Is my computer good enough?

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rj686

Chieftain
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Nov 9, 2005
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I have been running Civ 4 on a stock E-Machines (laugh i know but i didnt know much about computers when my dad bought it). Its a T3025 Model. The specs are
Athlon XP 2.17ghz
512 mb DDR-SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU
etc...
It ran civ 4 pretty well at first (in 1024x768) with no AA on. But as i get in the later part of the game it CRAWLS. It crawled before i had the patch and its no better after the patch. Is this game just that buggy or should i upgrade my pc somewhere in order to be able to run it.

I do have an open 4x AGP slot and 2 slots open for RAM. THis motherboard will let me run dual-channel. So any suggestions woudl be awesome:) .
 
The game is not bugged, in the respect that you refer to in my findings, it is just very demanding of a high spec PC to be able to run it. Although some people are struggling with PC's that do have a high spec and I'm not sure why.
I can play the game at 1280x1024 with 2xAA all the eye candy on with ZERO slowdowns at the later stages of each of my huge map games.

With your PC I would suggest...

Have a read here ... http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050705/index.html
...you will see what cards are available in the AGP format that you could choose from. Don’t bother if your AGP slot is 4x as that makes little difference from 8x BUT do make sure that your AGP slot can supply the correct voltage for the card - some old AGP slots can't and so will cause damage. (0.8v for 8x only cards and 1.5v for 4x cards - some 8x cards will accept 4x 1.5v but you need to check)

Understand also that some 'top' cards need an addition power connector to supply them, a molex type that is typical of the plug from a hard drive. A 350w branded PSU is usually the minimum needed on some graphics cards with others needing much more.

Whilst the above list isn't that comprehensive it will give you an idea of what is available.

Next your memory....

Make sure first of all what your motherboard can support.
You mention that you have two slots free, so I will guess that you could have 2x256mb sticks..? You could buy 2x512mb sticks of DDR400 memory bringing the total up to 1.5GB. However you REALLY need to check on the memory that you have and the limitations that the PC will accept before you buy any.

The ultimate, imo, would be to put aside the memory that you have and then buy 2x1GB sticks. I doubt that your board will support 1GB sticks, but it might, and that might be beyond your budget. Also 2GB on a Socket A platform with the rest of your spec maybe OTT.

So either go for 2x512mb Geil Value sticks of DDR400.

OR

Pop over to Crucial's website and run their guaranteed compatible 'wizard' to match up your motherboard to their memory and then select the DDR 400 from their list of sticks that are listed. Crucial give great support and have a guarantee of compatability.

The DDR 400 will give you a little future proofing if and when you go to a 939 platform.
 
My motherboard DOES support Dual-Channel ram. Im running PC2700 right now. Would u recommend getting another stick of that and running it in dual-channel or just buying ddr400? I used cpuz to figure out that i have one stick of 512 in there right now. According to that though my motherboard only has two slots for ram? But i could have sworn when i googled my motherboard(AU31) that it came up with more.

Graduation(high school) and christmas are right around the corner. Im wondering if shouldnt just wait a few months and build my own computer to take off to college. THat way i could go with the 939 socket and get a dual-core athlon 64.

Again thx for the help :)
 
I wouldn't want you to spend too much on the hardware that you have got and not notice an improvement for your investment. The sort of money that you would spend to keep to a Socket A platform would in my opinion be not worth the investment *if* you are thinking about buying something to take with you to college.

If you invest now in a new graphics card, which will really help you, then your route to the 939 platform will be a little restricted to the Asrock 1695 chipset board which has an AGP and PCI-Express slot on board. That motherboard is supposed to even support the up and coming M2 CPU by way of an expansion card. I do believe that it is a very good board for what it costs.

If you have 1 stick of memory now (2700) I would consider adding 1 stick of (for example) 400DDR Geil value memory. It will work fine at 2700 speed and hopefully will be compatible with your 2700 stick. Also that will allow you to add another 400DDR (to make 1GB) to it when you go for a 939 rig and just sell the 2700 stick that you will have left.

To summerise....

1GB of memory, as noted above, AND a 'good' AGP card will make a difference that you will notice, be aware of some of the limitations in doing that.

EDIT: A Dual-core athlon is a waste of money in my opinion for general use and a gaming platform. My AMD Opteron uses a San-Diego core and is clocked at 280x10 making it faster than the FX57 but cost a sixth of the price.
 
so if i get 400DDR i can still run it in dual-channel even though the memory i have now is 333ddr?

Just curious where would you get a hold of an opteron, i've never seen them before.
 
