Upgrading old rig for Planetside 2

[Cheekaay]

Hi guys

Working on a very tight budget but eagerly awaiting SoE`s Planetside 2 (was a PS1 devotee way back).

Would like to upgrade my GPU, CPU, mobo and memory.

Right now I have AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2.51 dual core CPU. EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB PCIx16 GPU. 585w PSU. 4 gigs DDR2 266mhz memory. Windows XP.

Obviously Windows 7 is a given and I would prefer to stay with my PSU simply for budgeting purposes.

So basically a CPU, GPU, mobo and memory on a tight budget that will play Planetside 2 and look somewhat good.

All advice appreciated. Happy New Year!

 

[tlmck]

If you are running a 8800 GTS, you PSU should be fine.

Unfortunately, I cannot find any system requirements on the web for that game. The SOE website is giving away betas for it right now, but that is all the info I could find.

If you know the system requirements, please reply with them and I'll see if I can help you further. It does look like a cool game. I may check it out myself. http://www.planetside2.com

 

[r0aringdrag0n]

After watching the trailer from planetside, it looks to me that the game is not that harsh on the system. I'm going to assume this will be the minimum requirements:
CPU: 2 core 2.0 Ghz CPU or higher (maybe even a single core CPU)
Graphics: Graphics card with 512mb of RAM and DirectX 9 support
RAM: 2GB of RAM

I would recommend this upgrade:

CPU: Intel i3 2100 $125 (it's apparently only $115 on this weekend)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078

Graphics: SAPPHIRE 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 $165 (Free DiRT3 coupon if you like racing games)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948

MoBo: ASRock H61M-VS $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157241

RAM: G.SKILL Value Series 8GB Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT $37
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231422

Total upgrade cost: $387

NOTICE: Make sure your case supports mATX motherboards and that your HDD is SATA connector not PATA. Also make sure your PSU has 2 open 4 pin power connectors, or a few molex power connectors open to use.

Explanation: This is a great system for the price. The i3 2100, despite being a 2 core CPU can out perform some AMD 4 core CPUs. It has the ability to hyperthread, meaning it can run 4 threads at once, so it simulates being a 4 core CPU. The Radeon 6870 will be able to handle anything you throw at it and it's decently priced. The ASRock H61M-VS motherboard is a great budget motherboard. The 8GB of RAM is overkill even on higher budget gaming computers, but it's always good to have more RAM, and it's not all that expensive anyways.

How to save money from that upgrade:
Go with the Radeon 6850 (Save: $15):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
The Radeon 6850 is one step lower than the 6870, both are top notch performing graphics cards.
Go with 4GB of RAM (Save $18):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148262
A gaming computer really doesn't need 8GB of RAM, 4 is more than enough, so going with 4GB of RAM is a logical cash saving move. However, going with 4GB will not allow you to upgrade to 8GB without taking out the 4GB of RAM first.

 

[gigafunk]

Planetside 2 uses physx--which means you should stick to a nvidia card because they have a nasty lockdown on that technology if you ever want to dedicated a much smaller card to the physx...