Help! Computer ? re: system requirements, pls!

[beanqueen]

hi,

well here i am delurking again w/ a desperate 'non-fitness' question (sorry!) . actually, whenever i have an off-beat question nobody can seem to help me with...the cathe-ites always comes through to the rescue! yay! so..i thought i'd try asking on this one, too..hoping for the best.

i know many of you are busy ready-ing yourselves for the road trip (lucky girls!!!)..but i was hoping somebody that knows computers (i am hopelessly illiterate!) could help me out.

my 2 sons just got some new video games (pc games) but i'm not sure if their computer software/hardware can support the games. once i open the package (game) it non-returnable! so if it doesn't work..we're stuck and out $$$$ the game states what the system requirements are, BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT MY KIDS' COMPUTERS HAVE IN TERMS OF CAPABILITIES! is there a way to access that on their computers (i.e. 'my computer' something or other?) to figure out if their computers will jive w/ the games we bought?

some of the stuff on the games' box says something about 3d hardware accelerator, 100% direct x 9.0 comptabible 16 bit sound card, 8x cd rom drive.......eeeek! i don't get any of it!

i'd appreciate any suggestions !!!

thanks so much! (btw, my boys say "thanks", too!

bq

 

[materialsgirl]

Well, there are a couple of things you could do. The first, and probably more time-consuming method, would be to right click on My Computer, and select Properties. You should see a tab labeled Device Manager. Under this tab, you will be able to see all the hardware installed on the PC - but it will probably be listed by model name/number, rather than capability. So you'll have to jot down those model names/numbers, and go to the websites for the manufacturers to find out what kind of capability those components have. Kind of a pain.

The other option would be for you to find out what brand and model number of PC you are dealing with (ie, Dell Dimension 4700). As long as no modifications have been made to the hardware since you bought it, you can probably search on the computer manufacturer's website for your model number and find out what the minimum specs are for that computer.

This may sound overwhelming, so feel free to PM me if you get stuck or need more help.

 

[andtckrtoo]

Emily is right - you can also call up your computer manufacturer and have them do the checking, as long as you did not make any changes to the system.

 

[Kit_]

If the computer is more then 2 years old, and you just bought some brand new games, basically cost you $40 or more. You video card needs the newest drivers, as well as your soundcard. You may also need to update windows as a lot of games depend on the new patches. There's a lot more to games then just hardware, upgrades. You got to constantly have the new software updates as well. If you need help figure out anything, feel free to send me an email:

[email protected]

I build my own computers, and I'm addicted to Cathe and video games.

Here is some info: 8x speed cd rom, if it's 3 years old or newer, you more then likely have at least an 8x cd-rom, this is how fast it can read, the little cd, as it spends around.

3d hardware accelerator is located on your video card, if your computer is 2 years old, and wasn't top of the line when you bought it, it probably doesn't have this.

Drect X 9.0 can be downloaded for free if you don't have it, but since it says compatible, it's already on that game cd, which means, if you upgrade the computer, it will be install atomically once the computer can read that game CD. (basically don't worry about this, it's easy to fix, as long as you got the hardware that can do it, which leads us back to the video card.)

16 bit sound card, has been a round for a while, probably something you don't have to worry about upgrading.

Basically if all you have to do is upgrade the video card, your looking at $100 + right now for each computer, if you have to have someone else do it for you.

But since I don't know how old your computer is, I'm going to say starting price for an upgrade is at $100 and it's going to go up high and higher the older the computer is. Especially if it's not at least a P3, P3 is a type of chip and you should be able to find that out with the instructions Emily gave you. As they don't make a 3d accelerator for anything under a P3, which means you'll need a whole new computer.

If I may make a suggestion? If that computer is more then 2 years old, seriously think about taking those games back and getting your money back, and use it to upgrade the computer. By the time you get enough to upgrade, there wlll be new games and those will be old and who wants to play an old game, when there are these really cool new games that you just have to have?

Kit