New PC! Any recommended programs or games?

I finally got my new PC.
To me it´s ultra powerful, to you mid-end, to Evil Man low-end
So, does anybody here know any good PC applications or games I should get? I already have Microsoft Office 2003, Norton Anti-Virus, Photoshop Elements, Half-life 2 and TES Oblivion.
What I love the most is my DiBoss 23" TFT monitor. The picture is fantastic. I mean damn, most monitors I´ve looked at were shit but the picture quality of this one is incredible.
So now, give me everything I need

Nice man!

Last two PC games I got were Company of Heroes and GTR2. I' d really recommend CoH even if you' re not a big rts fan. It' s really well made.

Come on man we want to see your specs.

If you like competitive FPS games I reccommend BF 2142 if you haven' t played BF 2 on PC.

If you like anything to do with space and love MMOs. The best and most sophisticated MMO by far is EVE. This game is the most impressive game ever made, if you disagree then you don' t know anything about it. The game is one single area, no instancing or shards. So if 30 000 people are playing then you are playing with 29 000 people. The entire game is all in one server where averyone has access to everything and everyone. The game is massive, soemthing like 5 000 solar systems. The economy is entirely player driven and the careers are numerous and distinct. If you want to be a space pirate and just pray on the noobs you can (and people do), if you wan to build your own empire you can. You want to be a mercanary,miner,assassin,scientist,ship manufacturer,transporter,trader, the possiblilities in this game is crazy!

This is the most hardcore game I' ve ever seen, if you can handle it its amazing.

http://www.eve-online.com/

anything but BF 2142

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

Come on man we want to see your specs.

Ok, I´m not good with specs so I don´t know what this means:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
RAM: 2gb ddr2 ram
HDD: 500gb
Sound: Sound Blaster Xtreme gamer fatal1ty with front module
Windows XP Home Edition
6 USB 2.0
ATI Radeon X1900 512 MB VGA PCIe VIVO 2xDVi
DiBoss 23" WIDE TFT Monitor 800cd/m2 Contrast 800:1 8ms 2scart, RCA, S-Video, D-Sub, DVI-D, Resolution 1366x768 (WXGA).

I have this problem, the image is stretched out on the monitor so everything looks wide. Does anyone know how to make things look like normal?

ORIGINAL: ginjirou

Come on man we want to see your specs.

Ok, I´m not good with specs so I don´t know what this means:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
RAM: 2gb ddr2 ram
HDD: 500gb
Sound: Sound Blaster Xtreme gamer fatal1ty with front module
Windows XP Home Edition
6 USB 2.0
ATI Radeon X1900 512 MB VGA PCIe VIVO 2xDVi
DiBoss 23" WIDE TFT Monitor 800cd/m2 Contrast 800:1 8ms 2scart, RCA, S-Video, D-Sub, DVI-D, Resolution 1366x768 (WXGA).

Your PC is great, your monitor is bad, ...probably because it' s a TV or a strange hybrid.

The aspect ratio of the monitor is 16:9 but as long as you set your desktop to 1366 x 768 then Windows and your programs should look fine. Games however will appear squashed if set to a 4:3 or 5:4 aspect ratio resolution. Some games, like HL2 have a widescreen option which allows you to select widescreen resolutions but many don' t.

your monitor is bad, ...probably because it' s a TV or a strange hybrid.

Are you sure? It looks better than many other monitors I' ve seen. But then I don' t know much about monitors so maybe it does suck.

How do you change to 1366x768 resolution?
I tried checking properties on the desktop but I can' t find that resolution. Also, it says this monitor' s resolution is 1024x768, maybe I can' t fix the problem
I can swits to 4:3 aspect ratio but that' s no fun!
Gah! Damn PC' s, I' ll never get along with them!

EDIT: Oh nevermind, I managed to fix the resolution.

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
RAM: 2gb ddr2 ram
HDD: 500gb
Sound: Sound Blaster Xtreme gamer fatal1ty with front module
Windows XP Home Edition
6 USB 2.0
ATI Radeon X1900 512 MB VGA PCIe VIVO 2xDVi
DiBoss 23" WIDE TFT Monitor 800cd/m2 Contrast 800:1 8ms 2scart, RCA, S-Video, D-Sub, DVI-D, Resolution 1366x768 (WXGA).

*..Drooling... *
Awesome machine

Meh! It' s good for doing PC stuff such as working, chatting, visiting Kikizo and such but as a gaming machine I' m a little... bored of it.
I can' t wait until I get my hands on the Wii

Your PC is good, pretty much the same as mine. Make sure you have good headphones and turn on the 24 bit crystalizer when playing mp3s and movies. It sounds amazing.

