My brother has a Dell pc he got last summer for about $650, I cant remember what kind it is, but it is like a Dell 3000 or sumthing. The thing is, he wants to play World of Warcraft, which means he needs a new video card and more ram. So, I found the video card he needs, a PCI Geforce FX5200 128mb, and the ram is a 256mb stick, totalling 512mb. While looking at the video card specs, it says the minimum requirements for the psu wattage is 250watts. I looked at the Dell handbook of specs he had, and it says '200 watts or 250 watts'. That doesnt help me, so I looked on his computer, and didnt find anything. So thats where you guys come in (I didnt want to wait for an email reply from Dell). What is the basic psu wattage from a Dell 3000 (or sumthing)? Thanks.
I would go for a little bit more high-end graphics card or at least one with more memory. The ram should be fine though, but you will need a more powerful power supply.
you do know wow will rearly be no fun to play on a 5200? it's a very graphicaly intensive game you shuld aim for somthing like a 6600gt alot more power full and also expensive, but theres little point paying for that wow subscription if it runs like a slide show and looks like a gorila has drawn it! as for the psu, dell psu's are non standard so you would have to take a chance im running a 5200 at the moment in my shuttle system which has a very high quality 200w psu and it seams to be going alright (im overclocking the crap out of it have gained about 2k 3d marks already and it keeps clocking higher all with passive cooling!)
I looked at IGN for this game for the specs, it says it only needs 64mb of video, direct-x 9, 256mb ram for it to run at recommended. I dont see how that video card i picked out and the extra ram to make 512mb isnt good enough. I looked at the psu box, and it said that the psu output wattage is 200 watts, which means the video card wont work with it. But explain to me, whats the cheapest, best quality setup I could build for my brother since I dont think his dell can handle the game.
I asked my brother about this, and I got him to just decide to buy a new system. He will be keeping his ram, hdd, and other things. What he needs is, a new case, psu, extra ram, and a video card. That brings me to two questions. One, is the Geforce FX5500 256mb 128-bit 4x/8x agp video card good enough for half-life 2, doom 3, and mainly world of warcraft? Two, will a Dell 2400 (Thats what his system is) cpu (2.8ghz) work in a socket 478 mobo? I have yet to see what kind of cpu socket the chip is, but I dont know how to find out what kind of socket it is. Help me on there please. Thanks.
With my experiences yes. I havent played wow or doom3 but hl 2 ran completely fine on my fx 5500 oc i got at best buy. all the settings are at medium to high.... will try and get some fps for you if you like (send me a pm). later
It will run them but not as well as you would like. You really need a R9800/FX5900 minimum (< £100 new), and I would recommend a Nvidia 6600 (£100-£140 new). If you are prepared to shop via ebay... you can get it cheaper... I bought a new 6600GT (OEM) for £100 delivered.
How are you so sure you need a Radion9800 or Geforce FX5900 minimum? My friend has a FX5700 and it runs FarCry and Half-Life 2 really good. So Im sure a FX5500 would be fine. This FX5500 is 256mb (I think) and thats more than enough for recommended. Any other thoughts?
you havent seen good... ^trust me... i would recomend a 6600gt or 9800pro although everything completly depends on your budget...
I have two good PC's >3Ghz P4, > 1Gb Ram, which until recently had an Fx5900XT and an Fx5900. I've never tried DOOM2 but HL2 ran at 40-80fps on high settings (with no AA/AF) with both of these cards, which is pretty good. Similar figures for Far Cry. These are better cards than an FX5500, and the guy below stated that he was running medium to high, so yes you could play a good game of HL2 on an Fx5500, but you could obviously do better. But more importantly, what is your brother going to do in a years time when the next big game comes out? The Fx5900 will be running at med-to-high and the Fx5500 will be running at low-to-med. And the year after that? The FX5900 will be running at med, and the Fx5500 will be hanging on by a thread... So unless your brother wants to upgrade his card to the next middle-of-range card each year, he needs to buy bigger now. And the best value card at them moment (fps per £) are the 9800Pro, and if you have the money, the 6600. Chris
Check this card out. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814164043 Assuming you have agp that should do fine.
not to hijack this thread but here are my settings for hl2: and i was able to hit just over 50 fps in hl2. not great, but not bad. comp settings are xp-m 2500 @ 3000, 17" lcd monitor, 1gb value ram
Wow, I just might get the 6600. Whats the difference between the 6600 and 6600gt, and if Im going cheaper budget-wise, 6600 is the way to go, and should run World of Warcraft great? Thats the only game he wants to play and doesnt care about future releases, as he will upgrade again in the future. Help and thanks.
So is a geforce 6600 good enough for world of warcraft or should my bro try to spend alil more on the 6600gt? Thanks.
