New computer, help with upgrades.

HELLO!
Sarsipius here. Im getting this computer as a gift.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...reg_R1002_USEN

What components would I need to upgrade in order to play games like CoX on max settings and games in the future like Diablo 3?

Thanks for all the replies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

Straight off:

The power supply is a 250 watt one. You'll need a more capable power supply to power the one video card you can install.
You'll need to upgrade the video card. Because this is a recent computer, you *should* be able to install any video card that will fit in the case in the one PCI-E x16 slot. However, you should measure the space you have available in the case before you buy the card.
The card's specs will also tell you what kind of power supply you need; make sure to pay close attention to how much wattage the power supply can provide on the twelve volt rail, and how much the card needs.

You might want to get a PCI audio card too, to take a load off the on board sound chip, but it's less vital.

You can double the memory to eight gigabytes, the maximum that motherboard will accept, but if you're not running Vista 64bit or Windows 7 64bit, it's pretty pointless to do so.

Any ideas on power supply and vid card?

I was also under the impression that multiple video cards were housed inside the same card (if that makes sense) and not slotted multiple times on the motherboard.

Also the operating system is windows 7 64bit

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

Depends on the graphics card to be honest.

Some are "dual chipset" cards, where they are both on the same physical card... others are single cards but you need to link them up (either SLI for Nvidia or Crossfire for ATI).

The performance increase for SLI/Crossfire (even 2chip/1 card combo) isnt double the performance of a single card, typically only 50% more efficient, although depending on the game, it can actually *decrease* performance of the game having this option enabled.

The important bit as to "what graphics card and what power supply you should go for" is "how much have you got to spend on them"?

Limited budget...
id rather not spend 500 for a vid card. I've learned to spend more for adequate power...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

As I am in the UK the prices will differ for you in the US, but in general a 500Watt Powersupply will deal enough for you (you can actually run a GTS250 with a couple of drives on a 300Watt PSU, but not recommended)

Expect to pay around £40-£60 for one of them... (more if you want one with changable cabling/higher efficiency)

GFX card wise, the GTX460 will do well enough. It has enough grunt for all games that I am throwing at it to run at 1920x1080 with a decent framerate (30fps min, more often limited to screen refresh rate), without knocking the details down too much from their maximums). GTX460 in the UK goes between £120 to £180.

US prices are pretty much currency symbol changes (ie $40-$60 for a PSU and $120 to $180 for the GFX card).

Feel free to post up here what you are you thinking of.

The *only* downside i can possibly think of is that the motherboard that you are getting in the PC is a micro-ATX one. That *can* make things tight to fit around hardware wise, although the case looks large enough to accomodate it all.

As this is a AMD motherboard ill probably stick to ATI

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

No real difference anymore between the make of boards as to which ones run "better" with one brand of processor or not.

AMD processor here, Nvidia card.

The only real advantage is that you could take advantage of AMD's "all in one" overclocking software (if the motherboard supports it).

Yep, i cannot use the AMD processor overclocking software, although I am on an AMD processor.. go figure.

I only listed the Nvidia card, because that is what i know best (not to mention as well that ATI *seem* to have some performance issues with CoX right now... as in you have to use older drivers)

Ya I couldn't remember if it was ati or nvidia that ran better on CoX
good to know

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

So with a top of the line video card, upgrade power supply, 8 gigs of ram what kinda of performance can I expect with this rig?
Ultra mode maxed?
Decent fps on shooters or will it not cut that?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

There are few dual GPU cards on the market today. nVidia never had anything after the GTX 295, nothing for the 400 series but there is talk about a dual GPU card based around the GPU found in the GTX 560 Ti. The last dual GPU card from ATI/AMD is the HD 5970. The power requirements for either the old GTX 295 or the HD 5970 is quite high, in the 300 watt range for the card itself. Then there is a problem of fit, the HD 5970 is over a foot long, which can be a problem for some mid size cases and you are looking at a PC in a microATX tower case.

As for the question of "What components would I need to upgrade in order to play games like CoX on max settings and games in the future like Diablo 3?" that is a matter of debate. First it's different for 1280x1024 at 30fps than 2560x1600 at 60fps. It's also different based on AA and AF settings. Some say that right now there isn't any hardware out there that can run with all the UM settings cranked to the max without performance suffering.

As for a predicting the actual requirements for a game that hasn't been released yet, good luck with that.

Also you haven't listed what you are willing to pay for an upgrade. Considering the system you are getting is rather basic $500 store bought PC it's not clear what your budget may be.

I concur that a good quality 500 watt PSU should handle that system with a sub $300 video card. I would recommend the Antec EA-500D. It's still the "standard" size for a PSU, 80Plus Bronze, comes with a 6 and 6+2 pin PCIe power connector and is rated with 444 out of 500 watts for 12 volt power. The downside with any PSU replacement is an abundance of cables and excess length for this size case. It may be a bit of a nightmare gathering up all the excess and bundling them neatly out of play. Also there isn't any info at HP's site about PSU replacement. The mounting holes appear to be in the right locations but there looks to be an additional internal mounting latch to help keep the PSU in place (internal photos of the PC found at NewEgg).

For the GPU, since you want an AMD (you can mix CPU and GPU, it's a old wise tale about affecting performance) in the $250 price range you have the ~$230 HD 6870 and the ~$270 1GB HD 6950. If you want to think about an nVidia based card then there is the $250 GTX 560 Ti.

That's my 2 cents.