This morning I was up as soon as my body would allow and on my way to Fry’s. I had decided that my newly purchased PC would bring me back into the realm of PC gaming a bit. That being said it was a little anemic in the Video department and I couldn’t exactly be running around with a laptop that has more ram than my desktop!
I picked up a 512 MB nVidia GeForce 8600 GT to replace the 256MB 8400 GS and I also picked up 4GB of DDR2 Ram to beef it up a bit. A nice set of Logitech surround speakers and a battery backup completed the trip and I was on my way home again.
The video card went without a hitch, the Ram was another story. I installed, all was good, but Vista only reported 3GB of available RAM. Doing a little research, I found out SP1 fixed this issue and having access to it, I tried it. I am happy to report that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 does solve the 4GB RAM issue.
On a related note, 4GB of RAM was $79. Are you kidding me!?? If I ever switch this box over to the 64-bit version of Vista you can guarantee I’ll be back for another 4 to give it a whopping 8GB.
The point of all of this is just to mention what I had conveniently forgotten about PC gaming. While the games I have picked up to play around on are awesome… Crysis, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and Lord of the Rings Online.. I had not realized how spoiled I had become in the world of console gaming.
It’s been a long time since I maniacally changed resolutions, texture details, terrain distances…..just to find the perfect match for the game and the PC’s capabilities.
I am happy to say that on medium settings Crysis performs quite admirably and with the addition of a wired Xbox 360 controller, it’s quite a bit of fun to play.
GRAW2 is just awesome, it picks up right where I left off with Rainbow 6 Vegas on the Xbox 360 and I can’t wait to play it more.
The jury is still out on LOTR Online. I wasn’t overly impressed with it the first time but as I refuse to get sucked back into WoW, it’s going to have to be my MMORPG fix.
That being said I am quite happy with this new computer. The new monitor is just jawdropping. 24 glorious inches at 1920×1200 resolution makes for one sweet gaming monitor. Tack onto that full 5.1 surround sound and pack it all in nice sleek black components and you have the makings of one sweet mid-range gaming rig.
The final tally is:
- 2.66Ghz Core 2 Duo processor
- 4 GB of PC2-5300 RAM
- 400GB SATA Hard Disk
- Dual Layer Lightscribe DVD+/- RW
- TV Tuner with Media Center Remote
- Full compliment of USB/Firewire ports
- wireless keyboard and mouse
- Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 1
- 24" 1920×1200 Widescreen LCD Monitor
- Logitech 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers
- Xbox 360 Controller
With the total investment coming in at around $1,500, I am quite pleased and the machine is just fast. It runs Vista incredibly well. When I feel a bit better I will dive into the Microsoft included media applications and compare/contrast them with the OS X/iLife counterparts.
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Is that system in the picture yours? It looks really awesome, wish I could get me a similar one like that.