Goblin Squad Member
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Microsoft also provides the dxdiag.exe utility with the OS: in Win 7 simply left-click the start button and in the 'search for programs' dialog box at the bottom of the resulting menu type dxdiag.exe and hit enter. It will show you the program in a list box. Select and run it, giving it time to check your system. If you are running the 64 bit version of win7 select 64 bit mode at the bottom.
When testing games or when you find a bug this is the utility most developers request you use. You can save the results as a text file and attach that to your bug report.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Man, I really need to upgrade my computer...but I will wait until EE before I commit to any new build. PFO deserves to be played on a rig worthy of it. This one has been good to me, but now its a glorified "check my email" rig. Don't get me wrong, it can handle GW2 on max when my toon is standing still in a room all alone, but WvW buries it.
On the plus side, waiting for EE will allow me to start setting aside the necessary funds to build the new rig. (Or allow me more time to explain to my wife why we need a new computer.)
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Goblin Squad Member
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You can save cash on the new computer and have great processor/motherboard combo, if you go for not the latest CPU socket, but the one before it.
Saved myself about $600 to $1200, at the expense of being able to upgrade the CPU again, but the last two times I went with the latest socket and tried upgrading later,
I could not get my hands on any of the top 20 CPUs for those sockets. So I say screw the latest CPU socket and go with the one before it and get the best CPU for it. You get a really great CPU and Motherboard cheaper that the latest one.
I have
Power Supply: Mod X Stream 700W
CPU: i7-3770, 4 Core (8 HT) 3.4GHz
CPU Cooler: Hydro Series™ H50 Quiet CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z77
Ram: 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengence
Video Card: Nvidia Geforce: GTX 660 x1 (planning on getting a second one)
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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In verity, I hear it is now an accepted diagnostic practice among clinical psychiatrists to check the patient's video card: latest model is a sure indicator that the subject is irrevocably wack.
If you upgrade to the model that came out while you were in the waiting room, you probably are nuts.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm looking at getting a good machine to replace my beloved laptop. Price range is ballpark $1,000. My preference is towards a laptop (because I love the portability), but I'm open to desktops as well. O mighty titans of tech, what are your recommendations?
Desktops are usually cheaper (hardware wise) and easier to update. I personally always found it annoying to switch out hardware components in laptops.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm looking at getting a good machine to replace my beloved laptop. Price range is ballpark $1,000. My preference is towards a laptop (because I love the portability), but I'm open to desktops as well. O mighty titans of tech, what are your recommendations?
For about another $200 you could get nearly same setup I currently have and it's still mid to high end. (3 posts above yours)
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Goblin Squad Member
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You can find some good computer starting kits at (note some are more complete than others)
Newegg.ca
and
Tigerdirect.ca
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Goblin Squad Member
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If you want to buy a laptop, I think one of the best gaming laptops, bang for your buck right now, is this Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p. It's a very nice laptop with two Nvidia GeForce GT 750M GPU's in SLI mode. That's pretty boss for a gaming laptop at $999.
For the same money, you could go to iBuypower (or similar custom gaming site) and build a Core i5, Z87 chipset MB supporting SLI, GTX 760 system w/ 600W PS that would be about three times more powerful than the above laptop, and would be later upgradeable with a second card in SLI mode.
So the question is which of those represents a better value to you.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Since I haven't seen anyone else mention it:
If at all possible, buy an SSD large enough to hold your OS and applications. Put all your media (music, movies, pdfs, etc.) on platters (HDD). Running your system from an SSD will boost most application start times by a factor of 3 or 4, including OS start-up. SSDs offer a huge quality-of-life improvement over HDD.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Since I haven't seen anyone else mention it:
If at all possible, buy an SSD large enough to hold your OS and applications. Put all your media (music, movies, pdfs, etc.) on platters (HDD). Running your system from an SSD will boost most application start times by a factor of 3 or 4, including OS start-up. SSDs offer a huge quality-of-life improvement over HDD.
SSD are still expensive though. Might not be an option for someone on a budget.
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Goblin Squad Member
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2TB HDDs and 240GB SSDs are roughly comparable in price, $120~$150. 240GB is very likely sufficient for your OS & applications. You can get an additional 500GB or 1TB HDD for $60~$80. Or just use your existing HDD.
