Official System Requirements

[J-man]

As a result of research, I have been leaning toward the SAPPHIRE Vapor-X card anyway. I am wanting a Corsair CMPSU-550VX ($79.99 from Amazon) power supply because it has a single +12v rail. My current 375w stock Dell Power Supply has two +12v rails. My research indicates a single rail power supply will be more reliable. Also, when not playing games, my computer is running BOINC science projects. They put a strain on the 375 watt power supply and the new video cards can also run some BOINC projects. Like I said before, peace of mind.

You have a Dell XPS 420 (as have I). Dell computer can sometimes be hard to upgrade because they non-standard components (e.g. the XPS 420 uses BTX board instead of ATX form factor). I think Dell also uses proprietary components for connecting the power button and fastening the motherboard to the case (although I'm not sure.) A friend of mine updated his graphic card on his XPS 420 and he told me that you can't uses all types of cards because there is not enough space (perhaps due to the BTX MoBo).

Perhaps you know this all already but I'm warning you....

 

[a5ehren]

Mostly makes sense, apart from hexa-core CPUs and a dual PCIe 16x slot mainboards being of no use for the non-enthusiast. SLI/Crossfire rarely makes any sense at all, and you will be extremely hard pressed to find a game that runs faster on a Phenom X6 than on a comparable or even lower priced quad core.

Well yeah, but the way Firaxis has been talking it may actually help in Civ 5 . I think the Econobox with a 5770 and more RAM is probably a better option for most of the people here, but most of their eyes will glaze over if you deviate from the guide at all

 

[Tarkhan]

SLI has never been of much use unless you just have too much money lying around and load it with top of the line cards. It's almost always better to buy one more expensive card, than two cheap ones.

Best Buy Canada has some specifics on CPU, not sure where they got it: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66 GHz, Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+

(Oddly, that is the exact processor i'm replacing! and it's the minimum o.O)

 

[trevort]

You have a Dell XPS 420 (as have I). Dell computer can sometimes be hard to upgrade because they non-standard components (e.g. the XPS 420 uses BTX board instead of ATX form factor). I think Dell also uses proprietary components for connecting the power button and fastening the motherboard to the case (although I'm not sure.) A friend of mine updated his graphic card on his XPS 420 and he told me that you can't uses all types of cards because there is not enough space (perhaps due to the BTX MoBo).

Perhaps you know this all already but I'm warning you....

At this DELL website I found this post from an xps420 owner:

Spoiler :

Posted by Montag1138
on 16 May 2010 7:32 PM

* rated by 0 users
* Re: XPS 420 New Power Supply
*

Haha wow, it's been over a year since I made this thread. Good thing I left my e-mail notifications turned on.

I ended up getting a Corsair CMPSU-750TX. I've had it for over a year now and it works great. It was easy to install, and all the cables connect fine. Two things: First, the stock power supply in the XPS 420 is a bit taller than the standard power supply, but all of the screw holes still line up, you'll just have a small amount of space open in the back, which isn't a big deal. Second, there are a lot of cables coming out of the power supply. I pretty much just have the extra cables tied up sitting in the case, which hasn't affected my heat very much, but I would strongly suggest looking into a modular power supply (which is where the cables are separated from the power supply and you connect as many as you need). The modular version of mine is the CMPSU-750HX ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010 ), which is $159.99 after a $10 rebate. You could also look into getting the CMPSU-650HX ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012 ), which is only $99.99 after a $10 rebate. 750 watts was more than enough for me, even after installing a new video card; 650 will probably be more than enough as well. Newegg.com has a handy wattage calculator if you want to be sure of what you need to get: http://c1.neweggimages.com/BizIntel...ons.newegg.com/productfinders/powersupply.jpg All in all, buying and installing power supplies into this case is no problem. As long as you make sure it is a high quality power supply (reputable manufacturer, single rail, etc.), you should be fine.

I hope this was helpful to you!

From what I have been able to gather, even though the XPS 420 uses a BTX motherboard, Dell used standard ATX power supplies. Some of the other XPS models use proprietary power supplies. I don't recall which ones but I could find that info again if you or anyone else needs it. I didn't think about the physical dimensions of the video card. A check of the old vs. new card dimensions should answer that.

