OldUnreal (Engine)

I'm going to punch the guy that suggested I get a Radeon 4650.

D:
Why? Maybe nVidia has a somewhat more powerful alternative for the same price, considering the excessibly aggressive pricing they are using to beat AMD, but I don't know much about them, their naming is too confusing for me to care (at least until I start looking for a new pc). For that, benchmarks should prove a powerful allies.

As for the prices, AMD focuses on keeping low prices where the money is, that is, their HD 4xxx series, elsewhere things are usually more expansive.
Something similar happened when I was hunting for a AGP card, aside from being few, the HD ones where 50% expansiver than their PCI-E counterparts.

Hmm, it does seem that both ATI and nVidia have very odd naming schemes. Looking at this page:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gami ... e,538.html
You can see that from ATI, one of the best cards is HD2900 XT, while one of the worst cards is HD2400 XT... Same goes with nVidia: one of the best is 8800, one of the worst is 8400. Guess this is where you meet the Windows Phenomenon: consumers always believe that what's new and has a higher number is better, while it might be the same, just renamed and expensive, or even worse.

This page is a good example:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gami ... d[1607]=on

As you can see, in fact, the best card is the cheapest one. It's bad in consumers' eyes just because it has a low number printed on it... Thus the price.

EDIT: For you, this page is possibly the best for reference. Mass Effect is very similar to UT3.
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gami ... t,771.html
So far it seems you could get HD 4670 for $70 and play pretty acceptably.

For gaming, I'd stick with nVidia. For work, I'd stick with nVidia. For running the god damn BIOS, I'd stick with nVidia. For looking at the pretty BSoDs, I'd stick with nVidia. Just my 2,5 cents.

I'm going to punch the guy that suggested I get a Radeon 4650.

D:
Why?

Judging by that comment, it seems you assumed I was talking to you. Sorry, I was talking about someone else at Beyond Unreal.

The thing is, I'm sick of people telling me what will run UT3 and what won't. I wanted a specific setup (E5200 2.5 GHz Pentium Dual-core CPU and HD Radeon 4650) but someone told me the game would run badly. I watched a video on Youtube and a guy was using all of that while running Fraps at the same time and didn't lag. I wanted to get an ATI x1800 but someone told me that it was over several years old and it will run UT3 like crap. But that's not half the problem.

WARNING: LONG READ APPROACHING

GPU manufacturers are being stupid with their pricing of video cards. Old cards that can run UT3 are more expensive than the relatively newer ones. I look for the older ones because I thought they'd be cheap and still run UT3, at least on lowest settings, but no, they're at least $40 dollars more expensive than the newer ones. That means the lowest price I can pay for a UT3-capable card is at least $70. And even worse, the most popular cards that can play UT3 ARE ALL OBSOLETE. I can buy a GeForce 6200 but not an 8800GT!? And some cards are even upgrades of previous ones: "9800 is exactly the same as an 8800 but slightly stronger and more expensive (at least, I think that's what it was. Correct me on that)." I want to just get this over with so I never have to deal with video cards again.

And finally, I'm sick of all of this "your card can't run UT3 because of this and this and this." Like: "Don't buy the 4650, buy the 4670", "If a card is more than 4 years old, it won't run UT3.", "It has to have more than 256 MB of memory on it.", "I needs to have this many stream processors.", and with the CPU: "2.4 GHz won't run it good.", "It needs to be Core2Duo, not just Dual-core (what's the f*cking difference!?)", with the RAM: "You need at least 2 GB", the monitor: "1024x768 is too small to play", and overall: "You need this kind of setup *lists ridiculously expensive items and tells me to upgrade to this if I want to be able to play other games even though the only game I want to play is UT3*." All of this just so I can play a single game. Then I tell them I'm okay with playing at lowest settings but the people I'm asking ignore that and assume I want to play at highest settings with the hardware I chose. Also, apparently, Epic doesn't know their own game enough to know what can and can't run it well. I will bet you if I buy an ATI x1800, a 2.4GHz Dual-core CPU, and have only 1 GB of RAM, I will be able to play the game, just not on this eMash*t computer.

I am reading the back of the box now and it clearly says 2.4+ GHz Dual Core Processor, 1 GBytes of System RAM, NVIDIA 7800GTX+ (WHICH IS FRIGGIN' OBSOLETE!!) or ATI x1300+ (which is a typo, they meant x1800) Video card, and 8GB of Free Hard Drive Space. They told me I would have a hard time on this setup. If so, WHY IS IT RECOMMENDED ON THE BOX ITSELF!? I hate all of this "upgrade" business. THIS is the sole reason I rarely ever play newer computer games. I didn't want to have to upgrade. But since I upgraded to a 6200 and play UT3 with it, I've been trying to get a better computer so I can play the game. And now it's like life is telling me "You're getting closer... closer... Whoops! Too bad!" because every time I think I'm close to being able to play it, I figure out something that totally destroys my hopes.

