what should i upgrade first???

[willy123]

ok so pre-ordered VanguardSoH and i played beta it runs decent right now with current system. in the bigger citys im takin a hit on fps so what should I go with first hard-drive(HD sounds like its strugglin in citys) another 1g of ram or CPU(I read somewhere that the unreal engine is alot better with dual core)

System specs are...
A8n-e
athlon 64 3200
x1800gto
1g ocz value
old ide harddrive
no oc btw

thanks

 

[akhilles]

W/o knowing the psu, I'd have to say cpu.

 

[willy123]

W/o knowing the psu, I'd have to say cpu.

its a Raidmax 450watt that came with my case

 

[fredgiblet]

If your hard drive is chugging then you would benefit from more RAM (ideally the HD should be untoched after levels load). Other than that I'd say the weak link looks like your CPU, if the game supports dual-core you might want to grab a 3600 or 3800.

 

[miribus]

What is your budget?
And is this basically just geared toward making the game run smoother?

In that case, increasing the ram should help the most at the moment.

If I'm not completely mistaken though your setup is a 754 right?
That's only single channel unfortunately.

Ultimately I'd just deal with it for now and start squirreling away at least up to $500 to start making a switch to a newer platform. But I play a lot of different games of a lot of different types. Lucky for you MMORPG fanatics your game doesnt' change often enough, or at all, to require many upgrades if it's the only game you play.

 

[akhilles]

W/o knowing the psu, I'd have to say cpu.

its a Raidmax 450watt that came with my case
The psu isn't too hot.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

Have you run any 3dmark? Was the score ok?

Right now, you can lower the resolution & video settings in game to find the sweet spot where the fps is optimal.

 

[willy123]

thanks for the feedback!
i scored 2908 on 3d06. also here is my cpu-z if that helps i oc'd the cpu some core stays around 30c

I just got this pc about 6months ago it runs everything else fine oblivion etc.
question on ram I got 2x512 does it matter how many sticks I get? can i get 1 1g stick?
my chipset fan has been really loud I get a warning after nightly shutdown saying speed is low would this affect performance?

 

[geofelt]

Don't guess; find out what the problem is first. Go to control panel/admin-tools/performance. Start up the monitor and look at cpu,page faults, i/o's, etc.
If I were to guess, I would think of more memory.

 

[akhilles]

Depends. If your current ram is 2-stick, get another 2 sticks dc kit.

BTW, look at the wallpaper. It was an awesome anime.

 

[willy123]

thanks heres what I found so far:

Antec SmartPower 2.0 is this PS to good to be true 25bucks with a rebate?!?!
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB)

$241 with 3800/$275 for 4200 shipping and rebates included(thinkin I might as well get the 4200)would I be set for a while?
what do you guys think? thanks again for the quick feedback!

 

[AdamBomb42]

A faster hard drive will not improve your FPS. It sounds like your computer is hitting your page files and that is from your memory being fully loaded. So I say more RAM.

 

[AdamBomb42]

Always, always, always get dual-channel kit as long as your mobo supports it. If it does not then it is best to go with 1 stick. I looked up your mobo and it looks to support dual-channel.

 

[Finneus]

I would consider getting another power supply, those Antec Smartpower PSU are a good price but not very reliable. I have had a couple of them die out on me in the past year/ year and a half ( I have only stuck with them because they are still under warranty and I get them replaced for free). If you get an Antec buy the Truepower (seasonic makes that line I believe and are still considered reliable).

 

[akhilles]

Agreed 100%. ^^^^

This is his mobo:

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=455&l1=3&l2=15&l3=171

The cpu support:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=A8N-E

Update bios to the latest. Then get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103588
s939 AMD Opteron 165 $153.99

The kingston value has lifetime warranty. It's the same as my family pc's.

Start with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954
Fortron AX450-PN $53.99

Or get a bigger brand name, especially if you'll upgrade the video down the road.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

These upgrades will last a while. IMO, one doesn't have to max out everything. Every PC can play games. You just have to find the sweet spot by adjusting game video options.

 

[willy123]

I'll go with that then was stumped on which PS to get so many out there. thanks again for everyones help you guys rock!