can I buy your old one? and what else was improved? I am going to finally post my computer's statsso be ready to laugh.....or cry that someone still uses these things...

cpu- pentium 3 - 866 Mhertz
ram- 128 and 128 add-on (256)
gfx- Nvidia Geforce 4 ( XD or something....) with 64 g-ram
hard drive- 30 gigs
OS- windows 2000
dunno what the sound card is.

I don't really need critizism, I know how bad it is....I lag even playing guild wars on the lowest available settings. I intend to get pretty much, or wholely..a new computer. Does anyone know a custom build site that is credible and on the cheap end....aka not dell.com, lol. I would appreciate any helpful comments and info.

Hello,
Where As ill probly be playing oblivion on the 360 i got from the pepsi contest seeing it definatly has more power then my pc. But im just wondering how you all think my PC would stand up to it? I just got done looking at the specs requirments for it and im definetly thinking maybe not lol.

My Computer is...
CPU: AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor 3000+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.8GHz
Ram: 1024mb
Video Card:GeForce 7800GS 256mb - AGP 8X
Sound: Is onboard

Yeah man go to www.ibuypower.com. I have had 3 friends and a few customers get theirs from there after my suggestion and they have had 0 problems. O yeah and its pretty cheap for what you get

Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone had a list of the cheaper (but compatable with oblivion) video cards. I had found one before, but I forgot to bookmark and can't find it anywhere on google. Thanks in advance.

How does my system stack up?

Intel P4 2.66Ghz 512k 800FSB Boxed CPU
AX4SG-N S478 P4 ATX 800mhz FSB Board (Intel Video + LAN) 512MB
PC3200 400mhz DDR Compucase 6A19 Mid-tower w/300 ATX
3.5" FDD
Serial/ATA 150mb/s 120GB 7200rpm HDD
Mitsumi DVD+R/+RW Drive
MS Windows XP Pro.
VX700 Viewsonic 17" LCD Monitor w/speakers 1280x1024, 500:1, 25ms

Okay, to be honest, upgrading isn't really an option. I'm a poor, poor student. However, I'd thought I'd show you my system anyway, so that you can laugh at me and then hopefully tell me how (or if) Oblivion will run:

Intel 4 2.55 Ghz processor
512 MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128 MB
a crappy turtle beach soudn card...

Will I even be able to run it? And if I do, what kind of graphics and framerate am I in for?

My, this thread is getting long. OK, so my question is:

Exactly how important is a processor to the performance of a game? 2 GHz is required but I only have 1.5 (I have a laptop, you see, and slower processors are put into laptops because they drain the power supply quickly). Everything else I have is perfect though (1 GB of RAM, 128 MB on graphics card from FX series). Since I have 2x as much RAM as is required, will that make up for where the processor is lacking?

Its hard to tell you as each game is different in that regard. They have said Oblivion will need a really good graphics card to show the best performance. A slower processor might not affect graphics as much if you have a good card, but you might see slow downs in other areas. For example, when new area is loading and the computer has to process this new info, perhaps you might see a longer delay or perhaps a few hiccups at that time. I kind of look at the processor as a "master volume" on your volume toggle. Almost everything has to pass through the processor at some point so it just sort of affects overall speed.

As for the few posts above that are asking about specific systems and how well it will run.. Your guess is as good as anyone elses. Just sort of see where your system falls within the recommended specs and decide if each component is above or below what they are asking.

Hmm...
This is all I know about my pc:
Amd Athlon 64
3500+
2.21GHz, 1,00GB ram
I think it's a couple of geforce 6800 gt or something

What exactly do this meen?

Are you being serious? You have a top off the line PC right there mister! The only think I cannot think highly surpasses recommendations is the RAM with "only" one Gb.. But heck, that PC will run Oblivion as smoth as can be. How can you not know that?

ok good
cause I just bough it
I know too little about computers...

how many megabytes are there in a gigabyte

1024mb in a gb

No, 1 gigabyte is 1 000 000 000 bytes, or 1000 megabytes.

ok good cuz i have like 100 gigabytes of space. You know how there are requirements to install the game, how can you check to see if you have them or not

Well... if you want to know how much free space you have... click on my computer in the start menu(I am assuming you are running XP). Then Right-click on the hard-drive icon and select properties from the menu. That will show how much drive space you are using/have free.