First, I was told I needed a new video card. At first, I said "No, I just got this card!!" but eventually I gave in, said "OK" and looked for a new video card. When I found a good one, someone told me I also needed to buy a new CPU. I said "No, I don't!" but also eventually agreed and decided to look for a new CPU. I found a pretty good one, but someone suggested I get an even better one and it was the same price as the previous one so I went with it. I aked my dad if he can buy the parts if I fix my grades and he agreed. Eventually, I fixed my grades and my parents agreed to buy the parts I wanted, but then I realized I needed a better Power Supply. I got furious. Then after wards, I was told my motherboard could not support Dual-cores. It was literally one "f*ck you" after another.

I eventually concluded that I could save up money, gut my current computer, and install the new parts. Then someone says that eMachines suck for cooling so I opted to buy a new case. Eventually, I had all the parts selected and saved to a wishlist. Several weeks later, the Titan Pack was released. I tried playing the game again but it crashed as always. I never got to at least experience the new HUD, so naturally I wanted to shoot someone. Then my parents get a new computer and it looked like it could run UT3. I asked someone and they said the Integrated GPU (NVIDIA GeForce 7100) was akin to a slightly better 6200 and that it might suffer the same fate as the 6200, which burned out and now can't play any game, even Unreal 1. Then my mom tells me that my dad was going to give me the computer if it fails to do its intended function (and that is using it for recording the footage from their security camera. If the drivers for the security camera don't work on the computer THEN my dad will give it to me).

I concluded that I could remove its E2220 Dual-core CPU once I get it, sell it, then buy the E5200 with the money, then the video card I wanted and install them. I tried to install the camera drivers to the computer myself to see if they would work, but I didn't know how. My parents said to wait until one of my brothers comes and does it. He never did. I then looked inside the computer out of curiosity and found that its PSU IS EVEN WORSE THAN MINE (mine is 300... megawatts? I forget. The new computer's PSU is 250!!).

So I concluded that when I get the computer, I have to buy a new PSU along with the CPU and video card. Now it's just a matter of wanting the camera drivers to NOT work, since the computer's OS is Vista, and everyone knows that most old drivers FAIL on Vista. My brother still hadn't installed the drivers, so I asked my dad if I could trade my computer for that one and swap out the harddrives, and he just got mad and said that if he gives me the computer, I won't do my homework or schoolwork.

The OPPOSITE effect happened. With me constantly yearning for that computer, I eventually started to care less about school. I started talking more and becoming more outgoing. I was conversing at least 4 times as much as before, and thus the grades I worked so hard to fix were dropping like a stone. I was only passing two classes, one of which was on the border of being failing. My apathy was overwhelming.

Now, however, I realized what was going on and am now trying to fix them again. I even went to the study session my school was having on Saturday. As a final kick in the balls (as of today), my school had a contest going that if you made a level 3 on the writing test, you would be entered in a drawing for $100 dollars, or $200 if you made a level 4. I made a level three (AND WAS ONE POINT AWAY FROM A LEVEL 4 D:) and they finally had that drawing today and I didn't get picked. All chances are completely destroyed of getting, upgrading, and playing UT3 on that computer besides the camera drivers not working. Even then, the only thing I can do once I DO get it is to sell the CPU and buy the E5200. After that, if I don't find a way to get money, I will NEVER get to play UT3. To add insult to injury, there are literally TONS of new content being released for UT3 almost every week and I'm missing out on every single one of them because my computer and luck both fail miserably.

And now you know why I never cared about getting new PC games and only bought console games. I'm one of those gamers who have a preference towards PC gaming but can only buy and play console games. It sucks. Good thing the only aspects of my life that I still love is the living part and the common sense part. Everything else has been shattered.

Wow, all of that and I hadn't made a single typo that I didn't catch. Also as a side note, I know it's just a game. I don't know why I did everything listed above for a game, but this isn't any ordinary game. This is UT3, a member of the Unreal franchise and UT subseries. You can't go wrong with ANY Unreal game. I love every Unreal game I've ever played (even Unreal 2!) and when I can't play one Unreal game, I never stop thinking of it and try and try to find ways to be able to play it. It was that way with Unreal 1, UT, and Unreal 2 when my brother had the only computer in the house, it was that way with UT2K4 when my computer couldn't play it because of some missing drivers, and now it's the same with UT3. It's taking me longer to finally be able to play UT3 whenever I want than all of the other games COMBINED (bought the 6200, played the UT3 beta demo, bought the full game, then started encountering problems all near the end of December, and now it's the middle of May. So that's... a little more than 5 months now, almost to the middle of this year. Incredible)

That's a really, really, really long post.

- Today's consoles are as expensive as a basic computer.
- The cfg recommended on the back on the box is usually the cfg that can run it in 800*600 with visual settings set to crap.
- Never had a driver problem in 1.5 years of using Vista (except with ATI, not because Vista as problems with drivers, but because Ati is still learning what a driver is).
- UT3 is demanding on hardware. BIG NEWS !

The above post was a joke btw.

That's a really, really, really long post.

