The death of a computer....

[Roled]

It seems that every two years or so, coinciding with an upgrade, my computer dies. This time, according to local tech geniuses, it is not revivable, and a new form of addiction delivery must be found, ordered, paid for.... , assembled, initialized, restored, yada yada...

So Roled is ICly being  browbeaten  by Zhaomal who is convinced that he should stop being so freaking honorable and join the ShadowCasters.... RR thinks the Archmage pays way too much psychic attention to the Dark Wanderer and his minions. But he IS the Archmage after all....

OOC, I miss you guys and these collaborative, ongoing stories... ah! these stories!!!  Rigster, I was sorry to see you call an end to Brimstone, but yeah, where can Rig go from there? I await seeing what twists you concoct to wring the lime out of the Dialboli...

 I am missing all your stories - Snitch, Sarren, Sulaika, Aleeane, Anysuuuuuuuuuuuu, Allena (are you alive again??0 C Roc, C Rau, Cwyndeth, Resi, Potato, Ven, Taz, Q, Prrrrrreta, Evirea, Sacho, Rykia, Rii Rii, Teeleh, Ilase, Yen, Dannae, ... dozens more of you!!!

  Have fun flourishing your fantasy fortunes in DomeWorld! 
Wish me luck robbing the neighborhood bank to get my PS fix 

RR 

[Volki]

Build your own computer and consult us before paying for anything. The right parts can last you a long time.

[Rigwyn]

Roled,

For what it's worth, I use a cheap Gateway workstation ( Model DX4870 ) that I picked up in Best Buy for only $400. It works like a charm as is a lot cheaper than buying a new top of the line computer or a Crapple. I can easily run more than one client at a time with it if needed. There's no snappy video card, just the default one that comes built into the computer's chipset.

Good luck.


 

[Glaciusor]

My main advise would be this:
- Nvidia graphics card. Anything else and you run the risk of PS not playing nice with it. My old netbook with an nvidia card handled PS very well however.
- Avoid windows 8 like the plague, because I hear it is a plague.
- Try to get something with powerful cores, not a machine with a bunch of really weak cores. A majority of programs still can't properly utilize more than 2 cores, and back when I looked, PS liked to sit on just one core (this may have been changed since I looked).

Oh, and I can't believe I finally heard someone else refer to macs as "Crapples".

[Roled]

thanks to all of you for your suggestions- i appreciate it. I have heard now that NVIDIA graphics are the key to playing PS on windows o/s pcs from several sources, thanks Shadow (nice to see ya). Rig thanks for the tip on a Gateway box... I will look around for that. Volki, I can no more build my own than be shot from a cannon and land on my feet, but thanks for the ... faith... in my non existent abilities.

Shopping on line and Craig's list this weekend... see what I can find.
thanks!

RR

[LigH]

If you have doubts which hardware to select, I'd like to add myself to your list of supporters. At least I'll wish you fortunate bargains.

[gnomebuddy]

just wait till it respawns   

[Sarren]

awww I found out IG when I went looking for Roled to share some news

[Roled]

PLEASE CHIME IN LigH, Rigster, Resi, Shadow, and any of your tech genuises-
Found a Dell Inspiron 15 4G, 500 GB harddrive, windows 8.1 (DONT suggest I know what you're going to suggest- I am an old Windows dog unwilling to put the time into new tricks  )
4th generation intel core i3 processor
15.6 HD display
NVidia graphics card

on sale new $400 with discount coupon that I have... what do you think?

THANKS !!!!! 

RR the Negatech Elf

[Volki]

i5 or i7. Specify the graphics card.

[BoevenF]

I concur with Volki, I'd choose at least i5 4Gb RAM minimum, Nvidia GPU is good, at least 1024 Mb (1 Gb) VideoRAM

[Rigwyn]

Get the inspiron model number and we can look up the specs.

The video card specs need to be up to par, or the game won't work regardless of cpu and ram. Some older nvidia cards with less memory will not be able to handle maps like hydlaa.

I used to work as a tech in a shop that dealt with Dell equipment exclusively ( mainly inspiron laptops and optiplex desktops ). At the time ( about 1999-2001 ) Dell was notorious for selling flawed hardware. Their machines had a strong tendency to freeze up and hang. We used to see something like 1 in 20 Dell machines crash at random right out of the box. I don't know if their quality issues still exist or if this has all be rectified since then, but I have not touched a Dell box since then and would probably be leery about buying one.

Good luck

[bilbous]

I am running on an older walmart special acer aspire am3420 and have no trouble. It uses an AMD chipset with an integrated gpu. I think the nvidia preference is more in respect to linux than windows.

If you get an win 8 system you can probably still downgrade to win 7, you may find that 8 is less like what you are used to.

[Volki]

I think the nvidia preference is more in respect to linux than windows.

wut?

[Rigwyn]

If you get an win 8 system you can probably still downgrade to win 7, you may find that 8 is less like what you are used to.

That or just upgrade to Linux. Its completely free and far more secure than winblows.

Try Ubuntu. Its user friendly, has a community that answers questions via irc or forums.
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop

You can try running if off a thumb drive or dvd if you just want to take it for a spin without installing it:
How to make a bootable ubs stick
how to burn a bootable dvd

If you don't like that, there's a ton of other free distributions to pick from:
http://distrowatch.com/