A PC Gaming Newbie...looking to some PC Gamers For a Bit of Help and Info

[Samurai Jack]

Hey guys, I am interested in upgrading my computer in the coming months, but I don't know a good deal about PCs and creating a really good gaming machine.


What I have currently is a Pentium 4 at 2.0 GHz running on 512 PC800 RDRAM. I have a Geforce 4 MX 440 *grumble*, so yeah, I definately want to upgrade my graphics card. I'm looking to get a real Geforce 4, like a Geforce 4 Ti 4800 SE or an 8x AGP Geforce Ti 4600. Which ever one I get will have 128 MB. I'm not really looking to get a nutso card like an ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro or a 9800 Pro; I just don't really have the money for such a card.

One thing I'm curious about is my RAM. This is basically where the bulk of my questions lie. I've seen all sorts of "PC" RAM, like PC2100 RAM and PC2700 RAM. I have several questions. Is PC800 RAM good? I'm sure PC3200 is better, but am I pretty good with PC800 RAM? On another board, some people mentioned that Pentium 4's are very good with Rambus RDRAM. I have PC800 RDRAM; does that mean I have Rambus RDRAM, or no? Any help on this would be appreciated.

Other than this, I plan on getting a second HD in the not too distant future (I plan to get one that has least 80 Gig and run at a speed of at least 7200 RPM and will have 8 MB cache) and also get a DVD drive (yeah, we didn't get a DVD drive for this nifty comp of ours, but at least I can get one for like $40-$50). As for RAM, I'd like to expand it to 1 GB one day, but I won't do that for some time, probably not until like early 2004.


So how does that all sound? If anybody has any helpful input, I'd appreciate it alot. :)


Ciao.

[Null]

sounds fine,

bout the ram. i dont know what all the differnt numbers are... um, the pc2100 and 2700 i believe are DDR Ram, and you wont need to worry about thoes. being as you have RD, really if you have a book or something for your motherboard you can check and see what all differnt types it supports.
as for gameing, what you have is perfectly fine.

i have 512MB of PC2100 DDR Ram in mine, i also am going up it to 1gig, just waiting for the price on the 512 stick to come down a bit my GFX Card is a Geforce 4 Ti4200

What games do you play or plan on getting?
2 main games i play are WarCraft 3 and Unreal Tournament 2003

[Samurai Jack]

Well, hopefully my comp will be good enough to run games like Halo, Half Life 2, Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance, Deus Ex 2, and SW:Knights of the Old Republic really well. Games like those. But I'm sure that a comp with a P4 at 2.0 GHz with (at least) 512 MB of RAM and a 128 MB 8x AGP Geforce 4 Ti4600 will run most, if not all, of those games really well. Here's hoping, at least. :p

[Yoda9864]

You should be fine with that setup. Except of course the gfx card. You'll definately want to upgrade that. If you wanted to save some money, you could buy a Geforce 4 Ti4400 and just overclock to ti4600 speeds. Of course if you bought a 4600 you could overclock that faster. Other than that, you should be fine.

Half-Life 2 though, is that gonna be a major system hog? It sure looks like it. Grrrr, looks so sweet.

[Samurai Jack]

Yeah, Half Life 2 really could be a 'system hog', but it should run pretty good on my comp, at the least. Someone I know online tells me that the game will be able to run on a 700 MHz computer with a Pentium 3 with an Nvidia TNT 2. Yeah, like he says, it will look like crap, but you can run it on a system like that, just very stripped down. I'm pretty confident that a system like mine, with a GF 4 Ti4600 and 1 GB of RAM, could run HL 2 pretty good. Again, here's hoping! :D



Also, I have another question about RAM. Do you have to run with the same RAM, or have computer companies made it possible to run with two types of RAM (like a 2100 stick and a 3200 stick). My hunch is you need the same type, but I'd like to know what the real deal is.

[Null]

type as in same ram (DDR or RD) and differnet numbers? i would imagine so.

there are boards that i've heard can run SD and DDR at the same time. not sure of RD or whatever.

and yes you can run any game around, some you cannot run with absolutly EVERY gfx option turned to its highest. i have a 2.66 and cant do that without framerate drops. but the diffs with all thoes options on are usually not noticable anyway so you should be able to have each game look its best. thats out now at least.

im pretty sure you wont have to make any dramatic drops for half life 2 either. you should be able to run that perfectly fine

[Seven7]

Originally posted by Samurai Jack
What I have currently is a Pentium 4 at 2.0 GHz running on 512 PC800 RDRAM. I have a Geforce 4 MX 440 *grumble*, so yeah, I definately want to upgrade my graphics card. I'm looking to get a real Geforce 4, like a Geforce 4 Ti 4800 SE or an 8x AGP Geforce Ti 4600. Which ever one I get will have 128 MB. I'm not really looking to get a nutso card like an ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro or a 9800 Pro; I just don't really have the money for such a card.