- Today's consoles are as expensive as a basic computer.
- The cfg recommended on the back on the box is usually the cfg that can run it in 800*600 with visual settings set to crap.

I'd like to know what basic computer can run UT3 on it at maximum details and effects (referring to the PS3). If anything, the PS3 is equivalent to having a very powerful computer (or Supercomputer if you hook up 12 of them!).

And secondly, I played the demo on 800x600 with all settings lowest and still had loads of fun, so why not? On lowest settings, UT3 looks like UT2k4 with highest settings and blurry textures, and even then it still looks okay to me. Unlike 99.357% of PC gamers, I could care less if a game looks (referring to complexity of the engine) like UT3 or if it looks like, for example, Super Mario 64. The reason being, the shiny, hi-tech effects distract me. The only eyecandy I need is my opponent being ripped apart by an explosion. I'd rather play it with all settings lowest than not play it at all.

What I don't understand is why you're so agressive and heinous about graphic cards, UT3, game industry, hardware industry etc... Just have a powerful graphic card and this all will be over.
You've been complaining for months now about hardware, and its seems we're not going anywhere. Take a high-end card, like, I don't know, an ATI HD3870 or 4850/4870, or some Nvidia 8xxx or 9xxx (GTX2xx if you have some cash left) and play. Otherwise, take something from the previous generation of cards and it will be more than ok.
if you can't afford a new card, then it's useless to fantasize about ultra-eyecandy games like ut3, crysis and such.

Lol Hellkeeper now you're telling him what to buy.

And finally, I'm sick of all of this "your card can't run UT3 because of this and this and this." Like: "Don't buy the 4650, buy the 4670", "If a card is more than 4 years old, it won't run UT3.", "It has to have more than 256 MB of memory on it.", "I needs to have this many stream processors."

Shields up, phasers to ready.

What I don't understand is why you're so agressive and heinous about graphic cards, UT3, game industry, hardware industry etc... Just have a powerful graphic card and this all will be over.
You've been complaining for months now about hardware, and its seems we're not going anywhere. Take a high-end card, like, I don't know, an ATI HD3870 or 4850/4870, or some Nvidia 8xxx or 9xxx (GTX2xx if you have some cash left) and play. Otherwise, take something from the previous generation of cards and it will be more than ok.
if you can't afford a new card, then it's useless to fantasize about ultra-eyecandy games like ut3, crysis and such.

It seems you didn't read my post. I CAN'T get a new card because then I'd need to buy a new PSU. And someone told me to get a Dual-Core CPU along with the video card but now all of a sudden I don't need one?

Do as I said earlier: get a PSU that is decent, then get a decent card. If UT3 fails, get a CPU. If UT3 fails, get a RAM. If UT3 fails, throw your PC out the window and get a pre-built one.

This whole discussion pretty much confuses me. Its so easy to clean this up.
I'm building and selling PC's for over 10 years now, special solutions for my customers. Gamers, business and servers.
Often I have clients with the same problems you describe and always some so called "pro" is giving another stupid advice.
Indeed in many cases the problem is that any of these just had some good experience with this component or with that component, disregarding the rest of your setup.

Oh well.

Step 1: Checking the OS
In many cases a real clean up of the OS is more efficient that buying directly new hardware.

Check for viruses, spy- and adware (www.safer-networking.org is providing one of the best tools for spy- adware, called Spybot).
This tool provides also a nice advanced mode which allows to chose what really is started up at system start. In most cases 2/3 of all crap started during boot isn't needed and just eats up memory and cpu power, as well as increases boot time.
Things like Java, Nero, Realplayer, MSN, Adobe Reader, Google Desktop search etc etc etc.

I assume you already have a virus killer but if you need a free one try www.avast.com or www.free-av.com

Another tool called xp-antispy (works also for vista in many things) which can be found @ http://www.xp-antispy.org/index.php/lang-en/home can be used to easily disable some not needed background services like error report service, messaging service, windows balloon tips, uninstalling MSN or at least deactivate it if using Outlook express.

If you use a couple of messengers consider removing them all and try to replace them with some multimessenger like pidgin or trillian. I prefer pidgin (www.pidgin.im) because its opensource and doesn't need much cpu power (but it is kinda spartan although it does everything needed).

Be sure to have a good defrag tool (I use http://www.flashsystems.de/down/files/fdo.zip but its german, although easy to use) and defrag your drive or at least use the windows tool. Be sure to have all temporary files removed first- usually for XP in c:\windows\temp and c:\documents and settings\username\local settings\temp - you need to have "Show hidden files and folders" activated to see this path.

Once done check your System's drivers.
Most people forget to install the correct chipset drivers. Why? No clue, guess they assume it works already pretty well with Windows drivers. Of course it does work, but usually not with the maximum performance.
For almost all chipsets the driver can be found at the manufacturers page, like www.intel.com, www.amd.com, www.nvidia.com, www.viaarena.com etc.

Then check for the most recent graphics card drivers. The addresses for these drivers are almost the same than those above. I usually prefer the reference drivers instead of using the drivers from the card vendor. Usually less bugs and newer.

