Hardware Questions

[The 13th]

I stopped playing M2TW some time ago becuase the computer I have is crap to play the battles. I can play RTW on the medium settings fairly decent so I stuck to that game.. Well today I have ordered a new computer and I wonder if I will be able to fully take advantage of M2TW and finnaly enjoy this game the system I bought is

A Dell XPS
Intel Core i7-920 processor(8MB L2 Cache 2.66GHz)
6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz
ATI RADEON HD4670 512MB
Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 Home Premium 64-Bit

I am sure the CPU and RAM and Vid card should run it fine was wondering though about Vista 64bit and this game. Anyone with any experiance with it?

[Silent Assassin]

I stopped playing M2TW some time ago becuase the computer I have is crap to play the battles. I can play RTW on the medium settings fairly decent so I stuck to that game.. Well today I have ordered a new computer and I wonder if I will be able to fully take advantage of M2TW and finnaly enjoy this game the system I bought is

A Dell XPS
Intel Core i7-920 processor(8MB L2 Cache 2.66GHz)
6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz
ATI RADEON HD4670 512MB
Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 Home Premium 64-Bit

I am sure the CPU and RAM and Vid card should run it fine was wondering though about Vista 64bit and this game. Anyone with any experiance with it?

You will have more thn enough, with your PC you will be able to even play Empires that is coming out soon. The only thing that I hate about your PC is Vista

[The 13th]

That is my only concern to. If I cant play M2TW on the highest settings with that machine I just bought then I need to buy a mainframe My only concern is will it work with Vista 64bit?

Of course with XP or 32bit Vista have 6GB of ram is pointless

[Silent Assassin]

That is my only concern to. If I cant play M2TW on the highest settings with that machine I just bought then I need to buy a mainframe My only concern is will it work with Vista 64bit?

Of course with XP or 32bit Vista have 6GB of ram is pointless

I think that if you install your Vista updates you will be fine they have released alot of patches to enable players to play games that were playable with XP but not with Vista

[Conquistatore]

Is that a single core system you've bought?

[The 13th]

The i7 processor is a quadcore processor. It also includes an old familiar technology Hyperthreading

[Conquistatore]

Oh, didn't know that lol.. I thought such a nice system looked out of place with only a single core cpu.

[The 13th]

The i7 processor is the newest technology from Intel. Its a beast

[Conquistatore]

What's the retail on one of those

[The 13th]

The package I got from dell was not bad at all under 1500 for the whole setup. I priced it out at tigerdirect.com to buy each part seperately and the motherboard+cpu alone was near 600 the vid card another 200 the ram in the 250 range.. So I think I got a good deal on the bundle from dell as it included a 23inch flat panel monitor.

Im just happy to finnaly get to play RTW at full graphics and fight a battle in M2TW without using autoresolve!!!

[kannwar]

Just a warning since you are buying from Dell - they tend to use proprietary technology for their motherboards and power supplies which means you won't be able to upgrade them very easily. There may be a way to upgrade them if you are an electrician that can make adapters but aside from that, i would check out the power supply included.

I brought a system from Dell several years ago for gaming only to find it had a barely acceptable power supply installed and it was non-standard meaning if i put a normal ATX one in it would blow the thing up. So basically i was unable to upgrade my video card or anything that mind demand more power. Had to rebuild from scratch. The only difference is that mine was part of the Dell Dimension line whereas yours is an XPS.

I am not sure if they do things any differently with those but it might just be something worth checking out.

[The 13th]

Just a warning since you are buying from Dell - they tend to use proprietary technology for their motherboards and power supplies which means you won't be able to upgrade them very easily. There may be a way to upgrade them if you are an electrician that can make adapters but aside from that, i would check out the power supply included.

I brought a system from Dell several years ago for gaming only to find it had a barely acceptable power supply installed and it was non-standard meaning if i put a normal ATX one in it would blow the thing up. So basically i was unable to upgrade my video card or anything that mind demand more power. Had to rebuild from scratch. The only difference is that mine was part of the Dell Dimension line whereas yours is an XPS.

I am not sure if they do things any differently with those but it might just be something worth checking out.

Well the system comes with a 400w supply should be more then enough I do beleive the XPS systems and the dimension systems are completely differnt, in the XPS system I was able to get DDR3 ram (up to 1066mhz) with the dimensions the most I could get was DDR2 @ 800mhz,

[Landtuber]

Just a warning that 400w is quite low nowadays for new cores and video cards. I build a lot of systems and the lowest I ever recommend to my clients is 600W+ of a respectable brand. Most don't need the 600W, but if they have any kind of video upgrade in the future they sure as heck will.

[D.B. Cooper]

A Dell XPS
Intel Core i7-920 processor(8MB L2 Cache 2.66GHz)
6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz
ATI RADEON HD4670 512MB
Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 Home Premium 64-Bit

Holy , you're good for everything in the next few years. ETW will kneel before your computer at any rate.

To put it relatively, I have 3GB of RAM and a 1.83Ghz dual core and I can still run most battles at huge scale with most settings on max.

[Gondor_King]

Holy , you're good for everything in the next few years. ETW will kneel before your computer at any rate.

Well, not exactly.His GPU is not the best.

[Conquistatore]

Where did you get such a system for only around $1500?? Got a link?!

[gojira]

Where did you get such a system for only around $1500?? Got a link?!

For a European thats a slap into the face. You got to pay that in Euro here to get such a system.

[The 13th]

I got it from dells website. Dell.com However the company I work for gets us discounts, saved about 300$ buying it through dells EPP site (Employee Purchase Program) www.dell.com/epp

Goto the website and just choose "Large Corporation" now you will not be able to order it online without a company ID, but you can at least get a price.

Here is a link directly to the pc I got (well similar)

https://ecomm2.dell.com/dellstore/ba...=1008231904618

It really was a steal for the power you get, now you could of gone with the Intel Extreme processor but your looking at a 700-1000$ price difference. My budget cant afford that!


Thanks for the response everyone you dont know how frustrating it has been I bought the came when it first game out and was so excited to play but I have had to halfass play it because my current system also a dell, dimensions pc p4 2ghz with 1gb ram just cant handle it, I had a buy a new video card with shader2? support just to get it to install, and then even after that it runs like crap. I do love my Rome Total War, but id really like to play M2TW and empire when its ready. Id also enjoy playing Rome Total war at Huge unit I hate only have a 60 or so count of troops even then if there are 3 armies my pc lags..

[Dark_Crusader]

your using 6gb ram... where did you get that??? for my computer, im just using 2gb with vista and the game is just ok with the highest unit scale and detail...

[kannwar]

I would seriously reconsider with that power supply. That is a definite weak link and it will stop you from having any upgrade-ability whatsoever. Hell, the one i got 3 years ago had a 375 so i see they are still churning out that cheap crap.

Mate, it's as cheap as it is for a reason and i am very embittered against Dell from experience. I think you are better off spending a bit more and having more longevity. That is just my view however and if you don't mind not being able to upgrade your video card without purchasing a new mobo/psu combination then i am sure you will be happy with it.

I'm not trying to rain on your parade or anything but am simply giving you some advice that could benefit you in the longrun .

Enjoy your new PC whatever path you choose!