However, you don't want to use all that space as the operating system also uses that space for swap files. So I would suggest leaving a few GBs free at all times.

Actually, I'm pretty sure 1 GB = 1024 MB because that's how a computer counts. Most people just say 1000 because we're human and it's a nicer number.



A good rule of thumb is to leave 10% of yor HDD space empty for swap files and other various tasks.

I have only couple of gigs left, good thing I have 50 DVDs

I would think you are bragging if your cpu were 50% better, but I think you should run just fine, You might have to tone down one thing or two by just a little b/c of your cpu, as the min is 2 gigHz I THINK, but they say its more graphics card heavy and you have one of the lastest and most impressive graphics cards I've seen, so you will prolly run the game better than some of the devs, lol.



thanks, man. I will check it out....sorry you got shot...did you get a good look at him? by the way what kinda business are you in? I used to have customers......



there are several posts about video cards that do and don't work for oblivion already up in the forums and in the interviews and quotes, not to mentio at the elderscrolls.com site To find what the cards cost go to a custom computer company place on the net...like bestbuy.com or something similar and see what they are selling it for.



honestly, there is too much info here....which leads me to suspect that you have no idea what any of that means but it was expensive....or you are bragging....in either case, you case in unimportant for this, as are your speakers, not unimportant as in not going to be used but unimportant as in I didn't need that info to help you see if your system would run OB. I am not so familiar with some of the brands you are using but I can tell you a 2.66 pent 5 is fine, if the DVD reads at 8x or beter it'll work, and I don't see a RAM value, and I am unfamilar with how your graphics card company stacks up with other cards.



um did you read mine? I don't think they will laugh at yours for a few hours after the stitch in their side from my system wears off...here is a comparison

you...........................................me
intel4-2.66 Ghz,,,,.......,,,,,,intel3-866 Mhz
512 RAM.....................128 Ram then added later another 128 RAM
radeon 9600 w\ 128..........GForce4 with 64
and I don't even know when I got a sound card...think I am running on whatever they add in to make the OS sounds b/f adding a sound card, lol.

anyway, here are the minimum specs for OB: be ready to think

Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP
512MB System RAM
2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
128MB Direct3D compatible video card
and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
8x DVD-ROM drive
4.6 GB free hard disk space
DirectX 9.0c (included)
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card


so I am unsure about the sound and the specs on your specific vcard and I don't know if you even have a DVD drive....but that is how it stands........look up the vcard specs on the net is my suggestion and then you will know...so you will be just barely above minimum specs...which is far better than me at the moment...I still don't have a DVD drive yet....or a comp that can run the setup program, lol.





ok, the prefixes giga-, and mega-, come from ancient dead civilizations from a far off land....called the greeks. And the definition of a gigaunit is 1x10^9 units....yea I said unit get over it beavis...allusions aside... the definition of a megaunit is 1x10^6 , or a million, units. But as computers do not run in a base ten system as your numerical system does it is not possible for a computer to have either of these numbers as a memory unit. This stims from the nature of binary code which is the universal language of the digital technologies. binary code consists of only 1's and 0's and each new place that is made available thusly multiply's the old maximum amount of memory by two, all the previous combinations followed by a one, and all the previous combinations followed by a zero.

So a gigabyte IS 1000 megbytes, but not computer has that amount, but instead have 2^17 or 131,072 bytes of information when someone used to say a "one megabyte computer" but not all of those bytes were usable memory storage space because of how memory is managed, especially in windows OS, in a 'gigabyte' there is actually 2^20 bytes, or 1,048,576 which is near to the 1x10^6 (1,000,000) that it is named after/ rounded off to.

So you both have a decent enough point, but this leason should prove minorly educational if not boring, class dismissed.

DARN, I forgot to assign homework....that's ok they KNOW what they should do.

late reply Been quite busy recently

Question 1 : Sorry m8 I am giving my older one to my mum, she needs a computer for work stuff and she likes to play Grim Fandango from time to time

Question 2 : Well I actually decided to get 2GB ram instead of 1GB because I want to make sure this bloody game runs fast at max settings.
I could blabber on about all my new upgrades but I really feel like a right git boasting about my hardware specs.