Don't forget your soundcard. Although usually not eating up that much performance it still can cause trouble if drivers are outdated. Many onboard chipsets are realtek. Those drivers can be found at www.realtek.com

If you have trouble to identify your components go n grab siw (http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html) it will reveal all your system hardware.

Why all this work?
Well, I saw that many people over all these yers, freaks and idiots who overclocked their system to gain maybe 10% more power out of their CPU or graphics card, risking a shorter lifetime of these or even blowing the system up in the attempt to do so, but wasting maybe 20-30% or more with some not correctly maintained system- yes it REALLY can eat up that much- or even more if some of the things I mentioned above is not done correctly.
I played for example Doom3 with an Athlon64-3000 and a Geforce FX5900XT @ 1024x768 and max details without problems. No overclocking, nothing special except a good cleaned up system.

Overclocking?
Overclocking can be a nice thing if anything else is done and if you are willing to take the risk to damage your hardware. For old hardware which is only worth some bucks it can really make a difference and if blowing a CPU for 10$- who cares. But if you don't have the money or you don't want to blow your new hardware its maybe not worth the risk.
As said, optimizing your system is often more efficient.

Another OS?
Although Linux is usually not the OS to play with it often seems to be faster than windows. So if the game(s) you want to play have a Linux port its maybe worth the try, but many games don't have a port so you have often no choice but to use Windows.

Step 2, the hardware:

1. Of course the first thing to check is the PSU (and I said CHECK not necessarily buy a new one)

Recent systems should have 500W or more. If some good quality PSU is used then even 430W is often ok (always depending on the built in components of course- for real high end systems maybe >= 750W is needed). Unfortunately some "mass product" PC's are having still only 300W which is then absolutely at limit then for the hardware it is running. Typical way to "earn" more money for those companies.

Why do you assume your PSU is to weak? If upgrading an old PC you need to check how much stuff you have and how much power it needs.

So some questions first:
What PSU do you have at the moment (Watts, Model)
How many drives do you have (CDROM/DVD/HDD/FDD/Anything else)?
What graphics card do you have?

All these things are necessary to know how much power the PSU needs. If you have only one DVD-RW and maybe one HDD it could be that your PSU is strong enough to feed some more powerful graphics card.
It maybe sound a bit harsh, but if not and its blowing up- usually the hardware is not damaged. No guarantee for that of course, but that's the way it is in most cases.

2. A new VGA (graphics) card?
To decide this its a good idea to check whats the recommended minimum requirements for the game(s) you want to play.
I read the comments above about that- wondering nobody noticed that these recommendations are (often) meant to be MINIMUM requirements.

A new graphics card depends also on your mainboard and CPU.
An example:
If the minimum requirements are maybe a Geforce 8XXX but your system is AGP only I would think twice about to buy a new card because if some day the mainboard blows and and you must buy a new one you definitely need PCI-Express then- if there even is still some AGP Card with the required specs. Also a Geforce 8XXX is of little use if you only have a CPU like P4-2.4 or so.
And as mentioned already a new PSU is maybe required also, so is it still worth it?
In short if you want to update an old system, it should be updated maybe with some old graphics card which can be found pretty cheap at E-Bay or so. Don't waste a lot of money in an old System, better to save your money then and buy a complete new set (PSU/Mainboard/CPU/Memory/Graphics Card) when you can afford it.

Onboard chipsets however are usually pretty slow, often cause problems with OpenGL and use the way slower system memory (compared against the memory used on recent graphics cards).
So buying a new card is often a good choice because you will have more system memory then and its generally faster.
Nowadays a card should have not less than 256MB, but memory is not everything. The biggest memory is of no use if the card itself is slow. Checking the web for performance tests and to compare the different chips maybe at least at the manufacturers page is always a good idea.
Ati or NVidia or...?
A question which can't be really answered. I prefer Nvidia because usually the drivers cause not that much trouble as ATI's. On the other hand ATI offers often cards which have more power for the same price.

SingleCore, DualCore, QuadCore...
Many applications don't support more than one core so the performance gain is still very poor. Check if the application or game really can benefit from such a technology. If not this advice is a bad one.
However, if you consider to buy a new CPU anyway (because of the minmum requirements for example), then those CPU's with multiple Cores are often not more expensive than those with fewer or single Core technology. Then buy some "multicore" of course, newer applications or updates will benefit more and more from it.

But check if your mainboard is really supporting these. Sometimes a bios update can help to run the new CPU's but not every mainboard supports every CPU even if the chipset should be able to handle it. Check the page and/or the forums of your mainboard manufacturer.

If your mainboard does not support it and/or it still uses DDRAM and/or is still having AGP I'd consider anyway to save your money until you can afford a complete new set.

---
I just wrote that within a few minutes and I hope I considered everything important for the moment. Will have a look later again if I misspelled something etc.
Consider this just as a short advice.
If you have some other hardware as my examples above, just tell, for most things I know where to find in the web.

