Tweaking advice?

[scaldwell28]

Pardon me, but I am a complete novice in regards to hardware.

I recently decided to try out a new MMO when some friends were trying to get me into Age of Conan. Checking out the system requirements, I realized that my out-of-the-box Gateway GT5224 Media Center would require some upgrading to make the game playable. This system played World of Warcraft fine for the past 2+ years.

Here were the original specs:

Intel Pentium D 915 (Dual Core) 2.8G/core
1024 MB 533 MHz (PC4200) DDR2 memory
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950

So I did the whole system requirements lab thing, and upgraded a bit, to 3gb RAM and Gigabyte GeForce 8800GT 512mb factory overclocked at 700mhz. Everything installed fine, downloaded the latest drivers from Nvidia, and I'm all set.

This game loads and runs all right, I'm getting between 18-30 fps at most times; playable, but not particualrly smooth. Yet I am reading and hearing from some people who are able to get 50-60fps whose specs seem very similar to my own. Is there anybody out there who can toss some advice my way as far as tweaks to get the most out of this hardware?

As a side note, I am getting no power errors now (unlike when I first installed the GPU and forgot to plug it in, yes I'm that much of a newb) but I felt I should disclose that I did NOT upgrade from my stock 300w PSU, just in case that this could be part of my problem.

 

[spuddyt]

I'm willing to bet that power supply is insufficient (i'm not certain, but would place a large sum of money) also, that CPU isn't exactly stellar, so don't expect to compare results with ppl who have e8400's @ 4.0 ghz....

 

[scaldwell28]

Yes, I understand that my processor is subpar, but I'm not willing to shell out for a new tower, mobo, Core2Duo, and PSU just yet. Perhaps in a few months I will take my RAM and GPU and go ahead and start assembling the rest of what I need for a decent gaming machine.

Is there any way that I can verify whether or not I need a new power supply straight away? I could afford to purchase the above items slowly, given my budget, so if I can determine that a new psu would be an immediate upgrade, I'd just make that the first purchase from my list.

 

[infornography42]

If you needed a new power supply, the system would not be stable.

It looks like a processor bottleneck to me. What sort of internet connection do you have?

 

[scaldwell28]

I use Zoomtown Broadband, so DSL, I think?

 

[infornography42]

Well, you could be getting hit by network lag. Also there is a possibility that the server you picked is getting overloaded.

 

[sportsfanboy]

you have 3gb of ram and a new vid card... Why not get a few more parts for a full upgrade? 88 dollar motherboard from giabyte, 50 to hundred dollar power suply, and a chip for under 200 or at 200 for q6600.

 

[scaldwell28]

Are you serious on those prices? I thought those components would be far more expensive, particularly the motherboard.

 

[mi1ez]

No, you can get a P35 board for very little these days, and this will allow you to get a fairly cheap processor and OC it to something better.

In fact my P5K-e let me OC my Pentium D so far on stock cooling, ina cheap case, that it's not really a bottleneck any more (probably on a par with my 3850) Could probably hit 4GHz if I wanted.

If you give a budget, most of us love to build systems on paper!

 

[sportsfanboy]

totally serious..just go through a large well respected e tailer and you should find those prices no problem, give or take a few bucks.

 

[sportsfanboy]

Ok I'm bord this morning. Here's some links to the parts i was talking about.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

This is just an idea of what you can get for the money I was talking about, good luck.

Edit-ram info

Also if the ram you have wont work or isn't compatible with the mother board, quallity ddr2 800 ram can be had cheap

 

[scaldwell28]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help. I'll probably start ninja-purchasing these items, spreading it out over the next 8 or 9 weeks or so, so that the wife doesn't add it up and freak.

Oh, and as for the RAM, here are the two gigs I recently purchased:

http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT12864AA667

Any way for me to tell whether or not those sticks would be compatible with that board you linked?

 

[sportsfanboy]

You can call gigabyte and ask, or you can throw it together and if no dice buy some new stuff. I personally have had no problems with ram working in a bunch of different boards. Just keep in mind that you will want to try to boot into your bios with 1 stick of ram first, then after you set the ram timings, voltage, and speed, you can go and install windows or whatever and your other sticks.

 

[scaldwell28]

you will want to try to boot into your bios with 1 stick of ram first, then after you set the ram timings, voltage, and speed, you can go and install windows or whatever and your other sticks.

See, this is where my newbishness comes into play. Once I get into the BIOS, I am completely lost as to how to go about the rest of that stuff.

 

[sportsfanboy]

It's pretty easy... Hit the delete button rapidly to enter your bios screen.

Then I believe on that board (the gigabyte in the link above) you hit the control key and f7 at the same time to enable advanced features. Next is to enter the ram speed via the multipler, cas latency, and voltage. You will need to find all the specs for your ram, if you don't know them then call crucial and they will tell you what to set eveything to.

You said ddr2 533mhx and the mobo will prob default to that anyway, so you may not have to mess with the multiplyer. If not just set it to 533mhz and done.

Most likely leave the ram voltage to normal, because the standard is 1.8 volts and that is what your ram is most likely, but make sure. If it is rated at 1.9 or 2.0, simply enter +1 or +2 in ram voltage to offset this value.

set 5-5-5-15 or 18 for ram timings or what ever your ram is rated at.
You will have to set ram timing or what ever it's called to manual to enable that feature.

Setting the bios up really isn't difficult, and most problems can be solved with a little reading.

Good luck let me know how it goes.

 

[infornography42]

Or you could just set it to SPD. It probably is set to that by default. Not always optimal but almost always works and you can always go back later to tweak it if it did not get it right automatically.

 

[scaldwell28]

I really appreciate all of the information, and I'll be sure to get back with you guys after I get some new hardware, most likely to ask a bunch more novice questions, and to let you know how it turns out.