All I can say is that I really did earn this PC Social life was sacrificed so I could get a good pc to play this game thats how obsessed i am.

As I'm certain you know, a bit is a digit in the binary number system. A kilobit is one thousand bits, a megabit is one million bits, and a gigabit is one billion (or milliard if you're so inclined) bits. Is that the system you're thinking of, Jokkocze and JChamber?

Bytes -- IE, eight bits -- are dealt with differently, for historical reasons. As the byte represents the smallest amount of data that can be read from or written to many storage devices, it's naturally specialized for dealing with storage. Its derived units, the kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, and others, share that disposition. For assembly language programmers, a consideration called memory alignment was (and remains to be) of concern. Data commonly needs to be arranged in a contiguous block starting at a particular type of byte known (for the purposes of this post) as an alignment boundary. The nth byte in a system occurs at the mth-byte alignment boundary if ld(m) is a member of the counting numbers set, and n modulo m is zero. Noncompliance meant that the program would either not run correctly, or suffer severe performance losses.

For a greater amount of data, the block often had to start at a rarer sort of alignment boundary (IE, a sixteenth-byte alignment boundary instead of a fourth-byte alignment boundary). Thus, as the capacity of storage devices grew, so did the demand for rarer and rarer alignment boundaries. A quick way to refer to a rare alignment boundary was needed. To my understanding, the one thousand twenty-fourth-byte alignment boundary was thus referred to as the kilobyte boundary. "Why not the one thousandth-byte alignment boundary," you ask? ld(1 000) is approximately 9.965 784, and thus there can never be a one thousandth-byte alignment boundary. 1 024 is close enough to 1 000 that it was an acceptable bastardization.

In time, the word "kilobyte" itself was used to refer to the distance between each consecutive kilobyte alignment boundary -- that is, 8 192 bits, or 1 024 bytes. Ola Martin and Sir Radont are correct.



"2GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent." Any K8 at 1.8GHz is going to have no problems whatsoever matching the performance of a Pentium 4 2GHz.



Don't. It's a rip-off.



If your pagefile is growing without user intervention, then you've got bigger problems than hard disk space. Much better performance is to be had by turning off any pagefile auto-adjust "features" your OS touts, and having it take up a reasonable amount of space all the time.

Arrrggghhh!!! Bloody ES Forums!!!!!

After briefly scrolling through the crayon stained flaming and crying I noticed that people are talking about PC version not being able to run both full AA and HDR at the same time!

Is this true?

I think that I should be able to run it. Got the following
A64 3700+ @ 2.63ghz
2gb OCZ Gold GX XTC Series
XFX 7800GT @ 493/1162
1xWD Raptor 36gb SATA
1xWD Raptor 74gb SATA
2xseagate barracuda 300gb IDE
2xseagate barracuda 500gb S-ATA

2 GB ram
Radeon X850XT 256 MB Video card (AGP )
Athlon 3000+
250 GB SATA Hard Drive

Im thinkin about upgrading my video card to an x1800XT

other than that anything else that could use improvement?

Nice computer you got there

It is not the PC version so much as the majority of video cards out there won't be able to do both. Most Nvidia cards have SM3.0 so can display true HDR, but because of the cards architecture can't display AA at the same time. Most ATI cards(except the very latest released ones) have SM2.0 thus can't really display HDR other than bloom effects and can have AA on. So as of right now I think there are only a few ATI models that can have both features running at the same time.

This is just from the articles I read though however.. so the information may not be completely accurate.

To me though is that if you can run in high enough resolution, AA becomes unnecessary anyway. You might see jaggies in still screen shots, but are completely unnoticable when you are in motion.

well i have over 100 gigabytes free so im fine there but how do i check to see if i have the 2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivelent prcessor w.e the hell that is and stuf like that

another ex: the 512 mB system RAM w/e the f*&$ that is

Clcik 'Start' and then click 'Run', in the box that opens up type 'dxdiag' it will tell you a lot about your system.

