NEW GAMING COMPUTER.!

[21509b]

People of msfn , i have a question, what do u think of my new system

GIGABYTE G31M-ES2L

INTEL CELERON E1400-2GHz, FSB800

2GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400. (2 x 1GB)

PALIT GF 9500GT 1GB (I BOUGHT A HD3450 AT FIRST BUT IT WAS NO GOOD FOR GTA 4)

80GB SATA1 HDD

80GB IDE HDD

CHEAP NO BRAND(£20)400W ATX P4 PSU,18a ON 12 VOLT

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if my system is bottlenecked in anyway, and what tips can you give me on improving it for playing games. How do i overclock my CPU. because i still get the occasional lag in gta 4.

the 21509b.

[jcarle]

I would suggest buying a new CPU instead of overclocking that one if you can afford it. Something like an Intel E5200 would be a stronger choice for gaming. If you want to overclock your Celeron to the maximum, you'll need a superior cooling solution such as the Prolimatech cooler. Also, you didn't mention what operating system you were using but another 2GB of memory, also inexpensive, could help speed things up.

[Sl@y3D for my n@me]

I would suggest buying a new CPU instead of overclocking that one if you can afford it. Something like an Intel E5200 would be a stronger choice for gaming. If you want to overclock your Celeron to the maximum, you'll need a superior cooling solution such as the Prolimatech cooler. Also, you didn't mention what operating system you were using but another 2GB of memory, also inexpensive, could help speed things up.

Check his profile, it appears to be XP Professional. If this is the case, make sure you are running Service Pack 3. This can speed things up.

I agree with the above statement. Celerons are best for more low-end activities rather than gaming. You'd be better with a new processor.

A no brand PSU at 400w? To be honest, I think that might need replacing. I just don't trust that kind of hardware. It probably won't speed up your games, but chances are it'll be more efficient and increase the lifespan of your PC. That isn't too relevant though, so yeah.

[21509b]

ok i've spotted a E5300 @ a price i'm willing to pay(bare in mind i just payed £50 for the E1400 last week and i have pretty much wasted my money because the shop won't take it back, iv lost the receipt anyway so i'm wary about throwing money on another CPU. I need to know if this upgrade to the E5300 is going to make a big difference.

Does that mean with the E5300 in my machine instead of the celeron, im going to be able 2 play GTA 4 and other titles Lag Free.??

as far as the PSU goes, its Ran everything i've threw at it so far, so i will keep it till i need a new one.

will my current PSU run the E5300???

21509b

MY OS: WINXP PRO SP3 32bit.

[21509b]

MAY I ADD, MY OPERATING SYSTEM IS SOON TO BE, VISTA HOME 32 BIT. WHAT IS BETTER FOR GAMING XP OR VISTA. DO GAMES LOOK AND RUN BETTER IN DX10.?? OR IS VISTA A MISTAKE, I'VE HEARD A FEW STORIES. ??SHOULD I CHANGE FROM XP TO VISTA??

msg bk. 21509

[Sl@y3D for my n@me]

I wouldn't recommend going out and buying a copy of Vista. Your money could be more wisely spent. You'll not see any additional performance out of Vista, it will stay about the same. Plus, Windows 7 will be out in just over a month. I don't really think there are any DX10 games of interest either. If you already have a copy of Vista, I suppose you could upgrade to it. I'm not a Vista fan personally, but it won't do you any harm. Games will look and feel the same on xp and Vista.

[CoffeeFiend]

i have pretty much wasted my money

That's why you research it or ask for advice *before* you buy

Not having wasted money on the entry level underpowered parts (E1400 and 3450), you'd have saved enough to have a significantly better computer.

The Celeron is aimed at entry level stuff... It's not exactly a great CPU.

