I was Wondering But unsure..

[si-skyline]

Hay guys i was wondering if you could help me out with a silly but important question..

Say if I’m building a machine and I want it to do 3 things say, run bioshock, have internet security and run windows vista.. Now I thought if I added up all there min requirements of the tasks I want then that’s the type of system I need.

But when i add up the cpu clock it comes in at like 4ghz with 3gb of ram..

Am i right in doing this? How would you determin what system specs you need to run programs?
Thank you very much any feedback is welcomed

[.Maleficus.]

For Bioshock, any of the new Intel CPUs will run it. It's more graphics intensive. For Vista and gaming, you'll want at least 2GB of RAM, and if budget permits it, you might consider 3 or 4. For internet security, you just need good virus protection (BitDefender, NOD32, dare I say Norton...)

But, a good place to start for with CPUs...

Probably an E6600 or better. They're fairly cheap now anyways. Hell, you may as well get a Q6600 for not much more.

[Spawn-Inc]

i can run bioshock (DX9) will full settings at 1024x768 with the rig in my sig. and that running bioshock with AVG, speedfan, fraps, lcdstudio, ati tool, msn, steam, the logitech G15 and mx revolution software all at the same time, but thats mainly do to all the ram. i'm not sure but i might even be able to do that in vista too.

i think any today system would handle what you want. i would grab a 8800GTS or 8800GT with a E850 or Q6600 with a p35/x38 chipset(eVGA 680i if your going SLI), with 4gbs for vista, a 550watt + quality psu and you should be good to go. i would say 3gb's but from what i've been told its better to run 4 of the same size stick's rather then 2x 1gb, 2x 512mb.

got a budget? or any type of preferences? i'm sure one of us can build a good system for ya.

[crenn]

Remember, if you're wanting 4GB of RAM, you'll need to use Vista 64 bit.

[Needsleep]

But when i add up the cpu clock it comes in at like 4ghz with 3gb of ram..

Am i right in doing this? How would you determin what system specs you need to run programs?


are you looking at the specs needed to run each application individually then combining it for the total needed to run your machine?

if so, and i don't mean to patronise here, but that isn't the correct way to spec out what your machine will need. :D

in real basic terms, you just need your machine to tick the boxes in terms of spec of the highest spec application you will be using (especially if your just gonna run an OS, AV and a game or two). When you start to wanna run more apps. then you may start to need to factor in some extra processing/ram etc.

the rest of the guys here point out what kinda machine you'll need with good examples of what their machines can do running at what specs.

hope that helps and that i didn't mis-interpret your original question :)

[Crazy Buddhist]

.... For internet security, you just need good virus protection (BitDefender, NOD32, dare I say Norton...)

Just hearing you say Norton makes me shudder. Try Kaspersky and watch your PC suddenly gain a 50% performance boost.

:)

[si-skyline]

well im not 100% building a computer more of the brain before the storm kinda thing xD.. it would to be to a budget but that has not been confimed yet :)


Remember, if you're wanting 4GB of RAM, you'll need to use Vista 64 bit.
why i thought a 32-bit archi could handle 4gb i understood that its when you go over 4gb is when you need 64-bit


are you looking at the specs needed to run each application individually then combining it for the total needed to run your machine?
slowly says yes.. and i thought it wasnt xD

well just to help are some specs i got from the internet about some things im interested in running.. so when im planning on how good the comptuer is will the cpu speed play a part? i know that i would have to add up the ram and that gives me the total space needed for the programs.. but im unsure,

what way would you determine what cpu you need before buying it, is there just one simple way of figuering it out?


Vista Ultimate
CPU 1 GHz
RAM 1 GB

bioshock
CPU 2.4GHz
RAM 1GB

McAfee Security Suite

CPU 500MHz
RAM 256MB
Hard Disk space 125MB

[Crazy Buddhist]

what way would you determine what cpu you need before buying it, is there just one simple way of figuering it out?

There are two questions really that set you in the right direction: What do you want to do and how much money do you have. So you are asking question number one which is where a lot of people fail in specifying systems.

However, you can't really specify the system by adding those minimum system requirements - it doesn't work that way. Bioshock will not run without an Operating System - so inherent in their minimum system requirements is that you will have one and it will be loaded - otherwise Bioshock is just a load of natty-looking 1's and 0's on a disk.

In answer to your overall question though, once you know the budget you have, find the best, most recent and fastest parts you can within that budget. If you can't build a system capable of doing what you want to do you have a little more saving to do.

If you can afford core-duo that's what you will build your Bioshock capable system round, if you can afford Quad-Core then you will have better gameplay and graphics and a longer lasting system.

The problem is that the best, most recently released and fastest parts changes daily .... so until you know you are building for sure and have a budget in mind there isn't much point going into depth.

:)

[.Maleficus.]

how much money do you have.
THAT, is the real question. What's your budget?

[si-skyline]

well hopefully £1000+ max would be about £1500

[Crazy Buddhist]

well hopefully £1000+ max would be about £1500

Is that to buy everything including all the peripherals, keyboard mouse screen, speakers, etc? - not that it matters much.

