Dead Men Walking

dMw Chit Chat => The Beer Bar => Technology Section => Topic started by: Penfold on August 13, 2015, 07:23:22 PM

Title: Ickle upgrade
Post by: Penfold on August 13, 2015, 07:23:22 PM
I think my home PC is basically OK but is a little aged in places.

I don't use it for much as I have a Decent 17" ASUS laptop (https://asuslaptop.co.uk/Asus_G750JH-T4106H_Laptop) but is the home one OK apart from the graphics card or should I look to do more?

[TABLE=class: section]
[TR]
[TD=class: primary-title]Processor[/TD]
[TD=class: value]Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD=class: secondary-title]Manufacturer[/TD]
[TD=class: value]Intel[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD=class: secondary-title]Speed[/TD]
[TD=class: value]3.1 GHz[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD=class: secondary-title]Number of Cores[/TD]
[TD=class: value]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
                                [TABLE=class: section]
[TR]
[TD=class: primary-title]Video Card[/TD]
[TD=class: value]NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD=class: secondary-title]Manufacturer[/TD]
[TD=class: value]NVIDIA
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD=class: secondary-title]Chipset[/TD]
[TD=class: value]GeForce GTX 460[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD=class: secondary-title]Dedicated Memory[/TD]
[TD=class: value]1024 MB[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD=class: value][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[TABLE=class: section]
[TR]
[TD=class: primary-title]Memory[/TD]
[TD=class: value]6.2 GB[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
                   [TABLE=class: section]
[TR]
[TD=class: primary-title]Operating System[/TD]
[TD=class: value]Microsoft Windows 10 (build 10240), 64-bit[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD=class: secondary-title]Service Pack[/TD]
[TD=class: value]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD=class: secondary-title]Size[/TD]
[TD=class: value]64 Bit[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD=class: secondary-title]Edition[/TD]
[TD=class: value][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
                                                               [TABLE=class: section]
[TR]
[TD=class: primary-title]Display Maximum Resolution[/TD]
[TD=class: value]1920 x 1200[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Thanks.
Title: Ickle upgrade
Post by: TeaLeaf on August 13, 2015, 07:57:01 PM
Unless you are seeing specific problems then I'd not bother with an upgrade if you are using the laptop more often than not.    Certainly you'd see a big  improvement in gfx performance with a new gfx card, but 1920x1080 is not massively taxing on most modern cards.   However any change of the cpu would mean a new mobo socket was needed, hence a new mobo and ram etc, possibly the PSU too and so the upgrade list goes on.  

Unless you need the change, don't bother.  :2cents:
Title: Ickle upgrade
Post by: Penfold on August 13, 2015, 08:24:56 PM
I was more thinking about SC tbh.

I don't use the laptop on a daily basis so the home PC is the one I'd be using for gaming most regularly. Be nice to get it SC ready I guess.
Title: Ickle upgrade
Post by: Tutonic on August 13, 2015, 09:32:28 PM
Please correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that SC was quite hard on the CPU, which would limit what you get out of a new card. It will probably be enough, but warrants consideration :)
Title: Ickle upgrade
Post by: TeaLeaf on August 13, 2015, 11:44:05 PM
I'd wait anyway if it is SC you are worried about.  Tut is right, it has been eating cpu hard, but it is also still some way from even beta.  I'm planning my SC upgrade for next year.
Title: Ickle upgrade
Post by: Penfold on August 13, 2015, 11:50:07 PM
Fair enough. Makes sense to wait I guess. What I have is fine for minecraft as it is ! :doh:
Title: Ickle upgrade
Post by: Tutonic on August 14, 2015, 12:38:42 AM
Quote from: TeaLeaf;402504I'd wait anyway if it is SC you are worried about.  Tut is right, it has been eating cpu hard, but it is also still some way from even beta.  I'm planning my SC upgrade for next year.
Fine advice :)

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Title: Ickle upgrade
Post by: albert on August 14, 2015, 12:18:56 PM
I think you'd benefit from 8GB of RAM, I found my wife's laptop had 4 and with 8 Windows 10 Home rocks and this is on a 6 year old laptop with actually the same family of GFX as you just the M edition.

Plus RAM is a cheap upgrade and the longer you leave it to upgrade the more expensive it gets as old RAM seems to increase in price.

You could also pick up a relatively decent upgrade to the GFX for not much money but as the other guys say, if you aim is of a really good looking SC experience, then don't bother with that.

I can't see how a 3GHz i7 would struggle with really any game (maybe ARMA), my lower clock rate i7 laptop runs SC right now perfectly fine with the recent optimisations CIG have implemented.
Title: Ickle upgrade
Post by: smite on August 23, 2015, 05:05:28 PM
Sorry for hijacking this thread, I am thinking of an upgrade to my Dell XPS 420 purchased in 2007 (quad CPU Q9400 2.66GHz, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 GFX card).

It still runs OK on windows 7, but I think it would struggle with any of the latest games.
Tried CS: global offensive a few weeks ago and it was very jerky on low settings.
So it looks like the daughter is getting a new PC and I get a better one;)

This all started when I saw an advert for Star Wars Battlefront and decided I MUST HAVE IT. Options were to buy a PS4, Xbox One or a new PC, which I was planning to buy next year. Logic pointed to the PC.

I am not up to date with the latest specs so started on the Dell, Alienware, Asus websites and it looks like £1,000 is a benchmark.
A lot higher than I was planning, especially with just buying a new car, piano and TV.

I like the spec of this one but need to get the price down:
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/view/Vortex-1250-gaming-pc/

Don't know much about PC Specialist so looked on the dreaded PCWorld website for alternatives.

Asus option looks ok, still too high.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/asus-republic-of-gamers-g20aj-gaming-pc-10133206-pdt.html

HP option looks very nice,
Bang & Olufsen
sound :D.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/hp-envy-phoenix-850-070na-gaming-pc-10133669-pdt.html

Forgot to mention, I can't be arsed to build a PC anymore, just want to take it out of the box and use it. Don't have as much time as I used to (bloody kids :p).
It also needs to be quiet. The Dell was the best I've ever had for reliability and noise.

Would greatly appreciate your opinions.
Title: Ickle upgrade
Post by: albert on August 24, 2015, 03:37:00 PM
I'm with you mate, buy don't build. Overclockers.co.uk do decent rigs and scan.co.uk always surprise me with their value.

For quite a bit less than a grand you should be able to get a machine that will run anything in 1920x1200 ultra.

I think quite a few people will pick up battlefront as it looks like they have nailed it.

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