In the end If you really need to buy new hardware its often good to check in the web for tests and reviews. Pages like tomshardware are a good choice. And try to ask in the forums but maybe more like:
"I have this PSU, this Mainboard and this Graphics Card, what do you suggest? "
And compare the different opinions and answers with what you have learned already.

Woah, you should put this into a separate webpage

Anyway, talking about anti-spyware, I'd put my vote on Ad-Aware. Its scans are a lot more thorough than Spybot's (yet slower), and will find more adware.

Talking about free AVs and firewalls, I use Comodo Internet Security and it works really well. The firewall is really good, although anti-virus isn't too good (sometimes locks up), but you don't really need an anti-virus scan ability if you have real-time protection, firewall and router. I haven't had any virus problems in the last 3 years I think. Router helps a lot, that is, you can even browse the web without having a firewall and you won't get too infected. But, of course, the best protection is your brain - don't visit suspicious sites and don't download what you don't need! And use GMail, so that emails with viruses wouldn't be stored in your HDD.

Pidgin is a really good IM choice, as it gives a lot of possibilities (almost all known IMs and IRC), and is OS-independent. Only Skype and Google Talk support is lacking now (no voice chats and such), but it's planned to be fixed rather soon.

About defragging programs - I use Defraggler, a really neat little free program that doesn't even have to be installed.

And yes, Linux is the etalon of cleanness. You will never need to defrag, clean the system or run HDD integrity scans there - all installed programs (if you use RPM/DEB packages) use libraries that are also installable, and thus if you uninstall a program, Linux automatically suggests that you might want to uninstall its libraries, if no other program uses them. That way you will never need to worry about your PC getting slower - in Windows, program libraries never get deleted and are always loaded on boot, thus making your system very, very slow! Also, Linux uses EXT3 or equivalent file systems that don't need defragging (they are a little slower because they auto arrange data, but it's not too noticeable anyway). And quick HDD integrity scans are run each time you boot your PC. And most games can also be emulated (made compatible? ) with WINE, even if they don't have a Linux port. For example, Unreal pre-227 runs flawlessly under WINE: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.p ... &iId=16595

I only have to disagree about Ad-Aware. It never reached the effectiveness of spybot in my tests (over years). And spybot is able to immunize a system against currently over 100.000 spy and adware things- which Ad-Aware -  wasn't able to the last time I checked (which is been a while I have to admit) and no other tool I currently know.
PS: 227 runs still with wine if wanted

Step 2, the hardware:

1. Of course the first thing to check is the PSU (and I said CHECK not necessarily buy a new one)

Recent systems should have 500W or more. If some good quality PSU is used then even 430W is often ok (always depending on the built in components of course- for real high end systems maybe >= 750W is needed). Unfortunately some "mass product" PC's are having still only 300W which is then absolutely at limit then for the hardware it is running. Typical way to "earn" more money for those companies.

Well, I did check the power of the PSU. And upon searching, I found no PSUs designed specifically for my computer. Although I still might be able to upgrade it, I don't want to take the chance that I wasted money on a PSU that isn't compatible with the case when we can barely afford to waste money on something that won't fit.

Why do you assume your PSU is to weak? If upgrading an old PC you need to check how much stuff you have and how much power it needs.

I emailed eMachines about it. They said my computer has a 300W PSU, so generally I assumed it was too weak for the new Video card.

So some questions first:
What PSU do you have at the moment (Watts, Model)
How many drives do you have (CDROM/DVD/HDD/FDD/Anything else)?
What graphics card do you have?

1) I really can't tell you that without pulling out the CPU fan and the PSU, but as said above, the wattage is 300W.
2) I have one DVD-RW drive and one HDD
3) I don't have a graphics card anymore. All I have now is the built in chipset which is mercilessly hogging my System RAM. I mentioned what it was in an earlier post on this thread.

All these things are necessary to know how much power the PSU needs. If you have only one DVD-RW and maybe one HDD it could be that your PSU is strong enough to feed some more powerful graphics card.
It maybe sound a bit harsh, but if not and its blowing up- usually the hardware is not damaged. No guarantee for that of course, but that's the way it is in most cases.

What you said was starting to sound like extremely good news to me until you said there was no guarantee that it wouldn't blow out all of the innards. You said it's like that in most cases but I'm afraid with my luck, I will NOT be one of those cases and instead be the guy whose computer blows a hole in the wall

2. A new VGA (graphics) card?
To decide this its a good idea to check whats the recommended minimum requirements for the game(s) you want to play.
I read the comments above about that- wondering nobody noticed that these recommendations are (often) meant to be MINIMUM requirements.

My computer exactly met the minimum requirements (except my CPU is a 3.33GHz single core CELERON D) before my 6200 broke. The game ran FLAWLESSLY on this setup. Of course, any and all details and effects had to be completely lowered and removed, respectively, but I still ran the game (well, the Demo, at least) with rarely any lag. That was BEFORE the problems started showing up.

