Half Life 2 question

Pissin' Poonani · Post by **Pissin' Poonani** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:10 am

Once again, my complete inability to understand computers has left me feeling rather dejected. I popped into Sainsburys, read the specs on the back of the HL2 box to see what graphics card it requires, and all it said was 'DirectX 7 level graphics card'. The missus said our computer has DirectX 9 so it should be ok. What I now realise is that even though we have it, obviously our crappy 64mb card can't actually run it (from what I gathered from a quick Google), so I'm ******.

I kind of expected this, but what really irks me is that I had to go through the entire installation process before I got told that my card wasn't up to it-why couldn't they just have the programme that detects that kind of stuff run before everything else?

Anyway, I've been putting off the inevitable, but now I'm going to have to get a new graphics card. I have to get it from PC World (well, I don't have to, but if I have them install it then it's covered under the protection plan I've got for the computer), and I was wondering if this was any good?

http://www.pcwcomponentcentre.co.uk/invt/pvt43pnad7

I know there are more powerful ones, but I'm really looking to keep costs down at the mo, although any and all suggestions are welcome.

Cheers

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:24 am

Yeah, matey. That's a good one, ata boy. Personally I wouldn't buy it, but by me a Radeon 9800 Pro cheaper and better.

(Impy, will disagree, sternly.)

Pissin' Poonani · Post by **Pissin' Poonani** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:27 am

Cheers Preddy

Would you say it's only worth getting short-term? I mean, if I buy that particular one, will I find myself needing to buy a better one a couple of months down the line, or will I be good to go for a little while?

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:37 am

I think it's pretty good matey, It'll hold ya for a 1 year at least. After that you'll probably hafta bye yourself a new one.

EDIT: It will probably be enough for two years even, but then you wont be able to have OMG graphics, but I recon it'll be able to atleast start the games until then. I myself was able to stretch the life-lenght of my nVidia Riva TNT to almost 3 years!

Pissin' Poonani · Post by **Pissin' Poonani** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:39 am

Tis good news indeed-thanks Pred

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 5:55 pm

really you would want is the 6600 GT, cost you about £30 more but almost 2x the power.

OK big point that card is a PCI Express card - so if your motherboard isnt PCI E you cant use it. you want an AGP really.

Having played Half Life 2 alot id recommend at least 512MB of Ram, and at least a 2.0ghz CPU - you will also need broardband for a faster instal and about 4GB of hard disk space free for your install.

Half Life 2 is great but its cutting edge and requires the best - it is bloody cool tho!

Pissin' Poonani · Post by **Pissin' Poonani** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:33 pm

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:really you would want is the 6600 GT, cost you about £30 more but almost 2x the power.

OK big point that card is a PCI Express card - so if your motherboard isnt PCI E you cant use it. you want an AGP really.

Having played Half Life 2 alot id recommend at least 512MB of Ram, and at least a 2.0ghz CPU - you will also need broardband for a faster instal and about 4GB of hard disk space free for your install.

Half Life 2 is great but its cutting edge and requires the best - it is bloody cool tho!

Cheers Imps

512Mb RAM -check
2.53Ghz CPU - check
Broadband - check

I've already installed the game-like I said, I was more than a little pissed off that it waited until I'd done so to tell me that my card wasn't up to the job!

Just checked the receipt for my comp and it says the Motherboard is 'Columbia 5P (or VP)', and then someone (presumably the guy my missus talked to in PC World) has scrawled something like 'Hcs/His/Has?(crappy handwriting) AGP for graphics card', so it looks like you're right!

Can I ask a favour? The following link is to PC Worlds' components site, where I've gone into 'Graphics Cards' and narrowed the search down to the results for 'AGP'-could you recommend one or two for me? I only ask because you have a lot of knowledge on these things, and I have none. I'd like to keep costs down as much as possible, but I suppose if I had to set a limit it would be £200.

http://www.pcwcomponentcentre.co.uk/bin ... t&U=&A=&B=

Cheers Mark

If you don't have the time to look through it, thanks anyway

Leatherneck · Post by **Leatherneck** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 8:52 pm

http://www.pcwcomponentcentre.co.uk/invt/r98pc3

That will be fine. And do what you need.

