Will this setup be ok for Orange box?

[tibetanpunk]

These are my system specs...Should I be able to max out the Orange box games with a resolution of 1152 by 864? I am almost afraid to ask...

ASrock 775i65G motherboard
Pentium D 820 2x 2.8Ghz with Zalman cooling.
1GB PC3200 RAM.
Emu-0404 sound card.
Gigabyte 7600gs 256mb DDR2.
2x SATA Seagate hard drives.
1x DVDrom drive.
Universal card reader.
2x Zalman case fans.
Hiper Type M 580w PSU.

I don't have anything overclocked, but there is potential to take the CPU up to 3.2ghz per CPU core. My 7600gs runs Ep.1 maxed out with a decent resolution (but I have noticed some audio and graphical stuttering since the last Steam update)...It (the 7600gs) is passively cooled and currently clocked at 400mhz for both the GPU and memory.
I was thinking of getting a pci exhaust fan for it so I can overclock it a 'bit', but they are hard to find any info on. I am looking for something pretty quiet if anyone knows of a good one that I can get in UK for a reasonable price. I was thinking I could maybe attach a fan or two to the heatsink and that might give it even better overclocking potential.
I read somewhere that Valve had already released the Multi-core support for the source engine...Is this true? I have been following the updates and didn't see any mention of it.
Cheers for any insight!

 

[kineaesth]

Yes, 100 Percent.

 

[Ridge]

RAM is a little low, as is the video memory...you should be able to run okay at medium graphics...

 

[Iron_cube]

RAM is a little low, as is the video memory...you should be able to run okay at medium graphics...

He can perfectly play on High settings.

 

[tibetanpunk]

Would it be safe for me to screw a zalman 80mm fan straight onto the large heatsink of the Gigabyte 7600gs, sucking air towards it?
It runs about 54c idle and into the 60s under load, I have a fan above the card bringing air in, but as the heatsink is under the card it makes very little difference (if any) to the temp of the graphics card...It might keep the Pentium D a bit cooler though...

RAM is a little low, as is the video memory...you should be able to run okay at medium graphics...

I am well aware that an extra gig of ram would do wonders as well as a better graphics card...It is planned (the extra RAM at least), but I have spent far too much money on this computer already.

I just bought the Gigabyte 7600gs new off of ebay a month or two ago, specifically for cards extra features and the release of the Orange box as a 'cheap' AGP upgrade from a 5700le 256mb card...
Turned out the seller added a VAT to the price of the card AND the (excessive) delivery charge (once I had gotten to the paypal stage... which brought the overall price up to about £70...
To be honest I feel cheated, because I just saw on www.aria.co.uk that for the same price (AFTER that b*stard added his premium) I could have gotten the 7600GT 512mb....
My last PSU melted just a week ago, so I had to shell out £45 for that Hiper one, which is sweet...Then of course I bought the Orange box...
So, I am poor..But I will get to play Team fortress 2 on monday! Yay!

 

[McGooTheWise]

You should really buy off of newegg, or tigerdirect... Individual purchases will tend to rip you off, because the seller controls the price.

 

[Omnomnick]

So can mine, thanks to my new ATI Graphics card, Hurray for good graphics cards!!!

 

[nutcrackr]

should be ok to play at high settings, as long as you aren't going to super high resolution.

 

[dogboy73]

He can perfectly play on High settings.

You reckon? I wonder how my set-up will handle it? I'm imagining I'll have to turn of HDR, Reflect world & make a few other tweaks. I do that with HL2/EP1 anyway in order to give my rig a bit of headroom. I think it would play okay with everything turned up but I'd get frame drops in places for sure. I didn't even bother with Lost Coast because on my brother-in-law's PC, which is a similar set-up to mine, the game was virtually unplayable! So I reckon HDR is a no-no is EP2 has it (which I'm sure it must).

 

[ríomhaire]

RAM is a little low, as is the video memory...you should be able to run okay at medium graphics...

I have a slighty worse computer than that I can play on almost entirly full settings (Minus some stuff like AA) in HL2 and EP1 with a perfect framerate.

 

[Iron_cube]

Im doing great on medium with a FX5200 (how many times did I mention my shitty card? )

Youll be fine.

 

[tibetanpunk]

Im doing great on medium with a FX5200 (how many times did I mention my shitty card? )

Youll be fine.