A new graphics card depends also on your mainboard and CPU.
An example:
If the minimum requirements are maybe a Geforce 8XXX but your system is AGP only I would think twice about to buy a new card because if some day the mainboard blows and and you must buy a new one you definitely need PCI-Express then- if there even is still some AGP Card with the required specs. Also a Geforce 8XXX is of little use if you only have a CPU like P4-2.4 or so.
And as mentioned already a new PSU is maybe required also, so is it still worth it?
In short if you want to update an old system, it should be updated maybe with some old graphics card which can be found pretty cheap at E-Bay or so. Don't waste a lot of money in an old System, better to save your money then and buy a complete new set (PSU/Mainboard/CPU/Memory/Graphics Card) when you can afford it.

My system is PCI-E x16. As I mentioned before, I have a Celeron D 3.33 GHz single core CPU. I asked someone about my motherboard and dual-cores and they said that my motherboard does not support Dual-cores at all, period.

SingleCore, DualCore, QuadCore...
Many applications don't support more than one core so the performance gain is still very poor. Check if the application or game really can benefit from such a technology. If not this advice is a bad one.
However, if you consider to buy a new CPU anyway (because of the minmum requirements for example), then those CPU's with multiple Cores are often not more expensive than those with fewer or single Core technology. Then buy some "multicore" of course, newer applications or updates will benefit more and more from it.

But check if your mainboard is really supporting these. Sometimes a bios update can help to run the new CPU's but not every mainboard supports every CPU even if the chipset should be able to handle it. Check the page and/or the forums of your mainboard manufacturer.

Epic Games and many people recommend that I get a Dual-Core CPU, but seeing as the minimum is a 2.0+ GHz single-core, and the fact that I could run UT3 with my CPU and the only part that suffered was my Video card, I'm beginning to think that I might not need a dual-core after all. And I know that some Dual-cores aren't that much expensive than a single-core, but again, my motherboard doesn't support dual cores so I don't have a choice other than getting a new computer.

If your mainboard does not support it and/or it still uses DDRAM and/or is still having AGP I'd consider anyway to save your money until you can afford a complete new set.

The first point applies to me as I've already explained the ineptness of my motherboard being able to support dual-cores (which it doesn't), and as for the second, I don't get what you're saying here. Is DDRAM bad? And as for the last point, my system uses PCI-E x16.

I just wrote that within a few minutes and I hope I considered everything important for the moment. Will have a look later again if I misspelled something etc.
Consider this just as a short advice.
If you have some other hardware as my examples above, just tell, for most things I know where to find in the web.

In the end If you really need to buy new hardware its often good to check in the web for tests and reviews. Pages like tomshardware are a good choice. And try to ask in the forums but maybe more like:
"I have this PSU, this Mainboard and this Graphics Card, what do you suggest? "
And compare the different opinions and answers with what you have learned already.

Yes, you definitely considered some important point as you can tell from the content of my post. Also, you misspelled "year" near the beginning of the post Anywhozzle, I checked around for some of the video cards but I have extreme trouble for making my decision as some websites review the card around the time of its release, so I don't really trust that, and the fact that I have even more trouble looking for benchmarks of the specific card I want. All in all, I don't really like looking for a video card because when I find one that looks decent, I ask some people about it and when they tell me, I still have massive doubt about whether or not it'll run UT3. And then there's the mixed responses telling me what's better for running UT3. Often there are so many that I have a very hard time making my choice. And even when I do, I still question whether or not it's the right choice to be making so really, I'm at a loss right now.

Well, I did check the power of the PSU. And upon searching, I found no PSUs designed specifically for my computer. Although I still might be able to upgrade it, I don't want to take the chance that I wasted money on a PSU that isn't compatible with the case when we can barely afford to waste money on something that won't fit.

Thats odd, as far as I know, PSUs are pretty much universal, why don't you get the pc to a computer shop and tell them if you can fit a jucier psu and they do the job. If it doesn't work, you should be able to return it (if you are able to do so).
Unless, you have one of those miniaturized cases, anything non ATX, like mini ITX, nano ITX. If that is the case, I'm suprised you can actually fit a card in there.

What you said was starting to sound like extremely good news to me until you said there was no guarantee that it wouldn't blow out all of the innards. You said it's like that in most cases but I'm afraid with my luck, I will NOT be one of those cases and instead be the guy whose computer blows a hole in the wall

Obviusly it won't blow up, but you will experience all sorts of problems, like freezes, reboots, crashes and who knows what.
Sadly the only way to know this is to test them, as PSUs are made different between them and specially age makes them weaker (I know this because I've seen 5 PSUs that where powering a computer for ages, starting to misbehave and not turning on the thing.)

My computer exactly met the minimum requirements (except my CPU is a 3.33GHz single core CELERON D) before my 6200 broke. The game ran FLAWLESSLY on this setup. Of course, any and all details and effects had to be completely lowered and removed, respectively, but I still ran the game (well, the Demo, at least) with rarely any lag. That was BEFORE the problems started showing up.

