Where Can I Find the Ideal Civ PC?

[opticaljim]

I'm going to be looking for a new computer pretty soon. The primary consideration will be how well I can play Civ IV on it.

I've heard some good things about something called a "dual core" CPU. I also realize that my Pentium IV is no longer the best and there is now the Pentium D, although there may even be something better than that. I will be looking for 2048 MB of memory.

I've had some issues with being able to play Civ IV on my current PC and, as a result, I have learned way too much about drivers and graphic cards. I'll assume that I need a 256MB driver and the best graphic card available.

I'll have about $2000 to spend and I was wondering if anyone had some advice. Are there other things that should be considered? Do you have an opinion on a specific model?

If you had $2000 to spend on a computer specifically to play Civ IV which home PC would you purchase?

Okay, I know this sounds fanatical but I also realize that if the PC can do this for me then it will also fulfill all the other requirements I need from a home PC to do my other stuff. Honest!

 

[Niniux]

I'd say you'd want to, first off, look at getting a computer custom built. I'd personally go for the AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core X2 processor, over the Intel Pentium D. I'd look at 1 or 2gb of RAM. A good PCI-Express graphics card, probably an ATI Radeon X800 or better. Asus motherboard, if you do get it custom built. Where do you live? I work at Best Buy and they also carry some decent computers, if you don't feel like going through the work of getting it custom built. If you live near a Best Buy, I'll take a look at the site and recommend one for you from there.

 

[linjon1]

my relatively cheapo hp 1130n ~$1000 at best buy plays fine, graphics slow down in huge maps with the shared intel graphics. 1 gb ram overall.
my kickass hp lap with 3.0 p4, 2 gbs, ram, 256 meg ati crashes like a "whatever".

I believe it's an ati problem, at least some ati cards.

Some of those who have had no problems will swear up one side and down the other that there is no problem with the game.

I would get a nvidia video card , if i had to do it over again.
THose who have

 

[Warspite2]

Either have one custom built, order one from ibuypower.com, or try an alienware system. I always build my own, in fact, I will be building a new one soon and I get all of my parts off newegg.com. Right now, I am playing CIV4 on a laptop I just bought 2 months ago, works fairly well on it but its still not like a desktop. A laptop, as I have learned, certainly don't replace a desktop for gaming. Neither does a console (as I try to tell my friend), not compared to a high level gaming PC, nothing compares to that. Oh, and yes CIV4 as you know is worth the $2000 for a new PC, I spent $1200 for this laptop just to play it when I was out of town for work. I can practically sell everygame I own and just keep CIV4 and I probably won't miss too many of the other games

 

[rupertlittlebea]

the Vid card will make or break these new games from Firaxis.
Much more than the CPU.

do some research, you may not need the dual cpu.
the money saved can get you a better vid.
And forget Pentium. Hard core gamers use AMD.
(Yes I can hear the flames, but I also can read the forums.)

don't forget about the hard-drive. access time here can be felt.

Double check the technical forum. Information about system failures can help you stay clear of some problems.

 

[opticaljim]

I appreciate your replies and will give them strong consideration.

I don't know a whole lot about custom built PC's, but it's an intruiging idea, thanks.

 

[SupremeC]

Sorry if I look like i'm hijacking this thread. I am getting a new computer as well. Will a 3Ghz 1 GB RAM computer with 6600GT graphics card be good enough for cIV and games for the next 3 years?

 

[BirraImperial]

I'm going to be looking for a new computer pretty soon. The primary consideration will be how well I can play Civ IV on it.

I've heard some good things about something called a "dual core" CPU. I also realize that my Pentium IV is no longer the best and there is now the Pentium D, although there may even be something better than that. I will be looking for 2048 MB of memory.

I've had some issues with being able to play Civ IV on my current PC and, as a result, I have learned way too much about drivers and graphic cards. I'll assume that I need a 256MB driver and the best graphic card available.

I'll have about $2000 to spend and I was wondering if anyone had some advice. Are there other things that should be considered? Do you have an opinion on a specific model?

If you had $2000 to spend on a computer specifically to play Civ IV which home PC would you purchase?

Okay, I know this sounds fanatical but I also realize that if the PC can do this for me then it will also fulfill all the other requirements I need from a home PC to do my other stuff. Honest!

I agree with others in the forum. Get an AMD 64 processor. Also 2GB of RAM is ok, I have no problems with my ATI card, stay away from Intel graphics chipsets with shared memory. Also, keep in mind to get the most current drivers for your pc.