Dude, I was running HL2 and episode 1 on a 5700le on high until recently...I only upgraded for a higher resolution and HDR lighting and stuff...
The 7600gs did really well in all the HL2 benchmarks I have run on it...I am thinking I will get some additional cooling for it though.
The source engine seems to be really scalable...Probably the most scalable graphics engine out there. Apparently they have improved the HDR lighting for the Orange box...

 

[AciD]

All engine are upgraded I've got in ep1 med/high/x2/trinlear/hdr on 18 fps now I got ~25

 

[McGooTheWise]

Here's me specs from steam:

Processor Information:

• 
  Vendor: GenuineIntel
• Speed: 3400 Mhz
• 2 logical processors
• 1 physical processors
• HyperThreading: Supported
• RDTSC: Supported
• CMOV: Supported
• FCMOV: Supported
• SSE: Supported
• SSE2: Supported
• 3DNOW: Unsupported

Windows Version:

• Windows XP (32 bit)
• NTFS: Supported

Video Card:

• Driver: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
• DirectX Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
• Driver Version: 6.14.10.9424
• DirectX Driver Version: 6.14.10.9424
• Driver Date: 19 Apr 2007
• Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
• Monitor Refresh Rate: 70 Hz
• DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
• VendorID: 0x10de
• DeviceID: 0x391
• Number of Monitors: 1
• Number of Video Cards: 1
• No SLI or Crossfire Detected
• Primary Display Resolution: 1024 x 768
• Desktop Resolution: 1024 x 768
• Primary Display Size: 12.60" x 9.45" (15.75" diag)
• 32.0cm x 24.0cm (40.0cm diag)
• Primary Display Type: CRT
• Primary Bus: PCI Express 8x
• Primary AGP GART Not Detected
• Primary VRAM: 256 MB
• Primary Monitor Vendor: Samsung
• Primary Monitor Model: Samsung Analog Display
• Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x

Game Display Settings

• Half-Life 2 Resolution: 1024 x 768 (Fullscreen)
• Half-Life 2 MSAA Disabled
• HL2DM Resolution: 1024 x 768 (Fullscreen)
• HL2DM MSAA Level: 2x
• Counter-Strike: Source Resolution: 1024 x 768 (Fullscreen)
• Counter-Strike: Source MSAA Level: 2x
• Lost Coast Resolution: 1024 x 768 (Fullscreen)
• Lost Coast MSAA Disabled

Sound card:

• Audio device: SB X-Fi Audio [AF00]

Memory:

• RAM: 2047 Mb

Miscellaneous:

• UI Language: English
• Microphone: Not set
• Media Type: DVD
• Total Hard Disk Space Available: 457823 Mb
• Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 235958 Mb
  

Ohh yeah, I'm a stud :smoking:

I have a 320 gig HD.

 

[Iron_cube]

Get out, no one cares about your specs.

 

[Silarn]

Well, I would say it's plenty good to run most of the upper settings.

Remember that there are purportedly a few DX10 tweaks, so those wont be available - but they're minor from every account I've heard.

They are increasing the 'MAX graphics' with the OB, but it'll probably be just fine. Also, just as a friendly reminder, 32-bit systems have trouble 'seeing' more than two sticks of memory (at 2GB and above). In other words, one more GB stick is plenty for your needs.

 

[tibetanpunk]

Also, just as a friendly reminder, 32-bit systems have trouble 'seeing' more than two sticks of memory (at 2GB and above). In other words, one more GB stick is plenty for your needs.

This amount of RAM you can have is a rather annoying limitation of 32bit XP...2 gigs is more than enough for my needs though...Cheers for the heads up anyway.

 

[stewe231]

Will I lag much with this setup?

Video card: Ati Radeon 9200 128 mb

Ram: 512mb

2.1ghz

I will probably lag some D:.

 

[tibetanpunk]

Ok,
I started to play the Team Fortress 2 beta today and found the following...
Using my 7600gs, everything ran on high settings pretty much, apart from motion blur being disabled and texture quality was set to medium....
Everything ran pretty smoothly on a resolution of 1152 by 864 with only a little bit of frame dropping/stuttering...
I wonder if the same will be the case with Ep.2...Looks like I under-estimated the requirements for the Orange box when I upgraded to the 7600gs. With everything set to high the game stutters a lot.
It does still look great, I am just sulking because I am not getting the highest textures and motion blur...haha