PC upgrade for BFBC2

[Drayu]

SO, lots of talk about upgrading PCs to play BFBC2. Well, let's chat.

If you have a LGA775 mobo, here is a great upgrade:

9414

[Crotch-Rot]

Damn! You did my homework for me man!

Thanks! :thumbsup:

[Drayu]

yeah, I know :)

It is a great combo if you are willing to go with an older video card. BUt this route will let you keep all your current components.

memory
HDD
mobo
audio

and still get a performance upgrade.

[Crotch-Rot]

This is perfect! I was looking at the Q9550, but that is close to $100 more than the Q9400 for a little bit more speed. Frankly, I don't mind the older video card at all. If this can get me by for the next 2 years on Bad Company 2, I'll be happy. The only gaming I do on the PC now is the Battlefield games so I can play with you guys, but everything else is on the consoles.

[Drayu]

snippets from the reviews on that proc:

Pros: The is a wonderful chip. Stays very cool and requires very little increase in voltage to overclock. I have it clocked at 3.37Ghz.

Cons: None

Pros: Runs great! Overclocked to 3.46 GHz and no problems

Cons: None so far

Other Thoughts: Shipped very fast. arrived within 30 hours of order w/ 3-day shipping

Pros: Wonderful processor. Very fast and works like a charm...

Currently overclocked to 3.4Ghz from 2.66Ghz which ~ 26.7% over stock at a voltage of ~ 1.3V at full load. I'm sure it can go much farther.

Highly recommended

Cons: None

[Crotch-Rot]

Done deal! I just ordered this combo from NewEgg!

Thanks a bunch Drayu for making shopping for my upgrade painless!!!

CR

[Drayu]

no prob, if you plan on stock settings then the oem fan is okay. any overclock and be sure you have a better heatsink/fan.

[Drayu]

make sure you update your bios before you take out your old processor! I believe you need to update to be able to run this processor. Also, consider moving to win 7 or vista 64 for dx10 ability.

Hey, what's that? yeah I have a copy of vista 64 :)

[Drayu]

OCing guide for P5B

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=115217

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20071005044049234&board_id=1&model=P5B+Deluxe%2fWiFi-AP&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

[Crotch-Rot]

I'm more of a stability guy than an OC'er. So I'll probably leave the CPU at stock settings. I'll update the bios tonite or tomorrow nite when i get some time. Win7 is where I'm heading. But I don't have a time frame for that upgrade yet.

[FiLTHY_SNiPER]

That CPU sounds badass.

Still, I think I'll wait to upgrade to a quad core.

[Crotch-Rot]

That is a quad core.

[FiLTHY_SNiPER]

Yeah, I meant I'll wait a bit until I upgrade to one. I've got a dual-core.

I should have been clearer.

[Crotch-Rot]

Got it now Filthy.

[FozzyBear]

I have the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe MB with a AMD 64 FX (Specifically FX-55 socket 939 chip)

The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card

2 Gig of RAM


The cheapest and Easiest upgrade is the RAM, but will 4 Gig of RAM make that much difference?

[Hellcat]

Hey fozzy. I did a 2GB - 8GB jump and it was freakin awesome. Only $100 for the 8GB too because it's older. The extra memory will actually make a decent difference (%15 - %20) due to how much games in 64-bit can cache. If you're running 32-bit it's not worth the upgrade.

I have the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe MB with a AMD 64 FX (Specifically FX-55 socket 939 chip)

The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card

2 Gig of RAM


The cheapest and Easiest upgrade is the RAM, but will 4 Gig of RAM make that much difference?

[LordBeer]

As I kinda stated in this thread before it was moved to it's own thread (Rightfully so Drayu), I'm holding off on any PC upgrades until I know how the final version of BC2 will run. The devs have said it's not fully optimized yet. So I may run like ass in the Beta, but I might actually get a decent avg FPS in the final version. Since no one seems to know what is causing the poor FPS issues, how will I know what to upgrade anyway? :dunno: There doesnt seem to be a pattern to identify. Anyway, I'd hate spending hundreds of bucks upgrading just to find out my current rig runs the official release just fine.

In any case, I am preparing for the worst. I'm just not going to get myself stressed about it until I know for sure. Until then, I'll just mess with settings and trim as much fat as I can.

I do like the suggestions you posted Drayu. Too bad I'll need to do a full MoBo, CPU, and RAM upgrade for it since I'm on an AMD. :(

[FozzyBear]

I do like the suggestions you posted Drayu. Too bad I'll need to do a full MoBo, CPU, and RAM upgrade for it since I'm on an AMD. :(

Don't forget the power supply.

I'm on AMD too.

[LordBeer]

Oh Mr Foz, I didnt forget. If there was ONE thing I bought to do the distance with my current rig, it was the power supply. 1000 watt Antec. It'll pay for itself in savings over it's lifetime. More efficient, less need to upgrade, and it came with a free antec case. The exact one I wanted (NewEgg deal). :D

Wasnt cheap but I was thinking long haul with it. It wont go out of date as quickly as a CPU or RAM chipset.

[SnaKe]

I have the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe MB with a AMD 64 FX (Specifically FX-55 socket 939 chip)

The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card

2 Gig of RAM


The cheapest and Easiest upgrade is the RAM, but will 4 Gig of RAM make that much difference?
@Fozzy -I think the key is to have a multi-core cpu. I'd be surprised if upgrading RAM would help in your case. We're in the same boat though.

[Crotch-Rot]

From what I can gather in the EA UK's forums, they are working on optimizing the game for dual-core CPUs as well. I wonder if they're going to offload the audio back to the audio cards...

[JustMeBF2]

@Fozzy -I think the key is to have a multi-core cpu. I'd be surprised if upgrading RAM would help in your case. We're in the same boat though.

I agree.

Besides that I wouldn't expect a huge gain with the additional ram,
if you are running 32bit you would also have to upgrade to the OS to 64bit to see any gain with the ram.


I think the most single upgrade advantage currently is video card with necessary psu.

Most of the games that have came out in the last year are video intensive instead of CPU.

I have an old single core amd 2.2 OCed to 2.6 with a 9600GT in it. I use this as a backup and for benchmarking reference.
It has a big PSU and I have a good Dual core I can swap in it for more reference.