 

[tokala]

Newegg.com has a handy wattage calculator if you want to be sure of what you need to get: http://c1.neweggimages.com/BizIntel...ons.newegg.com/productfinders/powersupply.jpg

That calculator is a bad joke, isn't it? It spat out 460W for my old system, the most I ever got it to draw from the wall outlet was 230W. With the new one calculatad 660W, I'm running it with a 400W PSU

 

[bhavv]

Power supply calculators are always a joke. The reliability and max stable power output of a power supply cant be determined by looking at a calculator. A poor quality and cheapo 850 watt PSU would likely end up blowing up if it reached anywhere near its advertised limit, whereas a top of the line Corsair HX PSU is capable of remaining fully stable and unbelievably reliable if pushed far beyond its advertised spec (the 850 watt model has been shown in stress tests to remain fully stable and reliable up to around 1050 watt continuous load).

Of course, if you buy a pre built computer, you are more than likely to get something with poor branded components, and a bad build quality. Upgrading them usually isnt worth it as opposed to simply reading up and learning how to build entirely from scratch and being able to handpick your components from reliable and well rated brands. It is still usually far cheaper to self build a reliable and high quality specification then it is to buy an entry level barely adequate Computer from somewhere like Dell.

 

[Inspector Dex]

Almost hate to say it, but the top level Dell Studio XPS 7100 here isn't too bad for the money. $1200 for a 6-core CPU and a Radeon 5870 (not to mention 8GB of RAM, 1TB HDD, and Blu-Ray) is pretty good if you're not willing to build your own system. Here's a review from an enthusiast site.

If you're against Dell, these CyberPowerPC systems are said to offer good value. If you want one of these, make sure to run it by the thread first

All of these systems also require you to buy a monitor seperately - I'd say if you want to hit the "Recommended" specs, you should be able to do it for ~$1000.

You could also start from scratch at tigerdirect.com or newegg. Tomshardware has a lot of useful information for beginners for building your own pc. And on the forums you'll see a lot of posts from people asking for build advice fitting within a specific budget range, everything from motherboard to mouse. Not to mention building a pc is a pretty fun experience. But whatever you do, happy gaming

Thanks guys. Definitely food for thought. I'm a bit afraid of trying to jump in and build something from scratch, but since I already have a monitor, there seems to be a couple of (relatively) less expensive options there for a new machine. Thanks again!

 

[bhavv]

SLI has never been of much use unless you just have too much money lying around and load it with top of the line cards. It's almost always better to buy one more expensive card, than two cheap ones.

Maybe in the past, but not really so true anymore:

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/ati_radeon_hd_5770_crossfire_performance,12.html

The Radeon HD 5770 performance when working in Crossfire mode was impressive to say the least. Although we are not normally advocates of multi-GPU technology, in this instance it does make sense. The Radeon HD 5770 configuration was able match or beat a single Radeon HD 5870 in almost every game, and costing around 16% less, that is pretty good value.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=25498&page=11

Putting two GTX 460 1,024MB cards side by side bulges performance to the extent that it is, on average, 20 per cent faster than a GeForce GTX 480, judged at 1,920x1,080; that's telling because both cost around £375 from most retailers.

Going by current prices, it is far cheaper to buy two ATI 5770s than one 5870, and you get very similar performance, better in some games, and a little worse in others (Two 5770s actually costs the same as one 5850 and they definately outperform one of those). With the GTX 460, two cost the same as a GTX 480 and outperform it in just about every game tested. Current day SLI + Crossfire setups are seeing much closer to a full 100% performance boost in modern games as opposed to how poor the performance gains were in the past. From a price /performance sense, both of these setups using either two HD 5770s, or GTX 460s (and even 2x 5850s) are currently very popular among budget to enthusiast users.

Crossfire was also very good back with the ATI 3850 and 4850 cards, I've used both these setups myself and am now using two 5770s, the scaling and performance gain for the cost of them is incredible. I like to go with two of the <£150 cards as opposed to a single £200+ card, the performance gain has always worked out better for the cost in my experience, then I just step up to the next ones in that price range and sell my previous ones.

 

[tokala]

Going by current prices, it is far cheaper to buy two ATI 5770s than one 5870, and you get very similar performance, better in some games, and a little worse in others (Two 5770s actually costs the same as one 5850 and they definately outperform one of those). With the GTX 460, two cost the same as a GTX 480 and outperform it in just about every game tested. Current day SLI + Crossfire setups are seeing much closer to a full 100% performance boost in modern games as opposed to how poor the performance gains were in the past. From a price /performance sense, both of these setups using either two HD 5770s, or GTX 460s (and even 2x 5850s) are currently very popular among budget to enthusiast users.

Crossfire was also very good back with the ATI 3850 and 4850 cards, I've used both these setups myself and am now using two 5770s, the scaling and performance gain for the cost of them is incredible. I like to go with two of the <£150 cards as opposed to a single £200+ card, the performance gain has always worked out better for the cost in my experience, then I just step up to the next ones in that price range and sell my previous ones.