You have to right click on the desktop and select properties. Then click the settings tab on the top.
There should be a slider where you can set your resolution. Set it to the exact resolution of your monitor. Otherwise your monitor will have to scale which drastically reduces the image quality. (don' t listen to evil man he is a dumbass)

Whenever you play games go into the system options and set your resolution to the exact same as your monitor if you can. Games should still run smooth setting everything else to the maximum settings.

And make sure you have your monitor hooked up with the DVI cord.
Your monitor is basically just an average HDTV LCD. Not something I would prefer to use but it isn' t that bad.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

ORIGINAL: ginjirou

Ok, I´m not good with specs so I don´t know what this means:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+

LMAO.

I stopped reading there. The lowest end Core Duo is better than that shit and is like $120 cheaper.

LMAO.

I stopped reading there. The lowest end Core Duo is better than that shit and is like $120 cheaper.

The Intel Core2Duo E6300 is not better then the AM2 X2 5200+. However you have a point in that the C2D are better then the aging AMD line, an E6600 would have been better then a 5200+ and cheaper depending on the motherboards you choose for each. It doesn' t really matter though, eventually AMD is going to renew its cpu line and jump ahead of Intel continuing the cycle of them leap froggin eachother. In the mean time a X2 5200+ will be more then sufficient before he gets a quad core AM3 or AM4 proccessor.

If I were to build a new computer, which I did a few months ago. I would have went with a low end videocard and wait until next summer/fall before getting a DX10 card along with Windows Vista. Why spend hundreds on a high end videocard when in a few months it will not be able to support the best graphical features in the biggest games?

Evil Man that is really funny coming from someone who bought a Pentium D.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

Original: Ginjirou

Are you sure? It looks better than many other monitors I' ve seen. But then I don' t know much about monitors so maybe it does suck.

...

Original: lolopuyo

Your monitor is basically just an average HDTV LCD

... Yeah, i' m pretty sure...

Still, if your happy with it then it' s all good, but make sure you connect via DVI.

As for what you should get software-wise, try GRAW, FEAR, EVE (if it' s your thing), World of Warcraft (if it' s your thing) and Rome: Total war.

As for what you should get software-wise, try GRAW, FEAR, EVE (if it' s your thing), World of Warcraft (if it' s your thing) and Rome: Total war.

Graw? I thought you said the PC version sucked?
WoW, no way! It' s evil. Countless people have literally lost their lives on that game.
Rome: Total War and FEAR are great so I' ll probably get those.
*sigh* PC' s aren' t for gaming.

Prey

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

I tried out the demo and it looks awesome but the gameplay is... not so good.
Is it worth buying? I imagine that I' ll get bored with the graphics and find the gameplay too sinmple to really enjoy it.
I liked Age of Empires 2, is AoE3 any good?

AOE3 is a great game, so is Rise of Nations but not as good as AOE3. Wasn' t there an expansion released for AOE3 as well?

I love battlefeild. Download the Demos if you want, the bf2 demo is 512 while the newer bf2142 is 1gb. Cant say which is better as bf2142 is too new too me [even though i played the beta ]

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

The demo for Prey is just the first level, that' s why it is so simple. It gets very complex and there are a lot of crazy puzzles. I thought it was the best FPS single player experience ever.

AoE3 is good, but I never played single player, just multiplayer on it.
Rome Total War is good too.

I don' t like FEAR but I don' t like scary games and you can download the FEAR multiplayer for free, but it sucks.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

I have FEAR, and while it isnt the best game in the world, it is a mindless shooter.

Good game to waste time on.

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

ORIGINAL: Agent Ghost

LMAO.

I stopped reading there. The lowest end Core Duo is better than that shit and is like $120 cheaper.

The Intel Core2Duo E6300

Yes it is, learn to overclock. A 5200+ wont overclock for shit. You might as well buy an 3800+ and OC that to atleast 4800 speeds, which isn' t hard to do.

ORIGINAL: locopuyo

Evil Man that is really funny coming from someone who bought a Pentium D.

Wrong.

First, I get any intel CPU for free before they' re even out to retailers. And I have a Core 2 Duo.

Overclocking sounds scary so I would never do that anyway.
Besides, I barely play PC games anyway since there are so few games I like so I' ll mostly use this PC to chat, work and browse the Internet. You don' t need an overclocked processor to do that, eh?

Heh, I don' t think you' ll need to OC that system.

I' m getting Splinter Cell:DA for PC. It' s cheaper, but they always delay the PC version for some reason. Comes out next week. I' m not so interested in the multiplayer so I don' t mind not being able to play on XBLive.