Yes you would be able to run in dual channel mode defaulting to the speed of the slowest RAM but......

As you will realise that they sell Dual memory kits as they are tested and guaranteed to run together. Any two individual sticks should be able to do that, even with different speed ratings, but there are no guarantees.

As for the Opteron, well I'm not sure where in the world you are. But they do seem to be in short supply.
If you were in the UK
www.scan.co.uk
www.cpu-city.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk

This is the one that I got....

http://www.cpucityshop.co.uk/produc...d=887&osCsid=f10042ecf7df46deeb4537a3bf05e43e

I got the Opteron 146 (allows 10x multilpier) and mine is stable at 10x280 with 1.35vCore. It is stable at 10x300 but with an increased vCore That speed is faster than anything that AMD have on the market at the moment.
 
I live in the US ( the most arrogant place in the world). :) I was just curious where you would get a hold of an opteron because i searched tigerdirect.com for the processor by itself but it came up with nothing. All i got was servers. Any reason why they are in short supply? Other than when you said it i have never heard of an opteron.

This is kind of off topic but im still stuck on what i want to do for college. I could get a laptop thats far more mobile but i dont get the options or customization i might want.... or i could get a desktop and put pretty much watever the hell i want in it, but then again i can't carry it with me to classes n' such.
 
There are some rumours that AMD are trying to restrict the Opteron to system builders only and not allow many of them to the market where end users could buy them. True or not I don't know but I do know they are in short supply. The forums at www.overclockers.co.uk are pretty good to find out more information about the CPU.

You seem to be caught between the rock and the hard place - in terms of the choices that you face. You are the only one who understands your needs, and the depth of your pocket. My daughter just got herself a cheap second hand laptop for Uni as her work there doesn't require her to have a high spec machine.
At least that allows her to have a portable PC and a 'good' spec desktop at home.

EDIT: Be aware that there are the 'older' 940 pin Opterons. It is the 939 pin that seems toi be in great demand, by those who know just what they are capable of doing...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=Go&DEPA=0&type=&description=opteron&Category=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

The 144 has a 9x multi. The 146 a 10x and the 148 a 11x. The 146 seems to be the most popular. There aren't any guarantees about overclocking but the Opterons do seem to be consistant in their performance and ability to O/C quite well.
 
My needs...hmmm.... whenever im on the computer im usually running 4+ programs at once. And on days when i throw my java ide my computer slows to a crawl. Are opterons dual-core at the moment or single core?
 
I'm still a noob at computer hardware, but i It looks like the the opterons overclock much better without producing substantial heat/power problems than the regular athlon64's(not FX). Do you have a single-core opteron or dual-core?
 
The Opterons do seem to overclock very well. As I have previously noted mine is running at 2800mhz at 1.35v which is less than vCore than the FX57. As you know there are no guarantees but if you spend some time reading that forum you will have some understanding of their potential.

The 146 cost me around 115 UK pounds and the FX57 is around 730 UK pounds....!!!!!

The 146 is a single core chip.
 
is that pretty much maxed out? I did read a lot from the forums you gave a link to. Now i know what fsb actually IS (not front side bus) i mean the meaning behind it. Are there even any chips where u can up the multiplier? Is that why the FX series is so RIDICULOUSLY expensive.

If you could get the stock 2.0ghz opteron up to 2.8 no prob....u saved a friggin load of money even if u would have stayed away from the FX series.

I thought i saw the 146 (939) right? on overclockers.co.uk for 99 UK Pounds...thats dirt cheap especially compared to intel
 
I have ran the CPU at 10x300=3000mhz with 1.5vCore and it seemed stable but I'm more 'comfortable' with the CPU at 2800 as everything runs really well, and I know that it is not at the 'edge' of its maximum performance.
The Opterons are locked to having only a lower multiplier available. That is why the 146 is popular as you don't need more than 300FSB to get to 3000mhz or you can have multipliers less than 10x if the CPU or motherboard has problems. The 144 is locked to 9x max and so needs a lot of effort in getting to 3000mhz, often not making it due to the motherboard limitations on running at over 300mhz.
I am not too sure about unlocked AMD 64 CPU's, I have read that the FX range are unlocked BUT I can't confirm that.
The FX CPU’s are expensive yes but so is the equivalent Intel CPU.Remember it is not just that the FX is expensive it’s that the Opteron is very cheap and that is why the rumour on availability of these might be valid.

I am very happy that my 115 pound CPU out performs a 730 pound one :)
 
I take it you have the 939 socket one then? (i noticed they come in 939 and 940). I noticed the price said 99 pounts but with VAT its 115ish. What is VAT?
 
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