Buying new Comp - what to think about
- Thread starter loffenx
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Emptiness
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My advice is that whatever computer you get, buy it with the maximum amount of memory it can have. Memory size has a big impact on system perforance, and upgrading the amount of memory later generally ends up costing you more total than if you just get the maximum at the start. (Many manufacturers like to install "baseline" memory in such a configuration that if you want to upgrade you have to buy all new modules, rather than just buying some additional modules to install next to the ones that came with the computer.)
Also, if Civ (& mods) is really all you care about then you don't need a high-end graphics card.
Also, if Civ (& mods) is really all you care about then you don't need a high-end graphics card.
Senethro
Overlord
If Civ is all you're playing on it, then remember that Civ doesn't have multi-core support. While the X.XGhz figure is no longer really meaningful for comparing things processors than 2 years apart, a cheap dualie (which is perfectly adaquate for modern games) may not give a hugely enhanced performance to whatever you previously had.
Memory/RAM does help a lot. But remember your operating system. 32bit operating systems have a limit somewhere about 3.5GB of ram and more than this won't be used. To complicate matters, videocards have ram as well and this counts towards the total.
Graphics cards I don't really know much about this year. Try this site: http://techreport.com/
But read their reviews carefully and pick something appropriate. You'll probably want something that is cheap/old but not a laptop version of a graphics card, as those things are unreliable.
Memory/RAM does help a lot. But remember your operating system. 32bit operating systems have a limit somewhere about 3.5GB of ram and more than this won't be used. To complicate matters, videocards have ram as well and this counts towards the total.
Graphics cards I don't really know much about this year. Try this site: http://techreport.com/
But read their reviews carefully and pick something appropriate. You'll probably want something that is cheap/old but not a laptop version of a graphics card, as those things are unreliable.
Avahz Darkwood
Emperor
If it is at all possible to find one with XP and not Vista jump on it. I doubt it will be though. Vista is nothing but a absolute migraine...
Deon
Lt. of Mordor
I've recently bought a Toshiba laptop with Win XP and 3 GB ram; and although it has quite weak graphical card (some 128 mb intel, not too advanced, I can't run Oblivion without lags and Fallout 3 at all on it), the 3 Gb RAM and a single core processor of 3.2 GHz makes Civilization to run faster on it than on my 2.6GHzx2 (dual) PC with 2 Gb ram and GForce 6800.
The most important things for FFH performance are honestly probably RAM and hard drive speed, assuming you have a tolerable CPU and GPU. The primary performance concern is loading times, and those are the two things that will most directly affect that.
If you're buying a desktop and have a reasonable budget (i.e. you're not looking to buy some $90 computer from goodwill), you'd be hard-pressed to find one that _wouldn't_ run FFH pretty well. With laptops, you may run into very stingy default RAM and slow hard drives.
If you get a desktop, aim for a SATA 2 hard drive, at least 7200 RPM. The amount of space doesn't matter a whole lot but it's always a good idea to leave at least a few gigs open and games are getting more and more bloated each year, so you may want to aim higher than you can imagine actually needing. Hard drives are fairly cheap, anyway, and if another $20 keeps you from running out of space for another year, it's more than worth it.
As for RAM, get 4 gigs of it and you'll be in good shape. The type of RAM you can use will be dictated by your motherboard. Some manufacturers overcharge HORRIBLY for RAM, which is dirt cheap right now - I just got 4 gigs for my laptop for $50, shipped, and that's name brand RAM.
I'm a bit of a geek to put it lightly, so I could ramble on endlessly about this stuff. Instead, I'll close with a couple direct questions to help narrow down on what you're looking for:
1. Are you looking for a desktop or a laptop?
2. Approximately what budget range are you considering?
3. Anything in particular besides FFH you'd like advice based on?
4. Would you be comfortable making simple changes (e.g., opening up your case and replacing the RAM) on your own or would you prefer to pay a little more to have everything done beforehand by the manufacturer?
For the record, I play on my Macbook Pro running Windows XP, 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo (sadly the second core sits idle with Civ), now 4 gigs of RAM, a small 5400rpm SATA hard drive and a 6800GT 128MB graphics card. FF runs pretty well, although turns can take close to 30 seconds late game and I don't play huge maps. Upgrading from 2 to 4 gigs of RAM felt like I had a whole new machine.
If you're buying a desktop and have a reasonable budget (i.e. you're not looking to buy some $90 computer from goodwill), you'd be hard-pressed to find one that _wouldn't_ run FFH pretty well. With laptops, you may run into very stingy default RAM and slow hard drives.
If you get a desktop, aim for a SATA 2 hard drive, at least 7200 RPM. The amount of space doesn't matter a whole lot but it's always a good idea to leave at least a few gigs open and games are getting more and more bloated each year, so you may want to aim higher than you can imagine actually needing. Hard drives are fairly cheap, anyway, and if another $20 keeps you from running out of space for another year, it's more than worth it.
