few questions, XP? games? power?

[victordilorenzo]

ok, as soon as the e8400 is back in stock I am going to be ordering my computer. I have a case and I have XP. Question 1, will XP work with more than 2 gigs of ram, I have heard it won't utilize it, will games utilize it if I got up to 4 gigs?

question 2, here is my hardware, I plan on playing mostly Oblivion, UT3, and then crysis. am I in decent shape with this config:

PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

GPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231144

MOBO
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813128059

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Optical drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827101131

I also have a seagate barracuda 7200.8 1.5GB/s SATA

I know it owns all of the system requirements for the most part, so anyone have any experience with a similar config.

also, I have never put a PC together, am I going to have any trouble if I follow the instructions with the mobo and other components? I heard "wear your strap" what does that mean?

thanks!

 

[Gambini]

It looks decent enough, but don't expect to play Crysis on "high" at 60fps.

As my first build went (3 months ago) I had read about pushing the CPU in the socket, but it is more of a dropping motion. No pushing at all. Also, the strap they are referring to is a "antistatic wrist strap" that makes it so you don't put an extremely strong electrical current through your mobo by rubbing your socks on the carpet. I didn't wear one, I just touched the side of my case to ground myself a few times before I went in to do anything.

Other than that, it is pretty simple. Kind of like putting Legos together. Just make sure to read your mobo manual from front to back so you know what is up.

 

[Guest]

ok, for the operating system to utilize more than 3.2 gigs of ram or w/e amount it is, it has to be 64- bit... not that hard to find or install drivers/programs for anymore. All of that should be fine, except maybe in crysis, it will be fine at any resolution below 1600x1200, unless you plan on overclocking. I personally have only 2 gigs, and have an 8800 GTS 640 instead of the 8800 gt. But due to overclocking I got my card to run crysis at a mix of high and very high at 1920 by 1200. So, if you plan on playing at a super high res, i'd go for a gtx, some are sub 300 now. Also, I do not know how long your system needs to last for you, but if it is a long time, I'd recommend getting a quad core, and windows vista. Support for those things will only increase in time.

But a must, is a 64-bit operating system if you want over 3 gigs of ram (not including the 256 extra mbs 32bit operating systems let you have for a total of 3.25 gigs w00t)

 

[daft]

have fun waiting on the E8400

 

[skittle]

The wire strap you hear about is for grounding your self (which you want to do). Although the wirestrap is a little overboard for most people, you still need to ground your self and the computer.

 

[latenightrob]

daft wrote "have fun waiting on the E8400 "

It is funny I was stalking newegg, checking every couple of hours and finally one day it was there, I ordered it. after only a few hours it was out of stock again.

I never did get the autonotify telling of when it was in!

Tiger has them in stock
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3574211&CatId=2398

 

[blacksci]

I run 3 gigs on xp 32, and it recognizes 3.5 gigs, and will use more then 2 if the game requires it. Although most games wont, i have a few that do, and its nice to know that if a game im using is using more then 2 gigs, i can still alt+tab out, and do other things without any lag.

 

[oushi]

Clubit.com has the E8400 as well. I prefer them to TD:
http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1938463

You have an old HDD which I'm assuming is also IDE, but why not get a better SATA optical drive? Five more dollars will get you a good DVD±RW:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153

 

[boonality]

Windows has nothing to do with the 32bit OS limitations

Please just understand that 32bit operating systems can only address 4GB of physical memory, that's the limitation... it has nothing to do with windows (though tweaking and fixes do, but that's another issue)

 

[Gambini]

Also, due to the longer command, having just 4GB of memory will put you on the same page on both 32-bit and 64-bit. If you want to go for 64-bit, you should get more than 4GB of memory. I can't quote a source on that, I just remember reading it somewhere.

 

[blacksci]

Yep thats true, ive read posts of 64 bit users who seen dramatic improvements in the os with up to 8 gigs, the more the better with a 64 bit system.