One thing I'm curious about is my RAM. This is basically where the bulk of my questions lie. I've seen all sorts of "PC" RAM, like PC2100 RAM and PC2700 RAM. I have several questions. Is PC800 RAM good? I'm sure PC3200 is better, but am I pretty good with PC800 RAM? On another board, some people mentioned that Pentium 4's are very good with Rambus RDRAM. I have PC800 RDRAM; does that mean I have Rambus RDRAM, or no? Any help on this would be appreciated.
What is your motherboard make and model as I could not be quite sure if the motherboards I found that supports the PC800 that will work with the Ti4200-4800 cards. If the motherboard is able to support at least the Ti4200 or Ti4400 I would keep the everything as is and just add a new card. also unless I'm mistaken as I am half-asleep abit right now, the Ti4800 is cheaper then the Ti4600 cards. The PC800 Rambus ram I found had to be in pairs and I believe your 512mb ram is really 2x256mb.

One place you could go to if you wanted to research on the cards and the ram you have is at www.tomshardware.com

well I'm off to bed again....

[Samurai Jack]

Oh wow, sweet deal! I just found out that PC800 RAM, which is RDRAM, is better than I thought. It's even significantly better than PC2700 RAM in some ways, and of the RAMs compared, PC800 RDRAM has the highest peak bandwidth (3,200 MB/s). Check this out:


http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20011008/sis645-03.html


Just scroll down to the chart with a comparison of different RAM types.

And Seven7, I'm very sure that my motherboard will support Nvidia's GF 4 Ti 4000 line. I don't see why it wouldn't. I got the computer back in July of 2002, I'm sure it supports cards such as those.

[Seth]

I got my PC in August 2002. Right after PC1066 RDRAM came out. I got an ASUS mobo that supported 1066. After that i haven't been keeping up to date on everything PC related..what's the best RDRAM out right now?

[Samurai Jack]

As far as I know, the best RDRAM right now is PC1066. But you might want to check with others, I'm the one who started this thread, afterall. :p


Also, do you have a Pentium 4? Pentium 4s work really well with RDRAM.

[Seven7]

Actually for Rambus ram there is PC800(400mhz), PC1066(533mhz), PC1200(600mhz), and maybe even PC1333(667mhz) as the Rambus site doe not mention the PC1333. I think The rambus site have exaggerated results of the RDRAM versus the DRR's as they only tested as high as the DDR333(PC2700) to start with to be realistic competition results.

The PC1200 may be harder to find though and i'm not sure if the PC1333 is out yet though.

Computers like Dell used to have the PC1066 in there performance line, now they use the DDR400, with the DDR333(PC2700) and DDR266(PC2100) in there lower models.

The dual channel DDR SDRAM 400mhz, also known as PC3200 is now able somewhat to take the Rambus on, especially compared to the PC800 and even the PC1066 Rambus. There are ones higher like the PC3500 (DDR434) and up.



On another note: the new P4's 2.4, 2.6, and 2.8 ghz 800mhz FSB hyperthreading use the DDR SDRAM 400. The 2.8 can out perform the 3.06ghz 533mhz FSB(<using DDR333) and can be made to overclock at some 3200 mhz. I am seriously looking a new computer that will have the new 2.8 800 FSB right now because of this.

[Samurai Jack]

Hey Seven7, do you know if you have to have all your RAM sticks the same kind? I mean what would happen it you had, say, 2 256 MB sticks of PC800 RDRAM and 1 512 MB PC1066 RDRAM? Would it work just fine, or is that sort of thing a no-can-do (and cause problems)?


Oh, btw, I mentioned it earlier, but it's good to have some kind of RDRAM with a Pentium 4, as they perform the best with RDRAM (that is what a friend of mine has told me, at least. Might be best to check out tom's hardware to see what's up).

[Seven7]

One source I read is that the PC800 have to be in pairs but I'm not sure if that adding the one PC1066 to the board will allow the PC1066 to work at full potential as the PC800 is weaker then the PC1066 if it could work though..

Cost and other reasons is why intel is supporting the DDR even when the RDRAM is a far better ram choice for P4's at moment epecially if one has the P4 533FSB chips. I'm not sure if the PC1066 or PC1200 can work with the new P4's 800FSB I mentioned as I would rather have RDRAM as they work more effectivly with the P4 then the DDR do if I was building my own system.

I would be happy to have 512MB of PC800 in a system like yours.

I'm a bit distracted by a chat right now so ... heh

[Samurai Jack]

Heh, yeah, the RAM I have is really good, but I wouldn't mind upgrading it one day, in like early 2004 for example, when the price is even cheaper. But as it is right now, yeah, it is really good. :)