More Awesome Than You!

Yeah, I know there are lots of threads on PC upgrading but I didn't want to hijack, so here's the forty millionth thread devoted to computer upgrades. With Seasons, the game has decided that it hates my graphics card. I can get around it but in the interest of avoiding future problems with new EP's, I'm going to just get a new video card. I think I know what I want: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8045652&st=ATI+video+card&lp=7&type=product&cp=1&id=1158316215209     Any objections or other suggestions? Also, this is my computer set-up, http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/4364/4364sp3.shtml  Does anyone see any problems with power supply, etc. that I might encounter if I upgrade? I have a tendency to miss important tidbits so I figured I'd run it by others before going to the store tomorrow. Thanks.

Don't get it from Best Buy. The price you see is high, even on sale, and then read  this  (http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-watchdog0302,0,5198012.column?coll=hc-utility-local) They've been running a scam in-store, where they take you to what you think is the BB site, except it doesn't show sales, and then won't sell it to you at the sale price.

Get it from  Newegg  (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102061)


But yes, I'm almost positive you'll need to replace the power supply. To check for sure, open the case and see what's written on the side of it. It should say something along the lines of "max 350w" somewhere on it.

Here are the specs on that card:

System Requirements

        * PCI Express™ based PC is required with one x16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard and one additional adjacent expansion slot.
        * Connection to the system power supply is required:
              o 450-Watt power supply or greater, 30 Amps on 12 volt rail recommended (assumes fully loaded system)
        * For CrossFire™: 550 watt power supply or greater, 38 Amps on 12 volt rail

You might check your Gateway documentation to see if you're going to need to add a card fan for additional cooling.

Neat card!

Well crap. I was hoping the power supply wouldn't need to be changed. Not to be a complete wuss here, but how difficult will it be to install a new power supply and video card? I was reasonably okay with doing the card but I don't even know where the power supply is located. I don't really have anyone who can help me (short of taking it to a store) if I screw everything up. I'm not a complete idiot (well, I guess I haven't done it yet so maybe I shouldn't make rash judgments) but I also don't want to trash my computer. Uhg.

When you open the case, it's the big block at the top with the wires coming out of it.

It's not at all hard to change the power supply. Unplug everything, taking note of where things are plugged in (generally 1 into the motherboard and then one per drive, fan, card, etc), take out 4 screws, slide it out, put the new one in, put the screws in, plug everything back in.  I can almost guarantee that a stock gateway isn't going to come with a 450w power supply. You'll have 350w if you're lucky, and not having enough power will make you freeze, restart, and have all kinds of odd errors.

You can Google your questions and get tons of info.  Installation instructions come with the card, but you can also visit the ATI site and knowledge base.

If you do run into trouble, stay away from box stores.  Find a local computer shop and take it there.  Or check with your local library for recommendations.  They use computers, too.  :)

Thanks for all the advice. I've poked around inside the tower and read some tuts online and I'm reasonably confident I can do this. Now I'm just getting my order ready on Newegg (great site!!). As far as the power supply goes, should I buy the minimal required (450-500W) or should I go all out and get a supply with more power (700W?). I don't necessarily know that I'll be upgrading the computer again, but I don't want to get the minimum and need to change it again later. Is there any benefit to more watts or would it just be overkill?
Also, on Newegg some of the reviews (not all, though) mentioned that the card I want tends to run hot. Should I get anything else for cooling purposes (fan, thermal paste stuff, ???) or just see how it does? Any suggestions for a particular product if I should add something for temp control?
Thanks again for the pointers, I feel like such a dork getting so worried but I just don't want to FUBAR my computer. Geez, I tell you, Sims has taught me more about computers than any class I've ever taken (I know how to word process, thanks, can I just get my 4.0 now?).

Newegg is awesome. It's where I got all the pieces parts for my computer. They're really great about stuff.

Don't be too intimdated by the power supply. Good luck with it.

Whew, I think I'm hyperventilating. I did it... I ordered the graphics card I wanted, a 700w power supply (I finally found some sites that spoke enough idiot for me to at least get the message that more power = good), and 4 MB of RAM. I figured if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right. I've debated getting more RAM for some time (yeah, the specs I posted say it's only upgradeable to 2 MB but the documentation from purchase show it's good up to 4 MB and I visually verified that there are four slots) and I figured if I'm going to go through the effort to do the power supply and graphics card, I may as well just do the RAM, too. I don't even want to think about how much I spent, but I haven't treated myself to anything in a very long time, so what the hell. Thanks again for all the support. I did overnight shipping (what's another few dollars on a bill that big?) so I should have it this week. Anybody know how fast Newegg usually processes orders? Now I just need to psych myself up for the big installation project. Eesh, deep calming breaths over here.

