|
upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 01 Oct 2006 06:09 AM |
Hi guys,
Like most of you I am anticipating, rejoicing, fretting and worrying about NWN2. The worrying part for me is upgrading my PC. I have taken the ambitious decision of opening my computer and peering into the dark dusty world with in. I was only going to get a new graphics card and a stick of ram, but it looks like if I want to take advantage of the memory and the motherboard’s capability of 400 FSB then I may as well get a new CPU as well.
I wanted to see what you guys thing about my current system and what you thing about the upgrades I am considering
My Current system
Motherboard: ASRock K7S8X R3
Processor:
Model : AMD Athlon XP 2400+
Speed : 2.00GHz
FBS: 266MHZ
Package : Socket A PGA
Multiplier : 15/1x
Generation : G7
Name : Duron M8 & Athlon MP/XP & Sempron (Thoroughbred) 130nm 1.5-2.5GHz+
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600, 265MB
Memory: 2 sticks of 256MB DIMM SDRAM (133/266)
What I am thinking of upgrading to:
Motherboard: (keeping this)
Processor:
Model : AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Speed : 2.20GHz
FBS: 400 FBS
Package : Socket A PGA
Multiplier : 11/1x (I think)
Generation : ?
Name : Barton Processor
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 7800 GS, 512MB GDDR2
Memory: 1 stick of 1Gig DIMM SDRAM (400)
All this is going to cost me around £325 so I want to make sure it is worth it. I know my computer already meets the minimum specs for the game, but I want to be able to “enjoy” the game, hofully for a year on an upgraded system.
Cheers,
Applecorn |
|
|
  |
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 01 Oct 2006 06:31 AM |
My suggestion? Wait until NWN2 comes up before upgrading
1/ you will have a better idea of what the requirements really are
2/ what you might choose will be cheaper by then.
- Paul
Ps: get 2GB of ram and turn off your swapfile afterwards. |
Purpose in life: finding better ways of allowing players to kill themselves. Repeatedly.
--
"...Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good."
--
<@James42> Lawful good isn't in your vocabulary, it's on your menu.
|
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 01 Oct 2006 06:40 AM |
Ah you make to much since! I can't wait, it is a WHOLE month away....yeah, um I was going to wait anyway... I just umm, did say that in the post.
Ok i have been loking at the CPU prices, they want £80 on ebay for them! ack" Is it worth getting a new mother board. I don't want this to cost as much as buying a new computer. |
|
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 01 Oct 2006 08:45 AM |
I'd go with what PDW says, if you can wait a little while, also something to consider is that within the next 1 - 1 1/2 months There are likely to be new CPU releases in time for Xmas, which will usually mean that you'll be able to get the older models a little cheaper once they come out.
If you're looking at buying a new m/board, often you can pick up a deal where they bundle the CPU + board together. Worth considering at least.... oh and one other thing, check the power requirements, if your power supply isn't up to it, you'll need to upgrade that as well. |
"Mistakes have been made, others will be blamed..." |
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 01 Oct 2006 04:13 PM |
My suggestion? Wait until NWN2 comes up before upgrading
1/ you will have a better idea of what the requirements really are
2/ what you might choose will be cheaper by then.
- Paul
Ps: get 2GB of ram and turn off your swapfile afterwards.
And I would say, get the 2GB of RAM, and create a designated swapfile partition with a swapfile that is a set amount. (that windows doesn't manage.. i.e. decide to try to make bigger or smaller when it feels like it)
Different people recomend different ways of doing this... some say just a partition on your primary hard drive is fine, some say it should be the first partition on a second hard drive (but only if it is as fast as the first drive)
But either way, if you give the swap file its own partition, and then change the virtual memory settings to "let me specify the size"... then make the min and max the same amount (which should be at least twice the size of your physical RAM) then this means your swap file will never get fragmented, and your system wont ever bog down as you use up your virtual memory (because it was set too small by windows because the system didn't need it at first) and windows tries to expand it to keep up.
