kc8oye Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 I'm just trying to compare my desktop to my laptop to see where my problem(s) are with this game, it's "Silent Hunter 4; wolves of the pacific" it's a great game, and even tho my desktop more then meets the minimum requirements the game runs like [you said a naughty!], but runs decent to ok on my laptop... minimum requirements: XP or Vista only 2ghz P4 or Athlon. 3ghz or better reccomended ram: 1gb (2 reccomended) video card: 128mb DX9 compliant capable of rendering pixel shader 2.0 256mb reccomended sound: DX9 compliant my desktop is a P4 3.0ghz hyperThread, at the time i tried to play this it had 1gb ram. (now has 3) my Video card is an ATI X300 (the box says it's supported) I disabled onboard sound and use a Creative Labs SB Audigy SE and XP pro sp3 my laptop is a AMD Turion X2 64bit 2.0ghz (With 32bit vista) 3gb ram and I think it's an ATI 3300 video card and whatever sound card dell uses.. when I run this game on my desktop, I have to strip the graphics down to nothing to get it to run even 'playable' (still well into the 'crappy' zone) my laptop runs it pretty decently with the default graphics options.. my question mostly here is: Can I look at my dual core 2.0gHz in my laptop as a "single 4.0ghz" in comparison to my HyperThread p4 ? and I just thought about it some and I think it is mostly the video card hurting me.. when I play call of Duty and COD 2 on the desktop they run great, but I kick them up to DX9 graphics mode, they start chunking really bad... so that brings up another question.. any reccomendations on graphics cards? I don't have a lot of money to spend, but it's not much fun playing games on my laptop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 Tim I'll bet it the graphics card... I would look for a nVidia card. You can get a 1GB memory card for less that $100 if you go back a version or two. Look at EVGA or PNY brands.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc8oye Posted April 29, 2009 Author Share Posted April 29, 2009 IIRC, the game's minimum resolution is 1024x768.. but I'll have to look again. I tried it again tonight (First time since my ram upgrade) and that made a BIG difference. The game apparently is very happy with the extra 2gb of ram ~ I definately want a new graphics card i don't need bleeding edge, but I sure would like somthing fairly modern this ATI X300 card is at least 5 years old already. I thought that XP/Vista would automaticly handle the dual core 'stuff' so that even applications not specifcly written for it would be able to use it? maybe i mis understood.. would I see much of a gain if I upgraded my P4 hyperthread to a P4 dual core? (board and chip) or would a two-physical-processor board work better? I'm not sure how much higher I can go then a 3.0ghz p4 (I don't follow the pc world as close as I used to) this is on an XP Pro SP3 machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amsterdam84 Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 Your going to have to go with a dual core chip and board. Dual processor boards are usually used in servers. If you had started out with 1GB of ram I can see why you were having problems playing. XP I think recommends somewhere between 1-2GB. As far as DX9, did you try installing the latest version? That goes along with graphics drivers as well. I play COD4 and my old computer is a P4 3.0Ghz with hyperthreading. 256MB BFG 7800 AGP video card and 3GB DDR Ram. It could play it ok but was a bit choppy. I built a new computer which has a dual core 2.66MHZ processor, 2 x 512MB BFG 8800 GT OC video cards and 3GB DDR2 Ram. This one can play almost anything I have thrown at it except Crysis, though I think you need to have unlimited funds to make that game play flawlessly. If you plan on upgrading your CPU and MB you might as well look at getting a new computer in the process. If you running DDR ram now most new boards are compatible with DDR2 so you will get a bit of a boost in speed there as well. Front side bus speeds are also a lot faster on dual core boards. Good thing is, prices are extremely low for a decent computer compared to 2 years ago. Look around Ebay, they have some good barebone computers for 200-300 bucks. You can salvage your harddrives and optical drives and end up with a computer 4 times faster! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amsterdam84 Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 Quad Core -- Q6700 is a 2.66Ghz processor W/ FSB of 1066 DDR2 capable of at least 4GB -- Good names are OCZ, Corsair, Kingston, PCI-E video card capable. You can get boards with a single slot though there are multi-card boards available to run dual, triple or even quadruple video cards. -- Nvidia looks to be pulling ahead when it comes to performance. They arent too expensive either when you stay a few versions back from the newest. 