23 réponses à ce sujet

[MerricksDad]

Looking to upgrade my computer, for 500 or around that, and I want to get some assurance from others that NWN will continue to run, and that I can continue using GMAX.

 

What I am looking at right now, is an Alienware Alpha, just the baby, with windows 8. Here's the breakdown:

 

Processor

Intel® Core™ i3-4130T Dual-Core processor (3M Cache, 2.9GHz)

Operating System

Windows 8.1 64 Bit, English, Exclusive Alienware Alpha Console Interface

Video Card

Alpha chassis with NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX GPU 2GB GDDR5

Memory

4GB DDR3L 1600MHz Memory

Hard Drive

500GB SATA 6Gb/s

Game Controller

Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (Black) with USB adapter

Wireless

Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 1x1 + Bluetooth 4.0

 

 

 

My question is this, does anybody have any personal data on this machine, and is it capable of doing all this older stuff I want to do, while at the same time playing the newer stuff I know works on it?

Would you suggest this machine for graphics editing? 3D model creation? General www use?

 

[Deathangel008]

CPU is designed to use less energy which makes it slower (the i3 4130 without T has 3,4GHz); 4GB RAM is not exactly much, and which GPU exactly does it have? there are tons of "NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX GPU" with 2GB GDDR5.

[MerricksDad]

It is custom for that machine, so I hear, and has issues with begin updated properly as others of its type (doesn't register during update). I don't expect that will be a problem, since by the time I can fund my want to play some of the newer games, this machine will be out of date anyway, or somebody will have fixed that tiny issue. What I want it for is creation. And I want it to be much faster that what I have. I deal in game textures and photo editing a lot. I don't play a lot of games at the moment, except in testing and trying them out. I can't even play diablo 3 on this machine.

 

Dell Inspiron 1545

Windows 7 64

Intel Celeron 900@2.19GHz

2GB RAM

 Mobile Intel 4 Express Chipset

 

What I want most is the ability to run everything NWN 1 and 2, as well as play games from the last 5 years, without hiccups. My current computer cannot display bump/normal mapping, does not like to play with procedural textures in NWN, and the video sucks. My guess is the wifi is also starting to die, and I hear this Alien has great wifi power.

 

 

[Gruftlord]

Is there a reason you want such a small form factor?

For 500 bucks you could get a desktop pc that packs more punch from any kind of company.

Heck, i even bought a whole laptop for my mother for christmas for 500 that has a comparable cpu (though probably a weaker gpu. i assume the alpha has something close to a gtx860m, which is a damn fine card and should run everything from 2014 with medium-high settings)

Websites like cpuboss let you easily compare the power of cpus and gpus nowadays (cpu is important if you want to do texture and mesh editing). Just type a cpu name vs another cpu name into your favourite search engine and you will find pages that give you a nice rundown of the differences.

[Kantr]

Well, those specs will let you play older games from the past 5 years you should get 8gb of ram though and 1tb hd

[MerricksDad]

Definitely want more drive space. I already have 2 tb of crap I don't want to lose.

[Deathangel008]

Is there a reason you want such a small form factor?

For 500 bucks you could get a desktop pc that packs more punch from any kind of company.

and this is what i would recommend, build an ATX PC. btw @ MerricksDad, 500 what? dollar? pound? euro? could you build the PC by yourself?

anyways, as a suggestion:
an i3 4XXX without any letter behind the number (for example the i3 4330)
a cheap H81 MB
8GB RAM (2x4GB, not 1x8GB!)
any 1TB HDD
any cheap case
a Nvidia GTX750(ti) or an AMD R7 260X (or look for used parts, like a GTX660ti/670 or HD7870/7950, they are much more powerful)
a "good" 400 or 500W PSU, no cheap crap

[MerricksDad]

I haven't put together my own machine since 1999, and hadn't intended to ever do so again.

 

I'm either looking for something portable, or something compact. So either a laptop at $500 or less, or a compact, easy to get out of the way, desktop for the same price. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, and I expect it to not be.

[MerricksDad]

Will this machine play games as graphics intensive as Skyrim? Because I can get up to 6 of these for only 399 each. Each with memory ranging from 4 to 8 GB

 

http://outlet.us.del...s=22&l=en&s=dfh

[CaveGnome]

Deathangel008 suggestions make sense for me. I would recommend the same components. Try adding a SSD drive to your machine. Even an entry Level 128 GB drive will enhance greatly your productivity. personnally i would stick to windows 7 64bits (dont like 8).

