Some advice plx? :)

[Oskorei]

Hey guys, I'm thinking of buying a new PC for Warhammer. My old laptop barely copes with Warhammer the RTS game, and gets overheated fast.

What's the best thing I can get for WAR these days, within a price range of about 1500 euro's? Doesn't have to be a laptop

What videocard would be best? Reckoning they made WAR with 3Dmax I reckon an Nvidia card?

Thanks in advance.

 

[cHodAX]

For that much money you can get a monster PC but if you need a new screen as well then the spec drops a bit.

Basically you should be looking at a mid-to-high end dual core Intel cpu. 4gb of ddr2 memory, an nVidia 8800GTX 768mb graphics card, minimum 600w quality PSU, good cooling and a nice case plus maybe 2x 500gb hard drives oh and the usual dvd writers etc.

 

[Oskorei]

Yes I do need a nice screen with it...and the stuff you're mentioning sounds like...overkill...2x 500Gb harddrive shouldn't be needed for WAR?

 

[Popov]

My advice would be to wait till as close to launch as possible if the new PC is purely to play Warhammer. The turn of the year brings new cpu's from intel and AMD, a new graphics card from nvidia (and probably ATI too) and ofc everything gets cheaper over time so better system with the same cash.

 

[Aesgir]

Its true its better to wait til nearer the time. Theres been mention before about being able to run DAoC you'll be able to run WAR. I wouldn't look at less than a 3.0 GHZ dual proc and 2 gb ddr2 of ram though. The game is still being optimised i think so its kinda impossible to say what you need, but i'd say the best rule would be to 'best you can afford'. Its a competitive RVR game after all, you want performance

 

[Oskorei]

Its a competitive RVR game after all, you want performance

Yes, that's why I ask, I remember the old relic raids made daoc on my pc a slideshow, so no fun there, and ofcourse 5 minutes later the server always crashed so we counldn't play at all, but that's besides the point

But if you think of a 300 people fight, with landscape, and insane lighting effects and particles...are the current videocards even up for that? Even when frapping it all?

Ofcourse I'm going to try and get the best I can for 1500 euro, but I don't know what is standard these days...so 3.0 GHz dual processor ey...the 2 Gb ram I have already on my old laptop, so I will need more than that

 

[crispy]

Standards... Look at tomshardware for charts...

Cpu - Benchmark of Q IV

Gfx

Pretty much gives you an idea of what to buy

But i'd wait till later on with buying a new machine since you can get better later on

 

[Downanael]

But i'd wait till later on with buying a new machine since you can get better later on

Tbh it's always like that,if you wait for it you will never get that new PC

 

[Oskorei]

Standards... Look at tomshardware for charts...

Cpu - Benchmark of Q IV

Gfx

Pretty much gives you an idea of what to buy

But i'd wait till later on with buying a new machine since you can get better later on

Great man, thanks!

Only one slight problem: I don't know what the heck it all means!

What's a Conroe Core 2 Duo? And what does the 128,0 mean?

 

[cHodAX]

Yes I do need a nice screen with it...and the stuff you're mentioning sounds like...overkill...2x 500Gb harddrive shouldn't be needed for WAR?

It is overkill in many ways but alot of gamers like to run raid arrays to improve disc performance.

Warhammer isn't going to need a monster PC but you still want to get a good gaming rig if you are spending that kind of money. Personally I consider a dual core CPU and 2 gb of memory to be bare minimum now and for futureproofing I would add the extra 2gb while the prices are rock bottom. Same goes for graphics, WAR will run just fine on a 2 year old graphics card but if you want a nice screen with quality high resolution graphics then realistically you will want a nVidia 8800 series card.

 

[Asq]

I'll have to keep my eyes on this here thread. Was about to buy a new computer at the end of last year, expecting WAR to be released soon after. 'Luckily' I didn't but now I'm stuck with rather old crap Not being totally ionto tech it's always good to have something (like the replies here) to refer to.

 

[Oskorei]

Yeah but crispy (or anyone else) still didn't say what the heck all those numbers from the test mean. Ok, I understand, the higher, the better probably, but I don't know those first few things, they are intel processors, but I have no idea what they are, what they do what they cost etc. Also with the videocards, you have to fill out 2 cards and a benchmark. The benchmark, ok, tevr. But you fill out 2 cards and you get a list of cards in the results? I'm so confused...