256MB is a good start with a video card though I would suggest 512 if you only plan on using one card. Depending on what you plan on adding to it, a 700Watt power supply should work for you. I usually suggest an aftermarket heatsink for the CPU if you plan on using it heavily as it will run a bit hotter than a dual core, though that isnt necessary. I have heard that the stock fan is a bit loud though. I had that problem with mine and upgraded to a better HS. I get cooler temps and its quieter which should make it last a bit longer too. You can use your sound card from the old computer in it if you like, just make sure you have a spare PCI slot that wont interfere with any graphics cards. Lastly, a new case that provides better airflow will help keep your temperatures down and reduce the need to clean dust out. I prefer full size towers but they often do not fit inside hutches or under desks. Mid towers are ok but things can get a little crammed inside. My first tower looked like this but I grew out of the case design. So I found another case that looked very nice and doesnt distract from the room. This is the one thing that really sucks about putting together a new computer after a few years is that you pretty much have to use new components. Almost every style of interface for internal cards has been upgraded so you cant use the older stuff. The good part is costs have gone way down. My first computer cost me about 3000 to build. $350 of that was ram alone. My new computer cost me about half that and is more than double the speed. Ram cost me about $60 for a pair of stick and I have the same amount. Hard drives have also dropped in price. My old computer has a 160GB harddrive that cost just shy of $200 and my new computer has 3 harddrives, 2 500GB that were about $75-$100 each and a 160GB that was around $60. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monte70car Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 Mike your new case looks like my how many fans did yours come with? My has a total of three an intake and two exhaust one on the side and one out the back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amsterdam84 Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 It only came with a single fan. I moved it to the front at the bottom to pull air in there, and installed 2 more: one in the side and one below the power supply. Is yours a Thermaltake? I like the filter on the front fan, good spot for it though I notice when it gets dirty, my temps will climb a bit. Mine did not come with any lighting effects, One of the fans has some LED`s in it so thats the extend on the lighting on this one. I didnt want to go to far as I have to sit here with it all the time and sometimes I find the brightness a bit too much. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monte70car Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 My is a Tsunami dream and it came with the three fans and the led's. Ive replaced my mother board and power supply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amsterdam84 Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Very nice. Play any games? I'm currently into COD World at War. Though I do play games like Test Drive Unlimited and occational RTS games. What are your comp specs? Mine are: Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66 Ghz overclocked to 3Ghz 1333 FSB 3GB DDR2 Corsair 800Mhz 2 x BFG 8800 GT OC 512MB 2 x 500GB WD 8MB cache harddrives in RAID 0 1 x 160GB WD 16MB cache harddrive C: Freezer 7 Pro CPU Heatsink Thermaltake Soprano VG7000BNS Logitech G5 Laser mouse Logitech G11 Keyboard Logitech G25 Steering wheel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monte70car Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 I would love to play games on my desktop but my cheap video card wont let me:(. spec wise it has two sata hard drives one at 1tb and another at 500gb, it has 4gb of ram, built in wireless card, sound blaster card, and i don't remember the cpu off the top of my head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amsterdam84 Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 A lot of the new video cards that are out now from Nvidia are actually pretty cheap now. My cards cost me about $250 each and thats expensive now. The 9xxx series cards I think are around $150 US so its becoming more affordable to upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 and the 8xxx series are even cheaper, and will run most games OK... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc8oye Posted April 30, 2009 Author Share Posted April 30, 2009 i hate those illuminated cases, they are extremely annoying to me... This machine is already DDR2 at least that's what Dell shipped me for it DELL SNPU8622C/1G PC2-5300 1 GB GDDR2 SDRAM Memory Module 667 MHz Bus - DIMM 240 Pin - Non ECC, Unbuffered I added two of those next to the pair of 512's it came with. this machine is still pretty hot all things considered.. it's got a 160gb SATA hard drive which is totally silent. it came with an all-in-1 memory card reader that can't read Sony memory sticks over a certain size it's got a DVD-ROM and DVD-R/W (no lightscribe tho ) it has onboard 3d sound, but nothing I have supports it, so I added the Audigy for EAX3 :> IIRC the dell website said this computer was $3,000 as shipped almost 6 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amsterdam84 Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Truthfully I dont like the neon lights anymore either and I plan on removing the only neon light in my fan and putting in a silent case fan. I dont like how loud my computer has become. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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