell for awhile.

also agree with most here on sli, it's not worth the money atm. and games really do have to support it to get the most benefit, "compatibility" sli modes don't always work well with games that don't natively support sli.

[Fratricide]

I would have to agree with the comments that have been posted previously. I would have to say that SLI is great to have ready for the future, but it is not ready to be used full force. I would definately go with a second (or third) hard drive and run 2 of them in raid... the 3rd if you get it, for windows only. I would also make sure that your Processor and Mobo combination go together for sure (notes from the manufacturer) and that your memory is compatable with the bus speed that your motherboard is going to want to run at with that processor.

heh.. this all reminds me of a friend of mine who was watching me and another guy build our own PC's... he was thinking tohimself "that doesnt look to difficult." What he didn't realize is how much homework we actually had to do before going out and purchasing all of the equipment to throw together into a system. I spent more then 2 months researching which components would/would not go together and work well together before purchasing anything. He spent 30 minutes online the first time buying components and then spent 3 months reordering new stuff because half of the things he bought didnt work with other things... Funniest mistake was.. he bought a Mobo for an AMD and a P4 processor... DUH... well he eventually got a PC worth using, but he spent 2x the money and 3x the time waiting for the right parts to come in to make the thing work.

Anyway... as far as HDD's go... I usually buy Segate or Hitachi/IBM for mine, as I have never had any issues with DOA's with them. I would also suggest a HDD with NCQ & SATA2 if you can. HD size is up to you, but make sure it will have enough room to do what you want now, plus have room for the future. I wouldn't spend the extra money on getting one of those HDD with 10k rpm... not worth the size loss for what you get.