System to play C&C3 + DAW

[hunterross]

Hello

I hope this is the right place to post this:

I'm looking at upgrading my much loved athlon 64 3000 chaintech vnf-250 1 gig ram system with VERY poor graphics card to one that can handle the glitzy graphics in C&C3.

I have a budget of around 500 squid, I have always used athlons but I am prepared to go over to the dark side if necessary. I used to know about hardware but a bit out of touch now.

Was thinking of buying the following:

new mobo
new processor - (core2? games dont use 2 cores tho....right?)
new ram if needed
graphics card
500 gig hard drive

Ive been so unlucky with hardware purchases in the past: my vnf-250 mobo has a freak incompatibility with my maxtor diamonmax 9 sata 150 drives - only revealed upon Maxtors buyout - so I spend a good couple of years trying to work out why my data was occasionally corrupting.... and plenty more like that...It will be nice to let someone else recommend!

Other option: dual boot to xp 64 (currently have xp pro 32bit) and get spanky new graphics card...does cnc take advantage of 64 bit OS? And maybe upgrade to 754 3700 athlon 64 off ebay for 80 quid or so...


Another consideration is that I will use the workstation primarily as a music workstation running Cubase with Reason. I primarily use softsynths that are processor intensive!

Thanks!

[Biscuit]

What is your PSU? because if its 480w upwards (and a decent brand) you could get a 8800gts! quite overkill tbf but leaves a lot of headroom for future gaming.

this is what i suggest although you could replace the E6750(dual) for a Q6600(quad)



Even the x1950XT seems a little overkill, you could really save some cash and just get a pro!

Edit: as far as music production software goes, Intel is whats recommended. not completely sure why but whenever ihave built computers for people involved with music they always ask for intel. Reading up on the web thats also what seems to be recommended. Personaly i dont think there would be a huge amount of difference but i suppose the extra L2 cache would be a bonus for this kind of operation. You will definately see the advantages of 2G ram though. I would maybe be tempted to put another 2gig in if u go for the cheaper graphics, although not completely sure about wether XP uses more than 2GB.

[Andaho]

I want that Power Color X1950 XT but they have no ETA on when it will be back in stock!!! It's the only thing holding me from ordering a whole new system!!! is there anywhere else I can get that specific card? - I like it because of it's cooler - cause I'm building a quiet PC.

[Biscuit]

Hmm the XTs do seem to be hard to come by ATM. You could always buy a cooler seperate?

http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/cust...productid=3135

http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/cust...me.php?cat=103

The accelero isnt like THE BEST cooler btw. the VF900 is equally good if not better. Comes with fan adjustor so u can set a good medium between noise and performance.

[silentvoice]

hunterross, just to let you know, I gave my response to this when you first posted in the 'Find me a Bargain' section (if you haven't already seen it):

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=115448

However, the 'Today Only' deals would have changed unfortunately, so the prices I listed will differ slightly.

[csi_grissom]

a quadcore for gaming? rather seems a lot isnt it?

[Biscuit]

a quadcore for gaming? rather seems a lot isnt it?

Thats why on the main suggested spec i put a dual then i said you could replace it for a Q6600 if you like. The Q is more expensive (about £170ish) but if you went for a cheap GFX then that it would still fit in budget.

Edit: also this Computer is going to be used for music production which i believe (with all the latest patches ont he various software) will utilize multiple cores

[Million]

Hey dude,
I'm running an A64 3000+ based sys at the mo, and have an X1900XTX beefing it up. It handles C&C3 with eye candy, but i'm about to go C2D so i'm interested to see whether it makes a big difference. AFAI can tell, strategy games aren't as CPU intensive as modern FPSes, but I may be wrong. Also, what's DAW?

[hunterross]

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation.

Really I'm not a gamer as such - only when it comes to C&C..Black n white got me a good few years ago... I will be going for the lower end graphics card, quad core etc! Thanks for the advice Yes Ive found out Cubase SX 4 does utilse extra cores..but do the effects/ instruments as well i wonder!

Anyone care to comment on running xp pro 64bit? i can get al lthe drivers i need to run cubase etc...will i see a bit performance spike runing lots of effects/ instruments?

Cant wait to play CnC with full on graphics!

[CrazyMonkey]

strategy games aren't as CPU intensive as modern FPSes

Wrong here, Strategy games are more CPU intensive as there is more units and more AI to be calculated.
Take SupremeCommander for example, you need a DualCore highly clocked CPU or you cannot run big games.
FPS games are not as cpu intensive!

Also i would want 2GIG MINIMUM ram for audio work. That QuadCore will be held back with 1 gig + memory is so cheap atm.

[d032sh]

I would stick with 32-bit windows xp for Cubase. I tried running sx3 on xp-64 for a while and it fell over all the time. You also won't see any benefit of going x64 with Cubase 4 as it's still only a 32-bit app. It was for precisely that reason that I ditched cubase entirely and moved to Sonar 6 which has a native x64 version with xp64 and it runs quite wonderfully thank you very much .

...well apart from all the NI plugins, which fall over all the time.

[Million]

Wrong here, Strategy games are more CPU intensive as there is more units and more AI to be calculated.
Take SupremeCommander for example, you need a DualCore highly clocked CPU or you cannot run big games.
FPS games are not as cpu intensive!

but I may be wrong

So it is! Thanks for explaining that. My only reasoning was that my CPU gets much hotter when playing FPS than strategy games, but hey

[Biscuit]

Also i would want 2GIG MINIMUM ram for audio work. That QuadCore will be held back with 1 gig + memory is so cheap atm.

Doesnt windows XP 32bit only recognise 2GB though?

[Queelis]

Ranging from 3 to 3.75GB, actually.

[Biscuit]

Ranging from 3 to 3.75GB, actually.

So if you install 4x1gig chips, windows would only recognise 3 to 3 3/4 of it? or would it just ignore the last chip?

[Biscuit]

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation.

Really I'm not a gamer as such - only when it comes to C&C..Black n white got me a good few years ago... I will be going for the lower end graphics card, quad core etc! Thanks for the advice Yes Ive found out Cubase SX 4 does utilse extra cores..but do the effects/ instruments as well i wonder!

Anyone care to comment on running xp pro 64bit? i can get al lthe drivers i need to run cubase etc...will i see a bit performance spike runing lots of effects/ instruments?

Cant wait to play CnC with full on graphics!

Agreed with d032sh, XP 64 is not really worth it. The instruments probably wont use multithreading but having each core at 2.6 i dont think you need to worry about that. Another point to mention, try and get a decent quiet cooler with a SLOW fan such as http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/127437