 

[Lexa]

Great man, thanks!

Only one slight problem: I don't know what the heck it all means!

What's a Conroe Core 2 Duo? And what does the 128,0 mean?

The names on the left are the names of the products tested, the Conroe Core 2 Duo is a type of CPU for example.

The number in the bar is the number of frames the product was able to create per second.

The more complex the image is the more power you need to display it quickly, you don't need 128 fps but it is nice, bear in mind the human eye sees 24fps (if I remember correctly). The more going on the more the frame rate slows down.

Essentially yes the higher the better but as the power and fps goes up so does the price

 

[crispy]

Well you will of course have to do some research on the prices yourself, but at the CPU bit just look at their model names - Like E6850 or E6600 or Athlon 64 X2 6000+.

The 128.0 bit is how many FPS the cpu made the game run at (more the better ofc)

Ah just had a look at some prices

Seems like you really wanna go for the E6750 cpu - 1257 DKK (100£ approx)

Then get 4 gig of DDR2 ram - Higher PCxxxx the better - Probably pays off in the long run.

I would buy a ATI x1950pro card - quite cheap and can run any game you want the next year. But when war comes i would sell it (will still be worth some $$$) and buy the best on the market. ATI and nVIDIA will probably soon come with some new gfx so now is a bad time to be buying that imo.

Then buy whatever mobo etc etc suits you :>

Someone give advice on PSU please (very important to get the right one).

 

[Vasconcelos]

Yes I do need a nice screen with it...and the stuff you're mentioning sounds like...overkill...2x 500Gb harddrive shouldn't be needed for WAR?

I would better aim for x2 1Tera hdds...


On a side note, bare in mind that WAR launch date is sumwhere aroun 2008 Q1 (unless you are in beta). If you are not in a hurry of playing topnotch gfx games (the likes of Bioshock, Crysis, COD,...) i would not spend on a gfx card more bucks than the minimum necesary for playing here n there. Id go for a nvidia 7600GT or ATI1650 (which you can get very very cheap), then save the money for the new gfx cards planned for realising in the incoming months.

Anyways, im more than sure that WAR release version could be played more than decently with an ATI1950pro (i perfectly played DAOC1 with a TNT2 back in the days, even a relic Matrox G200 could move it)

 

[Vasconcelos]

PSU advice

Thats a part of the computer i never use for saving money. Imo, one of the keys of having a smooth stable system.
My personal preference goes for the Seasonic S or M series (for future plans id go for a S12 or M12 600w) and Enermax or Zalman. BeQuiet is a good money/performance brand.
Never ever buy a generic PSU, specially never trust the ones advertised as ¡¡¡800w!!1 PSU. The real power dealt is nowhere close to the advertised, and they have the nice ability of delivering power spikes which could put in risk ur precious components

 

[cHodAX]

PSU advice

Thats a part of the computer i never use for saving money. Imo, one of the keys of having a smooth stable system.
My personal preference goes for the Seasonic S or M series (for future plans id go for a S12 or M12 600w) and Enermax or Zalman. BeQuiet is a good money/performance brand.
Never ever buy a generic PSU, specially never trust the ones advertised as ¡¡¡800w!!1 PSU. The real power dealt is nowhere close to the advertised, and they have the nice ability of delivering power spikes which could put in risk ur precious components

+rep for that, I can't stress how important a good power supply is these days.

 

[Bahumat]

For that much money you can get a monster PC but if you need a new screen as well then the spec drops a bit.

Basically you should be looking at a mid-to-high end dual core Intel cpu. 4gb of ddr2 memory, an nVidia 8800GTX 768mb graphics card, minimum 600w quality PSU, good cooling and a nice case plus maybe 2x 500gb hard drives oh and the usual dvd writers etc.