I personaly would never just turn OFF the swapfile.. no matter how much RAM I had... but thats just me.
As for the upgrading.. all I really NEED, is a new video card. but since my current motherboard only has a AGP slot, and all the good grafix cards are PCIE now... (yeah sure you can still get some decent AGP's ...but not really) I'll have to upgrade the motherboard to do that.
So..... if I'm gonna upgrade the motherboard, I'll have to get a new CPU and RAM to boot. But yeah, if you dont have a PCIE slot on your motherboard, I would say you should look into that as well. |
"I'm not closed-minded, you're just WRONG." - Bucky Katt
My characters n portraits |
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 01 Oct 2006 04:49 PM |
If you could explain how to create and manage a swap file that would be a real help guys... thanx
as to upgrading .... my pc is run by a hamster on a wheel with an electrode shoved up its you know what...
in otherwords eek i am gonna have to spend... lol |
Love 'n' light
Wings |
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 01 Oct 2006 11:21 PM |
Swap files were designed in the days when computers did not have enough memory. Today, that is no longer a problem.
However, if you insist on using swap files, there are two things to be concerned about.
1/ Windows is *very* agressive in its use of the swapfile. It will happily swap things to disk even when it has enough memory. Given that accessing your hard drive is a thousand times slower than accessing ram, you can see this might impact your windows performance somewhat. Turning it off when you have enough ram (depends on your needs really) means your performance is not impacted.
2/ NTFS is affectionately knows as the "fragmenting file system". It has an uncanny ability to take files and break them up into a large number of pieces over time. If you have a swapfile that you allow the system to grow and shrink, the swapfile will get fragmented and this will have a detrimental impact to your swapfile performance. (fact, I had found one swapfile on ntfs that has been broken into over 19 thousand pieces - needless to say, the machine was slooooow). If you must have a swapfile, fix the size and never let windows grow or shrink it.
(nerd trivia: ntfs was based off of another filesystem called hpfs that self defragmented, or completely the opposite from ntfs's self fragmenting file system)
So, how do you turn it off? Only in XP can you turn the swap file off. In Windows 2K and earlier, the best you can do is make it small and fix the size. Under XP, you right click on "My Computer" select properties, click on advanced tab, click on the settings button under performance, click on the advanced tab, click on the "change" button under virtual memory and then set your options there, either "no paging file" if you have enough ram, or "custom size" where the max and min are the same size.
For what it is worth, I have a laptop with 512MB of ram, Windows XP and no swapfile. My gaming computer, where I test vives modules under nwserver, runs the db server, has the editor open, and runs the client (in addition to everything else) has 2GB and a 1.5GB swapfile. Your needs may differ.
Your computer, your tastes.
- Paul |
Purpose in life: finding better ways of allowing players to kill themselves. Repeatedly.
--
"...Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good."
--
<@James42> Lawful good isn't in your vocabulary, it's on your menu.
|
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 02 Oct 2006 06:27 AM |
For what it is worth, I have a laptop with 512MB of ram, Windows XP and no swapfile. My gaming computer, where I test vives modules under nwserver, runs the db server, has the editor open, and runs the client (in addition to everything else) has 2GB and a 1.5GB swapfile. Your needs may differ.
Your computer, your tastes.
- Paul
Forgive the some what ignorant here, but didn't you say earlier that if you have 2 gb of RAM you should turn the swap off? Or is this one a fixed size? |
Luther McIath: I see, so [X is] the right person in the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time.
[Fictrix] ... And can speak French, like both! Wait, I mean Elven. |
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 02 Oct 2006 08:30 AM |
Yes, and Yes.
My gaming needs mean that even with 2G of ram, I dont have enough to run the toolset with lots of edits, the db server (a full sql server!), the nwn client, web browsers, utilities, etc, etc, etc. Because I do so much (for example, I want the editor open while testing changes in my local copy of the game) I don't want to shut down any program. If I closed the toolset, then I could drop the swap file. The time it takes to open and close the mod is much more than the time it takes to load information into and out of swap - precisely what swapfiles were meant for.
