war's card requirements and upset gamers

Order is being processed! I did end up choosing the ASUS mobo too. What won me over was the extra PCI-e. Whereas I know ASUS has an ok rep, I wasn't sure about the other company. Thanks for confirming. We've had dented packages shipped by UPS here so I went with FedEx shipping. My housemate just told me that FedEx and UPS may hire other delivery companies at the end of the route to get to our house in Philly. That means FedEx may not have been any better. O well. I guess I'll see when it gets here.

I'll let you know how it turns out and if you don't mind, please pray that I can assemble this thing without any hitches.

And...

Many thanks for all those willing to help me put this system together. I'm also looking to see you all in game to hang out with! I'm missing the christian gamer crowd big time. It's a rare bunch! God bless you all.

Zeb
 
No problem. It should get there pretty fast. I ordered my stuff from newegg, and got it in 2 days. It should go together pretty easily. One suggestion is to mount the motherboard in the case BEFORE you mount the cpu. Makes it a lot easier.
 
Ok. Question for all of you. There have been several times when I have been running WAR and just playing. All of a sudden, my computer will restart itself and when I get back into my user account, I get the Windows pop-up saying my computer had a system error. I'm not sure what's going on here. I've only owned this computer for about a year and my friend that had it before had it for about a year as well. I was talking to someone about it and they said that their computer was doing something like that and it was their video card. I checked the video card in the system and I think it's a nVidia GeForce 7600 or 8600 GT? I'm at work so I can't really check. Think it would be worth my while to replace the video card anyways even if it's not the real problem? What else do you guys think it could be?
 
A lot of good information posted in this thread. I will make sure to take a look at some of these recommendations when I build my next PC.
 
Melinarlia said:
Ok. Question for all of you. There have been several times when I have been running WAR and just playing. All of a sudden, my computer will restart itself and when I get back into my user account, I get the Windows pop-up saying my computer had a system error. I'm not sure what's going on here. I've only owned this computer for about a year and my friend that had it before had it for about a year as well. I was talking to someone about it and they said that their computer was doing something like that and it was their video card. I checked the video card in the system and I think it's a nVidia GeForce 7600 or 8600 GT? I'm at work so I can't really check. Think it would be worth my while to replace the video card anyways even if it's not the real problem? What else do you guys think it could be?
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go into the event log and see what the errors are. It MAY be a hardware error it may not. I would also open your case..get some canned air..and blow out all of the fans(the video card has a fan too). Do the same for the cpu and the psu.(unplug the computer first). It could be a simple overheating issue.
 
Blowing out all the dust bunnies is always a great idea. Make sure to hold the fan when you are blowing them out. I would also check to make sure you are using the newest drivers for your system. This game also has a bunch of random crash bugs in it, so it could be that too.
 
I tried to look at the specifics of the error and I am either really dumb and couldn't get to them or it just wasn't there. But I will try the can of air idea. Only God knows when the last time the insides were cleaned....I certainly haven't done it since I got it (always forget and never have a can of air). ^^;;
 
Melinarlia,

A reboot can mean so many different things. Typically, it's an overheating issue but also hardware can go bad or your video card doesn't have enough juice. I don't want to scare you so it's probably not that serious but there are possibilities.

To check for a heating problem, try downloading this temp monitoring software:
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Would you say that the game crashes after an hour or so? I'd start the speedfan program and write down all the temps after a cold boot. Observe the temps while the computer is on for a few minutes but before playing the game. Then observe the temps after starting the game. All systems will experience a rise in temperature when playing advanced games, especially the GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) temp.

After observing the temps, you can try posting the temps here and we can check if things are running borderline too hot. Some hardware is allowed to run hotter than others. A few google searches would probably find the answer.

I will be doing the same tests for stability once I get my computer going.

Zeb
 
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Just wanted to post my personal experience.

my setup is:

Athlon xp 64 3400+ and 2g ram
I upgraded my power supply to 500w and got an nvidia 8800gt and honestly was dissapointed in the performance. I did ok, but still had issues and lag when I felt I shouldn't.

I ended up switching those out and got a 550w power supply and a radeon 4850 card, and wow what a difference, for the same price the radeon blows the 8800gt away. Last night when we were taking the keep, even with everyone in the keep room I only had very minor lag, and it's running awesome.

Moral of the story if you're considering nvidia vs ati, my preference is now with ati, for the same price the 4850 can't be beat.
 
