Distinction between New PC and New Hardware.

[Istik]

I was reading a post earlier today from someone complaining how the game they just bought wont run on their hardware. Stating that it was only 2 years old (Two years is generally the average supported by most game companies)

However upon revealing his hardware specs, it was certainly not the case of 2 year old hardware.

3000+ AMD CPU (2.6ghz)
1gig RAM
7600GT.

Sure enough he may have purchased it 2 years ago, as this was pretty common hardware back then (Dual cores were new tech and their full potential wasnt widely known), and the video card was only just released, but the CPU actually came out in Feburary 2003 (3400+ 1 year later), almost 5 years ago.

On a similar note. Around 5 years ago was the release of the very popular ATI 9800 Pro (March 2003), which many people still use (It just so happens that my spare gaming PC is 3000+, 9800pro, 1gig RAM.)


A few years ago I was talking to my hairdresser about the PC she had just bought from a local PC store that was commonly known in the industry for ripping people off and because of it, not getting a lot of repeat business (after talking to anyone else).

She had bought a "New" PC and laser printer, only to find out that the hardware was 5 years old (old stock). Now sure she didnt need much, just for managing appointments and accounts, but unfortunately what she paid for it, I could have sold her something that was actually new and twice as fast.


With PC hardware, faster most often means newer. Although some manufacturers bring out several versions of the latest models (Low, mid, high range), somtimes the new low/mid end items are worse performing than the previous model mid/high end. They simply have more features. With that in mind, i've seen plenty of people actually go backwards in performance, because they've gone and bought the latest release, but not considered performance. On those few occasions I've recommended to those people that they take the item back and use their old one until they can get something better.

I think the last time that happened was someone swapped a TI4600 Geforce 4, for a 5200 Geforce 5. Thinking the number is higher and its newer, means it goes better. Well the 5200 was the lowest of the new GF5 series and the TI4600 was the highest of the GF4 series.



What I recommend to anyone looking for new hardware, is to find someone who will take the time to explain the differences to you. That usually isnt a large chain store with people that work on commission, nor is it some out in the boonies shop that is barely able to pay power bills. If you are running a business, or claiming it as such, find yourself a private consultant who will want to keep your business and doesnt have the overheads of the huge shop front. If you want it for personal use, go somewhere that is busy, and has a lot of throughput. Either way, get several quotes and learn about what it is you're buying. Dont just go on what your friend's, flatmate's, uni-student brother says.

This is the general rundown I give to friends. In order of importance.

Video card: Possibly one of the quickest items to become out dated and one of the most important when it comes to gaming. Also one of the most expensive. Though you are better to sacrifice RAM, Hard Disk Space, fancy case or Sound card to get yourself a good one.

CPU: Remember many games still only use one core, so even though the combined rating might be 6000+, that's only 3000x2. So if you are playing a game like SWG, having faster cores is going to be of benefit. For exmaple, going from a 3000+ 2.6ghz single core, to a 4400+ 2.2ghzx2 dual core , isnt going to boost your SWG performance. However you can certainly multi-task better ( RIP a DVD and play SWG at the same time. )

RAM: No point getting more than 3gig on XP, or 4gig on Vista, unless you get 64bit version (Do a google on XP RAM limit), and I wouldnt bother with 64bit versions right now unless you are a PC expert (Bad driver support). Either way, cap your RAM out if you can (No less than 2gig currently). RAM is cheap.

SoundCard: Often overlooked by many people. Having a good sound card to take the sound processing overheads away from your CPU can often increase performance considerably. Even an outdated and cheap Creative Audigy 2, is better than using the onboard sound system, even if the Audigy 2 is 5.1 and the onboard is 7.1.

Power Supply: Often overlooked, simply because they come free with many cases. Having a Good or Bad Power supply can mean the difference bettween good or bad voltage regulation (Fried equipment) and can range in life span from 6 months to years (one of the most common causes of blue screens, hardware faults, or reboots). Get a good reviewed brand.

Hard Disk: 2 drives at half the size are better than 1. Having a drive for windows and a drive for games, is faster and also there is less chance you will lose everything at once if one fails.


I could go on with all the other items, but to me these are the most important items to consider when getting a new PC.

[Jasno]

I'd like to add on, that If you are buying one for home contact your computer geek friend (I find everone has one). With a little shopping around and so patience you can get a great deal on a cutting edge pc. And of course you have to buy your friend a six pack of beer for AFTER he puts it all together for you

I built the following for just over 1000 USD

Intel Quad Core 2.4 gig
XFX SLI Mobo
GF 8800 GTS SLI
48x Write all drive (exept for blue ray)
500 gig Sata HD
A nice slick gamers case

There's no monitor or printer in the (I already had um) That would up it to just under 1500 USD.

[A'Ton Sands]

Not related to hardware, but a tip.
if you have 2+ physical disks then, configure your virtual memory to use the disk on which windows isn't installed.

This allows Windows to page memory to disk without getting tangled up in disk io on your primary disk.

[Istik]

Not related to hardware, but a tip.
if you have 2+ physical disks then, configure your virtual memory to use the disk on which windows isn't installed.

This allows Windows to page memory to disk without getting tangled up in disk io on your primary disk.

Actually there are a couple handy things to remember about your page file.

If you split your page file between the two disks, windows will use whichever is being accessed less at the time. Unless it runs out of space on one of them. Although if you run most your heavy tasks (Gaming, programs, photo/video editing) off a second disk and only windows on the primary, you'd want the other windows drive to be sharing the load.

I run only windows on my primary, so i leave the pagefile there. Everything else is run off my secondary.
I remember back in the days of really slow drives and small pagefiles, I used a second 500Mb drive just for the page file only. Also with smaller drives, it was also common to patition an area just for pagefile, to stop it fragmenting when you got low on disk space. Neither

Also its generally stated that page file should be 1.5x your total memory and should be a fixed size to stop it becoming fragmented. Making the minimum and maximum size the same will stop it growing and shrinking and keep it contiguous longer. You can also get this to help keep it that way.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysint ... efrag.mspx