Medieval Total War II - Hardware advice please
Discussion
Guys, I'm somewhat of a dummy with PC hardware specs (the list of specs on the back of PC games packaging means nothing to me). I have a laptop that I bought about 3 or 4 years ago that I occasionally use for getting a bit of work done at home... oh, and endless hours of Rome Total War (+ the earlier games)
Its somewhat streatched by 'Rome', and I want to get something a bit more powerfull for Medieval.
My Laptop cost about £1k 3 or 4 years ago. What should I be looking at to play the latest batch of strategy games?
This looks good (cf link - Dell XPS 700), but might be overkill for Total War at £1.2k - any way of doing this cheaper? I will be litterally buying a PC to play 'total war' as I also have 4 games consoles for shoot-em ups and driving and my laptop is fine for work. So want something up to the task at the best price and must look good.
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pro
What should I buy?
Its somewhat streatched by 'Rome', and I want to get something a bit more powerfull for Medieval.
My Laptop cost about £1k 3 or 4 years ago. What should I be looking at to play the latest batch of strategy games?
This looks good (cf link - Dell XPS 700), but might be overkill for Total War at £1.2k - any way of doing this cheaper? I will be litterally buying a PC to play 'total war' as I also have 4 games consoles for shoot-em ups and driving and my laptop is fine for work. So want something up to the task at the best price and must look good.
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pro
What should I buy?
Depends really on what your budget is and what you'll be doing with it other than thrashing it sensless with games 
The XPS 700 is a desktop machine but should be pretty capable of handling most modern games at a reasonable clip; Dell's XPS line also extends to laptops although the price as you can imagine goes up.
The XPS 700 is a desktop machine but should be pretty capable of handling most modern games at a reasonable clip; Dell's XPS line also extends to laptops although the price as you can imagine goes up.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm really looking at this as a games station, I'm not too exited about the PS3 (and its been delayed..) - but am excited about forthcoming PC releases (primarily Total War).
I will use it for the odd bit of work, but this just be knocking up the odd presentation or two so pretty basic (I have a PC at work I use during the day). So 99% games.
I think Dell are pitching this as a games focused PC, and as it looks pretty good, it will be plugged into an LCD HD screen next to my Xbox 360 so I'd rather it looks more like a games console than an office PC if that makes sence.
I think I'll get a couple of mags and see what is in the market.
Eddited to add: Budget, max 1.2k (i.e. this machine) - but ideally spend as little as I can for kit that is upto the task!
I will use it for the odd bit of work, but this just be knocking up the odd presentation or two so pretty basic (I have a PC at work I use during the day). So 99% games.
I think Dell are pitching this as a games focused PC, and as it looks pretty good, it will be plugged into an LCD HD screen next to my Xbox 360 so I'd rather it looks more like a games console than an office PC if that makes sence.
I think I'll get a couple of mags and see what is in the market.
Eddited to add: Budget, max 1.2k (i.e. this machine) - but ideally spend as little as I can for kit that is upto the task!
Edited by MTY4000 on Thursday 7th September 10:59
I bought my current computer for the most part simply to be able to play Rome Total War. I don't know if it will be sufficient to play Med 2 on it yet.
What I will say when choosing what machine to get is that if you are buying it for gaming pay attention to what graphics card you are getting. I upgraded mine to one of the best available at that time.
What I will say when choosing what machine to get is that if you are buying it for gaming pay attention to what graphics card you are getting. I upgraded mine to one of the best available at that time.
I'm in a similar situation - buying a PC to play this game - and I'm looking at the following:
CPU - the cheapest Intel Core Duo with a 4MB L2 cache (about £240 atm).
Graphics - NVidia are launching a middle of the range card called the GeForce 7950GT, priced at around £200 when it hits the shops on 14 September.
Memory - this is where I'm undecided, with my current PC I bought less RAM than 'needed', but made sure it was very good memory. This time I'll either go for 2GB of normal stuff or 1GB of really quick stuff, undecided so far!
The only other things I'll be upgrading are the motherboard and power supply which I have no idea about what I'll get.
What's everyone's thoughts on the above? I suppsoe my main quandry is the amount of RAM.
CPU - the cheapest Intel Core Duo with a 4MB L2 cache (about £240 atm).
Graphics - NVidia are launching a middle of the range card called the GeForce 7950GT, priced at around £200 when it hits the shops on 14 September.
Memory - this is where I'm undecided, with my current PC I bought less RAM than 'needed', but made sure it was very good memory. This time I'll either go for 2GB of normal stuff or 1GB of really quick stuff, undecided so far!
The only other things I'll be upgrading are the motherboard and power supply which I have no idea about what I'll get.
What's everyone's thoughts on the above? I suppsoe my main quandry is the amount of RAM.
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