Hi all,
Just a quick question for the masses to see if they can help steer me in a direction.
I have an old machine (in sig, copy/pasted here):
Intel Q6600 with XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU HSF | Asus P5Q Pro | Asus Radeon HD 4850 with Zalman VF900 VGA HSF | 2x2 GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 RAM | 520W Corsair PSU | WD Black 1 TB 7200 RPM
that I had retired.. but my girlfriend recently saw me playing Diablo3 and she got interested, so I reformatted the machine, installed Win7 & D3.. and let her play. Two weeks later, she's having fun and enjoying herself.. but after seeing me game on my machine, she's a bit "jealous" that it runs so much smoother and better on my own machine.
It's around Christmas time, and I already have her Christmas gifts, but I thought I'll throw in another $150 and see if there's anything I can do with the old machine to make sure enjoy D3 more.
The two things I was thinking was: SSD and/or GFX Card. My own thoughts is that a SSD would allow the game to LOAD faster, but how much would it help w/ the gaming experience itself? And GFX card... we're talking sub $150, so I'm not sure how much "bang for buck" I can get for that either, before something like the CPU becomes a limiting factor.
Just not sure what will be limiting what in this old setup.. from the CPU to RAM to GFX to HD. My own thoughts focuses on the GFX, but I'm also aware of the general recommendation for old machine: get a SSD (and this is an older machine for her, not me.. so I'm willing to buy a brand like PNY over Samsung/Dell for SSD, saving quite a bit of $).
[edit] The machine is connected to a Dell 2007WFP, so no very high resolution support is needed
Just a quick question for the masses to see if they can help steer me in a direction.
I have an old machine (in sig, copy/pasted here):
Intel Q6600 with XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU HSF | Asus P5Q Pro | Asus Radeon HD 4850 with Zalman VF900 VGA HSF | 2x2 GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 RAM | 520W Corsair PSU | WD Black 1 TB 7200 RPM
that I had retired.. but my girlfriend recently saw me playing Diablo3 and she got interested, so I reformatted the machine, installed Win7 & D3.. and let her play. Two weeks later, she's having fun and enjoying herself.. but after seeing me game on my machine, she's a bit "jealous" that it runs so much smoother and better on my own machine.
It's around Christmas time, and I already have her Christmas gifts, but I thought I'll throw in another $150 and see if there's anything I can do with the old machine to make sure enjoy D3 more.
The two things I was thinking was: SSD and/or GFX Card. My own thoughts is that a SSD would allow the game to LOAD faster, but how much would it help w/ the gaming experience itself? And GFX card... we're talking sub $150, so I'm not sure how much "bang for buck" I can get for that either, before something like the CPU becomes a limiting factor.
Just not sure what will be limiting what in this old setup.. from the CPU to RAM to GFX to HD. My own thoughts focuses on the GFX, but I'm also aware of the general recommendation for old machine: get a SSD (and this is an older machine for her, not me.. so I'm willing to buy a brand like PNY over Samsung/Dell for SSD, saving quite a bit of $).
[edit] The machine is connected to a Dell 2007WFP, so no very high resolution support is needed