HD question etc

[Vlawde]

I' m looking at the XPS 410 on the Dell outlet. Minimum 2 gigs of RAM and core duo. Far as cards, in my Dimension 8400 I use an ATI X800. Best card on the outlet is the Nvidia 7900. How much of an upgrade is that from the ATI? One option I am thinking of is getting the comp with what I want and not worry about the card, and just pick up an Nvidia 8600.

Far as HD's...I'm not real technically knowledgable. I see some with TWO hard drives, what would the purpose of that be and the pros/cons?

And what is SATA? I see things like this:

250 GB EIDE SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM);250 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

I have no clue, except there are two HD's. And if the one I choose comes with two, how would you switch back and forth?

[Galahad]

you don't actually switch between the two hdd's, you just use the second one for storage. you can access the secondary one the same way you would access the usual C drive or your dvd drive. (My Computer)

as far as SATA, it's how the hard drives connect to the motherboard to transfer information.

personally, i have a 7900GTX and it runs the game great, i just need a new motherboard because the transfer rates on the one i have is slowing the game down a good bit; it's also the oldest part of my rig and it's time to replace it.

[Vlawde]

Woot! I ordered an XPS 410 from the Dell outlet, with it's features I saced close to a grand buying it from the outlet versus new. You guys thing VG will run well wit the specs below? Only change is, I bought a Geforce 8600 GTS OC card to replace the one it's coming with

XPS 410 Mini-Tower: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6400 (2.13GHz, 1066 FSB)
Certified Refurbished
No Speakers
No Modem Option
Dell Optical USB 2-button Mouse
Dell Enhanced Multimedia USB Keyboard
256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
No Raid
4 GB DDR2 NON-ECC SDRAM 533MHz Dual Ranked (4 DIMMs)
Support Software
Operating System Label
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
Software CD
AOL Software Documentation
AOL ISP Software
Assembly Cable
XPS 410
ISP Search Assist
Microsoft Works 8.5
Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Reader
McAfee SecurityCenter with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 36-months
Processor Label
320 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Shipping Material
16X DVD ROM Drive
13 in 1 Media Card Reader
Recource CD
Reference Guide
Operating System DVD
Roxio Creator LE
Image Restore Software

[Nil]

Originally Posted by Vlawde

You guys thing VG will run well wit the specs below?

I'm starting to wonder if people are joking when the ask this. You should be quite fine. Vista is a wild-card, as it always is, but the 4gb of ram should help overcome that.

Originally Posted by Vlawde

AOL Software Documentation
AOL ISP Software

That's the real prize there. Does it come with a Windows disk so that you can reformat all the extra junk off of there?

Assuming you got it all (including your new card) for under 2k, you got a good deal here.

[Vlawde]

800 bucks and some change (plus 279.00 for the card). Yes, I plan on uninstalling the AOL crap right off the bat. I'm told that Vista will not recognize 4 gigs of RAM unless it's 64 bit. I don't THINK mine is, all the info I have is what I posted above. However it will be arriving today!

By the way, question about Networking between one comp and another on a router.

I've done it before, when you set a file/program/whatever to share, and open it up and install on another computer attached to the router. I did that with EQ and WoW versus separate installs, easier and faster. I'm getting a new comp and want to do the same again, but forget the way you actually transfer. For example, My Pictures. I did a test with the two comps I have, and tried to copy the pictures one one to the other. So the shared file shows up on the other under my network places. I could open it and view the pictures, but couldn't save it to that computer....and when the computer they came from was turned off, I couldn't access them. What is the process to do that? Same with all the games and some programs I have, I want to easily upload the games etc I have on my main comp to the new one

[dirtymeat80]

right click on the folder you want to share, go to Sharing and Security

check the option to share on the network, and of course the option to let network users change files

[Vlawde]

Alright< I don't get it. I was running VG on a P4 3 gig processer, one gig of RAM and an ATI X800. With the system who's features I posted above, I am getting in the neighborhood of 3-6 framerate at times, out near Jalen's Crossing. Basically unplayable. I tried putting all settings at medium or balanced but it made no difference. I do have my resolution set to my monitor's native resolution of 1680 x 1050, but I was able to play on my old rig at that resolution with a better (not great) framerate, although I had to set it lower because I kept crashing

[Nil]

What graphics driver version are you using?

[Vlawde]

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