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New PC specs - please advise - Hawkman - 03.10.2008

hello folks

I'm doing something I should've done long ago and splashing out on a new rig, as my current rig (which was built about 6 years ago) simply can't handle IL2 or anything demanding on the CPU or graphics card any more. My main concern is smooth running and upgradeability rather than maximum power/eye candy, so I'm not going for top-line CPU or VGA card (I can always upgrade these later, if need be). My old system which just about cut the mustard back in the 'Pacific Fighters' days is ancient (I won't post specs here out of sheer embarrassment :wink: ) but if I tell you it harks back to the pre- PCI express era, you'll get the idea :lol:

Anyway, after consulting with my local shop, they gave me the following specs:

Motherboard: Intel DG33BUC/ICH8 1333/1066/800 FSB
CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q6600(2.4Ghz) 8MB 1066 BUS
VGA card: Gigabyte Geforce 8600GT 512MB
RAM: 2GB DDRII Bus 667 PC5300
PSU: ATX 510w
Firewire 1394 case

The hard drives and CD drives will be 'cannibalized' from my old rig.

Bearing in mind that I'm not able to get exactly what I'd prefer, in terms of 'Brand name' MBs and graphics cards, due to unavailabilty (I live in Vietnam), this is - so the shop tells me - the best available set up, given my budget and requirements.

Your comments and advice on these specs would be greatly appreciated Smile

Many thanks in advance.

Hawkers Big Grin

- stansdds - 03.10.2008

I'm not a huge fan of Intel motherboards. They usually work ok, but don't allow for much tweaking or overclocking. Basically, they are good for office machines, not so good for gaming rigs.

I'm still not convinced that a quad core CPU has any advantage over a dual core CPU for the average user. A fast (E8400) will do what most of us need it to do while using less electricity and generating less heat than a quad core.

The Nvidia 8600GT is an "ok" card, but the 8800GT and 9600GT are far better and will easily handle Il2.

The RAM selected will be running below the BUS speed of the motherboard. Your motherboard and CPU will run at 800 MHz, the RAM at 667 MHz, that's a serious mismatch and bottleneck. Perhaps your builder is using this cheap RAM and trying to overclock it to approximately 800 or 1300 MHz, but overclocked RAM is not always stable (go ahead, ask me how I know :roll: ). You need RAM that will be a match to the BUS speed of the CPU for best performance.

Make sure the power supply is a high quality unit, none of this "no-name" generic stuff. And 510 watts is light by today's standard and may struggle to keep up. A power supply that is pushed to its limits will not last long.

These are my recommendations.

- GeneralPsycho - 03.10.2008

standss, if you know, i have 4 gigs of 6400 ram and E8400 processor

some of my ram is a running at 400mhz and 270mhz, do you know why?

- Guest - 03.10.2008

I agree in essence with stansdds, but if I were in your position and if IL2 is your game then this is how my thinking would go.

Il2 is Cpu intensive ie. the faster the cpu is the better, but il2 only runs on a single core unless windows decides to offload some of the work to another core. IMO the Quad core is overkill and at 2.4ghz too slow. (Those who use quadcores overclock them to over 3ghz for gaming). For the Cpu, if you don't wish to overclock, E8400 or E6850 duocores good choice @ 3ghz, and can be overclocked fairly easily to 4ghz on good motherboard. ( These are less than

- Hawkman - 03.10.2008

Guys,

Many thanks for your comments and advice Big Grin From what you've said (and I've subequently read) a quad core chip is not really what I need, and I will be running XP on this too. standsdds - thanks for the tip on the MB/RAM bus anomaly - I'll ask my man again about this. I'll also look again at the MB options. I'm a bit of a technophobe and not a tweaker/overclocker by inclination, but it's obviously a plus to have those BIOS options, and I can always get one of his techs to do the tweaking for me Big Grin The video card is not a major worry for me - the 8600 is more of a 'stop gap' and can easily be replaced when I decide to get a faster card. I just want to get the game up and running with no stutters/lock-ups/CTDs which is what I'm suffering with my existing rig - I can teak and upgrade as i go. Likewise, I'll look again at the PSU. If I do upgrade to a bigger card, this will become critical.

Having read so much about building, I still can't muster up the courage to try it myself Big Grin But i can at least chose the components with some care, and your advice on this has been invaluable. Big Grin

Many thanks

Hawkers Big Grin

- Widowmaker - 03.10.2008

Building is like legos. Its pretty easy man. Go for it.


As for the board. Yeah. Intel boards are pretty generic. Im surprised that guy mentioned one.

Check into asus or gigabyte etc. I recommend asus but Im sure there are others that have their own favorite.