[MerricksDad]

I don't much care for win 8 either, but without building this myself, they're all asking higher for win7. Why?!

 

Bah, I'm so cheap

[henesua]

i don't recommend the ram bump on a laptop as that reduces battery life. and if this machine is really just for nwn and similar activities you likely aren't gaining much if anything from that ram.

[Deathangel008]

I haven't put together my own machine since 1999, and hadn't intended to ever do so again.

may i ask why not? you get the most "bang for the buck" if you build it by yourself.
 

I'm either looking for something portable, or something compact. So either a laptop at $500 or less, or a compact, easy to get out of the way, desktop for the same price. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, and I expect it to not be.

with a notebook for "500$ or less" you will have no fun at all when playing "newer" games like skyrim. your link doesnt work for me, so i cant say anything about the offered PCs.
 

i don't recommend the ram bump on a laptop as that reduces battery life. and if this machine is really just for nwn and similar activities you likely aren't gaining much if anything from that ram.

lol really?
4GB really isnt much, and more RAM is never bad. (i have 3,5GB RAM used right now, without any game running )

 

[henesua]

MD, don't be persuaded to over buy computer components. If all you want is NWN and GMax and a refresh on hardware, then just go for that. The argument that it never hurts to buy more is nonsense.

Only buy what you need.

[Deathangel008]

lol at calling recommending 8GB RAM instead of 4GB "over buy". buying an i7 5930K or a R9 290X for playing 10 year old games is "over buy".

[MerricksDad]

Looking at ebay prices of some of the components listed makes me think we're talking outside my price range. So I'm probably going to go with something more like what I liked (not sure why the link wont work except that somebody beat me to the buy).

 

Between what I have, and what I was thinking to buy, I'll be at least twice as good off as I am now, and I'll get to dabble in many more games. It isn't like I have all day every day to play these games, or run around pretending something like Skyrim or Diablo 3 is the real world.

 

I questioned the specs of that item I linked, which is a refurbished dell inspiron 5547, 8 GB memory with Intel HD graphics. Processor speed of only 2.7GHz. Terabyte drive. Anyway, the benchmarks make it sound like I can play games I can't play now, at least as well as I can play these games I do have. The games I do have will play lightning fast. That is win win in my book. And only $399 + tax, delivered in only two days.

 

I just don't want the windows 8 which it comes with. Blech.

[MerricksDad]

Most expensive computer I ever purchased was a Micron back when they were strong and popular. That thing cost me 3200, top of the line at the time. Very next year, everybody had better computers than I did, and I could barely play anything they were playing. I hesitate years now to bother upgrading the simplest things, and I certainly wait until most games are ancient before purchasing anything they require.

[Deathangel008]

Looking at ebay prices of some of the components listed makes me think we're talking outside my price range. So I'm probably going to go with something more like what I liked (not sure why the link wont work except that somebody beat me to the buy).

i usually "think" in €, and the hardware that i mentioned in post #7 is less than 500€, at least in germany. sorry.
when i click on the link i get this message:
"Unfortunately, the system was not able to process your request.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again. If this error re-occurs during business hours (M-F, 8am-6pm CST), you may also call . (M-F 8am to 6pm CST) for assistance from a Dell Outlet sales representative. Thanks for shopping Dell Outlet!"

 

I questioned the specs of that item I linked, which is a refurbished dell inspiron 5547, 8 GB memory with Intel HD graphics. Processor speed of only 2.7GHz. Terabyte drive. Anyway, the benchmarks make it sound like I can play games I can't play now, at least as well as I can play these games I do have. The games I do have will play lightning fast. That is win win in my book. And only $399 + tax, delivered in only two days.

which CPU and which "Intel HD Graphics"?
anyways, how about buying a mini-ITX system with an i3, 8GB RAM and enough HDD space? should be more powerful than the dell notebook, and if you need it later you can easily add a dedicated graphic card, which you cant with a notebook.

[MerricksDad]

Yeah, that I item I was going to buy got snatched up. The cart was only holding items for 15 minutes. The sale ends tomorrow, so people are grabbing the last bits. I should have gotten it, but I'm still not sold on anything I'm looking at.