However, for my general work needs (latop), 512MB is enough for my development work, email, browsers, editors, etc, etc, etc.
If I were to game only with NWN and do no editing and not run the mod locally, I could drop the swap. |
Purpose in life: finding better ways of allowing players to kill themselves. Repeatedly.
--
"...Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good."
--
<@James42> Lawful good isn't in your vocabulary, it's on your menu.
|
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 06 Oct 2006 04:30 PM |
Yes, and Yes.
My gaming needs mean that even with 2G of ram, I dont have enough to run the toolset with lots of edits, the db server (a full sql server!), the nwn client, web browsers, utilities, etc, etc, etc. Because I do so much (for example, I want the editor open while testing changes in my local copy of the game) I don't want to shut down any program. If I closed the toolset, then I could drop the swap file. The time it takes to open and close the mod is much more than the time it takes to load information into and out of swap - precisely what swapfiles were meant for.
However, for my general work needs (latop), 512MB is enough for my development work, email, browsers, editors, etc, etc, etc.
If I were to game only with NWN and do no editing and not run the mod locally, I could drop the swap.
Soooo, anybody have any idea what I can do on a Laptop to be able to make my NWN2 Beta Toolset work? I want to get a preview too, but can't beofre my system crashes! HELP!
K.I. |
"Life is a short trip... travel light"
--
PC Descriptions with Journal Links |
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 06 Oct 2006 11:29 PM |
Without knowing what the crash actually is, we cannot possibly identify your particular problem.
The release notes say that mobile graphic chipsets are specifically not supported (although some do work).
Is that you're problem? Don't know.
Can you reliably reproduce the crash?
- Paul |
Purpose in life: finding better ways of allowing players to kill themselves. Repeatedly.
--
"...Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good."
--
<@James42> Lawful good isn't in your vocabulary, it's on your menu.
|
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 09 Oct 2006 04:26 AM |
Without knowing what the crash actually is, we cannot possibly identify your particular problem.
The release notes say that mobile graphic chipsets are specifically not supported (although some do work).
Is that you're problem? Don't know.
Can you reliably reproduce the crash?
- Paul
Oh yeah, it happens EVERY TIME I try to run the program and start playing with grids or experimenting with buttons on the console. It IS likely that since my personal PC is a laptop that would be a mobile graphic chipset, right? Or maybe the problem is that that my PC/Laptop only has 192mb ram! (can an hp pavilion ze4610 get more ram?) I don't even have the standard 512 that most people have... I feel so... Dark ages. *groans* I have 40Gb on my hard drive, it says, even if it also tells me I can't use it all...
I guess it's probably time that I upgrade, but with ear-nose-throat surgery coming up and a need for orthodontics soon... well, the PC would take later priority. Is there nothing I can do with this laptop to make it work anyways? (I'm guessing that it's crasing do to an inability to support the software.) I'm sure the game will be easier to support, right? Awe, and I was so looking forward to messing with the toolset!
K.I. |
"Life is a short trip... travel light"
--
PC Descriptions with Journal Links |
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 09 Oct 2006 05:16 AM |
Given the amount of ram, I'm surprised it opened at all. If you want to know much ram it can take, check the hp website for the tech specs for that model. The answer will be there.
- Paul |
Purpose in life: finding better ways of allowing players to kill themselves. Repeatedly.
--
"...Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good."
--
<@James42> Lawful good isn't in your vocabulary, it's on your menu.
|
|
|
|
|
Re: upgrading for NWN2
Posted: 09 Oct 2006 06:55 PM |
Given the amount of ram, I'm surprised it opened at all. If you want to know much ram it can take, check the hp website for the tech specs for that model. The answer will be there.
- Paul
THANKS!
I LOVE TECHIES!!!! |
"Life is a short trip... travel light"
--
PC Descriptions with Journal Links |
|
|
|