[quote=Marxist ßastard,Mar 14 2006, 06:27 AM]
Yeah man go to www.ibuypower.com [/quote]

Don't. It's a rip-off.

[/quote]

I have compared my price to build a comp. (usually around 100 or so) to their prices for just about any computer and there is usually less than a 50-100 US difference. $150 is not much to pay for someone else to put together your system if they give you a warrenty and if you have no idea how to go about building one. Also, the article is just plain perposterous when it claims that changing your case (the difference in cases is a max of $90) and not having neon lights (which is an option YOU have to had, it is not auto-added on anything under 1500 I am almost sure of but in any case it is a $15 option).

Check your facts.

<please excuse my lack of correct grammar and spelling>

The task is easily accomplished by a twelve-year-old. According to child labor laws, time spent by a twelve-year-old is worthless --and as IBUYPOWER's custemer reviews indicate, sometimes, they don't even take the time to build the system:

QUOTE

When the computer arrived (Fedex 3 day air) the box had a dent in it. When I opened the box and tried to power on the computer, I only got error messages. I immediately called tech support (during business hours) and spoke to tech support's answering service. I was told I would be called back by their first avail tech. After 2 hours of waiting I decided to open the computers case and take a peek inside. I was surprised to find that the hard drive was laying in the bottom of the case not connect to anything. My floppy drive was still in the bay, but also not connected. By the damage on the interior of the case, it was apparent the hard drive had been bouncing around for some while.

QUOTE

Got the PC, hooked it up and hit the power button. No power. Went behind the PC to flip the powersupply switch to make sure it was right. Still no power. 

I took the PC to the table and looked through the glass side. "Oh, look, the ATX plug is not plugged in." I opened up the PC and plugged it in. Still... no.. power.. I repeated this in frustration a number of times....

So now, I am 2 seconds from calling back and getting my refund, when I notice that the control panel plugins for the motherboard [aren't] even plugged in.

They would be better off giving you spelling lessons! You seem to be completely ignorant of the fact that the components themselves come with their own warranties -- on components where it's appropriate, lifetime warranties -- that the computer rebranders void. Observe what happens whan you try to follow up on what little warranty IBUYPOWER offers:

QUOTE

Well, I got an RMA from ibuypower and I sent my computer in... It got to ibuyopower in february. It is April 26! And I still haven't gotten it back!

QUOTE

When I looked at my records, there was no extended warranty on offer at the time of my purchase, nor any information that the buyer would be responsible for returning the computer if necessary. Between shipping and insurance, it cost me $60+ to return the laptop. I have the receipt showing delivery was accepted on Jan 26, 2005. 

After not hearing anything for a couple of weeks I called and was told the screen needed to be replaced and the laptop would be returned to me within the week. 

After not hearing anything for a couple weeks, I called and was told the laptop had to be sent to the manufacturer for a new screen and would be sent out to me within the week. 

After not hearing anything for several weeks, I called and am now told that the motherboard needs to be replaced, they don't know why it's taking so long, but my model had been discontinued.

Who would you rather trust with your warranty? Innovative, professional companies like AMD, or no-name scum like IBUYPOWER?



Tried looking at the manual? Gutenburg must be spinning in his grave. Looking at their customer reviews once more, too, it doesn't appear that IBUYPOWER knows how to assemble systems, either:

QUOTE

QUOTE

They shipped me the wrong processor, the case was a little scratched and was missing a side screw, and the front USB and audio jacks did not work. I contacted them and they said the front ports were incompatible with the motherboard.

"Preposterous?" Objection (and the misspelling thereof) duly noted, but I can't see any specific complaints raised. It looks like you're relying on some, er "alternative" means to assure that your points don't get assaulted.

I am fully aware of the fact that products have their own warranty. I am also aware it doesnt take much to build a computer, and yes I actually have been doing it since I've been 12. I have had two friends and two customers order computers through IBUYPOWER and only one had has ever had a problem. The problem was a failing power supply fan and was promptly replaced free of charge. You obiously have had no personal experience with the company and are you just going off of a few peoples bad experiences. With my experience they are easier to work with, offer better prices (aside from Dells occasional ridiculous rebates), and are more reliable than Dell, HP, and the like. This is just my personal experince with them and other companies from the past five years.

