OK, I bought the Orange box

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » November 22nd, 2007, 10:11

ocuk should be fine, but i'd spec the same machine up yourself from there and scan.

I suspect you'll see a £100 premium just for the build of the machine.

mostly I just spec from ocuk because it's easy to navigate and pretty indicative of average prices

amblin · Post by **amblin** » November 22nd, 2007, 10:15

bomberesque · Post by **bomberesque** » November 22nd, 2007, 10:26

100 of your great british pounds would be worth a couple of hours of my time. May give it a go. As I know these things move so fast though, I'll ask advice on the hardware forum once I'm ready to go. the correct Mobo and making sure that teh components match it would be the thing I'm most worried about...

I like lego

Lee · Post by **Lee** » November 22nd, 2007, 11:07

The reason your current PC is stuttering is because it only has 512mb ram, you need at least 1gb, or ideally 2gb to get smooth gameplay.

If you're going for a new PC, aria do the best deal on complete systems i've found. You can pick whatever parts you like and pay £35 for them to put them together, they also have some pre-picked parts to choose from so you know everything will work together. A similar system to that OCUK one costs £597 but with a core 2 processor so it'd be faster for less moneys. I plan on getting my next PC built by them.

Here's teh link: https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Systems ... der/GAMER1

I'd go for at least the 480w psu, core 2 E6750, 2gb ram, 500gb hdd and wait for the 8800gt to come back in stock, if you really cant wait then just get the gts. Also, add windows xp home to your cart manually, don't get Fista

amblin · Post by **amblin** » November 22nd, 2007, 11:25

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » November 22nd, 2007, 12:55

Topping on from Lee's post:

If you're only running 512meg, you might as well go spend about £30 quid (m ight be less now) and double it to 1 gig.

That'll offer a fair little boost and help everything run smoothly.

bomberesque · Post by **bomberesque** » November 22nd, 2007, 12:57

yeah, the problem with the memory I have is that it's RAMbus. OCUK don't sell it, Maplins do but for 90quid/256Meg, so 350 notes for 1 G, which ... just ... no.

Ebay is about 70-115 quid per meg which is promising, but I just don't feel it's worth it. Better holding out for a new PC then keeping this one as-is for media and stuffs.

is Fista all that shit? If I want a syatem that'll last a few years, will I not be stuck with it anyway?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » November 22nd, 2007, 13:02

Honestly, I can see Fista turning into windows Me2, It'll just get ignored until something good comes out.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » November 22nd, 2007, 13:07

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Honestly, I can see Fista turning into windows Me2, It'll just get ignored until something good comes out.

Can see? It already has Berk.

There's been enough posts of major manufactuers re-introducing XP based machines alongside Fista machines due to demand from customers.

Isn't it Fujitsu or something that give you a proper disk of XP with their fista machines?

There's also lots of business's who arn't bothering to upgrade, and in somecases they downgrade back to XP if they get Fista machines shipped to them.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » November 22nd, 2007, 13:09

buzzmong wrote:words

yes, but MS is still half trying to push Fista (admittedly, like a kitten pawing at a dead thing trying to make it go again)

bomberesque · Post by **bomberesque** » November 22nd, 2007, 13:13

Dr. kitteny berk wrote: like a kitten pawing at a dead thing trying to make it go again

superb imagery

case in point, I suppose, that Lee's link shows Aria charging more for XP Pro than for Fista Premium

It pains me that the basic system Lee linked to would shit all over what OI currently have, for only about 400 quid

Bugger my budgetry woes

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » November 22nd, 2007, 13:18

bomberesque wrote:It pains me that the basic system Lee linked to would shit all over what OI currently have, for only about 400 quid

the Amd/Intel price war has done a lot for mid range computers, makes it very possible to throw a machine together for £500 that's almost as fast as one for £1000

Post by **FatherJack** » November 22nd, 2007, 13:50

I use Fista, and I liek it.

It or a game haven't crashed while playing in recent memory, which used to happen a lot with XP. It started as a "cleaner" installation, but it has survived quite well as I begin to dirty it up.

Anhamgrimmar · Post by **Anhamgrimmar** » November 22nd, 2007, 13:50

bomberesque wrote:yeah, the problem with the memory I have is that it's RAMbus. OCUK don't sell it, Maplins do but for 90quid/256Meg, so 350 notes for 1 G, which ... just ... no.