Then I'm sorry to blow up like this, but, what's the big f***ing deal?
A 6600 run the game fine for you but you are afraid that a HD 4650 (which happens to be like SEVERAL TIMES MORE POWERFUL than a 6600) will struggle with it?
Come on, anything you buy midrange now will make the game run smoother and better, or AT THE WORST CASE it will run EXACTLY as it did with your 6600.

Heck, I've even go as far as saying an HD 4450 will be enough to play an a equivalent ground with a 6600, but I'm not that sure so don't quote me on that.

Epic Games and many people recommend that I get a Dual-Core CPU, but seeing as the minimum is a 2.0+ GHz single-core, and the fact that I could run UT3 with my CPU and the only part that suffered was my Video card, I'm beginning to think that I might not need a dual-core after all. And I know that some Dual-cores aren't that much expensive than a single-core, but again, my motherboard doesn't support dual cores so I don't have a choice other than getting a new computer.

Read above on how a single core celeron WAS ENOUGH for you to play the game.

The first point applies to me as I've already explained the ineptness of my motherboard being able to support dual-cores (which it doesn't), and as for the second, I don't get what you're saying here. Is DDRAM bad? And as for the last point, my system uses PCI-E x16.

No, he said if you had a computer with obsolete components. If you did (which you don't) you would be better off saving and suffering for a little while until you buy a better machine.
Since it isn't obsolete (you have a PCI Express slot) you can buy upgrades that will be compatible with newer hardware.

Yes, you definitely considered some important point as you can tell from the content of my post. Also, you misspelled "year" near the beginning of the post Anywhozzle, I checked around for some of the video cards but I have extreme trouble for making my decision as some websites review the card around the time of its release, so I don't really trust that, and the fact that I have even more trouble looking for benchmarks of the specific card I want. All in all, I don't really like looking for a video card because when I find one that looks decent, I ask some people about it and when they tell me, I still have massive doubt about whether or not it'll run UT3. And then there's the mixed responses telling me what's better for running UT3. Often there are so many that I have a very hard time making my choice. And even when I do, I still question whether or not it's the right choice to be making so really, I'm at a loss right now.

Don't make make the issue bigger than it is. Apparently, your only nemesis is your psu, no case is unique enough to have no replacement and you would do well to get one of 400W or a bit above.
Don't spend that much on a PSU either, 30€ is fine. In the long run, it might misbehave because its lesser  quality, better PSUs might work better but it might not. Money doesn't matter ALL THAT MUCH on that hardware.

What's more, you can overshot with the card and use it in your future new computer since it will be compatible, and wait until a newer card gets out, or higher end ones get cheaper.
You might need a beefier PSU for that, but again, you'll have to but one anyways.

You will never get an unanimous response on what hardware you should get. Some people can't run games with anything other than 2560x1600 with 16x of antialiasing and 16x anisotropic filterings at 60 frames per second with the most absolute maximum, where other people will enjoy the game just as much with 1280x800 with no filtering at 20 fps with medium quality.
Obviosly you need different setups to run those two configurations, and specially differents pockets. The deal is, What group do you belong?

I know I belong to the former as I enjoy the game at 1280x1024 with maximum quality at 20 fps with an ageing P4 2,6 Ghz and a HD 3650 AGP

Get yourself some benchmarks and watch the results, but again, you said a 6600 run the game fine for you, anything newer from a mid

If you have so much doubt, then don't buy anything and that's it otherwise you are probably going to regret buying one in the first place instead of enjoying it.

Sorry for the harsh words, but sheesh, it's just a game. And it's not the only game out there, I enjoy Fallout 3, Assassin's Creed, Gears of War, or older games, like Unreal, Half-Life, and many more.

...You know what, you're right. Why am I freaking out over a midrange card not running the game when my lowrange card (it was actually a 6200, not a 6600) ran the game with no lag? Originally I was afraid that when I get a card that it won't run the game. I could probably go ahead and buy the x1800, install it, then play away if I wanted to.

You make a good point, it is just a game. Unfortunately, to me it's more than just a game.... wait, no, it's still just a game to me. I guess my obsession with Unreal 1 is being distributed to other Unreal games. Maybe it's the Titan Pack. I dunno. But what I DO know is that from my experience with playing UT3 on my friend's Xbox, that UT3 is a great game and maybe I just wanted to play it again.

Or perhaps, the fact that the game refuses to work after it worked for some time had triggered my brain to create a void, causing me to become obsessed with filling that void. That could only be explained by me having OCD. Why else would I act like this towards a plastic, shiny disk with 8 GB of data that transmits data to another disk, creating an icon that when clicked, forms 2D and 3D shapes on the screen where several buttons cause those 3D shapes that look like Humans and cars and whatnot to respond to those button presses? Dang, I thing I dragged that out too long. What can I say, OCD's a b*tch. It's also the reason that after I make a post on a thread, I read it and then go back and edit it so that some sentences sound better in my head....

