Silkroad Online Forums

So I'm seriously thinking of getting a PC. (For those of you who are confused, I live in an apartment with three other guys, and we have a PC in the living room which is how I play SRO.) I did a little research on building one, and a good friend of mine works on computers so he could help me with that. But there's also a place I've heard good things about called PCs For Everyone which is close to me and could save me some trouble. Only problem is, I haven't had a Windows machine since XP was released, so I need advice.

As for what I'm looking for, nothing fancy. Right now I use my powerbook G4 for everything (except SRO), but it's three years old and has a habit of crapping out. A PC would be great for running those odd programs that you just can't get on a Mac, and it would certainly help my laptop's stability to have a different computer for all internet-related things. Another big reason I'm looking into a PC is that I'm a film scoring major and would like to take advantage of the free/dirt cheap sound libraries there are for PC and assorted other synths, effects, et cetera. I would like to be able to play SRO in something other than the lowest graphics settings, and after that I just want to not spend a lot of money.

I took one of the systems from the PCs For Everyone web site (pcsforeveryone.com) and downgraded or removed a lot of equipment, resulting in this customized Thinkmate Intel Powerhouse:
Processor: Intel Pentium 630 3.0GHz - 800MHz FSB - 2MB Cache (HyperThreading)
Heatsink: Standard
Motherboard: Intel Desktop Board D945GNT - mainboard - ATX - i945G
RAM: 2 x Crucial 512Mb PC5300 667MHz DDR2
Graphics: eVGA nVidia 6600 256MB DDR PCI Express ( 1xDVI 1xVGA )
Case: Antec SLK1650B ATX Chassis - 350W PS (Black)
Power Supply: Included Power Supply (Included with Chassis)
Disk Drive: Sony 16x IDE DVD-ROM BLK
Hard Drive: 80GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM - Seagate Barracuda 7200.9

Without any peripherals, OS, or other add-ons, the total price is under $600. BUT I have heard bad things about using the power supply that comes with the case, and I have no idea about the motherboard so I just picked the cheapest option. Same with the processor, but three gigs is nothing to sniff at. For the video card I don't really think I need 256 MB, but there are only two 128 choices; one is an ATI X300 series (which I've encountered problems with playing SRO) and the other is more expensive than the 256, so what the hey. I don't need CD/DVD burning, I don't need lots of storage, and while there was a case called the "Coolmaster" for $30 more, I won't be doing any overclocking and my room is well ventilated AND below ground level so I don't anticipate heat problems.

Given the good reputation of the dealer, the 1 year parts/lifetime labor warranty, and my desire to avoid doing more work than I have to, it seems like a good deal. I'm assuming, of course, that this would provide much better bang for my buck than getting a similarly-priced cookie cutter Dell or Gateway or what have you. However, I don't have much of an idea what the cost would be to build one myself, so any and all advice is much appreciated.

600 bucks? good deal man. seriously. and you shouldn't have any problems playing sro with it, that's for sure. i run a 1.4GHz with 512 pc2700 ram, and i have no problems with it on medium gfx settings.

as for the graphics card, you might as well go with a 256. they don't cost much more than a 128 these days, and you might need it if you decide to pick up another game some time. so, that'll save you the cost of a whole other card if you ever DO need it.

if you've heard bad things about the power supply, i'd say to just get another one. you can get a good one pretty cheap, so there's no reason to risk your mobo or cpu by running a flaky one. just make sure you get something that puts out enough power, especially if you plan on adding any kind of peripherals. the 350W included one might be cutting it close, but a 500W should be more than enough for this system, and they cost close to the same amount.

for OS and software, if you want i can get you a good deal on windows XP and office XP. i, um, know a guy, who, umm, can help you out....

power supplies are dirt cheap. i suggest eBay. as for the rest, this is a sweet machine for $600. i could hardly build a better for the price. i just got a 256mb graphics card, and it's hella sweet. i think that was a good choice.

i vote a big fat "yes" on this one.

I'd skip the Intel and go with AMD, otherwise a sweet computer. The hard drive is a bit small though, I'd get at least 120, and if you can afford it, buy the biggest one you can get. You'd be surprised how quickly they get filled with crap.

AMD has a great advantage for when we get the new windows package which wil be 64bit on the AMD Athlon 64 bit processor wil be able to run it besides

Igot a similar idea in mind and my perfect computer will cost me aprox £500 and thats for the preformance of a £1500 computer

I think I paid that price for my graphics card alone (although in canadian currency)

If I were you i'd do it! it's not like it's something that would never be used

Self building price @ newegg. Warrantees last from 2 years to lifetime depending on part.