I think you mean 4 GB for RAM. 4 MB wouldn't get you far.  :D

Newegg is usually very,very good about processing orders. I wouldn't be surprised if it shipped tomorrow, and certainly no later than Tuesday.

LOL, that's what I get for posting when I'm tired and reeling from my purchase. Yes, those MB's should definitely be GB's.  ::) Let's hope I'm in a better state when I actually go to install these things.

Good Luck!

Please let me know how it goes. I am about to install a new power supply also. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

I post here, just to avoid a new thread on this topic.

I have to buy a new video card too, and I read all your advices with interest, but maybe I need a much less powerful card.

In short, I have a PC I use for SimPE only - it was built as a server, ages ago, so it doesn't have a great video/3d equipment: a ATI Rage Pro 2X AGP with 8Mb RAM.
I suspect that's because of that, I'm not be able to have previews in SimPE - even with managed directX correctly installed.

So, I would have a new, slightly better, video card, but newbie as I am in PC/Win stuff, I would simply go to the next mall, buy the card (any brand) with the lowest price and hoping it will work on my PC and will give me SimPE previews.

Any advice on what I have to do would be greatly appreciated: my PC specs are AMD Athlon 1.24 GHz (I suspect overclocked to 1.66), 384 Mb RAM (but I will buy more along with the video card), MS Windows XP Pro SP2.

You know, your rig would make a fine addition to the Archaeological Museum, Marhis ;)
Ok, joking aside, I think the best you could get for your PC is a Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB, like this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102410)...it's becoming quite extinct, but you might find some still. You'll see some improvement, that's for certain, but the low RAM bottleneck will still be there. Provided you can still find RAM that works with your motherboard, upgrade to AT LEAST 512MB, 1 GB would be even better.
But to be perfectly honest with you, even if you find RAM it'll cost you more than it's worth, and then you'll be stranded with a processor that's running pitifully slow for a game like TS2. So what I would recommend is: start saving up money and buy a new computer. You can get a rig fully capable of handling TS2 with ease for $600-$700.
Btw guys (and girls, of course...and those that haven't made up their mind yet, too!), there's a stickied thread that deals with building/upgrading your PCs for TS2...it's here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4293.0.html)  ;)

Thanks! I hope I will find the card and the ram; heh I know it's crap (I payed it 20 €  ;D), anyway luckily I don't have to use it for TS2, only for SimPE, that's why I didn't ask for really "good" PCs  able to run TS2 (I run TS2 on Mac).

Hi, I'm a lurker who just joined. I thought I would jump in and ask if I just screwed up with the new video card I ordered. Its a GeForce FX5200 256m. I currently have the FX5500 128mb card. My system has 2g ram and my cpu is AMD Athalon 64 3200+ and I have a 550w PSU (Custom build, not box pc's for me!). Since installing Seasons, I've had to use the useshaders cheat to see the fish in the ponds, always had to for the tanks. But I get tons of lag on my larger lots when it rains or snows. I was hoping more memory on the card would solve that problem. I sure hope I didn't just waste $80~

Any advice?

Why in the heck would you DOWNGRADE your card? More memory on the card won't do any good, and the older/slower card will just make the game lag worse.  Can you cancel the order? Where did you order it from? You have to call Newegg, but they'll cancel for you, as long as it hasn't already shipped.

I didn't realize I was downgrading. I thought, apparently erroneously, that more ram on the card was an upgrade. I bought it from TigerDirect. And I know its been shipped already. Bought it last night, shipped it early this morning. I'll have to check what their exchange policy is. TigerDirect is where I buy most of the pc components I purchase from but I've never had to exchange anything. What would you recommend for a PCI slot? (Just PCI, not PCI-e

First of all, you're probably better off switching to an ATI card, as far as TS2 is concerned.  I found an  x1300  (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2467314&CatId=319)  Newegg has it for $5 less outright, plus their shipping is less, on top of that.

