Age Of Conan

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

Hey all.

After weeks of reviews, debating, forum reading and the such. I am still rather confused.

Age Of Conan, is coming out soon and I need a new system since it can NOT play the open beta at all, even on the lowest settings. Although, I heard the beta client does not work with 2+ cores and thus only leaves one core/cpu to do all the work.

Current specs:
939 3800+ x2 @ 2.2ghz
2gb DDR400
8600GT
Vista x64

What should I upgrade first? I was going to get a E7200, 4GB ram, and Asus P5K, but since I found out the beta only works with one core, will that even push my 8600GT more than what I am getting? I think not?

Or get a video card such as athe 8800GTS G92 and upgrade the CPU/mobo/ram later.

What do you think will let me run the game? I do have a 24inch monitor but it has 1:1 pixel mapping, down grading the pixels isnt a huge deal, if I must.

I would get a entire new setup, but budget will mute that ideal.

EDIT: Would like to stay with in $250 for anything. I already got 4GB of DDR2 so that helps on the cpu/mobo side.

 

[Bateluer]

Probably the video card would be my guest, however, it'll be a good idea to wait until 1)Age of Conan is released and 2) the new ATI/Nvidia cards are released at the end of May/June.

 

[Renob]

Would like to stay with in $250 for anything.

So you say you would like to stay at $250 well just an FYI only upgrading the vid card wont do that much being that the cards scale up with the speed of the CPU.

I see in your system you have DDR mem not DDR 2 is your board PCIe or is that a AGP vid card, if its AGP then you need a board.

When gaming with something like Conan you dont want to skimp on your system, its has killer eye candy and you dont wan to be running it at low setting and still only getting so so FPS.

I say get a spend about $450ish and a boad,cpu and vid card.

The sweet spot on vid cards now is the 8800GT 512mb, they can be had for around $160ish with rebates.

Get something like this, the extra Cache is a nice upgrade over your CPU and its cheap and overclocks well. $120 Shipped
AMD

Get this board $98 shipped and you are good to go.
mobo

This is more then you wanted to spend but heck life is short, you might get hit by a truck next week, live a little and do yourself up with a fresh system!

 

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

its Pcie,

That AMD chip isnt really much faster than what I got now. Although it would be nice to upgrade to a deneb down the road? Hmm tempted, don't think I will get that chip, maybe the 5000+ BE instead.

8800GT yes, I was looking at those, but like the other poster said, I wanted to wait til June for the new releases too.

Edit: I like matx and have a matx case, thus would get this mobo instead (does 125w TDP out of box) http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813154016

Thats if I decide to go with AMD, a Q6600 and GA-G31M-S2L for $260 looks tempting.

 

[Renob]

That AMD chip isnt really much faster than what I got now.

It my understanding that it is, the extra meg of cache is where its at! but whatever was just trying to save ya a buck.

Oh and i dont see the 8800GT droping below $150 any time soon even with the new cards coming out.

 

[Bateluer]

Extra cache doesn't benefit the A64s that much, though the mobo Renob suggested is alright.

I'd go with this CPU, if you want to go with AMD. Its half the cost of the Opteron and will deliver similar performance.

 

[Captante]

If you have PCIe then I would go for a faster video card first because even with a 2.2ghz X2 you'll see a huge gaming performance increase by moving from an 8600GT to (for example) a 9600GT or 8800GTS ... a new CPU/motherboard won't help nearly as much.

 

[Eric62]

Does anybody get good frame rates using Vista x64?
I've never used it, nor have I ever heard anyone say anything good about it.

 

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

Vista64 is great for games if you have the ram, 2gb+ or more.

Thats part of my problem, its trashin to the drive during the entire time the game is open and thus giving me hiccups during game play. Even with a nice video card, I will still have that problem, no?

 

[Skott]

You'll want a cpu of at least 2.6GHz, 4Gb RAM, and l'd say a 8800 series video card. Thats the minimum specs I would choose if I were buying/building/upgrading a PC rig with AoC in mind. Of course you should also think about what other games you may play too. You could save money by buying a lower cpu and overclock it up to 2.6 but thats up to you and your wallet/budget.

 

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

Hey Skott,

I was looking at that P5K. I got some ddr2 800 A-data ram, which I know will not overclock good. Does that board come with 1:1 divider? How's that overclock options? I know the P5E is better, but not for the price.

I've had my PC about 3 years now(Besides the video card), would like my next one to last that long. A Q6600/P5K and wait til June/July and get the new ati/nvidia stuff, me thinks. Even though a cheap AMD system now and plop in a new K10.5 cpu next year sounds great. Never know what mobo will work or if any to do that.

 

[HumblePie]

To the OP.

I have two computers at home. A high powered comp and a lesser one. Neither has problems running AoC. Let me list the specs for you for my second computer.

AMD Opteron 165 running at 2.8GHz (dual core proc)

EVGA mATX NF44 motherboard (nice board but can't change the voltage to the CPU so I have a CPU that hits over 3GHz on my other board but on this one it won't go over 2.8 stable)

2GB of DDR running at 240ish FSB

8800 GTX overclocked to 630/2000

74GB Raptor

500 GB Seagate 7200.11

Aspire Qpack case

Thermaltake 850 watt Tough Power PSU

Windows XP SP3



Now I know it's a bit better than yours. But I'm trying to point out that your CPU and motherboard are most likely perfectly fine to run AoC. The performance problems you are running into is from 2 things hardware wise I can see. One is an 8600 card. While not bad, it's really at the minimum for AoC. Minimum card equates to minimal performance.

