Upgrade or buy a new rig?

[runekee]

<p>So in the 3 years i've been gone from EQ2 zones have become incredibly detailed.  Admittedly, my pc has never coped well with eq so i played in high performance with some minor tweaks. When i grouped or if it was crowded, i had to drop down to very high performance. That's not the case now that zones are so much more complex and will require me to upgrade or buy a new rig. I'd rather upgrade, but i can buy a new rig if it comes to that - but it will eat into my savings and i'm jobless at the moment so.... </p><p>My current specs :blush:</p><p>Intel 4 2.40 GHz</p><p>1 gig of RAM</p><p>GeForce Ti 4600 128mb</p><p>Apparently, my motherboard can only cope with a max of 2 gigs. So i've only got 1 gig more to play with in terms of upgrading ram.</p><p>So is there anything i can do to make the game playable, or do i need to bite the bullet and upgrade?? Many thanks for any feedback.</p>

[Vodr]

<p>I would bite the bullet if you want the game to perform decently at all due to the age of a lot of the parts.  If you check sites like <a href="http://www.frys.com">www.frys.com</a> or www. newegg.com or <a href="http://www.mwave.com">www.mwave.com</a> you can find some basic PC's in the $400 range that should play the game decent. </p><p>Things to look for are a dedicated video card,  mininum of 2 gigs of ram (4 would make your happer),  a dual core processor with the fastest cores you decide you can afford.</p><p>You could also build one yourself,  but by the time you were done "upgrading" you would be getting close to buying a new or refurbished machine.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>I would definitely say that it's time for a new computer.  If you upgraded any single part on that computer to something more recent then it wouldn't be compatible with some of the other parts.  A CPU change would require a new motherboard which probably wouldn't be compatible with your current graphics card or RAM.  I ran into the same issue when upgrading from my old P4 box.  Let us know if you're looking for any specific recommendations.</p>

[Kigneer]

<p>If money is r-e-a-l-ly tight you could do a mini upgrade with a "bridge" motherboard to bide you some time. Asrock makes such tween boards that can allow you to use your current parts, while just upgrading a processor or memory, and still can use the computer (not buying in piecemeal and shelving the parts until you have everything). It can save you enough to where the upgrade will be less than $400, if you reuse parts (PSU/HDDS/Case/DVD/Floppy).</p><p>Get a DDR2 1066Mhz board to save money as DDR3 is still a tad expensive, and sink whatever money you can on a large cache proc. The rush is with quads, but if you have cooling issues you may want to stick with C2D (like the 8000 series...the 8500 is priced nicely and has a 6MB cache) and can be used on DDR2 1066Mhz and DDR3 1333Mhz motherboards. ATI also makes nice and cheaper videocards.</p>

[Vodr]

<p>Just to give you some ideas,  I am not sure who ships to the UK as your forum location shows you are from.  However this on frys.</p><p><a href="http://www.frys.com/product/6063838">http://www.frys.com/product/6063838</a></p><p>is 399,  while the video is onboard and not the greatest it would play better than what you have now,  and you can always add a video card down the road for as little as $50 bucks for something that would be decent for eq2.</p><p>here at newegg is a refurb for 299 and same as the first as far as video card goes.</p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883109036">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16883109036</a></p><p>Now the one from frys for 399 also includes a 20" flat panel,  faster processor,  Windows 7 (which you will fall in love with) and has a nice PCI-E slot just waiting for a nice video card.</p><p>So there you go for options,  super cheap,  medium cheap with monitor and either would benefit from a better video card but the onboard should easily out do your ti4600 card your using.  I would say with the specs the way they are you should be able to play at balanced or one notch below balanced for quality if I had to take a guess.</p>

[runekee]

<p>Thanks for the replies guys. Really appreciate the help. I knew it was probably time to buy a new rig as i've had my current one since 2002. I'll have a look into whether shipping over to the UK would still be cheaper than buying here - as shipping and import tax will likely be expensive. Would building a pc be too difficult for a novice? I know i can make savings if i did attempt to do that, but i'm pretty much new at that sort of thing. Is it merely a case of buying compatible parts and slotting them together or does it require some more adept knowledge? I'm intelligent and would obviously do my research, but if building a PC's is a risky enterprise then it may be best if i try and find a cheap built one.</p><p>So ideally i want:</p><p>A minimum of 4gigs</p><p>A dual core processor - what speed should i be looking at, and is there any brands that are preferable?</p><p>What graphics card should i be looking out for? Would i need any separate cooling systems?</p><p>Ideally, i'd want a good solid package which will let me raid in EQ2 and also have the ability to upgrade with time.</p><p>I'll check out those websites Vodroc. I'm not sure about using a bridge board kigneer as it sounds complicated and liable to blow up in my face. Like i said i have some savings, but i'm just out of University and the job market is pretty dire at the moment, so i can't justify spending too much in this current climate.</p>

[MurFalad]