I'm stuck with only a PCI slot too. Choices are pretty limited I'm afraid. I asked around and I think it was Cwykes who recommended an ATI Radeon 9250 with 256 mb for PCI. I upgraded last summer so hopefully they are still around. I have had no issues with the card at all and can put most settings on high. I upped my ram to 2gb as well which probably helps. I get a little lag on very large lots and snow and rain do slow it down very slightly.
If anyone can recommend a better card for our antiquated PCI slot machines I'd be interested to hear about it too.

 :) Thank you for the information. I'm going to call TigerDirect in the morning and see if there is any way I can get a refund or exchange.

I think the problem with knowing what card to get is in not knowing what to look for in a video card. What would you recommend for others to research before deciding on what card to get? If its not ram, then what specifically do you look for?

Again, I appreciate your willingness to shed some light and give advice on this. I can piece together systems from the ground up but as far as I've gotten in to it, a video card is a video card and I would love to know more about what makes one kick butt as opposed to just barely getting the job done.

Pythia, its hard to believe that when you consider I built this pc just a little over a year ago that it is already so outdated. Technology moves way too fast sometimes!  ;)

(random suggestions deleted after being edited a billion times)

...

Bleh...it's hard to write a good guide when at work. Let me point you too to the direction of this thread (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4293.0.html), which contains everything I could think of as guidelines, and then some!

Well, my items are out for delivery per the tracking site so I should have them in the next few hours. Everybody perform a ritual sacrifice to the computer gods for me - I'm hoping installation of everything goes smoothly. Actually, I'll probably put it off till tomorrow since I'll have the whole day to install and (hopefully) play. I figure I'll do the RAM first then move on to the power supply then finally the video card.

A couple last minute questions... when installing the 4 new RAM sticks what's the best way to do it-- all at once, one by one, pairs? Should I remove all my 512 mb sticks before I start adding the 1 gb's or should I do it in parts and check that the new RAM is being recognized between installing each stick? Also, will TS2 automatically "detect" the new video card when it comes to deciding on my default settings, etc. or will I have to do something to make it realize that I've switched (I'll be seriously pissed if I install this thing and it still tries to default me to low settings!)?

I've been trying to read up on all this stuff (including Hegelian's awesome thread) but I am most definitely non-awesome and I find myself glazing over as soon as the technobabble starts. Then it's all BFBVFS in my head. Thanks again for all the help.

KLGFGC, now this is something I know about unlike picking out the right card. I would install the power supply first, then the ram and then the video card. Not that the order as far as the ram and PSU matters, I just think it makes more sense.
As far as the game recognizing the card, I'm sure it will do just fine.

Read your computer documentation as on some machines, you have to install in a certain slot order.

I figured I'd update this and hopefully get a little bit more advice with a problem I'm having.

The video card upgrade was beyond easy-- the hardest part was getting the old card out (the retaining clip didn't want to let go) but putting in the new card was effortless. I did initially forget to plug in the power to the card (duh- but see below, after all that hassle, I was frazzled) but my computer cheerfully screamed at me when I tried to turn it on with a nice helpful "plug in your card dumbass" message and once that was fixed it was all good.

The PSU was a pain in the ass - the original I bought didn't have a connector I needed so I went to Best Buy and bought one that had a picture of the connector I need on the box (I still don't know what it's for... 4 pin for ATX or something like that??). The Best Buy power supply was a little too big for my case, however (it's a tool-less case so the PSU is held with a plastic clip that didn't allow the bigger PSU to fit). I got it wedged in and I'm hoping it lasts forever because I'm not entirely sure I could get it back out. But the actual plugging in things is cake... not a problem at all. So, my big advice for PSU upgrades is know the connectors you need and check the dimensions of the unit. If all that is good, installation should take just a few minutes.

But, here's the big problem. I can't get my computer to recognize more than 3 GB of RAM. It doesn't matter what I do, I've tried many, many combinations of my GB sticks and my 512 MB sticks and just can't get above 3. I can't track it down to any one of my GB sticks - it doesn't seem to matter which ones I use. One thing that is interesting, however, is if, for example, I have in 4 GB sticks, the computer shows a total of 3 GB. However, if I replace two of the GB sticks with 512 sticks upon start-up I get a message that "firmware has detected that memory has decreased, press enter." So, it seems like on some level it recognizes that the 4 GB sticks are more memory than the second option even though it shows a total of 3 GB for both alternatives. WTF? Any help appreciated. I figure I'll be calling tech support in the future but I have to mentally prepare myself for that hell ("Okay, now let's turn your computer on, do you know how to do that? Okay, I have a check-list of 7000 things to do that have nothing to do with your problem, do you have 16 hours to go through the list with me?").