 

[Traflagar]

Sorry if I look like i'm hijacking this thread. I am getting a new computer as well. Will a 3Ghz 1 GB RAM computer with 6600GT graphics card be good enough for cIV and games for the next 3 years?

For CIV I think that system will work just fine.


For the next 3 years I highly doubt it. I've found that even the most up-to-date computer you can buy for gaming at a certain time will be pretty much obsolete within 2 years. Lot's of people try to buy computers that they can easily update as they go but even that becomes a chore with the way technology is advancing in this field.

 

[Tae]

You can play here...

http://www.alienware.com/product_pages/desktop_all_gaming.aspx?cs=1

You can learn to do it yourself here...

http://www.extremetech.com/category2/0,3971,644478,00.asp

http://compreviews.about.com/od/tutorials/a/DIYBudgetGamePC.htm

You can get some decent part recommendations here...

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MHGSBG/article.php/3567566

They have Value and Extreme guides too. If I were building a PC today I would start at the Value guide and go from there. But I like to keep new builds as close to $1000 as possible, I think machines in that price range are more than capable of handling any game out.

Personally I found it really fun learning to do it myself and I have built some really stable systems just by following the wealth of information that is available on the net. I think you would better off building it yourself and Newegg.com and ZipZoomFly.com would be two sites I would recommend buying parts from. Newegg is faster and usually has the best prices but sometimes a deal at ZZF just can't be beat and they are pretty good too. Don't buy parts locally, lots of markup on PC parts. The only thing I might look for locally is a Case because Shipping on a heavy case can sometimes make the thing higher than you can get it locally.

 

[Selsaral]

To give you a sense of performance on different hardware, I recently upgraded from a p3 1 gig with 512 megs of a ram and a geforce4 4200 (ran slowly early in the game, extremely slow late in the game), to an athlon64 3200, 1 gig of ram, geforce 6600gt, and this new machine completely annihilates civ4. I run it at a high (widescreen) resolution, all graphics details to max, anti-aliasing on, and even in the last turn on a gigantic planet with the entire map revealed my machine is undaunted. In the last turn this machine runs 20X faster than my old machine in the first turn. This type of machine appears to be more than enough for civ4. I am shopping for more RAM because I multitask a lot, but 1 gig appears to be enough to drive civ4 flawlessly as long as you don't run any other programs. I haven't tested it much on other modern games.

 

[LFaWolf]

Does your budget include a monitor? I spent $600 for my PC but $750 for a Samsung 214T and the graphics is the best I have ever seen!

 

[Selsaral]

I did the same thing as LFaWolf. I really busted the bank for a new monitor (dell 2005fpw, ~500$) and it was really worth it. Civ4 in widescreen on a quality monitor is stunning (particularly compared to the crap CRT I was using before).

 

[Tae]

Yea, the $1000 target I have for building a new machine does not include a monitor because I like the one I have...a Viewsonic P95f+. It is a great CRT that was reasonably price when I got it 3 or 4 years ago. Last I looked though, it is really hard to find a good CRT since the market is focused on LCD.

 

[Acceptable_Loss]

Biuld it yourself... buying from a place like Dell or Compaq or HP is a waste
For 2000 you could buy an amazing custom PC but only a marginal stock PC

 

[kingjoshi]

I haven't put together a PC in many years (last one was 2000 and since then I've gotten laptops) but some things remain true. Hard drives are the slowest parts on a computer (besides us users). If you're willing to spend some money, make sure you get a fast HD. Something with a lot of RPMs, great seek time, and a lot of cache.

Regardless of whether you buy a computer whole or custom build, always buy memory separately. It's much cheaper that way and it's REALLY EASY to put it. And yes, get 2GB of RAM.

Don't overlook the motherboard factor. A good motherboard over a decent one can speed up the system 10%. Something that's reliable and extensible too.

Go to the tech support section of Civ4 and find out what video cards have been problems and avoid them. Right now, the brand (ATI or nVidia) shouldn't be a concern on video cards. ATI has always been notorious for their drivers, but supposedly they've improved. My Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop has an ATI Radeon x300. It was fine until the patch and now the only problem is with the display of skeletons for a brief moment during diplomacy.

CPUs do matter. Sure the bottleneck may be in the video card (I haven't tested it one way or the other), but AI is crucial in Civ4 and good AI requires CPU power. Huge maps require both since that's a lot of computations both visually and gameplay-wise. But a faster CPU would mean less time waiting between turns as everything is getting calculated.

Good luck and happy gaming.