I am sorry, but for the same price as the 4850, there are some nvidia cards that beat it. I pick nvidia, due to the fact that I have had way more issues in games, with ati drivers than I have ever had running nvidia. This since playing EQ. If you check different game forums you will see that there are some work arounds, or different drivers required to make the ati cards work better. There have even been game patches to fix things. I just have always had better luck with nvidias drivers.
 
Well I see that the the 4850 cards cost around 175 to 200. You can get 2 8800s for that, or 2 9600s or 1 9800gtx. Those will all beat the 4850, but if your board does not support sli, or the motherboard is an amd chipset, I would say go with the ati cards, since they work better on those boards then the nvidia ones.
 
I would like to know how well this would go together. I'm getting some funds, and I don't know what else I'm missing though or if this stuff will fit in the case :p...

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068
Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254005
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150316 (I have an 8600gt at the moment, this a good upgrade?)
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036
MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337
Harddrive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218
OS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488

With another 100 bucks with the Mouse/Keyboard and 200 for shipping, it's about 1230 total. Is all that alright and compatible? I'm going for a budget/mid-range, but only have around 1 grand too spend.
 
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Ralvardar said:
Well I see that the the 4850 cards cost around 175 to 200. You can get 2 8800s for that, or 2 9600s or 1 9800gtx. Those will all beat the 4850, but if your board does not support sli, or the motherboard is an amd chipset, I would say go with the ati cards, since they work better on those boards then the nvidia ones.
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sli-xfire is a marketing gimmic. those two older cards will not wipe the floor with the 4850 and draw nearly twice the power for only 30% benefit. Also the 98xx series draws a ton more power than the 48xx series and the 4850 beats a 9800 gtx. You have to have the 9800gx2 to beat it in most tests or a gtx series card(which are even more monstrous power hungry beasts). Take price/power/performance and the 4850 is the clear winner. Not to mention nividia's widening defect issues. Right now unless you want to roll the dice on quality and the overall price/performance/power averages ATI is the clear winner. This is my .02
 
Ralvardar said:
I would suggest not getting 64bit xp, just get xp pro instead. I would also suggest switching to the other motherboard:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131333 Its about the same price with a bit more, and the core chipset is a bit faster. I would also use only 2GB of ram.
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Yeah, I'll tone down the ram, was reading up on that some.

But why XP? I don't like XP. I like Vista. :p Could I still use 32-bit, or is that for single core only?
 
if you go vista you will effectively take your system performance down 30% due to the DRM infestation inside of Vista. XP is going to be supported until 2014. Why pay extra for vista AND lose 30% performance?

Just to give you an idea:
My 7 year old athlon xp 2400+ system is faster under xp than my wife's 2 year old athlon 64 3500+ system is under vista.
 
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The 4850 doesn't beat a 98gtx, unless you are in crossfire. Its not a huge difference, but it does beat it. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/chart...8/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-1680x1050-AA,799.html

There is also stories running around that a lot of ATI cards are having trouble now as well: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/diamond-alienware-failure-3800,news-29242.html
and http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/rumor_thousands_diamond_multimedia_cards_may_be_defective

Also most of the nvidia graphics boards have a much longer warranty then the ati cards. Most nvidia ones are between 3 years and lifetime. Most of the ati ones i have seen are 1 year or less. I think a lot of the issues both are having, are more due to poor 3rd party build quality, weak power supplies, bad airflow in the case, and poor system maintanence.
 
That is true for xp and vista. The gaming performance in vista has improved tremendously from what it used to be. In directx 9 games xp is still faster, but as more and more games come out with directx10 support, vista will be the only way to go. Windows7 will be out in a year or 2, but who know how that will go. Plus why buy directx 10 hardware that you can't use all the features.
 
no not alot of ati's cards..one set of cards from one AIB that is modifying the board layout..read closer. (There were three causes for the problems: a wrong resistor, a questionable BIOS, and a PSU that wasn't delivering anything close to its rated wattage. Users saw dead cards, cards that would artifact, BSODs, and Crossfire that simply didn't work. None of these things – causes or symptoms – are a good thing) Also unlike Nvidia..diamond is replacing the cards without questions..whereas nvidia's answer is to issue a bios "fix" that turns the fan's wick to max 24/7 and is stonewalling everyone. Nividia's problems are endemic to design and driven by fear. 4850 does beat the 9800..anandtech and many others show it..without crossfire. You still have to have an sli rig or a gtx series card(both of hwich are very power hungry) to run away form a 4850(at a higher cost as well). I will correct one thing..the 4850 doesn't win everywhere..but where it falls behind it's in the single digit percentages. The 9800gtx does not run away with anything.
 
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