I suck at maths, I know but...this doesn't add up! 2 1GB sticks+2 512 GB sticks=3 GB total...unless you have some obscure motherboard that has more than 4 RAM slots! (read one of your older posts, scratch that!) Or you have 1 2GB stick and 1 1GB...I'm confuzzled!
Try upgrading your BIOS. Keep in mind, however, that each motherboard manufacturer has its own way of getting that done. So, for starters find out exactly the name and model of your motherboard, then go the the manufacturer's site and follow the instructions DILIGENTLY. Keep your fingers crossed, pray, do a ceremonial dance or ritual sacrifice and hopefully all will go well  ;)
Just had another thought: have you installed SP2? Might solve the puzzle without the need to upgrade your BIOS. Also, before you embark on the semi-risky procedure of upgrading the BIOS, do a thorough search for your motherboard to see if it actually supports 4GB and if yes, in what stick configuration. Some mobos plainly refuse to recognize 4 1GB sticks but have no problems whatsoever with 2 2GB sticks. Crazy things, the computers!

Eh... I can't be tossed to re-read the whole thread.  Aside from what's already been suggested, I kinda lightly skimmed some of the other stuff... but, if you're having trouble getting your ram recognized, I would make sure you checked the mobo specs.

The obvious things are:

Make sure you are using the proper RAM (DDR vs. DDR2, the correct frequency/Mhz, etc.).  You can't really mix and match between certain types i.e. I'm pretty sure you cant use DDR and DDR2 RAM together.  Your mobo probably has a maximum Mhz that it can use.  Also, ideally, you shouldn't mix RAM with different Mhz, although it should still work, the "speed" of the RAM will drop to the whichever has the lowest.  Finally, much older mobos and apparently the more recent mobos require RAM to be paired.  I'm pretty sure older ones definitely required paired RAM.  There was a time where you could have non-paired RAM (my sister's machine actually only has 3 RAM slots).  But I think nowadays, newer mobos recommend having paired, dual channel RAM.

As for the PSU and what not... I dunno how old your case is... but I've been told you shouldn't get any weird shaped cases.  I'm assuming that you're also upgrading your own machine (I'm obviously not an expert myself), but I've found that ATX compatible cases seem to be the best kind, or the most popular at least.  Seems to be a standard form factor, and most parts seem to be designed to fit into them, so I'd say you're less likely to run into troubles involving wedging things in to make em fit. :P

Incidentally, I managed to build my machine this weekend.  Well... actually, I had the hubby do the majority of the work. Heheh.  I kinda futz around with it for awhiles, before gettin frustrated with things and ultimately makin him do it.  He was originally supervising, but then I got fed up listenin to his advice and wanting to do it my own way.  And he got fed up with me bitching and ignoring him and he ended up wanting to just do it himself so I would stop complaining about it.  I struggled a bit, but I managed to follow along and I think I can handle putting my next machine together.  I did manage to install the CPU and CPU fan.  Lol.  I started to put the mobo in, but then he ended up "correcting" me.  And then he plugged in all the rest of the wires.  :P  It probably would have went faster and smoother that way if he did it all himself from the get go. Lol.  In the end, it wasn't so bad.

Anyhew, one piece of advice I didn't stick to, is that you really should check the specs of your parts and make sure everything is compatible and what not.  Not that I had any serious issues... but one thing is, my case has a built-in firewire port, but I stupidly chose a mobo that does not support firewire. :P  I didn't know better, because I didn't know what IEEE-1394 meant, and I didn't think it was all that important.  If I really needed a firewire port, I suppose I could install a PCI card Or just use a firewire to USB converter or what not... but still, it would've been nice to be able to have that built-in port working.  It seems like such a waste.

Anyhew, I'm hoping to have my new machine up and running by tonight.  I'm split between finishing updating some of my other hacks... or finishing installing all of my software onto my new computer.  :P

Ste

...did you make sure the power supply is compatible with your motherboard? That is why I stuck with a low grade graphics card instead of going beyond that and having to buy a new power supply, because it seems the only power supplies that I can buy for it are only 300W high. My motherboard is a MicroATX, by the way.

Newegg has some 350 and 400w micro ATX power supplies.  I don't know how good they are, but better than a 300w, probably.