Legit Reviews

Hi, I have a packard bell computer , windows xp. I want to know how i can turn this computer into one i can use for gaming. I bought lord of the rings: battle for middle earth after installing a nvidia GeForce 7600 gs graphics card. Even with this graphics card i still experience the game crashing and locking up, is this a processor issue ? I have been looking at processors through the internet and they seem a reasonable price and I was told to look for an intel pentium D processor for gaming. Will this actually stop my computer from crashing when i play game such as lord of the rings ? Please reply.. thanks

I would get an Intel Core 2 Duo - this may require a motherboard and memory upgrade depending on your configuration however.

Why don't you post your current PC specs? Then it will be easier for us to figure out where you need upgrades. I was somewhat surprised to see you using a Packard Bell since I haven't seen a computer from them for the last 8 years or so, but as I just found out from wikipedia (I use it more than I should, I know ) they still make PCs in other places of the world, even though they left the US market (so your pc might not be as outdated as I first thought).

crash could due to your psu as most of these pre-build system's psu is crappy and if you upgrdae teh gfx you may not have enough juice to power it.

I'd also say power supply.

How much / & type memory are you running in your pc?

Obvious question: Some games dont run as well unless you get the newest patch for the game. Also you have the newest nvidia drivers?

It's hard to say without your PC specs

Only graphics card alone can't boost ur games.You must have other devices equivalent to your graphics card so that no bottleneck occurs when u r playing games.Let us know the full configuration of your PC.

R3N3G4D3 wrote:Why don't you post your current PC specs? Then it will be easier for us to figure out where you need upgrades. I was somewhat surprised to see you using a Packard Bell since I haven't seen a computer from them for the last 8 years or so, but as I just found out from wikipedia (I use it more than I should, I know ) they still make PCs in other places of the world, even though they left the US market (so your pc might not be as outdated as I first thought).

Okay here are my pc specs ( I am not sure what i need to be telling you but i'll type in anything i can find out about my pc ) :

2.16 Ghz
512 MB of Ram
Windows xp home edition
AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2700+ processor
Nvidia GeForce 7600 Gs

I am not sure if this information helps .. if not then please post what specs i need to give you .. Thanks for your help.

It also helps to know if you are getting any messages in the locks/crashes. your computer has ample specs to run this game properly, the other guys are right, a chinsy ps will cause system instability and installing your new 7600 gs will add a substantial amount of power drain if you just came from integrated graphics, leaving your other hardware choking for more. Read your video card manual and see if you have its power requirements, you should be able to see the wattage of your ps on the sticker on the side.

Go to this page, http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp & calculate if u've the right PSU.Also check that if u r using the latest Nvidia drivers for ur graphics card.

512MB memory is not very much!
I would upgrade memory, or build a whole Core2Duo System

more memory

Athlon XPs support dual channel memories.So,it would be better if you can get two 512 MB memories running on dual channel mode.That should help.