I'm upgrading my pc, at the moment i'm using Dell's pc builder thing, but i have no idea what capabilities the things i'm adding will have.

 

 

 

As a benchmark, for what game capabilities the pc will have, lets use basic half life 2. What graphics would this system be able to run hl2 at? (med, high, between the two?)

 

 

 

This is what i'm currently looking at:

 

 

 

PROCESSOR: Intel® Core 2 Duo E8400 processor (3.00GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB cache)

 

OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 - English

 

MEMORY: 4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [4x1024]

 

HARD DRIVE: 640GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive

 

GRAPHICS CARD: 512MB nVidia GeForce 9800GT graphics card

Nothing. Not even half life 2. Just look at the OS.

Nothing. Not even half life 2. Just look at the OS.

 

 

 

Are you being serious or is that a dig at vista? Its practically impossible for me to buy a pc now without it being vista.

Vista can run things, but XP is less of a resource hog.

It might be able to turn on :thumbsup: .

Well my current pc can barely run hl2 on min detail, so would vista hinder it so much it would be no benefit upgrading at all?

Ignore the Vista haters for now. With a 9800GT and that CPU, your PC will be hitting 100fps+ always on HL2 at max settings, the newer Source games (TF2, L4D) will also be able to run on max, L4D the FPs may dip to 40 or lower in fire fights but you'll have no problems running any of the Source games out at the moment.

@the vista haters: My current computer runs fine with vista, including games. I myself am no lover of Vista, but it's not horrible for HTPC use and mild gaming. Really.

 

 

 

 

 

OT: Per your example that should run Hl:2 quite smoothly, but I definitely would recomend "downgrading" (more of an upgrade :P) to xp.

@the vista haters: My current computer runs fine with vista, including games. I myself am no lover of Vista, but it's not horrible for HTPC use and mild gaming. Really.

 

 

 

 

 

OT: Per your example that should run Hl:2 quite smoothly, but I definitely would recomend "downgrading" (more of an upgrade :P) to xp.

 

 

 

With the games you play .. Hardly ever.

 

 

 

And No Vista is NOT good os at all. Xp is far superier and runs alot more efficently esp for games.

@the vista haters: My current computer runs fine with vista, including games. I myself am no lover of Vista, but it's not horrible for HTPC use and mild gaming. Really.

 

 

 

 

 

OT: Per your example that should run Hl:2 quite smoothly, but I definitely would recomend "downgrading" (more of an upgrade :P) to xp.

 

 

 

With the games you play .. Hardly ever.

 

 

 

And No Vista is NOT good os at all. Xp is far superier and runs alot more efficently esp for games.

 

 

 

Epicly Bias (I dislike Vista my self, XP user) but w/ SP1 it's not THAT bad now. If you don't have a high spec PC, you'll have problems, (you need atleast 2gb of RAM to run Vista smoothly). With those upgrades, OP, you have nothing to worry about.

@the vista haters: My current computer runs fine with vista, including games. I myself am no lover of Vista, but it's not horrible for HTPC use and mild gaming. Really.

 

 

 

 

 

OT: Per your example that should run Hl:2 quite smoothly, but I definitely would recomend "downgrading" (more of an upgrade :P) to xp.

 

 

 

With the games you play .. Hardly ever.

 

 

 

And No Vista is NOT good os at all. Xp is far superier and runs alot more efficently esp for games.

 

 

 

Epicly Bias (I dislike Vista my self, XP user) but w/ SP1 it's not THAT bad now. If you don't have a high spec PC, you'll have problems, (you need atleast 2gb of RAM to run Vista smoothly). With those upgrades, OP, you have nothing to worry about.

 

 

 

I've got to agree. The big problems with vista is when you have a pc that has the minimum, or even medium requirements for it, because as you said vista is a huge resource hog. The biggest bugs are pretty much worked out, and sp1 really isn't that bad. I'd still go for xp, but vista is starting to look alot better.

Why didn't you post this in tech and computers?

 

 

 

It'll run Half Life 2 fine, you'll probably be able to run pretty much all source games with that setup on highest and still get a nice framerate.

Vista shouldn't be a problem at all. Although for your 4GB of RAM you'll need 64 bit vista to take advantage of all of it (Otherwise you'll only be getting 3.2GB or so) however 64 bit Vista is meant to have quite a few driver problems, although I assume this is becoming a lot better over time.

