Need help with PC upgrade for HL2, please?

[JenBell]

Hello People,

OK, so I have a budget of £320 to spend on upgrading my pc. I was thinking of getting a X800 pro VIVO and flash it to XT PE. This would play Half-Life 2 with all the effects on and good frame rates. I also thought about upgrading my 2x36GB raptors and getting 2x74GB raptors and a tagan 480w psu (I heard these psu's are really good - CustomPC UK magazine).
I already have a 9800PRO in my PC and played Doom3 with no problems, I thought the game looked good enough to play. I did not really notice the effects unless I was standing still even then they looked nice to me.
HL2 is going to be GPU intensive than say D3, so what do I do? Should I get a X800, only thing bothering about this is my current psu. It is a 400w Zalman. It does a good enough job of powering my pc but would it be able to handle a x800 or a x800XT PE? I am not even considering a the nVidia cards as I would have to upgrade my psu first.

I would really appreciate your help on this. A new GPU would only make gaming better and make HL2 play better where as a raptors would make the whole PC really fast and better overall.

Thanks alot people, need all the help I can with this so please dont be conservative with your advice.

[9mmCensor]

Your rig really doesn't need to be upgraded to play HL2. HL2 is in the same league as D3. If your happy with your D3 preformance, you should be happy with your HL2 experiance.

The two new raptors would be of negligible preformance increase.

You would get the biggest boost from: (not in any order)
-upgrading the video card
-switching to AMD A64

Considering that. Wait till the nForce 4 boards drop, and upgrade your cpu, mobo and vid card then.

[TheGreySpectre]

i would say the x800 but not all the pros flash to xts i dont think so be careful

[Alacritan]

I'd got with a 6800 GT personally. They peform just as well as ATi's latest offerings in DX9 applications now, including HL2. ATi's main advantage is gone, and Nvidia has the advantage in most cases now. For at least 50 pounds less you can get a better card. There's no arguing that 16 pixel pipelines is better than 12. And the XT barely beats the GT, and for the majority, loses to the GT when the GT is overclocked. Save your money, get the GT, overclock it and put your savings towards a new motherboard and processor. But wait until January when the new 90nm chips with strained silicon will be out in large quantities. AMD is also cutting prices towards the end of the year and nforce 4 boards will also be coming out late this year too. 939 is the way of the future.

[stereo555]

I agreee with 9mmCensor (for the most part) as you have plenty of horsepower going at the moment for HL2 ...

Maybe a v/card upgrade now only if your not going PCI-Express/DDR2 , etc anytime soon . A think a set of Raptors would be ok , as that is more future proof and can be transfered to a new rig of your choice in either of the newer formats (AMD64/Intel PCI-Express) .
If you "have" to upgrade something now , then I would go with the 74gig raptors (just my opinion) .

[Salomon Orangge]

Dont waste your money on an upgrade right now. There are too many new options coming out that you should be considering for a short while. If your computer ran D3 just fine, then be happy with it for HL2. I would wait a couple of months before upgrading. That's my plan. I'm not going to be purchasing another AGP card for my comp if the next improvement for PCs becomes PCIE. Just a waste of money. Besides... my 9800XT still works just fine with anything that i've tossed at it. Pointless to upgrade.

[Flashfx2]

I would wait till tomorrow when the game is released and people report how the game performs. Based on how CS:S runs I think HL2 will run quite a bit faster than Doom 3. If that is the case your 9800 pro might be plenty for your taste.

Whatever you do, I would NOT get 2x74 gig raptors if your looking for an increase in gaming performance/loading times. It has been proved multiple times lately that RAID 0 has no effect on loading times for games. (You are talking about doing RAID 0 with them, right?)

If I were you I would just get a x800 pro or 6800 GT, and get that new power supply you mentioned earlier.

[JenBell]

thanks people...

I saw a 6800GT running in person and spent an hour playing D3. Wow, nvidia really have done something. The xfx 6800gt is single slot, fast and the noise I can handle until I decide to WC or replace the fan system. I also dont need a new psu and will most of thw websites say it rocks even more when OCed. £300 gone and still got £40 for HL2. What more could I want? Better start clearing my raptors...currently sitting at 85% full. I am really lazy sometimes...got over 200gb free and still cant be bothered to drag and drop.

Thanks to everyone so far for your advice. I really read up on the x800 as I am a really big ati fan but seeing the 6800 in action changed that. My brother will be happy, he's about to upgrade from a mx440 to a 9800pro for free.