Processor: $170.00
Motherboard: $86.29
RAM: 2 x $62.00
Graphics: $99.00
Case: $124.99
Disk Drive: $20.99
Hard Drive: $58.00

Total cost at newegg: 621.27, no payments till October, but with longer warranty, and warranties on individual parts. If you want the best deal, though, you go pricewatch, which is cheaper, but slightly more shady.

PW actually linked me to this site, which looks like it has everything you need for about 500 with the 1 year warrantee and no installation.
http://www.smksuperstore.com/catalog/vi ... p?ID=13986

I should mention also that with the PCs For Everyone option my shipping costs are $1.25 each way on public transportation.

I don't think I'll ever be getting any AMD chips. At least for a while.
My friend had a bad-ass computer with a good video card and a bunch of stuff, and it was running AMD chip. Well one night we was playing age of empires and he lagged out and never got back on for the night. When I talked to him a couple days later he said his AMD chip literally BURNED up inhis computer, there was smoke everywhere and he had to get a brand new computer and everything (which took a while).
Another time the same friend had another AMD chip that messed up, but I'm not sure what the story is behind that.

Now I know there's a one chance in a million fo it happening, but I've never heard of anyone's intel chips burning up, and I don't want to wake up in the middle of the night to a fiery inferno caused by my computer.

WTF? AMD chips run cooler than Intel chips do.. O.o

I'd had my AMD PC on constantly for two years (only rest it gets is a quick reboot once in a while). It's not had a single problem so far..

Also AMD chips are much more advanced than Intel are, they have much lower clock speeds but get much better performance, so for things like games AMD tends to be much better than Intel.

Also Intel use "don't sell AMD chips, just intel stuff and we'll give you discount" tactics with companies.. so I refuse to support them for this. But hey if you want to support people being asshats go ahead and buy Intel, not like they're doing anything "too" illegal.

Slightly off topic:
One thing that made me start seriously shopping around is that the communal PC has been acting up - last few days when I've played SRO, I get about five minutes of good play before my framerate goes to hell. I'm guessing low teens at best. Someone suggested that it might be an overheating problem - well, I started poking around and the case was VERY hot. Turns out the whole thing was in an incredibly bad spot. I drew a little illustration of the computer sitting on this short little split-tier desk, with arrows to show where the fan exhaust was directed:

It was all building up in that empty cavity. Plus the cable box, a DVD player, and a big A/V reciever were sitting on top of the computer, generating their own heat. Well I spent an hour sorting out all the cables and replacing the desk of death with an open wire rack, and now there is airflow aplenty. The fan no longer sounds like a tiny jet engine. And with luck, nothing was damaged.

I don't support them more than any other company. I'm just kind of scared of using AMD now because of what I said.

Here is option 2 which I worked out with my friend the other day. I can get a case, disc drive, and peripherals for free, or damn close to free, and build up a slightly more powerful machine for less money:
TUL AX480A-GF Socket 939 ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 ATX AMD Motherboard ($50, $5 S&H)
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz HT 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor ($212, $1 S&H)
Kingston HyperX 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) ($71, $5 S&H)
Video Card - help! I have it narrowed down to this list, and I think I can rule out the eight "AGP 4X/8X" cards because I'm not sure they work with my motherboard, and the PCI express x16 should be faster anyway, right? I mean, we specifically picked a motherboard with at least one PCI express x16 slot, so no sense in letting it go to waste. But I have no idea what the differences are between the 14 remaining cards.

Add in whatever 80 GB hard drive and power supply I can find with a rebate or on sale at microcenter (or wherever) and we're talking $550 or less for a better processor than the PCs for Everyone machine I threw together, plus I would have probably needed a more expensive power supply than what I chose for that machine, bringing it well over $600.

of the video cards you listed(the PCI ones anyways), the only difference is the card's manufacturer. some people don't care about that, but it's kinda important IMO.

personally, i don't trust PNY, because everything i've gotten from them has gone bad within 6 months(including ram and a vid card, not this one though)

i've had good experiences with ASUS and MSI, but only with mobos, so i don't know about their video card quality. but, if one speaks for the other, i'd recommend one of those two companies.