If Vista is such a pain in the [wagon] as you all say it is, then just downgrade to Windows XP. I know that the Laptop my dads company provide him with came with Vista, but they put XP back on it.

I don't find Vista bad at all for games :|

lol @ the Vista haters who don't even know what the [bleep] they are on about. But that PC should run about any game you throw at it, anomalies include GTA IV cause its an un-optimized POS, Crysis and maybe some maxed out with AA/AF.

@the vista haters: My current computer runs fine with vista, including games. I myself am no lover of Vista, but it's not horrible for HTPC use and mild gaming. Really.

 

 

 

 

 

OT: Per your example that should run Hl:2 quite smoothly, but I definitely would recomend "downgrading" (more of an upgrade :P) to xp.

 

 

 

With the games you play .. Hardly ever.

 

 

 

And No Vista is NOT good os at all. Xp is far superier and runs alot more efficently esp for games.

 

 

 

Epicly Bias (I dislike Vista my self, XP user) but w/ SP1 it's not THAT bad now. If you don't have a high spec PC, you'll have problems, (you need atleast 2gb of RAM to run Vista smoothly). With those upgrades, OP, you have nothing to worry about.

 

 

 

I've got to agree. The big problems with vista is when you have a pc that has the minimum, or even medium requirements for it, because as you said vista is a huge resource hog. The biggest bugs are pretty much worked out, and sp1 really isn't that bad. I'd still go for xp, but vista is starting to look alot better.

 

 

 

Hello Stalkers. Nice too meet you. Seeming as you dont know what the hell I've used OS wise and have used Vista enough to know how bad it is. Thanks.

Ignore the Vista haters, my Laptop with a 1.73Ghz Intel processor, 2Gb RAM and the graphics is intergrated, I can run HL2:DM and TF2 on low settings just fine, using Vista Home Basic btw

The specs you posted are almost exactly the same as the PC I built 6 months ago. Literally identical.

 

 

 

I play all my games at the highest detail, I have yet to experience slowdown on any of them, even the typical "my pc can run crysis lol" example poses no problems for me (is there a new "my pc can run this game and thus can run anything" standard?).

 

 

 

Ignore the Vista-hate, I've had it for 6months and had no problems running games personally. If vista was the broken, uncompatible mess that its made out to be then I have trouble explaining my 100% success rate. I even managed to get DK2 working on it, which I couldn't manage on XP.

Why so much hate for Vista?

 

It has 4GB of RAM and a fast processor so it will run fine.

With 2gb of ram and a slightly worse processor, it runs at high perfectly for me. And on vista.

It has good capabilities, but if you're using it just for gaming, then go for XP.

 

but my PC is a gaming PC and it's using Vista and works fairly well.

 

:D

Nothing wrong with it. Won't be able to bend time and space, but it can play games. E8400 is a really good CPU for gaming and 9800GT isn't a horrible card either.

 

 

 

But as time passes by though, might want to consider replacing the sticks of RAM it came with and upgrade your card to 4870. but like I said, 9800GT isn't bad.

Yeah it'll run pretty much anything.

 

Vista is lame though :

@the vista haters: My current computer runs fine with vista, including games. I myself am no lover of Vista, but it's not horrible for HTPC use and mild gaming. Really.

 

 

 

 

 

OT: Per your example that should run Hl:2 quite smoothly, but I definitely would recomend "downgrading" (more of an upgrade :P) to xp.

 

 

 

With the games you play .. Hardly ever.

 

 

 

And No Vista is NOT good os at all. Xp is far superier and runs alot more efficently esp for games.

 

 

 

Epicly Bias (I dislike Vista my self, XP user) but w/ SP1 it's not THAT bad now. If you don't have a high spec PC, you'll have problems, (you need atleast 2gb of RAM to run Vista smoothly). With those upgrades, OP, you have nothing to worry about.

 

 

 

I've got to agree. The big problems with vista is when you have a pc that has the minimum, or even medium requirements for it, because as you said vista is a huge resource hog. The biggest bugs are pretty much worked out, and sp1 really isn't that bad. I'd still go for xp, but vista is starting to look alot better.

 

 

 

Hello Stalkers. Nice too meet you. Seeming as you dont know what the hell I've used OS wise and have used Vista enough to know how bad it is. Thanks.

 

 

 

Stalking is fun :twss: