Whitesupraboy2 Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Ive been given an old server and want to use it for gaming. Its not old old. and has two Xeon 3Ghz processors, Memory im upgrading to 4Gb minimum may go for 6Gb. Hard drive's are scsi, so are nice and fast so I think its a good base for a good spec gaming machine for now. Only issue is it says in the spec sheet PCI Express one full-length x4 lane (slot 2) one full-length x8 lane (slot 3) Is this going to effect me much by not being 16x? Any recommendations in this area for a specific graphic's card? Should i just get a 16x one and it will run at 8x speed fine? Bit out of touch on PC hardware other then low spec built in PC's as have been gaming on the Consoles for a while now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Plethora Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 There will be a very very slight impact running at 8x from what I have seen but not enough to be noticeable, we are talking a couple of frames per second at best. Have a quick read of this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pcie-geforce-gtx-480-x16-x8-x4,2696.html Crysis is still the big kid on the block I think with regards to graphics and there the difference is 1 FPS. Game away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 It'll be fine. Given that the motherboard is old it'll be limited more by the chipset for memory speed etc which would have more of an impact that this. I'd advise as much RAM as you can afford, I noticed a big difference between 4Gb and 8Gb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitesupraboy2 Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 Being a server obviously throughs in a nice twist... Plus being dell. So think I'll be buying 4gb memory to start with. I have no clue on graphic Cards nowadays.£70 get me a good enough one or is it like good old days of £200 be much better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 I assume you know that you need a 64bit OS to use more than 3.5GB RAM, what OS are you planning on running? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Plethora Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 I am not that clued up on the Nvidia side of things as my last Nvidia card was a geforce 3 but someone can advise. I would put a little extra in and get a 1GB ATI 5770 it's a very good price / performance card and can be had for £99.99 on Overclockers. You could save a bit and get a 5750 but I dont think the performance drop is worth saving only a few quid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Check out the price of mem first, being a dell server it might need ECC stuff and that costs a fair bit more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitesupraboy2 Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 Check out the price of mem first, being a dell server it might need ECC stuff and that costs a fair bit more It does Gav hence sticking to 4gb as I said...not made of money lol... It's a dell who always do things their own way!. Which now means I don't have to run 64bit os either as Wez mentioned unless you guys think I'll be soon wishing I had gone 64bit I was considering a server os but no point eating resources for no reason, how is game support on windows 7 now? Ok I'll say my limit for graphics card.... £100 Everyones advice greatly recieved 4yrs witout getting my hands on some good tech and I'm like a fish out of water!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitesupraboy2 Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 There will be a very very slight impact running at 8x from what I have seen but not enough to be noticeable, we are talking a couple of frames per second at best. Have a quick read of this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pcie-geforce-gtx-480-x16-x8-x4,2696.html Crysis is still the big kid on the block I think with regards to graphics and there the difference is 1 FPS. Game away! Thanks by the way was a great read. Looks like the difference is minimal like you say and most likely is the processor may become the limiting factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamanC Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 GTS 450 or 5770 for your budget Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leelbuk Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 It does Gav hence sticking to 4gb as I said...not made of money lol... It's a dell who always do things their own way!. Which now means I don't have to run 64bit os either as Wez mentioned unless you guys think I'll be soon wishing I had gone 64bit I was considering a server os but no point eating resources for no reason, how is game support on windows 7 now? Ok I'll say my limit for graphics card.... £100 Everyones advice greatly recieved 4yrs witout getting my hands on some good tech and I'm like a fish out of water!! You'll still need a 64bit OS if you want to make use of all that 4GB of RAM and a half decent Gfx card with 1GB of VRAM. A 32bit OS can only address 4GB of RAM in total - 4GB system RAM + 1GB RAM on Gfx card = 5GB so you'll probably only be able to access 3GB of you system RAM if you go with 32bit I wouldn't bother with 32bit anyway if you are going with Windows 7 as pretty much everything runs on Win 7 64bit - come across 2 programs so far which are not yet 64bit compatible but neither are showstoppers! Being a ex-server too I expect 64bit drivers will be easy to come across for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitesupraboy2 Posted November 1, 2010 Author Share Posted November 1, 2010 You'll still need a 64bit OS if you want to make use of all that 4GB of RAM and a half decent Gfx card with 1GB of VRAM. A 32bit OS can only address 4GB of RAM in total - 4GB system RAM + 1GB RAM on Gfx card = 5GB so you'll probably only be able to access 3GB of you system RAM if you go with 32bit I wouldn't bother with 32bit anyway if you are going with Windows 7 as pretty much everything runs on Win 7 64bit - come across 2 programs so far which are not yet 64bit compatible but neither are showstoppers! Being a ex-server too I expect 64bit drivers will be easy to come across for it. cheers for the info. I didnt actually realise the Graphics memory counted towards the manageable memory in a 32bit system! looks like 64 bit is the way forward! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitesupraboy2 Posted November 1, 2010 Author Share Posted November 1, 2010 GTS 450 or 5770 for your budget How will this card do on games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamanC Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 A general rule of thumb OK, goggle the benchmarks for more specific. I wouldn't want a machine with much less in. Having said that, GTS250's (rebranded 9800 and 8800GT cards) are still up to the job (just) and they can be had uber cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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