Computer advice please

[Gwydion]

Hi, a power surge seems to have fried my 8 year old computer, so rather than looking to repair it I'm interested in purchasing new.

Looking for feedback.  

Which gets more bang for the buck?  Laptop or Desktop?  Wife has a laptop, though I've always been a desktop kind of guy.  But having a laptop might make it easier to play some EFU in my bedroom while the kids are rampaging about in the basement where our desktop has been located.

Further, what types of things do I need to make sure this computer has to make EFU run smoothly and quickly?  

~ What size processor?
~ RAM?
~ Video Card?
~ Other stuff I am not up to date on?

BTW, this is why Roddy hasn't been on the last several days and likely won't unless I get my other 8 year old computer hooked up.

Thanks for all advice.

[Paha]

The PC you can get as desktop for a thousand (without screens and what not, only the PC unit), will cost around from 2000 to 3000 in laptop, and still won't usually grade with the desktop.

So definitely a desktop.

First of all, you need to think how much you want to put in. Graphic cards and processor will eat most of your money, and ram/motherboard, power supply can be usually worked around.

[Gwydion]

Thanks Paha.  I kinda thought desktops were cheaper for the same features.

Looking to spend 500-1000 or so.  Could go a bit higher if it meant a big difference, but other than EFU I'm not a big gamer.

[Lulzebub]

The graphics card is what's going to make the biggest difference when playing EfU. Choose that first, then build the system around that. The second most important feature is CPU speed, followed by bus speed. Be sure to find out the bus speed, because that's the bottleneck for the whole system. A lot of places will sell you nice parts on a crappy board, which undermines the point of spending the money on nice parts.

Agreed with the above, desktops are the way to go. They are cheaper and just all-around easier to work with when things start to go wrong.

[Gwydion]

The graphics card is what's going to make the biggest difference when playing EfU. Choose that first, then build the system around that. The second most important feature is CPU speed, followed by bus speed. Be sure to find out the bus speed, because that's the bottleneck for the whole system. A lot of places will sell you nice parts on a crappy board, which undermines the point of spending the money on nice parts.

Agreed with the above, desktops are the way to go. They are cheaper and just all-around easier to work with when things start to go wrong.

What type of graphics card should I be looking for?

Also, CPU speed and bus speed should be at least...?

[Lulzebub]

I use an Nvidia eight thousand something-or-other, but I'm sure there's someone who will tell you the ATI Raedon what's-it-called is way better.

I really don't keep up with the market enough to give you a straight answer. I usually find the most expensive thing, then buy the next cheapest one. Always works for me.

Oh, and a good bus speed is usually going to be about a third to a sixth of your CPU speed. That's pretty normal, from what I remember.

[Cruzel]

If all you want to do is play efu, you can get a decent computer for around 300-500 that should play it more than fine, tbh.


A p4 or duo core 2.8 is more than enough processor, Any Nvidia over 6600-7000 will work great, and 2 GB ram is still more than enough.  

 Unless you really want a new one, you don't need to worry about getting a new monitor/keyboard/mouse either.

[Gwydion]

All right, was playing around on the Dell page and came up with this.

PROCESSOR - AMD Phenom™ II Processor X4 820 (2.8GHz, 6M, 4C)   
MEMORY -            6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 4 DIMMs   
VIDEO CARD -    ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB DDR3   
HARD DRIVE    -        1TB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™   
OPTICAL DRIVE -    16X DVD+/-RW Drive   
SPEAKERS   -         Logitech Sound System   
SOUND CARD -    Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio   
MODEM            No Modem Option   
MEDIA READER -    Dell 19 in 1 Media Card Reader   
Adobe            Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language   
Sidious 570MT -    Inspiron 570 Minitower w/ Black Bezel   
Network Card -    Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet


This setup is about 1000 bucks, 21.5 inch HD monitor included.  

For gaming, anything need more juice, or overkill here?  Might check out that Starcraft 2 game when it comes out, if it matters.

[Paha]

It seem good, though, that graphic card will not take you far at all. I am assuming it costs around 50-60 bucks if it's the same that I am thinking. It won't work in playing too far.

I would recommend you to pinch in something else, and use more money on graphic card. 5700- or even 5800 series of radeon would serve you well. Trust me, you would just find out that on that card, you wouldn't run anywhere.

My card is 5870 and costed like 300+ euros when I bought it, and trust me, no matter how good you got, bit more mobs and what not, and even in game like nwn you will find that rendering starts to eat on your graphic card. It's a lot more horrible if you go into the very lowest end of of the current graphic cards. They are not any better in gaming use than lower end grade cards 5 years ago.

[Coldburn]

128 mB RAM and a Gforce FX5500 will be more than enough to run NWN smoothly on the highest possible setting. However, this is so out-dated it's not even for sale anymore. Anything higher than that will be excellent for EFU, but perhaps not-so-excellent for newer games.

[Drakill Tannan]

Laptop will become useless in two years time, when it is outdated.
Desktop can be upgraded.

[Gwydion]

In looking at the nVidia cards, there are several various categories of cards that is overloading me a bit.

If anyone can take a look at this video card and see what they think about it I'd appreciate it greatly.  

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gtx_260_us.html

GeForce GTX 260

GPU Engine Specs:
CUDA Cores   192
Graphics Clock (MHz)   576 MHz
Processor Clock (MHz)   1242 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec)   36.9
Memory Specs:
Memory Clock (MHz)   999
Standard Memory Config   896 MB
Memory Interface Width   448-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)   111.9
Feature Support:
NVIDIA SLI®-ready   2-way/3-Way
NVIDIA 3D Vision Ready   yes
NVIDIA PureVideo® Technology   HD
NVIDIA PhysXâ,,¢-ready   yes
NVIDIA CUDAâ,,¢ Technology   yes
HybridPowerâ,,¢ Technology   yes
GeForce Boost   
Microsoft DirectX   10
OpenGL   2.1
Certified for Windows 7   yes
Display Support:
Maximum Digital Resolution   2560x1600
Maximum VGA Resolution   2048x1536
Standard Display Connectors   Dual Link DVI
HDTV
Multi Monitor   yes
HDCP   yes
HDMI   Via adapter
Audio Input for HDMI   SPDIF
Standard Graphics Card Dimensions:
Height   4.376 inches (111 mm)
Length   10.5 inches (267 mm)
Width   Dual-slot
Thermal and Power Specs:
Maximum GPU Temperature (in C)   105  C
Maximum Graphics Card Power (W)   182  W
Minimum Recommended System Power (W)   500  W
Supplementary Power Connectors   6-pin x2

[Paha]

I used to have a Overclocked edition of that for a while. It's a good gaming card that is not at the highest most expensive top class, but hell, trust me: You won't lose anything visible to your eyes really.

I can recommend that as a card to carry you long way and it will allow you to play newest games just as well.

[Gwydion]

Thanks Paha.

What does overclocked mean?

[Gwydion]

Back in action!

Using my old monitor and speakers, put the money in the CPU.

HP Elite 170f
Intel core i7 920, 2.66 Ghz
9 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 video card.

About $1300 with tax.  Seemed like a good deal after my research.