...AAAANYwaaaaYYYYSSS...... I will search for benchmarks and maybe some comparisons between the GeForce 6200 and ATI x1800 to see if the x1800 could at least play the game on lowest settings (and 100 screen percentage, since I'd rather not see glowing blue/red/gray turds shooting me with more turds ). Thanks for your help Blue Ion. It turns out I don't have the superhuman common sense that I like to believe I do.

EDIT: Actually I think I'll just go with the card I was gonna get originally, the GeForce 9600 GSO (which is actually a weaker GeForce 8800 GS. How does THAT work? O.o)

Edit2: On second thought, I found a much cheaper card that is a slightly newer model than your card, a Radeon HD 3850 512MB. Reading your post has given me immense confidence in buying this, since it seems you maxed out the game at a huge resolution with nary a problem and an old CPU, right?

Well, I did check the power of the PSU. And upon searching, I found no PSUs designed specifically for my computer. Although I still might be able to upgrade it, I don't want to take the chance that I wasted money on a PSU that isn't compatible with the case when we can barely afford to waste money on something that won't fit.

Not really. Since almost all PSU's are designed to fit into any case. If not some real special solution in either case or PSU the PSU can be used any time later in any other computer, so buying one is usually of lil risk.

I emailed eMachines about it. They said my computer has a 300W PSU, so generally I assumed it was too weak for the new Video card.
1) I really can't tell you that without pulling out the CPU fan and the PSU, but as said above, the wattage is 300W.
2) I have one DVD-RW drive and one HDD

Since you have only one DVD-RW and one HDD its possible that even a 300W can feed an additional graphics card. Maybe not the biggest high end version, but could work.

What you said was starting to sound like extremely good news to me until you said there was no guarantee that it wouldn't blow out all of the innards. You said it's like that in most cases but I'm afraid with my luck, I will NOT be one of those cases and instead be the guy whose computer blows a hole in the wall

As said, no guarantees but its extremely rare. In 100 computers I had for repair with a blown up PSU maybe in one computer the mainboard was damaged. So even IF it would blow (which is not very likely)...

On a side note:

Epic Games and many people recommend that I get a Dual-Core CPU, but seeing as the minimum is a 2.0+ GHz single-core, and the fact that I could run UT3 with my CPU and the only part that suffered was my Video card, I'm beginning to think that I might not need a dual-core after all. And I know that some Dual-cores aren't that much expensive than a single-core, but again, my motherboard doesn't support dual cores so I don't have a choice other than getting a new computer.

Of course they recommend it, but its still as I said, the performance gain is rather poor if you have a dualcore and a singlecore with same MHz and the app isn't supporting dualcores specifically. In this case the recommendation is probably just because dualcore cpu's are usually more powerful nowadays even if only one core is used and singlecore cpu's are not really available anymore with comparable power because they start already to vanish.


Anyway I find it rather strange that a mainboard with PCI-E already shouldnt be able to run at least a "small" dualcore (although as said, absolutely not impossible still very rare) - maybe the distributor does't support it officially but if you can find out what the original manufacturer of your board is you maybe still have a chance after a biosupdate.

except that, nothing to add

...

You keep mentioning old hardware as if it were cheaper just because its old.
Remember that most of the times it's not, and you will suffer the speed penalty from older hardware, ATI hardware gets performance improvements on new generations and may cost the same (or less) as older generations.
To a lesser extent nVidia with the 8xxx, 9xxx, 1xx, 2xx generation that had its fair share of rebranding crapfest (like exactly the same card with different names in different generations).
Still, I've seen that 9600GSO performs better than the 4650 that I suggested. Deep inside I'm a bit of AMD fanboy, but considering fanboyism and tight pockets don't mix, that probably is the better option.

Also remember that once you buy a new computer, you can delay the purchase of the video card for the new computer thanks the one you buy now and wait for newer cards, or cheaper ones.

I can't give you performance numbers right now because the game refused to start lately and uninstalled it as I was in dire need of HD space (the damned installations was occupying more than 20 gb of space).
But I can tell you the game run fine at maximum quality, 1280x1024, at 20 - 30 fps.

Crap, wrong button.
Please delete me.

Pressed quote instead of modify.

Dangit, and I always thought that video cards were priced similarly to games in that the older the game is, the less it costs. Oh well... Now I'm confused again. Should I get the Radeon 3850 or GeForce 9600GSO? Because if the 3850 can run the game fine, then I'll take it.

Also, the reason I'm a tightwad is because my parents are. They only make enough money to buy food and pay the bills and only occasionally buy a new computer.

Also, I has good newz. My dad promised to pay me $10 dollars for every pound I lose. That means if I lose, for example, 50 pounds, I get $500 dollars! Now the only thing I can rely on is my own dumb self actually making an effort to lose the fat, which I haven't been doing lately. All I've been doing is playing on the computer, sleeping, that sort of thing.

**I move away from the mic to tell myself to get off my lipid laced rump (polite way of saying fata$$ ) and DO SOMETHING!!** (That was an internet meme, don't worry if you don't get it)

LOL