Opinion on gaming rig for a friend

[hightimber Profile ICQ]

For all of you hardware geeks *cough* Shockwave *cough*

I have a friend who just purchased:

AMD A7V600 MB
AMD XP 2800(Barton)
1G DDR400
GeForce FX5600XT

Please offer your opinions on each piece? I tried to talk him out of the GeForce in favor of ATI but no luck, yet.

He doesn't read these forums so you can be brutally honest.

Will this be a good rig for Battlefield Vietnam? His current setup is painfully inadequate for 1942.

[Rule of Wrist]

Probably just so... from what I've read about the FX 5600s they're not any better than the older ti4600s, or only marginally so...

What was his old setup?

Oh, and he'll probably need a soundcard, unless that is a board with that soundstorm chip... BF is very sound resource intensive, and I bet BFV will be the same...

[Conscious* Profile]

Id say so, he should have enough memory for sure and the Video Card will be good enough to.

[hightimber Profile ICQ]

Originally posted by Rule of Wrist
Probably just so... from what I've read about the FX 5600s they're not any better than the older ti4600s, or only marginally so...

What was his old setup?

Oh, and he'll probably need a soundcard, unless that is a board with that soundstorm chip... BF is very sound resource intensive, and I bet BFV will be the same...

His old rig was a Sony VAIO with plain-Jane audio and video. Pretty horrible for 1942.

He only paid $119 for the GeForce card. I've encouraged him not to skimp on video or audio. He's on a tight budget with the wife and he's doing the best he can. I'm just hoping to help him avoid critical mistakes. Any show-stoppers here? Is he going to NEED to upgrade any of these components withing 12-18 months?

[Rule of Wrist]

Depends on the games he wants to play... He should probably be OK, but he'd be way better off with an ATI 9600XT... it's not much more than that FX he got, and it's quite a bit better from what I've read about it...

You can get a pretty good sound card for $100 or less... those turtle beach ones are supposed to be pretty good, and you don't have to put up with creative's BS drivers and such...

[hightimber Profile ICQ]

Originally posted by Rule of Wrist
Depends on the games he wants to play... He should probably be OK, but he'd be way better off with an ATI 9600XT... it's not much more than that FX he got, and it's quite a bit better from what I've read about it...

You can get a pretty good sound card for $100 or less... those turtle beach ones are supposed to be pretty good, and you don't have to put up with creative's BS drivers and such...

I'm getting more information as I type. Appears he has SoundMax on that motherboard not SoundStorm.

[WeSSiN Profile]

It should be fine for now. The 9600 would've been a better choice but it's his money

If he needs a soundcard I recommend the TBSC

[senwolf31]

he should do just fine with what he has look at what i got I run the game just fine.

[hightimber Profile ICQ]

Thanks for the feedback. Keep it rolling if you have more.

[the_slog]

Originally posted by hightimber
For all of you hardware geeks *cough* Shockwave *cough*

I have a friend who just purchased:

AMD A7V600 MB
AMD XP 2800(Barton)
1G DDR400
GeForce FX5600XT

Please offer your opinions on each piece? I tried to talk him out of the GeForce in favor of ATI but no luck, yet.

He doesn't read these forums so you can be brutally honest.

Will this be a good rig for Battlefield Vietnam? His current setup is painfully inadequate for 1942.

He will get about 80 to 100 FPS with that setup. I get 80 FPS with a 2500XP (barton) and a GeForce 4800Ti.

He most likely has no need of a Soundcard, as he probably bought an Nforce2 Mobo (or someother Mobo with oboard sound). Integrated Sound cards are reaching such a high quality now that you don't really need a PCI sound card.

I also would have gone with the 9600XT. Other than that, I would have built the exact same system if I needed another box.

[AnimalCracka]

I had the same setup except an AMD 2600, MSI mobo, and an Audigy 2. I ran into slowdown problems with BF at medium settings at 1024/768. I switched to a ATI 9500, problems went away. I gave the card to Hell and she continually complained about lag with an Amd 2400. She also has an Audigy 2.


I got a 9800 pro and gave the 9500 to Hell, all problems were solved. No more lag on either machine.

[Conscious* Profile]

Does anyone have any sites where you can input your motherboard to see what memory chips will work with your computer? Im looking into getting the biggest possible chip i can find. Was looking at Corsair memory, anyone have any help for good prices and/or the site for the compatibility?
Looking to spend around 300 for DDR at least 512.

[-HaVoC- Profile]

Corsair

I have the XMS platinums and bf is smooth.

[the_slog]

Originally posted by Crypt
Does anyone have any sites where you can input your motherboard to see what memory chips will work with your computer? Im looking into getting the biggest possible chip i can find. Was looking at Corsair memory, anyone have any help for good prices and/or the site for the compatibility?
Looking to spend around 300 for DDR at least 512.

http://www.crucial.com/

[Jim0322 Profile]

Originally posted by hightimber
AMD A7V600 MB
AMD XP 2800(Barton)
1G DDR400
GeForce FX5600XT

All good except FX5600XT. My system is nearly the same except A7N8X mobo and 5600 (325/550). Bf42 runs extremely well on my machine except I turn down effects tab to medium, all others maxed. FPS is almost always really good, even on SW maps. The XT is only 230/400 and my 5600 is a mediocre card. If he really wanted to stick with Nvidia, he could have bought a 5700 from Newegg.

Jim

P.S. I noticed a big increase in performance when I went from an AMD 1700+ to the 2800+, 2100 DDR to 3200 DR, new mobo.