Steam was taking an age to d.l BC2 etc! I think its everyone buying Shogun 2! Anyway, I've left it running all day today, so it should be done by the time I get home - I'll be able to get some stuff up later! Also gotta tweak that OC.
Looking awesome thus far, and im glad my Wirless card had a use, good job it was tiny! Keep up the good work : )
Ok so down at stock volts now, the CPU seems fine, as its passed 30 mins of Prime95. Temps maxed out at 61C I'll run it for 8 hours tomorrow while I'm at work. BC2 benchies incoming! *Update* Run 1 1366 x 768, 2xMSAA, 'High' quality settings Highest: 69 Lowest: 15 Average: 29.9 - this was too much for the poor old GPU really, when smoke came about it bought the framerate down to about 24fps, which is too little for an fps Run 2 1366 x 768, 1xMSAA, 'Medium' quality setings Highest: 79 Lowest: 31 Average: 49 - this, to me is fine, the game doesn't look as pretty as I'm used to, but its perfectly playable!
3D Mark Vantage Detailed scores3DMark Score 5864.56 3DMarks -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Graphics Score6345.15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CPU Score4778.73 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jane Nash19.69 FPS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Calico17.44 FPS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AI Test644.81 operations/s --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm giving it to my housemate to use, so he can play BFBC2 and SupCom2 with the rest of us PC gamers!
Decent build. Shame the card just doesnt quite have the puff i thought it would. Still plays with a bit of fiddling.
and going with the frugal way, this should be plenty! Spoiler http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/6738074/Plantronics-GameCom-367-PC-Gaming-Headset/Product.html?searchstring=headset&searchtype=PCSH&searchsource=0&searchfilters=s{headset}%2bc{420}%2b&cpage=2&ob=4&urlrefer=search
That mic costs 38% more than my case, PSU and DVD drive combined! Extortionate! Oh god I've turned into a scrooge!
Oh noes! you should see what i just edited in then D: ( i use them and they are EPIC, apart from when you use the onwire volume changer that makes changing the sound "scratchy" )
Just wanted to say well done, is awesome to see what can be done on such a small budget. You've inspired me to possibly try and make a cheap LAN rig (will cost more than yours probably, but still not bad)
Hey mate, yes, its at 790 Core 990 Mem - couldn't get Afterburner to unlock despite following the online instructions to a tee. My cfg file seems slightly different though, as it has two values for enableunofficialunlocking 'EULA' and 'Mode' Anyhow, changed both and neither seemed to work!
Thanks mate, good to hear. Its actually been even more fun than building my main rig was! It just proves, you don't need to spend the earth to play PC games nowadays. The 9650 (as I'm calling it - because that is also the total cost) is great, most games play at approaching max details at 1366x768, though for BC2 I'd probably like a little more graphical grunt so further down the line I might upgrade the GPU to a 4890/Geforce 216.
Based on your results and my own testing when I ran my GTX460 on a E2160 @ 3GHz you are being held back (to a degree) by the CPU. A Quadcore CPU (or even a tri core CPU) would offer a noticable boost even with a relatively weak GPU. Obviously this isn't going to happen within the budget allocated but it is worth noting for potential future upgrades. This is quite noticable with the M11x. Both revisions run a GT335m (think GT240 downclocked) with the main difference being the CPU. The Core 2 in the R1 struggles without alot of tweaking whereas the Core "i7" (i5 really - dual core with HT) in the R2 handles the game without an issue. This was confirmed both through benchmarking and loggin of the GPU utilisation in afterburner (~45% for the R1 and 90% for the R2). Sorry for the off tangent reply. Owning a R1 it is something I have spent ALOT of time investigating and hence I do tend to waffle a bit.
Quite a good article on Dual Cores vs Quad Cores here. The quads have far better minimum fps, but I definitely feel that a GPU upgrade would benefit games better for every pound spent.
Yes, sorry, you are quite correct that a faster GPU would offer a bigger benefit overall than a Quad core CPU. I was merely talking in regards to BFBC2. It is the same thing with the M11x (yes I am back on that again). The R2 offers much better performance in BFBC2 but near identical performance in most other games (say for example Crysis 2). Of course there is the question of balance but when you are working with a very tight budget you (as you suggest) upgrade the one component that will make the biggest difference in the round (as long as the tradeoff is performance in other things is "acceptable").