 

The one I was looking at was HD 4400 and I believe the processor was 4th gen i5-4210U or i7-4510U and a mix of other 4th gen i5s and i7s. They don't have any left of the one I was going to buy. Just 1.7 GHz left for that price.

 

I've been looking at some of the other alienware small boxes. Something like the x51 is only slightly outside of my price range, and building that from parts might actually save enough to put it under.

 

I may simply have to wait.

[Jedijax]

Save, old son, SAVE. I have what many thought was a monster pc down here (This is third world, son!!!) about 5 years ago, and it still can't play Dragon Age, Mass Effect or Skyrim at override ultra settings. By that, I mean using ultra hd mods and fancy lighting effects and stuff that really make pc games destroy consoles. The most important thing is ALWAYS the graphics card, so you're better off getting something along the lines you mentioned, but nothing fancy on the videocard dept. Then, save all of your dough and sell some organs to get a top-of-the-line NVIDIA. I have been harvesting my body for years now in order to get me a 970. My rig has a 3.2 gig 8 core CPU, 6 gigs in ram and hopefully soon, the 4gig videocard. Hope it helps. Truth... it is a ******.

Close

[Gruftlord]

Just for the record: yes, the alienware alpha is totally capable of running skyrim at max settings and official high resolution textures (though a fey performance tweaks to the game will help a lot, like mods that add additional occlusion plains, or mods that reduce the resolution of rain drops). It will do your texture work with ease, though loading up big programs may take a while, but they should benfluid once fully loaded.

As others have suggested: an additional small ssd and/or an extra 4 gb of ram (especially for texture work with modern resolutions) could do wonders, though that doesn't mean you need them right away.

Win8 has no problems running nwn and i do enjoy the OS's fluidity very much (loading programs doesn't slow down the UI's responsiveness as much as it does in win7. Though of course if you want to use said program you still have to wait dor it to finish loading. You cam just do other stuff on the pc in the mean time)

 

Btw: the i5 you posted is not much different than the i3 in the alpha really. The i3 may even be better.

[Deathangel008]

The one I was looking at was HD 4400 and I believe the processor was 4th gen i5-4210U or i7-4510U and a mix of other 4th gen i5s and i7s. They don't have any left of the one I was going to buy. Just 1.7 GHz left for that price.

both of this CPUs are ultra-low-voltage versions (the "U" behind the number) which i would avoid to buy. they both have only 15W TDP, and when it is reached either the CPU or the iGPU or both will start to throttle. both have the intel turbo boost (the i5 4210U up to 2,7GHz, the i7 4510U up to 3,1GHz), but still any current desktop i3 4XXX without turbo is faster.
all desktop i3 41XX have the Intel HD4400 and 3,4GHz or more, and all desktop i3 43XX have the Intel HD4600 and 3,5GHz or more.

i´ll qoute myself because i still think that this is the best solution: 

anyways, how about buying a mini-ITX system with an i3, 8GB RAM and enough HDD space? should be more powerful than the dell notebook, and if you need it later you can easily add a dedicated graphic card, which you cant with a notebook.

 
 

to get me a 970. My rig has a 3.2 gig 8 core CPU, 6 gigs in ram and hopefully soon, the 4gig videocard.

if you want to have a real 4GB card go for the R9 290

[MerricksDad]

Thanks for the inputs. I'll be saving a bit more before I make any decisions. The only reason I am even looking is that our house deal fell through, so there is this imaginary extra money in the bank. Of course I lost my job, which was what put that money there in the first place. So yeah, very likely imaginary. But fun to think I could be doing everything faster and in better quality.

[s e n]

in the past 2 months I upgraded my old pc with new video card (asus radeon 250x 2gb edition: about 110 euro on amazon), 8 gb ddr3 ram (2x4 modules:about 80 euro on amazon) and some used six core processor (AMD phenom II X& 1055T, the best my old motherboard asrock n68c-s ucc could support) for about 90 euro including shipping from south korean seller on ebay. considere there in the states pc stuff costs at least 1/3 less than here, with 250 dollars I think you can get a machine that runs fairly all new games, maybe assassin's creed unity and witcher 3 will run at low settings but for others you can run with medium-high video options at 1920x1080 resolution. it all depends on the motherboard you currently have, if you dont have to change it, upgrading other components is really a 5 minutes easy work