As for RAM, get 4 gigs of it and you'll be in good shape. The type of RAM you can use will be dictated by your motherboard. Some manufacturers overcharge HORRIBLY for RAM, which is dirt cheap right now - I just got 4 gigs for my laptop for $50, shipped, and that's name brand RAM.
I'm a bit of a geek to put it lightly, so I could ramble on endlessly about this stuff. Instead, I'll close with a couple direct questions to help narrow down on what you're looking for:
1. Are you looking for a desktop or a laptop?
2. Approximately what budget range are you considering?
3. Anything in particular besides FFH you'd like advice based on?
4. Would you be comfortable making simple changes (e.g., opening up your case and replacing the RAM) on your own or would you prefer to pay a little more to have everything done beforehand by the manufacturer?
For the record, I play on my Macbook Pro running Windows XP, 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo (sadly the second core sits idle with Civ), now 4 gigs of RAM, a small 5400rpm SATA hard drive and a 6800GT 128MB graphics card. FF runs pretty well, although turns can take close to 30 seconds late game and I don't play huge maps. Upgrading from 2 to 4 gigs of RAM felt like I had a whole new machine.
cvlowe
King
I'll second that.
Though you will have to look under business computers and pay extra for the upgrade to XP.
thirded....
Emptiness
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Jabie
Wanted in Monte Carlo...
If Vista is your only option, a number of your problems can be circumvented by turning off User Account Control.
zulu9812
The Newbie Nightmare
I recommend 4+ GB of RAM and a 64-bit OS
Keeper_GFA
Prince
Not necessarily, a friend of mine was given a copy of XP by refusing to agree to Vista's EULA. Of course, it could be difficult now to find a place that has XP available regardless.
KingArthur666
Warlord
Does Civ 4 run on XP64?
zulu9812
The Newbie Nightmare
Can't remember, but I'm running it on Vista x64 no problem.
loffenx
Warlord
- Joined
- May 6, 2008
- Messages
- 265
Thanks for the help everyone!
So, CIV-wise, RAM is more important than Graphics, and there's no real point in investing in processor, correct?
Ofcourse I don't mind beeing able to play other games, though its not many I enjoy these days, so I've sort of stopped paying as much attention to meeting the system requirements as I used to.
I'm planning on spending ca 500euro, or 5000 SEK to precise, but I'm flexible.
So, CIV-wise, RAM is more important than Graphics, and there's no real point in investing in processor, correct?
Ofcourse I don't mind beeing able to play other games, though its not many I enjoy these days, so I've sort of stopped paying as much attention to meeting the system requirements as I used to.
I'm planning on spending ca 500euro, or 5000 SEK to precise, but I'm flexible.
zulu9812
The Newbie Nightmare
As long as its a 64-bit processor, and at least dual-core, you should be fine. I myself have an Intel Core2Duo 8400, which I find very suitable for all my gaming needs.
Avahz Darkwood
Emperor
True, but we have more bug issues when Kael puts out a new release/patch than XP users. At the moment (crosses fingers) it has stabilized and new patches don't seem to be causing a problem. Heck about a year ago I proposed raising cash so that Kael could get a Vista system just to trouble shoot for us. Sto(iirc) came along and was a god send in that arena, he helped find issues in vista that Kaels XP system just ignored.
Not only that but vista crashes or will not even run certain games. D.E.P. (data execution prevention) wants to run willy nilly on some programs. I have to run msconfig and restart the computer with all programs turned off except main drivers, anti-virus, and system resources to ever get Fallout 3 to work. ETC ETC. (and you can forget about logging onto windows live with my computer, even tech support gave up on me.
)I want even go into what I.E. 8 did to my two computers (and my brother in laws) lets just say it took 20+ hours to work out those bugs, but I cant blame that on vista (my desktop is the only one with it)...
Grunthex
Prince
Absolutely. Flawlessly, even. Playing both Rise of Mankind (which has absolutely insane memory requirements, thank you 8 GB RAM), and FFH2, and both are rock solid.
![[NWO]_Valis](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/110/110973.jpg?1475248361){kind=avatar}
[NWO]_Valis
A bad kitty!
I must point out one thing. The RAM is not as important as the Graphics Card RAM. I run my game in window mode and I have a RAM indicator on my desktop all the time. Civ used to eat all your RAM up but that was fixed in patch 3.17 as I recall. Now Civ IV [with FFH2] doesnt eat more than 800MB of RAM when launched. The Graphics Card RAM on the other hand is very important if you want to see all of the mods details in high res and max texture quality.
Never the less I too recommend buying the maximum amount of RAM your board can have [taking in consideration that Win'XP cant handle more than 3 GB of RAM and that is your RAM + Graphics Card RAM combined!]
Never the less I too recommend buying the maximum amount of RAM your board can have [taking in consideration that Win'XP cant handle more than 3 GB of RAM and that is your RAM + Graphics Card RAM combined!]
zulu9812
The Newbie Nightmare
I have an 8800GT and I run Rise of Mankind in 1650x1050 with full effects and hi-res terrain.