FEAR and Prey I would recommend. Don' t go by the demos tho, cos they sucked in comparison. And Quake 4 is the best sounding game I' ve played on PC so far, and will really make good use of your X-Fi Fatality. D' yu have any good speakers?

The latest drivers are essential however.

TOTAL WAR!!!!

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

As ginjirou pointed our Evil not everyone wants to overclock their bran new computer. I did because I took the time to learn how and saved a few hundred but if you don' t know how easy it is when you buy the cpu its easy to get a high end proc.


Ginjirou overclocking isn' t about making this uber powerful cpu, because high end cpus (especially with AMD) do not overclock to speeds that much higher then the low end. The idea is that you can spend 200-300 dollars on a low end cpu and easilly push it to speeds of the 500-600 dollar cpu. The only real downside is that your cpu is hotter when overclocking and thus your cpu fan makes more noise. However this is easilly remedied and even greatly improved upon if you buy an after market cpu cooler.

I see.
But this is not a thread about the specs of my PC or how to enhance them because I don' t know much about specs, simply because I don' t care much.
All I know is that I can now play PC games without trouble so I' d like you to just tell me every single PC game worth buying. Or other software that' s nice to have.
It doesn' t matter if it' s an old game either, just as long as it' s fun. I usually spend more time playing emulators than new games on PC.

Well, it' s not graphics intensive, but I spend more time editing Super Mario World levels in Lunar Magic than anything else on my box.

... I guess you didnt take my total war comment to heart. I was pointing you in the direction of Rome:Total War and Medievil 2:Total War. Fantastic games.

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

I noticed your Total war advice. My post was aimed at the guys talking about specs and stuff.
I' ll probably get the total war games.
I played Shogun Total War when it was released and I loved it so I guess the newer entries in the series should be even better.
Command & Conquer The first Decade, Age Of Empires 3, Rome: Total War and Medievil 2: Total War. Those are great stretegy games I' m planing to buy.
Prey, F.E.A.R., Star Wars Republic Commando and SWAT 4 in the FPS genre.
That' s pretty much every game worth buying for PC that' s been released the past five years...

Dont forget the great looking C&C3, and a game i really want to play, grim fandango, if your into point and click adventures, the first two Broken Swords are a must!

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

grim fandango, if your into point and click adventures, the first two Broken Swords are a must!

An A+ to all of the above. Methinks I' m gonna play those again.

I guess you didnt take my total war comment to heart. I was pointing you in the direction of Rome:Total War and Medievil 2:Total War. Fantastic games.

Yes Silent is right! You must get these games especially Rome Total War! Rome is a phenomenal game that has to be played. Trust me, you will be addicted to this game, you will not regret getting it!
I also recommend Football Manager 2007, the Football Manager games are so addictive its scary!

There is a set that has all the Total War games. I wouldn' t bother though, just wait for Total War II coming out soon. Which is a must buy.

ORIGINAL: Agent Ghost

As ginjirou pointed our Evil not everyone wants to overclock their bran new computer. I did because I took the time to learn how and saved a few hundred but if you don' t know how easy it is when you buy the cpu its easy to get a high end proc.


Ginjirou overclocking isn' t about making this uber powerful cpu, because high end cpus (especially with AMD) do not overclock to speeds that much higher then the low end. The idea is that you can spend 200-300 dollars on a low end cpu and easilly push it to speeds of the 500-600 dollar cpu. The only real downside is that your cpu is hotter when overclocking and thus your cpu fan makes more noise. However this is easilly remedied and even greatly improved upon if you buy an after market cpu cooler.

I helped a friend build a budget system, put in a e6300 in there, runs at stock 1.86ghz, I overclocked that to 3ghz ON AIR, all stock too and didnt even have to increase cpu/ram voltage, and he had some cheap ass Corsair " Value" ram that kept fucking up the overclock when I tried to go over 3ghz, if he had spent $30 or so more on the ram and got something decent I could' ve probably gotten that up to 3.2-3.6ghz, or even more.

There is no risk to doing this you dont even have to play around with voltages, if it doesnt work any decent motherboard will just reset to default settings, core 2 duo is awesome for OCing even for newbies.

No one mentioned programs.
Zone alarm
AntiVir

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Diskeeper, Opera, Winamp, Gaim

AV and extra firewalls are for nubs

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

If I want to mess around with making pictures, flash or 3D stuff, what programs should I get?

Maya or Lightwave for 3D stuff, whatever that macromedia flash thingy is called for making flash stuff.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

Macromedia Flash Professional 8.

For 3D stuff; 3DSMax, LightWave, Maya, Softimage or ZBrush.

Go HERE for a 3D tools comparison chart that should find useful.