Just upgraded my system, what do you think?

[Yossarian]

I’ve just upgraded my whole PC and would like the community’s opinion.
What do you think of my new system?
Where do you think the bottlenecks will occur? (I know I need more RAM but how much?)
How future proof is it?
Will it be sufficient to play the latest games eg Half Life 2, Rome Total War, Doom 3?

A64 3000+
ASUS K8V Socket 754
256 MB Kingston value RAM PC3200 CL3
MSI RX9800 PRO TD128 (R9800 Pro)
Philips DVD +R/+RW
18GD Maxtor HD
550W Senda power supply

3D Mark 2003 tests
Before new catalyst drivers 5125 3DMarks
After new catalyst drivers 6110 3DMarks

PS Does anyone know the min/max specs for Half Life 2?

Thanks

 

[pat]

RAM? at least 512 megs. Dont worry about futureproffing...you'll update anyway in 2 years...
Not the fastest video board, but sufficient for sure.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[davemar14]

The Half Life 2 system requirements won't be any higher than Doom 3, so if you can run Doom3, you should be good to go. And the system you have (with more RAM), will run Doom3 at medium quality.

 

[Mr5oh]

Don't worry about furture proof. By the time you need to upgrade something again, there should be enough new motherboard features out that you wouldn't want to re-use your old board and CPU anyways.

Anyways, everything looks good, <b>except</b>, the RAM. You need at least 512 MB. More is probably overkill. To really run a windows XP machine, and still play games you need 512 MB of RAM. If you go with 768, you should have more than plenty, 1 gig you probably won't use it (I don't use all of the gig I have).

Right now its up to you, if you find 256 MB chips considerably cheaper than 512, get another 256 chip, if you find there isn't much price difference between 256 and 512, get the 512.

My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>

 

[Crashman]

Wow, a VIA chipset AND only 256MB of RAM? You must've got your idea from PC Outlet!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Spitfire_x86]

You need more RAM, at least 512 MB

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