A rig for Empire Total War

[knoddy]

ok well ima try and summarise my issues so far see if i can get any more help.

ive upgraded to a MSI Radeon 4670 and am having issues with it, i had several crashes while trying to update drivers and several issues which involved my integrated sound card not being detected.

so i tried running in safe mode, deleting all the drivers and starting again with no luck, also ran CCleaner.

my problem is that everything is running so slowly. WoW which would normally take 5 sec to load takes a good 1-2 minutes to load the log in screen, MSN takes a good minute to load, firefox takes 30-40 sec all these things are dramatic increases on what they used to be.

reasons - i have 2 ram sticks same size same brand but diff speeds. however ive tried removing one and it didnt help.

2 - there is a driver issue, despite cleanin and reinstalling theres some residual driver issue that can prob. only be fixed by a full OS reinstall (last resort)

3- there some form of incompatability issue with my motherboard and the GPU (unlikely both PCIE both MSI motherboard is not that old)

4 - there is an incompatability issue with XP, it is afterall a DX10 card therefore a vista certified card. when i install i get a warning that the card is not XP logo tested or something (dunno bout this my old card was vista certified and ran fine)

5 - something i only noticed this morning, my hard drive is brimming full, i only have like 5 gig of free space, i didnt realise and ill try and make more space tonite when i get home from work. neway is it possible that all that crap is slowing the machine down alot?

so neway, any suggestions would be awesome because im pretty much thinking its time to format the HDD as u always get theres a heap of crap on it, and its prob better off just wiping it. im wondering if its just had that many different drivers and stuff on it from changing cards that it needs wiping.

so any assistance or even if any1 knows any good tech forums to post this on let me know

Cheers Knoddy

[ArtillerySmoke]

1) Go with Intel core 2 duo or Quad Core

2) Go with an NVidia 8800 GT 512mb or higher.

3) Have at least 4 GB's of RAM w/ Vista, at LEAST 3 GB's with XP.

4) Have a HD that can spin over 8000 rpms.

If you don't have this - You can't max the game. Sorry to be a pest, but this is the facts.

[Polemists]

I know how to figure out 1-3 as those are usually the first 3 items listed when you buy a pc at a major store (Dell,gateway, etc)

but

4) Have a HD that can spin over 8000 rpms

??????


Someone care to explain this one?

And honestly the way games are improving despite the cost you might as well go quad. Espically with i7 around the bend.

[Lemur]

Yeah, item (3) is a bit of a luxury. I assume ArtillerySmoke is referring the the Western Digital Raptor drives, which spin at 10,000 RPM as opposed to the normal desktop 7200 RPM. Problem with this recommendation is that many of the high-end 7200 drives are nearly as fast, while offering acres more storage space for much less money.

Once again, I don not fully understand the Nvidia exclusivity. AMD has some compelling cards out right now. You can pick up a 4850 with a gig of RAM for $162. That's enough card to drive any game at 1600x1200 resolutions with most eye candy turned on. I don't believe Nvidia has anything that can touch that at that price point.

[Belgolas]

Hard drive speed has almost ZERO impact on FPS. You could have a HDD that does 10 billion RPM and might only increase your FPS by 1.

Doesn't matter if you go ATI or Nvidia. Just get the best that you can afford in your price range. ATI is dominating the mid/low end market. While nvidia is doing a bit better then ATI in the highest end market. Doesn't matter if you go Intel or AMD just be sure to check reviews on which is faster. AMD is dominating the lowe/mid section while Intel is dominating the Mid to high end section. Don't care about brands/fanboism. Just buy the best price/performance in your price range.

[Husar]

I have a Vista laptop with 2GB RAM and I monitored RAM usage while playing the demo.
Surprisingly it never, ever reached 100%.
I'd still go for 4GB but I just wanted to say that once.