What Computer Game Are You Playing Today?

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Yup. It's kind of a bit pointless to divide them up according to whether the thing you play them on has a keyboard or not

[cullsoft]

Finally got round to getting The Orange Box yesterday... found myself staying up until nearly 3am working through all of Portal! (Luckily I've got today and tomorrow of work, so I kinda "let myself" stay up that long ). I've been working on Half Life 2 Episode One today and think I'm about halfway through... sadly it seems to be having issues with my graphics card - I had to tone it a fair bit down from the settings it recommended for my comp, and keeps crashing when trying to load the area I've got up to.

Oh yeah, I'm also doing the Wii Sports fitness test on a nearly daily basis. At present, it says I'm 34 and have been around the 20-40 area for the last week or so.

[Jeff]

What graphics card and set-up do you have? Just wondering cause I have been thinking about building a new PC for myself (still running a pentium III at home).

[cullsoft]

What graphics card and set-up do you have? Just wondering cause I have been thinking about building a new PC for myself (still running a pentium III at home).

Bear in mind I put this together a year ago... back then it was "powerful but affordable", and I think it cost me around £500-600 to put together (ordering most if not all of the parts from http://scan.co.uk).

MOTHERBOARD: Asus P5B-Deluxe
PROCESSOR: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (2x 1.86GHz)
POWER SUPPLY: Forget what make, but off the top of my head it's 500W.
RAM: 1GB DDR
GRAPHICS: 256MB XFX 7600GT
HARD DISK: 320GB SATA Drive (this is my main disk - I've also got a couple of extra IDE disks for more storage, and a 400GB external disk for backups)

Generally speaking, HL2 chose medium to high settings as the recommended graphic settings for my system. When I initially started playing Episode One, it crashed when trying to start a new game, but I was able to get it going after changing all of these to medium to low settings.

[Jeff]

That's pretty similar to what I am planning to get, but I don't think I will get a processor quite as nice yet. I don't actually have any new games to play yet, so I may get a cheaper Celeron or Sempron single core processor and possibly a Mobo with a built in video card that can be upgraded to a nicer processor and grahics card down the road...

[cullsoft]

...I may get a cheaper Celeron or Sempron single core processor and possibly a Mobo with a built in video card that can be upgraded to a nicer processor and grahics card down the road...

Although I'm not sure how the motherboard market caters for this these days, I've generally known that this is usually more hassle than it's worth - if you get a cheap processor and motherboard, you'll be limited on how much power you can get out of it. Motherboards are (IIRC usually) made for one specific sort of processor, so if you get one for a Celeron, you're stuck using a Celeron (not to mention that removing and replacing processors is a major pain).

Also, I gather the number of motherboards that do both on-board video and decent support for a separate graphics card are few to none (and those that do probably cost a fair bit).

If you're planning to build something you want to make into something more powerful, I'd recommend the following...
- Put a bulk of your current budget onto a decent motherboard and processor - these are the "core elements" so needs to be able to handle the powerful kit when it comes along.
- Get a cheap graphics card for the time being - I'm not sure what the current recommended "budget" card is at the moment, but you should be able to get one for around £20-30. Replacing this when a decent card for gaming is available should be fairly easy to do, and means you can focus a chunk of your budget on it at that time.
- For a hard disk, get what you want now. If you want more disk space later, you can buy extra hard disks then and keep using the first, but bear in mind that most of the games and programs are likely to go onto the main disk, so get one that's big and powerful enough to do what you plan for it to do whilst still being affordable.
- For RAM, you might as well get as much as you think you need - you can get memory fairly cheaply, and possibly find that it does the job when you build a more powerful machine. You could buy some of the more powerful (and pricier) memory at that time, but I'm never sure if they're worth the price.

Alternatively, you could buy a cheap core computer for around £200 (keeping your current monitor, keyboard and mouse), and then buy a whole new system in the future when you're ready to splash out.

[Jeff]

Although I'm not sure how the motherboard market caters for this these days, I've generally known that this is usually more hassle than it's worth - if you get a cheap processor and motherboard, you'll be limited on how much power you can get out of it. Motherboards are (IIRC usually) made for one specific sort of processor, so if you get one for a Celeron, you're stuck using a Celeron (not to mention that removing and replacing processors is a major pain).

