My system specs - more speed?

**Reloader-1** · March 22, 2008, 11:24 PM

I have the following system, and I was wondering which of two possible upgrades I should do to speed up RTW and MTW2:

Dell Inspiron 9400 (Laptop)
T7200 processor (2.0 Ghz, 4mb cache)
Nvidia 7900gs Graphics Card
WUXGA+ Screen (1920-1200p)
2GB DDR2 667 Memory (2x1)
120GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive

------------------------

So the two options are (they are identical prices, btw - so the question is which is more bang for the same buck)

1. Purchase 2x2GB of memory (Total of 4GB)
or
2. Purchase a 200Gb 7200 RPM Hard Drive

------------------------
Thoughts?
I trust you guys a lot - so I will go with what you recommend. Thanks!

**Korlon** · March 22, 2008, 11:46 PM

Definitely the first one. The second one will do nothing to speed up games, unless you're basically packing in all the software your hard drive can handle and you only got about .5 gigabytes of space left or something. Just have at least the amount you specified for your virtual ram, basically twice the amount of system ram by default, though I recommend more than that. So... just have something like 15-20% of your drive free of space.

And get XP instead of Vista. Not like you can use DirectX10 with that graphics card. Plus XP uses less ram than Vista.

**cluelessnewbie** · March 23, 2008, 09:06 AM

Honestly I think 2GB of ram is plenty enough for both games on Vista. I'm running on that much. If there was a problem with the amount of ram then you would start seeing big time slowdowns with data being swapped to the hard drive. If that isn't happening then more ram won't help any.

The Total War games are unique in that they stress the CPU quite a bit more than other games. Controlling thousands of soldiers on the battlefield, their AI, and calculating the probabilities for attack and defense is the biggest bottleneck for game performance if you already have a capable graphics chip.

So, for any Total War game you want the fastest CPU possible. Laptops sacrifice CPU speed for power consumption so desktops are always a better deal. Your laptop isn't that bad actually but why don't you try turning down the unit sizes? That should relieve a lot of the burden on the CPU and speed up your game a lot.

**Reloader-1** · March 24, 2008, 01:16 AM

I am running XP (Media Center Version)

My processor is the T7200 Core 2 Duo (2.0 Ghz, 4MB cache)

So, would buying 4GB memory speed up the game?

**irishron** · March 24, 2008, 01:23 AM

I use XP MCE and it will only let me use 3gb ram even though the slots and the docs with the computer says it will take 4gb. Try it and but I don't really believe you're going to get the speed boost you're looking for doing it.

**Brusilov** · March 24, 2008, 03:04 AM

Originally Posted by Reloader-1

I am running XP (Media Center Version)

My processor is the T7200 Core 2 Duo (2.0 Ghz, 4MB cache)

So, would buying 4GB memory speed up the game?

Originally Posted by irishron

I use XP MCE and it will only let me use 3gb ram even though the slots and the docs with the computer says it will take 4gb. Try it and but I don't really believe you're going to get the speed boost you're looking for doing it.

Windows XP only recognizes around 3Gb of memory (3096Mb on my machine), so the extra 1 GB is wasted. This is a limit within Windows XP. Vista does recognize the full 4Gb - just make sure you are aware of the pitfalls of using that software (disabling UAC (I think it's called that - User Access Control or something)).

The other advantage of Vista is that it can use DirectX 10 - which the more recent powerful video cards can use.

Personally, I'm sticking to Windows XP for a while longer - or I may consider a dual boot machine.

**CITH** · March 27, 2008, 09:19 AM

Getting 4GB of RAM is a waste of money. Believe me, and it will stay that way for a while. Also, by the time games appreciate 4GB of RAM, everything else in your laptop is way to outdated. Getting one part of your system ridiculously high, and the rest below that is only throwing away money. Yes, it will make a difference like a fly effects the weight of a elephant by sitting on him. But it's just not worth the money for such a difference. Either upgrade practically everything in your system, or don't do anything.

The option to upgrade one part of your system is just a way of companies to rob you of money. Because the difference it makes is laughable. Dell is a thief already anyway if you compare their prices to the combined cost of the system parts.

I recommend either do nothing, or get the 200GB HD.

Btw, if you have the option XP or Vista. Choose XP. Vista only costs you speed. But I bet Dell doesn't offer you that option.