Gaming Hardware

[Nasojthir]

I'd like to know what types of configurations our members are using to do their gaming. What do you think is working good for you or not? What might you like to upgrade?

I'll start by listing my hardware:

Q8300 Quad @ 2.5
4 GB DDR2 800
2 EVGA Nvidia GTX 260 SLI
XFX 750i nForce Motherboard
Windows 7 x64
3 80GB HDD RAID 0
1000 W CoolMax PSU

I've been told that my processor may be a bottleneck for the video configuration that I have....not sure about that....But would always welcome more processing power

If I could add to my wish list, I would throw in additional memory +4GB, possibly an older Quad Extreme, a cooling solution at that point, and maybe even some upgraded HDDs.

What do you girls/guys have running right now?

[Theofrid]

I'll fill in the details later at home, but here's what I remember off the top of my head.

Overview: It's a 3-year-old Dell XPS 410, on which I've upgraded the graphics card, power supply, and memory. I wanted a system that would be "good for games" but was not aiming for best-of-the-best or anything like that.

Processor: Core 2 Duo, 2.4Ghz
OS: Win7 64-bit (Windows Experience Index: 5.8)
Memory: 4gb
Graphics: single ATI 4850
HD: Single 250-Gb drive
Power supply: 500 watt

My normal upgrade cycle is every three years for desktops, so I'm due, but at the moment I'm in the market for a house and avoiding any major purchases. At any rate I'm pretty happy with the performance I'm getting, so I will sit on this configuration probably for several more months at least.

[Daesen]

I tend to upgrade a little each year, so I am almost always doing something to my PC. My current config is below:

CPU: Q9400 Quad @ 2.66 GHZ
RAM: 8 GB DDR2 800 (4 2GB Dimms)
Video: 2 BFG Maxcore 55 Nvidia GTX 260's SLI
Motherboard: XFX 750i nForce
OS: Windows 7 x64
HD: Samsung 200 GB SATA2
PowerSupply: OCZ GameXtreme 750W
Audio: RealTek HD audio (onboard) - Main Game sounds
Audio: Creative XtremeGamer X-FI - Mic and headset sounds
Monitor: Acer AL1951 LCD (19")
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Speakers: Altec Lansing with subwoofer
Headset/Mic: Sennheiser PC111
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master V8
RAM cooler: Ultra Thermax T5

The CPU and RAM cooling solutions are my most recent additions and I have been base-lining my temps at both idle and full load with the new solution in preparation for doing some overclocking. Using CPUID Hardware Monitor I can see that my CPU temps are running at 31c at idle with a max load of 41c.

I am hoping to be able to overclock to about 3.6 GHZ with my current cpu and cooling setup. Anyone else doing any overclocking?

[Dycedarg]

Originally Posted by Nasojthir

I'd like to know what types of configurations our members are using to do their gaming. What do you think is working good for you or not? What might you like to upgrade?

I'll start by listing my hardware:

Q8300 Quad @ 2.5
4 GB DDR2 800
2 EVGA Nvidia GTX 260 SLI
XFX 750i nForce Motherboard
Windows 7 x64
3 80GB HDD RAID 0
1000 W CoolMax PSU

I've been told that my processor may be a bottleneck for the video configuration that I have....not sure about that....But would always welcome more processing power

If I could add to my wish list, I would throw in additional memory +4GB, possibly an older Quad Extreme, a cooling solution at that point, and maybe even some upgraded HDDs.

What do you girls/guys have running right now?

Your CPU is fine, I really doubt that it's bottle-necking anything.

If you were going to do an additional upgrade right now? I'd add RAM and MOBO depending, upgrade your RAM speed to at least 1066.

What speed are your HDD's? Even set at a RAID 0, if they're 7200 RPM as opposed to 10,000RPM, that's a good upgrade. Also, you could move in a SCSI 15,000 RPM to run your OS off of to give some more power.

I'm not going to list my PC because it's old school. However, other than a minor repair here or there, it's worked perfectly. Besides, I have a desktop and three laptops...do I need another desktop?

Obviously, yes.

[Nasojthir]

the board that i (and Daes have is capable of:

# 1333MHz FSB (Up to 1800MHz in OC Mode)
# 800MHz DDR2 (Up to 1200MHz with EEP 1.0)

http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/...ds/1848_2.html

my HDDs are very basic, business class units. Not the gaming type. Prob a Samsung 7200 SATA drive with 8MB cache.

[Aranalu]

My wife's laptop was overheating and shutting down. So we went out to Best Buy over the weekend and bought... http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+V...&skuId=9705382

I'm sure it doesn't compete with desktops, but for a laptop it performs really well for a decent price. I was able to run LOTRO on High in 1920x1080 resolution and the game played very smoothly.

[Nasojthir]

seems like it has some good specs and some very late model hardware. very nice buy.

[Dycedarg]

Originally Posted by Aranalu

My wife's laptop was overheating and shutting down. So we went out to Best Buy over the weekend and bought... http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+V...&skuId=9705382

I'm sure it doesn't compete with desktops, but for a laptop it performs really well for a decent price. I was able to run LOTRO on High in 1920x1080 resolution and the game played very smoothly.

Great laptop - I've been very happy with my Sony.

[Mithrin]

Here's my laptop configuration... Five and a half years old! It's able to run LotRO on the lowest two graphics settings, but nothing newer than that:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Operating System: Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 3
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron 9100
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Display Device: ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9800 AGP
Sound Device: SigmaTel Audio



I'll post my home computer's stuff later. It's even older, but I've upgraded a lot of the hardware over time. Still, it struggles with STO on the lowest setting at times... I'd think about getting a new one, if I wasn't paying for grad school.

[edit]

Desktop:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Operating System: Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 3
System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
System Model: Dimension 8300
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Display Device: ATI Radeon X1650
Sound Device: SB Audigy Audio (surround)

[gerfinath]

I am running lotro on a flaming bag of dog poop. Or, I wish I was, for I'd probably get better fps.

[Archam]

I just built a brand new machine! Core i5-750 with a Radeon 5870. I like it lots.

[Rodo]

Originally Posted by Archam

I just built a brand new machine! Core i5-750 with a Radeon 5870. I like it lots.

Too funny, I was talking to another TCOer today and even having not paid much attention to desktop hardware over the past year or two, that's almost exactly what I picked out for him.

You guys are making my system feel WEAK now

ASUS P5B-Deluxe WiFi Edition
Core 2 Quad Q9550 @2.83 GHz (stock, my oc'ing days are over)
8GB RAM DDR2 PC1066
ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB RAM
Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB SATA HD
2x other misc standard SATA drives
LG Super Multi Blu Blu-Ray/HD-DVD ROM/Lightscribe DVD-RW
Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate
VMWare Workstation 7

I'm really happy still with how it runs still, so I think it's going to be a long while before I upgrade. I'm looking at a new processor/motherboard/RAM when I do it, so something's going to have to die before I take the plunge. Or I'll have to find some other reason

I'm working on my VMWare VCP right now, so I'm mostly using the extra RAM and cores for virtualization testing and experimenting. I'm embarrassed to say I bought a kickass 4TB NAS about 2 months ago and still haven't bothered hooking it up! Looking forward to being able to do some scheduled backups, and the thing supports iSCSI so I can set up some storage volumes for VMWare vSphere.

[Mithrin]

Ahahaha! I just tried running STO on my laptop. Grainiest thing I've ever seen. It worked for a bit... could walk/fly around, warp, and such. But the instant I entered combat, my entire system froze.