If he only has 32bit windows it's limited to the amount of ram you can have. some boards with a 32bit operating system may only detect 2.5gb ram, some 3gb, some 3.5 or even 4.

if you need to cut costs a little, drop the ram to 2gb....unless you're getting 64bit windows

 

[Bahumat]

Hiper PSU's are nice

 

[cHodAX]

If he only has 32bit windows it's limited to the amount of ram you can have. some boards with a 32bit operating system may only detect 2.5gb ram, some 3gb, some 3.5 or even 4.

if you need to cut costs a little, drop the ram to 2gb....unless you're getting 64bit windows

I know where you are coming from with this as my new machine is running XP and only using 3.25gb of the 4gb because of the memory addressing system in XP. My point stands though, memory is currently rock bottom but is due to go up 50% in the next 6-10 weeks. Any memory he buys now will be recognised once he has the oppurtunity to move to Vista64 as a great many of us will do once the driver support is sorted.

 

[SkarIronfist]

Alot of new video cards coming between now and xmas. So wait until post xmas.

Also the quad cores from AMD are coming out, not that the AMD chips are not already very cheap. But picking the right motherboard board that will take a quad core (but you fit a dual core now), but allow you to fit a quad later would be wise.

So ideally a motherboard supporting the AM3 socket. Also remember that AMD releasing new chips will help make Intel more competitive on their core 2 duos if you go down that route.

 

[Bahumat]

Overclockers are advertising an OCUK ATI X1950 Pro PCI-E card for about £80 which is a fair bit cheaper than all the other manufacturers of that card.

The x1950pro is suitable to run Crysis adequetly so warhammer will be a walk in the park. (Bear in mind to run Crysis full settings they haven't even released hardware powerful enough...)

Other thing to note is the X1950pro is a DirectX 9.0c card. DX10 is only available on a few gfx cards, one of which is the Nvidia 8800, the 8600 says it can do it iirc but some magazines said it's a shit card.

 

[Vasconcelos]

Overclockers are advertising an OCUK ATI X1950 Pro PCI-E card for about £80 which is a fair bit cheaper than all the other manufacturers of that card.

The x1950pro is suitable to run Crysis adequetly so warhammer will be a walk in the park. (Bear in mind to run Crysis full settings they haven't even released hardware powerful enough...)

Other thing to note is the X1950pro is a DirectX 9.0c card. DX10 is only available on a few gfx cards, one of which is the Nvidia 8800, the 8600 says it can do it iirc but some magazines said it's a shit card.

Agreeked, WAR is a DirectX 9.0c game, thus the best budget option right now is 1950pro, so u save those nifty bucks for a DirectX 10.1 card whenever BillGates and the software companies decide to massive force the consumers into Vista (aims for the next geration of nVidia 9XXX or ATI 3XXX )

 

[crispy]

Yeah forget about Dx10 for now

 

[Oskorei]

Agreeked, WAR is a DirectX 9.0c game, thus the best budget option right now is 1950pro, so u save those nifty bucks for a DirectX 10.1 card whenever BillGates and the software companies decide to massive force the consumers into Vista (aims for the next geration of nVidia 9XXX or ATI 3XXX )

Well...European Union is making Microsoft pay a 100 million euro fine I think it was, for abusing monopoly position, I wonder what the effect will be though...

 

[xxManiacxx]

Well...European Union is making Microsoft pay a 100 million euro fine I think it was, for abusing monopoly position, I wonder what the effect will be though...

That´s just a drop in the ocean for MS unfortunatly

 

[Oskorei]

Talking about pc's and such...will there be use for buffbots? I might need to buy another extra pc (yeah I know, buffbots are weevil)

 

[cHodAX]

Talking about pc's and such...will there be use for buffbots? I might need to buy another extra pc (yeah I know, buffbots are weevil)

Go dual or quad core, no need for a second machine that way

 

[vayasen]

Are you people seriously gearing up to cheat your way forward in RVR already by preparing bufbots and such?

Represents all (well a lot) that was wrong with DAOC.

 

[UndyingAngel]

Are you people seriously gearing up to cheat your way forward in RVR already by preparing bufbots and such?

Represents all (well a lot) that was wrong with DAOC.

well considering you can't have buffbots in Warhammer(IIRC all buffs are AE)

Also the only problem with Buffbots in daoc was becuase it became common place, and it ended up everyone had to have one which then doubled your subscription fee :E

Then again because 85%(ish) of the players had one it was'nt really cheating :E

and with regards to cheating your way foward I dont see anything wrong in forward planning, its somthing YOU should think about hint hint.