Then again, that board only has 2 DIMM slots (4GB max as well...), and you've filled them with small 1GB sticks (and there's no PCI-e x16 2.0, it uses the old ICH7, etc)

And cheap no-name PSU as well (like Sl@y3D for my n@me pointed out)

In all cases, nice parts which are also future-proof wouldn't have been much more expensive (there's some nice stuff on the AMD side as well)

I would suggest buying a new CPU instead of overclocking that one if you can afford it.

A $50 mATX mobo isn't exactly the perfect overclocking platform either...

Edit: a newegg review currently listed at the bottom of the item's page: "Cons: Board would not o/c my e5200 at all, couldn't even get 201x12.5 out of the board even with bios tweaks." Ouch.

Windows 7 will be out in just over a month

^^ What he said.

Now, for the actual problem:

im going to be able 2 play GTA 4 and other titles Lag Free.??

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if my system is bottlenecked in anyway

Well, if you want to play GTA4, then start by looking at the official requirements (repeat the process for other games you want to play):

GTA 4 Minimum System Requirements

* Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz or equivalent AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4Ghz

* Memory/RAM: 1GB for XP and 1.5GB for Vista

* Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA 7900 or 256MB ATI X1900

* Hard Disk Space: 16GB free

* Operating System: Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1

GTA 4 Recommended System Requirements

* Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz or equivalent AMD Phenom X3 2.1GHz

* Memory/RAM: 2.5 GB for XP or Vista

* Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA 8600 or 512MB ATI 3870

* Hard Disk Space: 18GB free

* Operating System: Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1

Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA 8600 <- your 9500 is a bit better than this, and this is the recommended card. So it's most likely not causing problems.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz <- Your CPU is a very cut down version of a C2D (1/4 or less of the L2 cache), which is the *minimum* requirement. Recommended is a Core 2 Quad (not dual core, much less a very low end dual core, and which should be clocked faster too).

Also, they recommend 2.5GB of RAM, which like jcarle said would help a bit... Especially if you plan on running something newer than XP, or have anything running in the background, etc. But then again, you already filled both your DIMM slots with 1GB sticks...

You've already replaced the video card, now it's the CPU and likely the PSU, and in a not too distant future, you'll most likely want more RAM (and you'll have to again replace what you have now), and eventually you're probably going to want to replace the motherboard (for PCI-e x16 2.0, eSATA, more DIMM slots or > 4GB, etc). Buying too low-end only costs more in the end as you slowly replace everything, especially since it doesn't save you a whole lot in the first place.

[puntoMX]

Okay, time for me to jump in .

That CPU will do just fine for now, upgrade it in a year or two or so, you already have it so keep it. On that motherboard you will reach with the stock cooler without problems a 1000MT/s bus, giving you a 2.5GHz CPU for not much money, bottleneck is mostly the 512kB cache. If you use an add-on video card like you do you can get even some 3.0GHz or more out of it on stock voltages. The cooler is a bit cheap that comes with the CPU and I would replace that when you OC to 3.0GHz or over with one from Coolermaster (92mm fan) or Foxconn (80mm fan) cooler for better results and it's only some £8.

Like others said, next time ask before buying , you could have saved on the 9500GT and some other parts to get better results with less money, but hey, you got what you paid for and it's not enough to run modern games when you are stuck to 2GB, no DX 10.x support (change for now to Windows 7 RTM, I'm sure a friend downloaded it or you already have that version your self).

Mind you that OCing stuff is on your own risk, but in my opinion woth the try, also for that VGA card, some 10% should be done easily.

If you need any help, ask us .

[dencorso]

MAY I ADD, MY OPERATING SYSTEM IS SOON TO BE, VISTA HOME 32 BIT. WHAT IS BETTER FOR GAMING XP OR VISTA. DO GAMES LOOK AND RUN BETTER IN DX10.?? OR IS VISTA A MISTAKE, I'VE HEARD A FEW STORIES. ??SHOULD I CHANGE FROM XP TO VISTA??

Please avoid posting all in uppercase. Do please read the Rules, esp. Rule #11.