I´m off to buy a new computer

[Drachasor]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Get an AMD Athlon 64 instead.

Also if your board is a dual-channel one then you need two sticks of RAM.

I agree, you should stay away from the P4, it runs hot and is inefficient. The Athlon 64 outperforms is the best chip on the market now. It's also cheaper (you can spend the same amount of money and get a better processor).

-Drachasor

[marcuspeddle]

I've got a new Samsung 927MB. Beautiful . . . . .

And cheap here because everyone wants an LCD monitor.

[ghen]

My ATI 9800Pro 128Mb with 1GB RAM on a 3000+ AMD64 lets me run standard maps quickly and large maps quickly until about 1930 just for comparison since you seem to be going in the same range.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Tattila the Hun
You sure? I seem to recall my dual-channel system working fine with one 256MB stick. (Waaayyy tight budget... )

Yup.

Maybe you had 2x128MB

[LordShiva]

No, you don't need two sticks, but two-sticks, one each in slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 gives improved performance over one stick of double the size.

[player1]

1024MB of RAM is imperative.
512 is not enough, at least not for anything larger then standard map.

[Finarfin]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
1GB RAM is nice, but you can use a large paging file to offset the memory leak in Civ 4.

What do you consider sufficient? I have 1 GB RAM, 128 MB RAM video card, and 2 GB swap file, and regular size maps and larger are still virtually unplayable.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Hooray for Zoidberg! How can Zoidberg afford a computer, though?

He can´t. But a loan solved at least part of the problem

I´ve spent most of the afternoon/evening trying to get the #¤%& thing to work. It seems a power cable to the HD wasn´t included with either the MoBo or the case. Darned newfangled SATA devices... I have to pick up a power cable first thing tomorrow.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Get an AMD Athlon 64 instead.

Too late

Also if your board is a dual-channel one then you need two sticks of RAM.

A second stick is in the budget, but not until next year. But maybe I can wait another month with the monitor and pick up a second stick tomorrow? It might be worth considering in light of Civs memory leak problem... After all you can never have to much RAM

[Drachasor]

Originally posted by Dr Zoidberg


He can´t. But a loan solved at least part of the problem

I´ve spent most of the afternoon/evening trying to get the #¤%& thing to work. It seems a power cable to the HD wasn´t included with either the MoBo or the case. Darned newfangled SATA devices... I have to pick up a power cable first thing tomorrow.

There are two types of SATA cable, one of them includes the power. A lot of drives are made to handle either one (the data part of the cable is the same on both types).

FYI, in case you didn't already know. Perhaps you have the power cable already.

-Drachasor

[Zoid]

I picked up the power cable and just as a precausion an extra 512 Mb of RAM. And it works like a charm. It´s a different game. I´m so pleased I can hardly belive it! Everything is so sharp and moves fast, no graphical glitches whatsoever so far (apart from a minute lag in the intro movie). Now if I only could buy that TFT screen as well...

[Wildcat]

Congratulations your Majesty, already.

[Brendruis]

I'll take the approach that I do on the tech forums. First off what is your budget? I'm sure that you can best allocate your money if you know what the financial constraints are.

As far as a processor goes, both Intel and AMD are competitive. The earlier model Prescott Socket 478 processors did run a little bit hot, but I'm running one right now under good cooling conditions at a 24% overclock.

I don't know if you order online or if you build them yourself or not, but I can break down some components for ya.

It's wise to go for a 64-bit compatible or emulated processor so it will support the new applications for Windows Vista XP whenever it is released next year. Your options for mid-range budget are

Inte Pentium 4 630 3.0GHZ 64-bit Full 2MB L2 Cache $172

AMD64 3200+ Socket 939 Venice $166

Those microprocessors are very close when compared together. I've had two systems with similar components side-by-side and it was so close when benchmarking that it was very hard to tell the difference.

For a mainboard decision you REALLY don't want to skimp out. Go with a quality name and a quality product.. ASUS makes good, stable platform to run your machine

ASUS A8N Socket 939 Mobo, nForce4 Chipset $108

As far as memory is concerned... Any ordinary PC-3200 DDR400 will do you just fine. I would recommend a 1GB Kit of something like PNY or Corsair (good value brands).. A 1GB kit is 2x512MB DIMMs. If you really want to futureproof, get 2 kits... they run about $80 each.

Okay, and finally for a good video card you will want something to accomodate a powerful system... A 6600GT will not be good enough :\ You really want a 6800GS 256MB PCI-Express! Here's a link! It's $210. If you're not convinced, read this thorough review by our friends over at Guru3D.com . Very nice video card for the price! I have 6800U which is very similar and it's good

I will leave the hard drive and sound card, etc. to you to pick out... Just get a capacity you like and with the features you want. I hope this has been informative... Your total for this barebone system would be around $560 not including a chassis, but rest assured you're getting a faster gaming platform. Add in some extras and a hard drive you already have and I'd bet you can keep it around $600 Good luck to ya.

Btw, if you're not up to trying to build it yourself (it's really quite easy) take a list to a local computer shop and ask them to build you this. I'm sure they will accomodate you with a minor labor fee if they're good guys. Peace man

[Brendruis]

Oops I was too late

[Zoid]

I appreciate the effort nevertheless