The next big thing, is probably your hard drive. AoC takes a HUGE hit, because of how the game loads, with crappy hard drive performance. I always recommend to people to buy 2 separate hard drives for a PC. One hard drive is specifically for the Operating system and loading of software. Zero data goes on this drive. No music, video, pictures, or whatever. Just executables. Also, The hard drive for executables is treated at half max capacity. HArd drives take a serious performance hit the moment they reach half their maximum capacity. If you have a 200GB hard drive and have over 100GB worth of crap on it, you lose a ton of performance. As such, whatever hard drive you use as your main executable drive, never exceed more than half capacity.

Beyond that, make sure the other things about your system in terms of software are right. No viruses or such. No bit torrent running in the background or other application hogs. Have your hard drive defragged. Make sure all your drivers are up to date. All those fun sorts of things that many a guide has been written on for tweaking a computers performance.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Probably the video card would be my guest, however, it'll be a good idea to wait until 1)Age of Conan is released and 2) the new ATI/Nvidia cards are released at the end of May/June.

This.

I also agree that your CPU could use some improvements. However, don't do anything until the final release of the game.

 

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

Thanks for the advice, but I made a buubuu and hit the pay button.

Got a E8400
Asus P5K-VM
4GB DDR2 A-data

I figured as much about the harddrive/ram and video card. This June/July I'll get the new ATI/nVidia cards, until then this will do.

Good news is, I am pretty sure this comp will last me 2+years, a 3ghz CPU that could OC to 4ghz?

My biggest problem with performance and that game is the fact I was running windows vista x64 with only 2GB of ram. Which is great for other games, but not this one. It's a ram hog. With my new 4gb that should fix the trashing to the drive problem, and my long loading times should be fixed with the 3ghz core duo.

Eye candy and FPS will be fixed later, for now low settings will be fine.

I also watch TV/use my computer for a HTPC, this would be a great upgrade all around. If it was just for a game, I would of had passed. Not to mention it will use less power than my current setup which is good for when the bill comes in!

Thanks guys!!

EDIT: About the hard drives.

I currently have a 7200.10 320GB and a WD 16SE 500GB (AAKS)
The 320 I install games/OS/programs and the 500 holds my huge collection of mp3s which takes up half the drive.

How would you go about installing games / os on these 2 drives? My current plan is keep my current setup and maybe in a few months get a new drive for storage, than than isntall games on the 500.

Any thoughts on this matter?

 

[hooflung]

eSATA is the future of MP3/pr0n Storage my friend. Get a 1TB SATA drive and slap it in an eSATA case.

 

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

Originally posted by: hooflung
eSATA is the future of MP3/pr0n Storage my friend. Get a 1TB SATA drive and slap it in an eSATA case.

Sure... Something that would fit in my case would be best. I was really asking on how to structured my current drives.

 

[Skott]

Originally posted by: doggyfromplanetwoof
Hey Skott,

I was looking at that P5K. I got some ddr2 800 A-data ram, which I know will not overclock good. Does that board come with 1:1 divider? How's that overclock options? I know the P5E is better, but not for the price.

I've had my PC about 3 years now(Besides the video card), would like my next one to last that long. A Q6600/P5K and wait til June/July and get the new ati/nvidia stuff, me thinks. Even though a cheap AMD system now and plop in a new K10.5 cpu next year sounds great. Never know what mobo will work or if any to do that.

The P5K-VM is a very nice mobo and OCes nicely. The P5E-VM HDMI now supplants it as King of mATX OCers. It doesnt have the 1:1 divider issue like the Gigabyte DS2R has so no worries about that. You can find it online for $100 or maybe a little less if you shop around. Saw a open box for $90 on pricegrabber today. I'd stick to retail boxes though just to play it safe. I reccommend the P5K-VM to anyone that wants a good OCing mATX mobo. The P5E does OC higher though.

Also look at that ABIT I-N73HD mobo. Someone hit 4GHz stable with that mobo with a E7200 chip. I dont know how good of a mobo it is overall though in the long run. I'm a little leary of ABIT since that F-I90HD fiasco. I saw one price of $69 today for it today on pricegrabber. I'm more trusting of Gigabyte and ASUS mobos than ABIT these days.

Edit: According to Net rumors the G45 mobos suppose to release around the third week of June. Might want to wait and see if that happens before buying.

 

[FerraraZ]

Honestly for the game your best bet would be to downgrade to XP. Believe me it'll save you money and for Age of Conan you'll get a smoother game performance wise. Please I'm telling you, coming from a guy who runs the game on Vista with your setup you'll see better results in XP and you wont have to spend money on upgrades.

 

[stumben32]

I would not make any hasty moves yet.

Either try the game first, or wait a few weeks and listen to the feedback on the game.

AoCs performance is all over the place and the problems are NOT limited to low end or mid-range pcs.

Upgrading just for AoC may leave you wishing you just got a PS3 instead in a few weeks

Then again... it might be a great game and be worth the upgrade. If the retail release is what we have been seeing in Beta.... Upgrading wont help you much until they sort out the problems which will be at least a couple months until I consider this game stable.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Originally posted by: FerraraZ
Honestly for the game your best bet would be to downgrade to XP. Believe me it'll save you money and for Age of Conan you'll get a smoother game performance wise. Please I'm telling you, coming from a guy who runs the game on Vista with your setup you'll see better results in XP and you wont have to spend money on upgrades.

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