Well, thats the "optimistic enthusiast" viewpoint. At the moment the 460 and the 5770 are just very good deals, and so are one of those rare cases where it might make sense. The "pessimistic realist" would point out, that you need to consider the extra cost for a SLI/Crossfire capable mainboard, and that depending on the game a multi-GPU system might give you very uneven frametimes resulting in a choppy game performance although the nominal fps are resonably high. For the non tech-savvy audience the potential (small) gain in performance is usually not worth the trouble. And it centainly don't meet the mainstream definition of "budget" anymore


Regarding PSU calculators: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
that one gives much more reasonable results, but beware this assumes a high quality PSU. Btw, the PSU in the Dell XPS will be at least of comparable quality to your average brand name PSU.

 

[Calouste]

The French site jeuxvideopc.com reports that standard maps run fine on their test machine (Core2Duo E8500 3.16 Ghz, 4 GB Ram, Ati Radeon 4870, Windows XP), with 30 fps. Computer turns are a bit slow, but nothing they expect Firaxis not to be able to fix between now and the release date.

 

[asix79]

I realize that I am probably asking an ignorant question, but I'll ask it anyway: Since I can't replace the Geforce 8600M GT that is in my MBP currently, could I use the available PCI Express (x16) slot by buying and inserting a newer card into it? I don't have much experience in this area, but the little research I've done suggests it may be possible. I'm just not sure.

 

[Myth5]

I didn't think MBP's had 2 PCI-E slots...

 

[scienide09]

Are you talking about the expresscard/34 slot? Which model MBP do you have?

 

[asix79]

Yeah, I didn't pay close enough attention to the article I was reading. I feel embarrassed. I do apologize. I bought the MBP sometime in 2008. Technically, using a second graphics card may be possible. But even if it is, it'd be cost-prohibitive. The Geforce 8600M GT will be fine for me.

 

[scienide09]

No need to apologize -- folks are here to help. Please, just don't go ripping apart your MBP!

 

[Myth5]

Yeah, I didn't pay close enough attention to the article I was reading. I feel embarrassed. I do apologize. I bought the MBP sometime in 2008. Technically, using a second graphics card may be possible. But even if it is, it'd be cost-prohibitive. The Geforce 8600M GT will be fine for me.

It's cool. Nobody can know everything about computers!! I was confused as anything when I first started delving into the technical specs of computers. Totally not user friendly. Anyhow, the only thing you'll have to be wary of is the crap thermodynamics of your compy

 

[asix79]

I'm quite comfortable with software-related issues, but the hardware end of the spectrum confuses me, generally.

I'll be trying the Napoleon: Total War demo to get an idea as to how well ciV will run for me. I'm glad that I had maxed out the configuration at the time, because I wouldn't be able to run the game at all, otherwise.

 

[Myth5]

I'm quite comfortable with software-related issues, but the hardware end of the spectrum confuses me, generally.

I'll be trying the Napoleon: Total War demo to get an idea as to how well ciV will run for me. I'm glad that I had maxed out the configuration at the time, because I wouldn't be able to run the game at all, otherwise.

Well for laptops especially get the best processor and GPU you can, because upgrading RAM and HDD is no problem. Of course, Macs aren't exactly the most cost-efficient computers...but if you must have a laptop, they are the way to go.

 

[Ballcrusher]

The French site jeuxvideopc.com reports that standard maps run fine on their test machine (Core2Duo E8500 3.16 Ghz, 4 GB Ram, Ati Radeon 4870, Windows XP), with 30 fps. Computer turns are a bit slow, but nothing they expect Firaxis not to be able to fix between now and the release date.

I don't speak french, so a question about this: Was that computer only able to run standard maps at 30 fps? Or did they just not try bigger maps?

I thought they promised that this game would work well on laptops, but if a laptop needs that kind of power, then many will have to drop playing the game on laptop or buy a new laptop. To match the above power a laptop would need an i5 CPU with ATI mobility 5870. And that costs more than 1000 euros at the moment.

 

[Calouste]

I don't speak french, so a question about this: Was that computer only able to run standard maps at 30 fps? Or did they just not try bigger maps?

I thought they promised that this game would work well on laptops, but if a laptop needs that kind of power, then many will have to drop playing the game on laptop or buy a new laptop. To match the above power a laptop would need an i5 CPU with ATI mobility 5870. And that costs more than 1000 euros at the moment.

They didn't say if they tried bigger maps, what resolution they ran on or what kind of in game graphic gadgets they had turned on or off. So really, it doesn't say much.