As for the logistics, set the SSD to be the higher of the two drives in the BIOS boot order and install Windows on it. Windows will detect the 2nd drive and show it as another drive letter.
On the off-chance you're on a Mac and wanting to use both an SSD & HDD (mac minis are great for this), search for DIY fusion drive.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Having never run a machine with multiple hard drives, how does that work?
Are you asking about how to get it setup (hardware or OS wise), or how to use them?
When getting a Hard disk depending on what that drive is for it'll need different specs. Drives holding documents and media can be on drives of 5400RPM and 1.5GB/s. Drives running the OS, Programs, and Games should be 7200RPM or higher, with 3GB/s or better transfer.
As for SSD if you want something with SSD speed, but cheaper, you could go with a SSHD drive
I have a number of Hard drives one is for the OS and Programs, one for Documents (Told the OS to My Documents is here, not the OS drive), and one for all my games.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Wow, you folks have app discipline I seem to be able only to dream about. My OS and non-game applications take up 50GB, but my games folder, recently pared down--in anticipation of an HDD or SSD upgrade--to only those 20 or so I play "routinely" (my mental category to separate them from "more often than never") is about 300GB; before the Great Purge the games'd crept up to twice that.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Having never run a machine with multiple hard drives, how does that work?
basically plug it in. Then you choose to format it. You can decide what to call each drive and how big to make them. hit enter and it works, as far as your computer is concerned and what you will see will be extra drives similar to when you plug in an external hdd.
One advantage of keeping your partitions for your OS and such separate is that if for some reason your OS craps out on you, you can just reformat/reinstall without wiping out all the info on your computer.
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Goblin Squad Member
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o as we are moving closer to EE, what are we going need to build.
I expect my iMac with 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB, and NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB will not handle the graphics and processing.So how inexpensively can I get into a system just for the game?
Yes, this has been discussed before, but I expect products and prices have changed. I would not think we need high end graphics,, but what is good enough (and will continue to be or easily upgraded when needed.
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Goblin Squad Member
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o as we are moving closer to EE, what are we going need to build.
I expect my iMac with 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB, and NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB will not handle the graphics and processing.So how inexpensively can I get into a system just for the game?
Yes, this has been discussed before, but I expect products and prices have changed. I would not think we need high end graphics,, but what is good enough (and will continue to be or easily upgraded when needed.
I think that will run it OK, but not great.
You can build a powerful system on the cheaper side provided you go down a CPU socket generation, like the LGA 1155, or LGA 2011, and NOT LGA 1150 which is the latest socket.
If you compare the price of nearly Identical i7's on different sockets, the slightly older ones are cheaper along with the motherboard that supports it. You could save about say $600 to $1000 by going that route.
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Goblin Squad Member
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o as we are moving closer to EE, what are we going need to build.
I expect my iMac with 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB, and NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB will not handle the graphics and processing.So how inexpensively can I get into a system just for the game?
Yes, this has been discussed before, but I expect products and prices have changed. I would not think we need high end graphics,, but what is good enough (and will continue to be or easily upgraded when needed.
Lam, both your CPU and GPU are previous generation, and that system is not well-suited to playing current games. You can build a new, budget-level gaming system for something between $650-$750. The bottom line is you are likely to get your best bang for your buck right now with an Intel Core i5 CPU and a mid-range CPU like a GTX 690 (AMD is of course an option, but I personally don't use them and aren't familiar with them). I respectfully disagree with Azure, and given current pricing would recommend an 1150 socket CPU and board.
You can poke around and pick the specific parts you want, but something like this example build would be great.
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Goblin Squad Member
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It is getting close to EE so I have been looking around for components and pricing things when I came across this: 12 GB GeForce GTX Titan Z
12 GB video card sound sweet, but good lord... the price of that thing. If I had that type of money to spend, I would've probably gotten the Tavern package for PFO.
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Goblin Squad Member
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If I were going to buy a video card today, I would get this GeForce GTX 760.
This happens to be the card in my system. Wewt.
EDIT: Not that exact brand/model, but same series (GTX 760).
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Goblin Squad Member
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If I were going to buy a video card today, I would get this GeForce GTX 760.
Yeah. That is the one I've been leaning toward. I'll have my budget available around mid July and this is when I'll start making purchases. Hopefully to have my new gaming PC ready by the beginning of August.
