Poor Mans PR Rig

[GotSandInMyEye]

Hello,

Im after a new pc that will play PR on maximum settings at 1440x900 resolution and get solid 75fps.
I dont have alot of money to be building a dream maching of $3,000.
I know im using old technology, but its all I can get for the price.

Here is what I was looking at:

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Intel E7600 3ghz - $162
Seagate SATA 160gb - $47
GIGABYTE EP43T-UD3L - $105
Inno3D 250 GTS 1gb - $139 (not sure if I should get 9800GT 1gb @ $125)
SHAW Xtreme 680 Case - $45
PNY 2gb DDR2 800mhz Kit  - $46
Aopen DVD-RW Sata - $33

TOTAL: [b][color=DarkRed]$577[/color][/b] AUD

Stuff ill be re-using:

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600w PSU
Keyboard
Mouse
Monitor
Windows XP 32bit

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated .

[VoXiNaTiOn]

If you can stretch to 3GB or 4GB of RAM, then you will have no PR problems whatsoever. Other than that it looks like a solid spec that would cope with most games quite well tbh.

Stick with the GTS 150, for the little price difference there's no real point going down to a 9800GT

[GotSandInMyEye]

Do you have a simular build to this?
Yea I was not sure weather to get 2gb or 4gb as I am/will be running XP 32bit.

[VoXiNaTiOn]

Got a build a bit above it, specs are here Project Reality Forums - View Profile: [R-COM]VoXiNaTiOn however BF2 and PR don't need much to run, an 8800GT would probably cut it at 1440x900 so your spec is well within PR playable bounds.


If you can get 3GB RAM (will be an odd RAM config but hey) then you're not wasting your cash on an extra GB that wouldn't be seen and you will still get good performance in PR.


The 2GB would most likely be ok, however my old machine with 2GB RAM ran everything at low due to graphics card restrictions, so I can't guarantee it I'm afraid.

So in short, 2GB might cut it, but 3GB will be a sweet spot.

[Snazz]

Yea I was not sure weather to get 2gb or 4gb as I am/will be running XP 32bit.

32bit still uses more than 3GB just not the full 4GB, so it's worth it.

Video cards reserve a portion of the RAM as well so it's not wasted if Windows doesn't use it all.

[VoXiNaTiOn]

32 bit can address a max of 4GB entire system memory, that include cache, video memory RAM and a few other things I've most likely forgotten. This results in the OS only seeing 3.25GB or so of your RAM at max.

[GotSandInMyEye]

Just throwing it in the wind here:
Price for Price, I can get a similar but slightly cheaper using an MD Phenom II X2 550BE 3.1ghz cpu.

Does PR favor Intel for performance?

[martov]

check for reviews on tom's hardware or similar, brands mean nothing, compare the products directly.

[UK_Force]

PR Is not optimised for any particular Brand of CPU like some games.


.

[Robbi]

PR Is not optimised for any particular Brand of CPU


.

This - also, chip into getting 4gb not 3 as even though it isnt allocated correctly, it still is al;located more than 3gb so no point wasting it

[GotSandInMyEye]

Here is updated version using AM3 CPU and DDR3 Ram.

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AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE 3.1ghz - $105 <3.1ghz and 6mb cache just like intel e8400 but cheaper
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P - $89
PNT DDR3 1333mhz 4gb Kit - $109
Seagate SATA 160gb - $47
Inno3D 250 GTS 1gb - $139
SHAW Xtreme 680 Case - $45
Aopen DVD-RW Sata - $33

TOTAL: [b][color=DarkRed]$567[/color][/b]