All of Intel's current processors from Celeron D, Pentium and Pentium D, to the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad's all use Socket 775 mobo's. For AMD all the current processors will are made for socket AM2, but the new Phenom processors (which sound like they will just just be Triple and Quad core Athlons) you will need AM2+, which is backward compatable with AM2.. You just have to make sure that the northbridge and southbridge chipsets will support the higher end processors, another thing to look at is what FSB it will support. For me, if I were going the Intel route I would prefer support for Core 2 Quad, 1333 Mhz FSB... for both intel and AMD I also want the ability to have at least 4GB (preferably 8GB) of 800 mhz Dual channel DDR2 memory, SATA 2(aka SATA-300) support PCI express 16X (you have to watch Socket AM2 mobo's as some of the cheaper ones will say they support 16X but they are really only 8X).

Also, I gather the number of motherboards that do both on-board video and decent support for a separate graphics card are few to none (and those that do probably cost a fair bit).

Nah, almost all the ones I've seen that have built in VGA ports also have PCI Express 16X slots, especially socket 775 as Intel doesn't support AGP 8X like AMD does. The onboard video itself is usually nothing great... I've seen some with Nforce 7xx northbridges that basically have low end GeForce 7 series onboard graphics, but with virtual memory instead of hardware. Right now though, I have a ton of games from 2002 and before to play before I even think about getting newer games, plus when I do find rare time for gaming I usually do it on the Gamecube and hopefully I will get a Wii sometime, so I'm not too worried about the onboard graphics. I was using e Geforce 3 card in a 1 Ghz Athlon thunderbird from circa 2000 until late october when they both quit, so no matter what I get it will be a big performance upgrade for me. I mostly just will use it for watching Xvids and turning our home movies from the DV camera into vids to put on DVD, so I don't think that should stretch the limits of the onboard video... The only thing I might do that would stretch it is maybe download some demo's of new games...

Here'a s mobo I was looking at today.. nicely priced at around $65 after rebate.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=S458-1276

- For a hard disk, get what you want now. If you want more disk space later, you can buy extra hard disks then and keep using the first, but bear in mind that most of the games and programs are likely to go onto the main disk, so get one that's big and powerful enough to do what you plan for it to do whilst still being affordable.
- For RAM, you might as well get as much as you think you need - you can get memory fairly cheaply, and possibly find that it does the job when you build a more powerful machine. You could buy some of the more powerful (and pricier) memory at that time, but I'm never sure if they're worth the price.

Alternatively, you could buy a cheap core computer for around £200 (keeping your current monitor, keyboard and mouse), and then buy a whole new system in the future when you're ready to splash out

I'll definitely be keeping my keyboard, monitor and mouse, plus my DVD/CD drives and HDD... I think I have the know how to build my own PC ( I've not technically built one all the way yet, but I've messed with mine enough over the past few years that the only thing I haven't acutally done is put CPU in the slot and mount the heatsink and fan to it) So I'll just get the parts I need to save money. I am just about out of disk space on my current old HDD though, so I am sorely tempted to get a 320 GB SATA-300 HDD.. but I could just keep using mine for awhile.



OTOH, I need a new roof on my house and have some work to be done on our autos, so I'm not sure yet that I might not buy the very cheapest stuff I can get for now and re-use every part I can that I already have, and then just start from scratch in a few years if I am ready to upgrade again.

[Rob McCow]

With the hard drive capacity, it may be worth looking at external hard drives to back up data such as movies, photographs and music that you don't need to access so often. My dad has downloaded about 300 concerts (legally!) from 'Dime-a-dozen' website and he runs them off external hard drives with no problem.

[Jeff]

Well, if anyone's interested I did get parts for a PC earlier this week and built it the other night... still need to update some drivers and get XP service pack 2 installed

I ended up going a bit more expensive than I thought I might, but I got a good PC for pretty cheap and I got a mobo that can be upgraded later on...

The motherboard is Biostar TA770 A+, built on the little hyped AMD 770 northbridge. It's the cheapest chipset you'll find that is AM2+ (will support the new Phenom processors with Hyper Transport 3.0 technology) and has PCI Express 2.0 (the cheapest intel mobo I found with PCI-E 2.0 was over twice as much). It will handle 8GB of 1066 Mhz memory (though only the Phenoms with the HT 3.0 bus can use that high of frequency)

here's a good article on it - http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=4883

I got the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ processor (2.1 Ghz dual core based on 65nm Brisbane core)

2GB PC6400(800 Mhz) dual channel DDR2 memory

500 watt Ultra power supply

KAF2 (Galaxy?) Geforce 8500 GT video card with 512 MB DDR2 memory

I think I might get a SATA hard drive soon too.. There is a Western Digital 320 GB 8MB cache HDD and a Seagate 250 GB 16MB cache HDD that are both priced the same though, and I'm not sure which is the better deal? does the 16mb cache improve the performance enough to warrant the size difference? The only other factor was user reviews said the WD was a little noisy wheras the Seagate reviews said it was quiet (not that noise matters to me). Which is the better brand (I've always had WD's before)?