With a grand, some careful shopping and self-building you can build a ****-kicking system that will rock your nuts dude.


:)

edit: ps Your sig pic is oversized 150px max height.

[si-skyline]

Yeah i know xD I was more wondering like what is the calulations to know that a computer can do every thing you want.. even tho i do have that budget i dont want a case of throwing the biggest parts in there, if thats understandable xD

[Crazy Buddhist]

Well you may want to do something else tomorrow?

Personally I would not plan a build to the minimum spec for what I want to do today. that's the path to rapid upgrades.

However, the way to tell the minimum system requirements you need is to find the single most taxing piece of software you will use and look on the box at minimum/recommended system requirements. You can start from there. As I said, games will assume you have an O/S in their system requirements.

:)

[Spawn-Inc]

not having tried vista yet on my pc, i don't know how well i could run bioshock but like i said before i run a ton of things while playing bioshock, though there in active or, i'm not sure how to put it but its all the stuff in my icon tray. but now that we have a budget i will check out parts and see what i can do for ya.

i will assume you have keyboard, mouse, lcd, speakers.

[crenn]

A Intel C2D 6420, 2GB of RAM, and a 8600GTS can handle BioShock on Vista.

[Crazy Buddhist]

CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 "LGA775 Conroe" 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £169.19 inc VAT (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-156-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=793)

MOBO

Asus P5E3 Deluxe Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £193.46 inc VAT (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-252-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=946)

GRAPHICS

XFX GeForce 8800 GT XXX Alpha Dog 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £234.99 inc VAT (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-105-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=)

MEMORY

OCZ 2GB DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Platinum (2x1GB) Dual Channel DDR3 (OCZ3P13332GK) £234.99 inc VAT (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-092-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=923)

HDD

Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £51.69 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-130-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=768)

DVD RW++


Pioneer DVR-212D 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) £19.96 inc VAT (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-047-PO&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=951)

PSU

OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £52.86 inc VAT (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-023-OC)

CASE

Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU £88.11 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-070-AN)

All at Overclockers.co.uk £1045.25

That would play your game :)

(save 35% buying in the USA)

[si-skyline]

ah now i understand :) thank guys for all your help and special thanks to crazy buddhist for getting the specs for me :up:

[crenn]

CB, you forgot an OS *grins*

[Crazy Buddhist]

CB, you forgot an OS *grins*

He already said Vista

ps I get OS's for free (legally so no complaints thx mods) ... what does Vista cost?

[crenn]

For me I can get Home Prem for AUD$160 since I'm a uni student!

[Spawn-Inc]

i can get it for 125 for 32bit and 130 for 64 bit.

[NightrainSrt4]

At my school you can get xp or vista for like 20/30$. But thats because the school does that licensing thing or whatever that lets all the students have it while they are at the school. Tech your supposed to uninstall it when you leave.

I didn't buy either (from the school ) because I have both.

[XcOM]

Remember, if you're wanting 4GB of RAM, you'll need to use Vista 64 bit.

Why do people always still say this

Windows can address 4GB of ram
it can address a max of 4GB of ram, it maps the memory locations, but it has to remove your GFX memory from system memory, the cache from your HDD's, CPU and other devices within your system.

So on adverage if you use 4GB you will see 3.4GB which is write, and your system still runs faster if you use 4GB Vs 3GB

If you have to be accurate this has been true since windows 98 as i had a 98 system with 4GB installed, and it saw about 3.8GB

with 64Bit you can address 8GB, iuf you use server 2003 enterprise you can address 128GB and 124TiB of virtual memory.

[Airbozo]

Why do people always still say this

Windows can address 4GB of ram
it can address a max of 4GB of ram, it maps the memory locations, but it has to remove your GFX memory from system memory, the cache from your HDD's, CPU and other devices within your system.


This is where I always get confused because video memory has nothing to do with system addressable memory (same with disk cache memory). Last time I did experiments (win98), I was able to disable my page file and see all (or most) of the 4gb that was installed in my system no matter what the video card memory or HD's. Yes the OS must map "hooks" to the different buses (pci/ Pci-e, etc), but that is not dependent on the memory on the cards rather it is only a pointer of _where_ to find the card. Some onboard video chips can use the system memory for the video subsystem, but that is a different situation.

[XcOM]

im not sure on win98, i haven'[t installed 4GB on 98 for years,

and i nolonger am able to install 4GB to test this, but i am sure that if you use 4gb and install a gfx card with 512 memory (Exclude all other items now) your system will see 3.5gb, if you install gfx with 256mb you will see 3.75gb.

Like i said i can't test this as i don't gave 4gb spare to install, and all my systems all use different memory.

If someone can test this using windows XP and DXDIAG to get your memory information and gfx card info, you will need two different gfx cards with different memory sizes.

[crenn]

Either way, you're still not getting all your paid for ;P

[XcOM]

Either way, you're still not getting all your paid for ;P


agree'd