JenBell...think I might be waking up early on the 16th...

[fabulouscoops]

From what I have heard the Nvidia cards do better with DOOM3 and the ATI cards will do better with HL2. If you are done with D3 it makes more sense to get an X800.
As for the raptors, the speed difference between 2x36 and 2x74 while benchably improved, will be hard to detect during a game. You already have enough extra storage with the Hitachis.
You have a pretty loaded PC which is overclocked fairly agressively, I would reccommend going with a new bigger power supply whatever you decide.

[PottaCoola]

Your pc is good enugh to run half life 2 allready, half life 2 doesnt need as much power as doom3 does, i admit i was one of them ppl that downloaded the sours leak back when i had my 9800np and it ran it fine and that was the beta 6-8 months ago but if you just want something new then go for it. i allways want something new so im allways moding even if my c can run what i want it to.

[CandymanCan]

HL2 is more cpu intense then Video card intese to correct you Jenbell

[Alacritan]

From what I have heard the Nvidia cards do better with DOOM3 and the ATI cards will do better with HL2. If you are done with D3 it makes more sense to get an X800.
As for the raptors, the speed difference between 2x36 and 2x74 while benchably improved, will be hard to detect during a game. You already have enough extra storage with the Hitachis.
You have a pretty loaded PC which is overclocked fairly agressively, I would reccommend going with a new bigger power supply whatever you decide.


You are behind the times my man. With the advent of nvidia's 6-series cards, their DX9 capabilities improved immensely and ATi no longer holds the advantage they once did. When HL2 was going to come out last year, I bought a 9600XT for that reason. DX9 performance killed everything nvidia had, but no longer. The 6800's beat their counterparts in most games, and are only marginally off the lead in HL2 benches. The X800 cannot compete with a 6800. The 6800 has an overwhelming advantage in OpenGL games and is just as competent as an X800 in DX9 games now. This round goes to Nvidia.

[verbatim]

You are behind the times my man. With the advent of nvidia's 6-series cards, their DX9 capabilities improved immensely and ATi no longer holds the advantage they once did. When HL2 was going to come out last year, I bought a 9600XT for that reason. DX9 performance killed everything nvidia had, but no longer. The 6800's beat their counterparts in most games, and are only marginally off the lead in HL2 benches. The X800 cannot compete with a 6800. The 6800 has an overwhelming advantage in OpenGL games and is just as competent as an X800 in DX9 games now. This round goes to Nvidia.


OMFG, its only a few FPS differance no matter what you pick in the top end. 6800GT or x800 pro. Both are great cards with their pluses and minuses. I myself would probably lean towards the 6800gt now tho, but I have a x800pro thats flashed to XT PE. Either way HL2 will look and run great.

[capmuffin]

Your rig really doesn't need to be upgraded to play HL2. HL2 is in the same league as D3. If your happy with your D3 preformance, you should be happy with your HL2 experiance.

The two new raptors would be of negligible preformance increase.

You would get the biggest boost from: (not in any order)
-upgrading the video card
-switching to AMD A64

Considering that. Wait till the nForce 4 boards drop, and upgrade your cpu, mobo and vid card then.

Ill be doing same :D


and ait vs nvidia,it appears as if nvidia won this battle,plus thier cards are cheaper (6600gt beats the $350 9800xt) and w/ pcie they should be priced even better. nvidia has ps3 which seems to give it a lead. But dont be fooled any card you buy (x800pro 6800gt.....ect) will play anygame you want at more than enough fps to enjoy it

[FarEast]

Great advice by those telling you not to upgrade and need I hasten to add that this is a classic example of the games industry pushing the hardware industry and the explotation of our vice....... consider the advice above from our addiction councilers....

Alas there are some of us here so addicted we do so without the need of the latest eye candy rendering treat and I consider myself one of those poor souls. Bad taste aside I would be very interested in knowing how much a heroin addict spends on thier vice a year compared to the hardcore upgraders?

[rxtrom]

Good Advice!!

Plus if you wait about a month when everyone beats HL2, and possibly move on to something else, there will be alot of the x800s floating around the FS/FT forums on the net. *OR as soon they realize how much money they have just spent on a video card, and their rent is due, or they have christmas presents to buy.

[theELVISCERATOR]

all you need is a vid card and i would go with a 800XT PE if I could......

still is fastest card on the planet overall.