[Rob McCow]

AMD, eh? Well, there's not much to choose between AMD and Intel these days, really. 2GB memory is good and are they really at 6400 clock speed? That is fast!

The only weak link in the chain there might be the power supply... 700-1,000W might have been better. Check that your Graphics card doesn't suck up too much power. Although you might be alright with the AMD processor.

[Jeff]

AMD, eh? Well, there's not much to choose between AMD and Intel these days, really. 2GB memory is good and are they really at 6400 clock speed? That is fast!

No. the PC6400 is the memory, that is 800 Mhz. The AMD processor is listed as 4000+, but the naming scheme is based on performance or something now and has little to do with clock speed at all. The 4000+ processor operates at 2.1 Ghz. The Biostar motherboards come with overclocking utilities built in though, so I could easily overclock it if I wanted to, though I doubt I will.

The only weak link in the chain there might be the power supply... 700-1,000W might have been better. Check that your Graphics card doesn't suck up too much power. Although you might be alright with the AMD processor.

The processor is a 65 watt, and the motherboard is supposed to be very energy efficient as well. The motherboard also has the graphics card limited to 25 watts right now.. then again I have an auxilary 4 pin connector for the graphics card plugged in to the power supply.

[WhiteCrow]

I played a great game for 3 hours on Vista, it's called "Dude, where the f*** has my DVD drive gone!".

Yeah because I dared to install Vista, every so often the DVD drive magically goes. Vista tells you it's a driver problem, and you spend hours looking for a driver. Of course you DO have a driver .... but it's on a DVD, which can't be read.

But anyway, not meaning to spoil the ending, so I'm using spoler space

It turns out all along it's not the driver at all, but instead a problem with an obscure regedit setting which has to be cleared. Reboot your machine and the DVD works again.

It's a real clever final twist, worthy of M. Night Shyamalan, and it had be guessing all the way through.

[Dirk Gently]

I've been playing RISK for a few days now. I love it, I must have been a war mongering git in a previous life. I wonder if Arnold Rimmer wants a game?

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I played an online version of Attack of the Mutant Camels today. It's just as rubbish as I remember it being

[Alex]

I can't believe that for a second! I used to spend hours playing that game, and whilst admittedly I haven't played it for...erm...well, about 23 years, I still refuse to believe that it's not a classic game that'd still be great today

[Paul Monk]

Revenge of the Mutant Camels is better.

[SiHart]

I am addicted to playing Peggle at the moment. It's great fun. I'm doing the challenges at the moment to become a Peggle Grand Master!

I think Steve is frustrated with me because he wants to play it too, but I keep beating him to it, since it's installed on my PC!

Si xx

[Dirk Gently]

Sounds interesting. Downloaded?

[SiHart]

There's more info here Tim:
http://www.popcap.com/games/peggle

Si xx

[Dirk Gently]

Cheers Si. No free* downloads then.





*Other than the trial which is presumably an hour.

[SiHart]

The demo is good- it does give you a good flavour of the game... but yes alas you have to pay I'm afraid. But it's worth it. I hate computer games generally, but I'm loving this one!

Si xx

[SiHart]

The demo is good- it does give you a good flavour of the game... but yes alas you have to pay I'm afraid. But it's worth it. I hate computer games generally, but I'm loving this one!

Si xx

[Jeff]

I'm still ebroiled in Super Mario Galaxy after about 4 months of very sporadic play (I get to play a session 1 or 2 weekends a month).

I need to get more serious about my gaming.

[Perry Vale]

I am now, with a little help from being unemployed , about 110 hours in to Final Fantasy XII on the PS2 (played on my PS3). Did the same on FFVII a few years ago.....now I know why I stopped buying them!

At least you have to say they're good value for money....

[Jeff]

I'm up to 100 stars in SMG now. Need two more from the Garden, and then the rest of the Trial and Luigi Purple levels. So far I've disciplined myself not to go to the center of the universe to complete the story mode. I'd like to finish all the stars first.

Bully - Scholarship Edition was just released for PC. That may be my next game...