For the sake of the help thread lets not turn this into a flame war.

...Then why did you make the point that IBUYPOWER is superior because they issue warranties?



...Then why did you make the point that the majority of people don't know how to build one, and $US150 is "not much to pay for someone else to put together your system?"



With that in mind, do you still maintain that $US150 or more is a fair price to pay for someone to install a heatsink?



115 people on Reseller Ratings, and countless others on assorted forums are not just "a few people." IBUYPOWER has the absolute lowest ramking the Better Business Bureau has to offer before they start advising consumers to not conduct any business with them. It did not take a few people to make it that way.

Besides, the anecdotal evidence I've presented is only secondary to my point. Assembling your own computer is cheaper, by far. You have presented only statements supporting that point.



You're just going off a few peoples' good experiences.



Do they offer better prices and higher reliability than forgoing the rebranding process and just assembling one on your own? Of course not. You haven't even questioned this. You're just picking at peripheral statements.

My advice to go with IBUYPOWER was in responce to some one who said they did not want to build their own system. It is the obious and only logical solution if you know how to build your own computer, I agree 100% with you there. But this person didn't want to build their own so that was the advice I gave, and considering my personal experince, a good one.


(oh yeah and the warranty thing was because they offer one complete warranty and that is the only one you have to worry about instend of 10 for all the different parts, just makes it easier for the person who doesn't know how to or doesn't want to mess with building their own system)

damnit damnit damnit muther f-ing hell i only have 504 mB system Ram, can you upgrade your comp or something pleeease i need help

I do not see that your comment was directed to anyone in particular -- just to "everyone who doesn't want to assemble their own computer," a massively illogical standpoint, the endorsement of which comes to the detriment of all involved.



And the obvious and logical solution for those that don't know? Learn.



Those ten warranties that are generally longer, and are through much more reputable and profesional businesses. You're also ignoring the advantage inherient in the ten-warranty system -- there isn't a big "void if broken" sticker on the power button. That is, when using the components' individual warranties (which, I remind you, the rebranders void), misuse of one component won't automatically compromise the warranty of the entire system.

I would suspect, also, that if the components under all ten warranties failed simultaneously, you've got bigger problems to worry about than postage spent on contacting multiple companies.

i have:
a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4
a GeForce 6200
and 512 mb of RAM



if i dropped in another gig, would OB run without any problems?

hey guys, right now i have:

AMD athlon 2.4g
1g ram
ati 9500 pro (128mb 8xagp)

i wanna upgrade my card cause that seems to be the biggest bang for my buck. And i'd like to stay with ATI. But i dont know what new vid card to get. the x800, or x1600pro or yadda yadda. I can spend like 300$, what do you guys think?

hey terence, the best bang for your buck right now would be the Nvidia 7900GT.
They can run at 7800GTX speeds. The best part about them is that you can get one for 299.99 on newegg. I am partial to EVGA's 7900GT as it is clocked a little higher and still is priced at 299.99. Hope this helps.

D.

well..... seeing as everybody seems to tell me either get a x1900xt... which i cant afford, or an nvidia, guess ill sacrafice my ati loalty and get one. on a side note, is evga owned by nvidia? or does nvidia just sell the chipset and other companies make the card? just wondering cause on their site it doesnt show any video cards, and im not too familiar with them. also, does 7900 come as AGP cause i cant afford to go pcie, just need a decent card to prolong this system before i start to build another.

thanks

I was just hoping someone here would reply to what my comp specs are and give a suggestion on how OB will run. BTW could someone repost this on official OB forums, it would be very much appreciated and beneficial.

CPU: Int. Pent. 4 2.6GHz (where can i check the MHz or more specifically a more descriptive thing than dxdiag shows since im not sure if I have a 800MHz), I was thinking of upgrading to a AMD Anthlon? But those cost way to much if possible could someone fish out something better than what I got but not above this price, 260$.

