Try a few different disks. If none of them show up under "My Computer", it is safe to assume you need a new optical drive for the laptop. They are very easy to install, once you get over the "Oh crap" factor of having to take the underside of the laptop off. Just find the model number of your notebook, go to the manufacturer's site, get the model number of the drive, then hit E-Bay, Newegg, where-ever, and pick one up (They are suprisingly inexpensive). If you are too nervous to take the bottom off your laptop, just bring it by a local pc shop and offer them 20 bucks to put it in for you.
If he had been using one of the newer 512MB GTS cards then he probably would have done a lot better.
Bgrngod
I looked at the newer 512 GTS' about 5 minutes after posting, and the specs were really really close. The card I have has a slightly higher core (Factory oc'd), but a marginally lower memory (1840 compared to 1900)... That said, it misses out by 4%-10% performance wise against the newer gts (With both at standard factory clock speeds). Yet another benchmark graph comparing the gtx, gts', gt, 3870, and two 2900's. Fun read. Nvidea sure has done it with it's last two 8 series cards. Low Mid - Mid level price for top end performance. Good stuff.
It should fit both fine (ie. the modo and case). I agree with your choice of cards too. Be wary of rebates though. If they want you to cut the original upc off the back and send it in, you might be better off losing the 30 bucks, as it can make exchanges a pain if the card shunts out while still under warranty. The Witcher is also one heck of a game.
This is a pretty simple online building guide. A simple way to ensure compatibility is to start with a bare-bone kit. Places like Newegg and Tiger Direct are good places to start (I'm not mad at TD anymore, as they gave me a ton of credit for their oops on my last order). There are lots of others, but I like both their prices and selection. You can build a really nice system for under a grand; far better than you can purchase (Obviously). Anyway, advice: The mobo, imo is the cornerstone of any pc, as it is what determines your ability to upgrade and save money in the future. So pre-assembled or home built, be sure you have at least one pci expressx16 slot (Preferably a 2.0 pci-e). As for cpu, a core 2 duo or quad is the way to go atm. GPU, in my opinion should be no less than a Nvidea 8800 series with 512 or better ram or an Ati 3870 512. As said, a minimum of 2 gigs pc6400 ram. Go with SATA drives, as they are far faster than ide. That said, most bare-bone kits at will come with a case, power supply, motherboard, cpu, hard drive, and ram. That just leaves purchasing the graphics card, optical drives (DvD/CD), and cooling. If you have an old desktop in the closet, basement, wherever; take the darn side off and look at how it is pieced together. Take the ram out, then re-seat it. Do the same with the cpu. It will help you feel more comfortable when working on your new system (If you decide to go that route). Best of luck.
I just put this together for myself...well, I put it together about a month ago. Ultra E-Torque ATX Mid-Tower Case Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI NVIDIA Socket 775 Q6600 (Still running @ stock) Thermaltake / Silent 775D Fan (A bugger to get on, but cools like a charm, and yikes is it quiet) Ultra X-Connect 500w Gigabyte 8800gt 512 (700 core, 1800 mem, 1500 shader) 2 gigs corsair 6400 Philips SPD2513p DvD RW Lite-On 20A4H DvD RW w/Litescribe Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB Windows XP Home SP2 (I had an extra Pro oem, but I'll be darned where the serial went. Oh well).*edit* The hd it was installed on fried, so no jelly bean*/edit ;^)* I read above someone recommending an 8800gts 640 as opposed to the 8800gt. For reference, I scored a 12070 in 3dMark6 compared to a co-workers new setup, (XFX nForce 680i LT SLI, his Q6600 oc'd to 3.0/1333, 2 more gigs of ram, 74 gig Raptor, 250 WD Barracuda, an 1100 watt psu *No idea what brand*, and a BFG Tech BFGR88640GTSEEOCE GeForce 8800GTS 640MB, XP Pro SP2). For about 750 dollars more cake, and some oc'ing, he topped out at the mid 11000 range in his 3dMark6 benchmarking. Anyway, the 8800gt is pretty much superior to the 8800gts. I believe the only things the gts is better spec wise in is texture fill rate and memory bandwidth (Along with the extra 138mb of ram). Still, the higher clocks on the ht seem to make it a better performer. Here is a decent comparison of the two cards and their performance in a few games.
can i run oblivion with the distant lands feature with these specs?
1GHZ AMD 64 3200+ (I know, it sucks)
256mb ATI RADEON x1300
1GB RAM
I already did the system requirments lab and it innacuratley read my processor speed as 3.2 ghz, weird.
RD_Vel0city
You've got your CPU speed wrong, I have a AMD Athlon 64 2800+ and i'm at 1.8GHz. Im pretty sure yours is 2GHz. Your graphics card is what will be the bottleneck in Oblivion. it only has 4 pipelines. You may be able to achieve distance lands though, all you can do is buy the game and try it out.
My guess would be yes, as I have distant lands on an x700 pro pci-e, and have seen zip as far as performance hit, either in battle or just wandering in general.
I had forgotten to turn it on a couple of times, and had it shut off when other people (My crazy lil midget of a daughter =^) but have since set it to run automatically at restart. Kinda simplifies the "Oops, I forgot to run it" bugger. Oh well, it seems easier to remember to shut it off if I really need the neglibable recources it uses than it is to remember (or realize) that the darn thing is off. Hopefully the others are just spacing it out. Oh well, take care all, and as silly as it may sound, if we can help out for minimal effort, that's a good thing. Ces
Thanks for the help guys. I did download the no-nonsense console version, and the first time I ran it, the darn thing zipped right through the name and team options, so I was unable to type them both in. I thought I had gotten the name in time, but I didn't. It let me hit enter this time instead of doing the *overzealous "Let's fold fold fold"* thing. Here's to protein oragami! Ces
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