refurbished is typically cheaper, but i tend to shy away from that, since i don't really trust second-hand parts from strangers or companies. i'll use a part from a friend, or if i get it for free, but i wouldn't buy one.

get a 6600GT. the 6600 normal is way slower than the GT.the 6600 has a 128 bit interface and wouldn't be able to use up the 256mb of memory anyways. the 6600GT costs a little bit more but the performance boost is quite noticeable.
AMDs are generally cheaper than Intels

6600GT 128mb > 6600 256mb :D:):D:)

XFX 6600GT on newegg for $119

Dude you never heard of intel chips burning up
AMD comps are way better. Newer models including mine has a feauture called cool'n'quiet which makes it run on low energy when ur not playing some hardcore game so your processor wont become hot. Gaming wise AMD is GREAT with the 64 bit. Silkroad and Counter Strike run smoothly with this and an ok video card.

Okay, I think I understand how the GT is faster, but what I am wondering is, what can you do with a 256 MB card that can't be done with a 128 MB card? There must be some reason people buy 256 and even 512 cards.

More MB is usually due to requires of higher graphical textures. For any cards in the class of 6600gt or even vanilla 6800, you won't see a big difference in performance of 128 vs 256.

Now if you were to have say the x1800xt or 7800xt, and turn on highest settings for the latest games, then you will find a significant difference between 128-256 (which is why 128s don't even exist). Most people at that level want 512mb so there will be enough memory to cache all those huge graphics textures.

more video ram loads up more graphic stuff into it. like textures and other stuff which i dont know of.
IF the limit is reached, then you might experience some s-st-stuttering because new data needs to get in and unused ones need to get out.
super high resolution textures would take up more memory than low resolution textures and that is why high demanding games like doom3 need 512 ram


im 95% sure the 6600GT can play SRO at 1600x1200 will all settings maxed
(yes even detailed shadows) at over 30 fps which is adequte for a mmorpg

In that case, I have absolutely no qualms about spending an extra $25. I didn't expect to be able to go from all settings on low and 800x600 to all settings on high with good resolution for so little cash. Thanks a bunch for the help. Now I have the rest of spring break to keep an eye out for sales and rebates on power supply and HD, and peripherals on craigslist. I heart craigslist.

enjoy. higher resolutions make things sooo much better.

AMD used to (still does?) overclock their processors out of the box, causing stability problems. I've used both and my experience with Intel has been better.

512 megs of graphics RAM is future-proofing at this point; you probably won't use it all. Also, I'd expect to see a lot more processor-heavy 3d stuff in the coming months, and performance in that area is based on the chipset, not your RAM. More graphics RAM doesn't hurt, but it gets pretty expensive.

When building it's best to get a good overall selection of components rather than one or two really high-end components. PCs typically work on a least common denominator in terms of performance. If you have a blazing CPU and a blazing GPU but a bad Mobo, your system performance will suck and the money invested in the CPU / GPU will be wasted. You can always leave room to upgrade things like hard disks and RAM, but make sure you get a good core (CPU, Mobo, PSU). GPUs are often over-priced, so I'd recommend getting a mid-range card unless you have bottomless pockets. Today's hot shit will be tomorrow's bargains.

Doom 3, specifically, was designed for next-gen technology, which means the game's graphics far exceed today's processing power and RAM. If you toss it on a PC in a couple years with updated hardware it will probably look and run pretty nicely. Aside from giving hardcore people a reason to waste money on BFG cards and such, the Ultra graphics are just overkill.

Well, there is a certain appeal to playing Silkroad on my living room wall, even if it does limit me to 800x600.

That is pimp! Yea my friend's hot an HD tv hookups playing W0W...
I say silkroad all the way haha...

*dreams of having an lcd hdtv

lcd projectors FTW.. the comp looks nice bake.. i hope you have luck with it

Just on a random note, I was at the unveiling of the GeForce 7800GTX SLI in San Francisco, and they had a demo of Doom3 on one of the computers with two of those suckers running in SLI with graphics on max everything...man....it was lagging..... 40fps....

in any rate, just to give my two cents on the graphics card.....

i'm running a ATI 850XT PE 256 Meg Card...and with all the graphics up, detailed shadows, antialiasing, highest quality textures @ 1280x1024, it actually does lag a bit. Running it at Normal Quality however allows the game to run pretty smoothly and much more playable.

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the performance for my card is a bit higher than the 6600GT, so just to provide some comparisons for you to help you make a decision. This is just my opinion however, so its at your discretion.