You could go with a dual core for now and then get a quad core chip later....
but I would hold off till the i7 chips come out in a month.
It will be a new socket and of course better processing power. So you might want to just wait and get one of those.
As well, the new chipsets that will be coming for the i7 family... will allow BOTH ATI and Nvidia SLI modes. No longer just limiting you to the ati crossfire platform.

between dual and quad... its all about the threads. If the program is written to handle more than one thread. You are golden. If not, oh well.
IL2 is not, so it runs on ONE core. But.. you can assign other programs to run on the other core at the same time.
New games like BOB will be multi core compatible.
The more cores, the more can be processed at one time.
THe new i7 quad core chips will be multi threaded, allowing the chip to work on 8 threads at one time (the current quad cores work on 4 threads)



Ram.... get 4 GB. (2 X 2GB) Even though you will have XP, it will still recognize 3.2 to 3.5 GB.
I have noticed that going from even 2 GB to 4 GB has pretty much ended all stuttering. At 2GB was still getting some stuttering on the larger maps when flying online.
We were trying to use the new Aplin map on our DCG server, (Dual core with 2GB of ram on it). And after a short flight the server went down with an out of memory error on the controller lol.


That comes into play with these new maps like slovakia, the slot and newer ones that are very large and RAM intensive.

I recommend Corsair Dominator ram

The video card.. pretty much on track. Both EVGA and BFG offer lifetime warranties so those two make the top of the list. Very good cards.
An 8800 will get you by nicely.. and you can upgrade later.


The HDDs... Id recommend getting some new faster SATA drives. They are rather cheap at this point. Just get yoru old drives copied over onto the new ones.


Power supply.. 750.. and dont spend less than $90 on it. Cheap power supplies will kill stuff.
I had one take down my AGP card. Thermaltake, corsair, Nspire, cooler Master, Silverstone, OCZ and BFG are just a few good makers.

- BigSilverHotdog - 19.11.2008

8600 line is defective and nvidia hushed it up. Google and read. Any 8800 is quality and will serve you well, no matter what the designation. Stick with EVGA or BFG if possible, most reliable companies with excellent warranty service. If on a budget buy a quality motherboard and a cheaper, overclocker cpu and a good fan. You can always upgrade the CPU later that way, but fan/mobo will last.

Intel E2180 is a excellent choice, dual core and runs 3.0ghz OC very easily with a decent cooling solution, my favourite being Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. Cheap too. Spend the extra $$ on a good mobo (ABIT, Gigabyte are both good, not ASUS their QC is too unpredictable). 2gb of ram is all you need, don't bother with more. Vista sucks, stay with XP. The amount of ram recognized by 32bit OS varies but could be as low as 2.25gb, because it starts at 4gb and addresses memory backwards starting with things like video memory and motherboard cache. 2gb is plenty for all games and apps now and in the next year or two, at least.

Power supply should be a good brand but don't feel the need to get a huge wattage rating, they're expensive to buy and run every month if you care about electric bill, and totally unnecessary unless you run a mammoth rig. I run my own rig on a 600w and it has 5 hard drives, 8800GT, quad core OC @ 3.2ghz, and tons of other stuff, 7 USB devices, etc. 600w is plenty for this. I had another gaming PC dual core 3ghz with SLI and 2 hard drives and it ran on a 500w no problem at all (I sold it). Just buy a good brand like Thermaltake, Rosewill, BFG, etc. OCZ is good but they don't honor rebates. I got burned on 5 out of 6 purchases last year.

Good luck!

- JAMF - 21.11.2008

BigSilverHotdog Wrote:Power supply should be a good brand but don't feel the need to get a huge wattage rating, they're expensive to buy and run every month if you care about electric bill, and totally unnecessary unless you run a mammoth rig. I run my own rig on a 600w and it has 5 hard drives, 8800GT, quad core OC @ 3.2ghz, and tons of other stuff, 7 USB devices, etc. 600w is plenty for this. I had another gaming PC dual core 3ghz with SLI and 2 hard drives and it ran on a 500w no problem at all (I sold it). Just buy a good brand like Thermaltake, Rosewill, BFG, etc. OCZ is good but they don't honor rebates. I got burned on 5 out of 6 purchases last year.

Good luck!
Rosewill? BFG?

Seasonic, Enermax, Antec, Zalman, BeQuiet and a few other brands are good. Seasonic might be too expensive, but you pay for quality. Corsair sells good PSUs, but that's because they are mostly Seasonic ones. Get a Corsair, it's a Seasonic for less money. Big Grin But get a good quality PSU. They will improve stability, live longer and actually higher value for money.