Ebay is about 70-115 quid per meg which is promising, but I just don't feel it's worth it. Better holding out for a new PC then keeping this one as-is for media and stuffs.

is Fista all that shit? If I want a syatem that'll last a few years, will I not be stuck with it anyway?

AHA! ITS YOU! the only RAMbus user left outside of a museum!

Howmany memoryslots you got? i'm seeing 2x512mb rdram chips for $400, which is about £200 at the mo (Probably more in them wierd beertokens you use in foreignland), or single 512mb chips for 250 euros

http://www.pc-memory-upgrade.co.uk/memo ... ram-16.asp

bomberesque · Post by **bomberesque** » November 22nd, 2007, 14:05

Anhamgrimmar wrote:
AHA! ITS YOU! the only RAMbus user left outside of a museum!

Howmany memoryslots you got? i'm seeing 2x512mb rdram chips for $400, which is about £200 at the mo (Probably more in them wierd beertokens you use in foreignland), or single 512mb chips for 250 euros

http://www.pc-memory-upgrade.co.uk/memo ... ram-16.asp

yeah, it's me

I have 4 slots, each with 128Meg in atm (cunts). Rambus needs to be installed in pairs so for 1280 (2x512 + 2x128) I'd have to pay 500 Euros. Which I'm not going to do

1 Meg (4x256) would still be about 450....

Pain in the arse really

anychance I could swap out the mobo and put other ram in? or would that just mean lots of other new stuffs .. like cpus and that? I'd want a straight swap with everything the same (AGP etc) and just jam new mem in

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » November 22nd, 2007, 14:08

FatherJack wrote:I use Fista, and I liek it.

It or a game haven't crashed while playing in recent memory, which used to happen a lot with XP. It started as a "cleaner" installation, but it has survived quite well as I begin to dirty it up.

I must say, when I played with Fista, I found little wrong with it, but then my machine was pretty standard, using well supported hardware.

However, there was enough different that I found it less usable than XP, and basically, any configuration and fettling I did was to make it more XP-like.

I suspect this will be the stumbling point for Fista. I suspect most non-geek houses have gone from a windows Me machine, to an XP home machine in the last 2 years or so, which is a significant upgrade, in both looks and functionality.

If the next upgrade they make is to Fista, they'll see fuckall has actually changed, apart from it nagging them more and being less intuitive to use.

bomberesque wrote:anychance I could swap out the mobo and put other ram in? or would that just mean lots of other new stuffs .. like cpus and that? I'd want a straight swap with everything the same (AGP etc) and just jam new mem in

Possibly, yes.

Depends what your current machine is though. (Am I right in thinking you have a dually athlon xp/mp system of some kind, or was that someone else?)

bomberesque · Post by **bomberesque** » November 22nd, 2007, 14:15

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:
Possibly, yes.

Depends what your current machine is though. (Am I right in thinking you have a dually athlon xp/mp system of some kind, or was that someone else?)

I'd have to open it up to be sure but I think...

P4 (2.4GHz)
AGP (8x...?)
XP
IDE drives

how about this one?

Mind you, that (40GBP) plus 30 for memory and the cost of a new SATA drive I may as well just either pay the 100 quid off ebay fro a meg of RIMM or wait for the new system...

amblin · Post by **amblin** » November 22nd, 2007, 14:18

bomberesque · Post by **bomberesque** » November 22nd, 2007, 14:19

amblin wrote:I'd say don't spend money on RIMM jobs or even mobos. Save all you've got for brand new shinys. Then you'll have two fully functioning PCs, so you can clean the old one and hand it to the missus as a work PC.

I know this to be sage advice, but I am IMPATIENT

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » November 22nd, 2007, 14:22

bomberesque wrote:Mind you, that (40GBP) plus 30 for memory and the cost of a new SATA drive I may as well just either pay the 100 quid off ebay fro a meg of RIMM or wait for the new system...

summat like that would work, but it'd need a windows reinstall.

Difference is, if you buy that, spend £30 on memory, more on a hdd, all you'll need to buy is a core 2 cpu, and a graphics card* to suit.

It's the slow and steady upgrade path, but it's doable. (though, as amblin said, it is kinda the dumb way to do it, however it does bypass the missus if you're careful

)

*There's possibly some risk this mobo won't work with an 8800, I really don't know.