Post by **Kaylee** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:02 pm

Word to the wise- make sure that your motherboard includes the right sort of AGP slot- I, for example, recently bought a motherboard which included an 8X AGP slot and then (because the graphics power of the system was irrelevant) bought a standard AGP board... which didn't fit.

Shouldn't be a problem if you're putting a modern card into a modern board but something to be aware of. Luckily the card I bought was 1.50 off ebay, though now I need to hunt for a PCI one before my server will be able to live

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:18 pm

that radeon card isnt bad but you can get the 6600GT for less and its a far better card. at the moment it just cannot be beaten for value.

Plus its Direct X V.c (note the C bit) which meeans u get all the cool graphical effects of proper normal mapping etc. unlike the rad card.

not saying ATI is bad, they do make good cards, but at the moment those 6600 GT cards are just the best value for money.

Pissin' Poonani · Post by **Pissin' Poonani** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:30 pm

I suck at computers.

Imps-is the 6600 the PCI card? Because I'm fairly certain I'd need an AGP. Plus, I have to get it from PC World so that it's covered by my insurance policy that I took out on the computer.

When I arrange to have whatever one I choose installed (another condition of the insurance policy is that it has to be fitted by someone from PC World for it to be covered), I'll make sure they know exactly what I've got computer-wise, so that they don't charge me for coming to fit something that won't go in my computer.

Sorry for going on about it, but I'm really wary about this kind of thing-I don't know whether I'm as stupid as I'm making out or whether I've just managed to convince myself that this is a lot more complex than it really is-all I want is a computer that plays games

The one Leatherneck picked looks spiffy-although, I don't mind paying a bit more than that if it means I can put off upgrading again for a while.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:56 pm

make sure its the 6600 'GT' the GT bit is important. and you can get PCI or in your case you will want the AGP version. im pretty sure if you went into PC World itself they would have one.

But you can get AGP versions of that card now.

Pissin' Poonani · Post by **Pissin' Poonani** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:02 pm

Would this be the beast you speak of?

http://www.pcwcomponentcentre.co.uk/invt/pvt43andf7

Would it be worth getting a 256MB one? (if they even do one?)

PS-what's significant about the 'GT'?

Cheers matey

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:07 pm

thats the one - Rams not to important at this level, with your rig and that card you can play any current game flat out with this.

the GT version features more vertex pipelines. in otherwords it can do lots of pretty graphics more then the non GT version.

its hardware is based around the more expensive 6800 where as the standard 6600 isnt.

some ppl are actually strapping 2 of these cards together usinga special bridge to get performance that blows away anycard on the market for less cash the the big 6800 or big Radeon cards. im considering doing it myself, but ive got to spend out £600 on PC hardware so it will have to wait. (not much either to be honest)

Pissin' Poonani · Post by **Pissin' Poonani** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:19 pm

Excellent-cheers mate

I'll be getting on this as soon as possible-I've been waiting far too long to play HL2!

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:36 pm

good luck - it is top stuff HL2 I love it!

Pissin' Poonani · Post by **Pissin' Poonani** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:51 pm

I'd deliberately ignored it because I knew my computer wouldn't be up to running it (I know I've already got the game, but the missus paid

), but last night on the Sci-Fi channel they did a 'Top Games of 2004', and seeing those huge walker-thingies made me want to go out and steal a new graphics card.

I just have this horrible feeling that the PC World bods will say 'sorry mate-the inside of your tower is an all-in-one bargain basement piece of crap, and you need to change everything'. Then I'll cry, and return my computer to Dixons via the front window.

I've heard the game is pretty short-is that true?

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:04 am

id say its average length - took me about 20 hours I think?

On easy it was far to easy tho so i prolly ruined it for myself.

Of course you do get online play via Counter Source and Half Life 2 online.