Video Card: ATI Radeon x700, getting a x850 XT PE 256mb AGP so give both replies to my current card and my future card since I wont buy a darn thing untill I know how OB runs on my current comp, dont wanna go buy stuff when I could've found out I didnt need to. Another thing is im stuck with AGP so you can count out any GREAT card... stupid AGP slots.. are they replaceable besides getting a whole new computer? I would rather buy a PCI-E slot.

RAM: 1gb, thinking of another .5 but apparently not required.

PSU: I dont know my PSU, which has been bothering me, how do I check on this? I dont wanna buy a new cpu and find out my PSU is too lame.

My budget is low im not some rich dood especially since the cost of living has gone up *sigh*, so im looking at possibly 600$-1000$ of spending money for any upgrades that coud be necessary and appreciated. Suggestions..opinion..advice, throw em all at me .

Bingo. It allows them to push down costs by having eVGA and what have you manufacture cheaper cards with low-quality components, but have their own stable reference boards, and the high-end models from BFG &al. featured in benchmarks.



No. Your best bet in this case would probably be a 7800GS, followed by a 6800 Ultra, 6800 GT, and vanilla 6800. I don't know what ATi's AGP offerings are.



Well, do you have some 74 TTL chips and a steady hand?



You'll need to upgrade the mainboard, too, since Intel uses a proprietary connection between the processor and mainboard to lock people in. $US260 is plenty for both, though.



Check the label. If your machine is a Dell, you will have to upgrade the PSU, since Dell PSUs are wired to cause damage to themselves and the mainboard if the mainboard in your system is not of Dell make.

Yes, this is true. No, it probably isn't legal. Would you like the number for your congressman?

No I dont have a dell and like I said I have a x700, so possibly my psu is above 350w but I wouldnt know. My manufactor? compusa custom built my comp some years ago and says "cisnet" on the front. Besides is there any way to check my PSU besides going on a name brand hunch? Also what about a 7800GS compared to a x850 XT PE? or w/e the 850 PE is? Whats the difference besides the SM3. Also whats the cost of getting my motherboard fixed for a new CPU? IS upgrading my x700 even necessary? Also why be saracstic when I can pay someone to put all these upgrades specificaly a a PCI-E slot in for free due to some warranty and insurance I have on my computer. I just asked if it was possible .

My Comp Specs:

ATI radeon x700 Series 256mb

Intel Pent. 4 2.6GHz 800MHz

1gb of ram with 512mb stick on the outside of the motherboard.

... dont you think those are moderate attributes for running OB i'd say med/med to med/high on the settings or do you think i'd need 3.0GHz or a x800 series card? I doubt it but what do you guys think?

Check. The label.

You could have said the label on the PSU since I have no idea where the PSU is, but supposedly its that big thing on top in my motherboard with the nice shiny metal casing around it... possible the thing with the on and off button attached to it.. right?

GUYS, can I just say, on the official site, one of the developers said if your computer can run Bloodmoon, it can run this. Do you really NEED to have this whole 'upgrade!!!!' thing?

I would just like to say.. it helps the whole wait for OB, it definently gets my mind off things, im not going to buy anything before I get OB, only when I know how bad OB is on my system will I actually upgrade anything. Its just the thought that really counts.. and takes up most of my time while OB is on standby.

word up!


guess ill get myself one of these: eVGA Geforce 7800GS 256MB AGP 8X, but can someone tell me wether or not this card has sm3? cause at first everyone was tellin me ati had that not nvidia, but somewhere on nvidias website i saw them claim to have it...? didnt one of the developers claim OB w/o SM3 wouldnt look quite as intended?

i have:
a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4
a GeForce 6200
and 512 mb of RAM



if i dropped in another gig, would OB run without any problems?

yes its actually the nvidia cards that have had sm3.0 for quite awhile... Only the very most recent ati cards have switched to sm3.0.

Lets say I went out and got this ,

AMD Anthlon 64 X2 4200+ with 2.2GHz (what would that be compared to a Intel Pent 4 2.6GHz HT? I seen its alot bette rbut is it good for OB?)

550w Antec SLI PSU, what do you think?

ATI Radeon X1900 XTX 512mb, what do you think?

2gb of DDR SDRAM, what do you think?

250GB of Hard Drive, what do you think?

My OS isa XP PRO, So what do you think ?