<p><cite>runekeepa wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Thanks for the replies guys. Really appreciate the help. I knew it was probably time to buy a new rig as i've had my current one since 2002. I'll have a look into whether shipping over to the UK would still be cheaper than buying here - as shipping and import tax will likely be expensive. Would building a pc be too difficult for a novice? I know i can make savings if i did attempt to do that, but i'm pretty much new at that sort of thing. Is it merely a case of buying compatible parts and slotting them together or does it require some more adept knowledge? I'm intelligent and would obviously do my research, but if building a PC's is a risky enterprise then it may be best if i try and find a cheap built one.</p></blockquote><p>I would not describe building a PC as risky, its more a question of bolting things together (and making sure you have the right processor for the right socket etc), the right graphics card for the right socket etc.  While you probably won't outright blow an electrical component by handling it unearthed (just being in contact with the chasis is pretty good,  a wrist strap to a socket is even better) the static damage does though shorten the life of the components - maybe 14 years instead of 15 hard to tell if its going to be significant! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p><p>The only bit you should be careful on is the processor, making sure its got thermal grease applied to it and fixing the heatsink on without too much forcing it around, they're pretty robust though so should the job is easily doable by a newbie to it (just check out for an online guide).</p><p>If you still have contacts in University (or if your student status hasn't expired) then you can pick up a cheaper copy of Windows 7 too while you are at it.</p><p><cite>runekeepa wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>So ideally i want:</p><p>A minimum of 4gigs</p></blockquote><p>2 is the minimum, 4 is nice, but unless you are running a 64 bit operating system you won't get to use more then 3gigs, and even then EQ2 only supports 3 gigs right now.</p><p><cite>runekeepa wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>A dual core processor - what speed should i be looking at, and is there any brands that are preferable?</p></blockquote><p>At the fastest speeds Intel certainly has the edge, but at the lower speeds of processors personally I'd favour AMD here, whichever you go for between Intel and AMD though you tend to pay for what you get in terms of performance so you can't go far wrong.</p><p>Personally for a budget choice I'd be tempted for an AMD PhenonII dual core 3Ghz, or a 64 bit 3Ghz dual core.</p><p>For an Intel I've not got experience myself, but the core 2 duo is a bit faster per a clock but seems to have a small premium on the price-performance for that, anything 2.6Ghz upwards is good.</p><p>In terms of upgradability, anything with the AM3 socket for AMD is a good choice as you could swap in a faster processor later on, whereas the Intel processors change socket from Core 2 duo to I7.  The downside with the AM3 socket I believe is its DDR3 only, so the ram will be a little more pricey.</p><p>I'd not bother with a quad core (or even an AMD tri-core) as not much will use the extra processors yet, dual core though is really nice for offloading the operating system.</p><p><cite>runekeepa wrote:</cite></p> <blockquote><p>What graphics card should i be looking out for? Would i need any separate cooling systems?</p></blockquote><p>I couldn't comment on the NVidea cards but I do know the 4870 1Gb runs EQ2 at 1600x1200 and doesn't seem to be the slowest component in my system and costs £100.</p><p>Based on that, and taking your <a href="http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-graphics-card,review-31723-8.html" target="_blank">current video card on this Toms hardware chart</a> then in terms of ATI for a budget choice an ATI 4770 or 4850 is good (still maybe a bit pricey), the Nvidea 8000 series cards are similar in performance too.</p><p><cite>runekeepa wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I'll check out those websites Vodroc. I'm not sure about using a bridge board kigneer as it sounds complicated and liable to blow up in my face. Like i said i have some savings, but i'm just out of University and the job market is pretty dire at the moment, so i can't justify spending too much in this current climate.</p></blockquote><p>I used to use an Asrock motherboard like that, if its the one I think it is then its just a normal motherboard with two sockets, one for PCI-express graphics cards, and one for AGP graphics cards, I can definitely recommend the Asrock motherboards too, I never had any driver troubles etc in the time I used one.</p><p>Its a tough one advising someone on what to spend as things are tight right now, one oddball option if you have more time then money is to check out the local ads/ebay for collection only computers.  Whenever something is sold like that its normal that not many people are willing to put the effort into driving out to pick something up so for a little extra effort you can pick something up although its hit and miss with warranties, if things haven't been overclocked they should last for a while but its guess work to tell often if someone has.</p><p>As for prices <a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=1444" target="_blank">Overclockers</a> seem reasonable (at least for the UK <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /> ), although I'm not a fan of overclocking myself, you can request there that something isn't overclocked so its up to you.  Other then that Mesh were good a few years ago, I'm not a fan of Dell for price vs performance these days and I think you'd be better off building your own computer in that case.</p><p>For a good idea of how EQ2 performs with various setups <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=444036" target="_blank">this guide on the forums is good</a>, although I'll have to get my less then stellar spec'd laptop on there somepoint as the lower spec machines in some ways are more interesting.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>MurFalad wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The only bit you should be careful on is the processor, making sure its got thermal grease applied to it and fixing the heatsink on without too much forcing it around, they're pretty robust though so should the job is easily doable by a newbie to it (just check out for an online guide).</p></blockquote><p>This part is probably the biggest hurdle when it comes to building your own machine.  You don't want to put on too much or too little.  You might want to have a friend help you with that step if you don't want to take the risk.  Also, thermal pads are not nearly as good so I would advise sticking with the grease.</p><p>Let us know if you have any further questions.</p>