Now What?

[Oliwerko]

Oh, I must mention that Civilization 4 is slow on large worlds also on quad with 2GB ram. All new games are running perfectly, and Civ4 drives me crazy when I have revealed the huge map.

[Huw Dawson]

Well, there are lots of things you could do with that beast:

1) Play Crysis (Although you should have got an 8800GT, not an 8600)
2) Play Unreal 3
3) Get Steam and games like Team Fortress 2 or Portal and boast about playing them at maxed out graphics.
4) Download EVE Online with the Trinity Graphics update (Which makes it BEAUTIFUL)
5) Learn to make 3D Graphics
6) Laugh at others on internet forums about how awesome your computer is.

Of course, off the bat:

GO AND GET UBUNTU. Because it is a really handy operating system that won't steal all your resources like Vista does.

Anyway:
7) Wait until Spore comes out - all that processing power will be vital to get 100% awesomeness out of that game.

I'd recommend an upgrade to a 1TB Hard Drive sometime, though. All those new games really suck up space.

- Huw

[EldKatt]

GO AND GET UBUNTU. Because it is a really handy operating system that won't steal all your resources like Vista does.

If it runs Compiz out of the box, though, as I understand the latest version does, you're really on your way towards the Vista end of things anyway.

(Of course that doesn't have much to do with Ubuntu per se, as you could very well use more lightweight stuff with a Ubuntu system, but since Ubuntu seems to be going for the user-friendly, pre-packaged, everything-included style, it's good to realize that their style is not moving in the lightweight direction.)

[LimpingFish]

Actually, now the Huw Dawson has mentioned it, the 8600 is probably the weakest link in your rig, Em.

A 512mb 8800GT would handle almost everything you could possibly throw at it. The 8600 will struggle with Crysis (something even the 8800GT finds a strain), and other titles like Bioshock might stutter at higher resolutions.

But, hey, if you weren't planning on playing those games anyway...

[zeeman645]

one word. Crysis.

you can go out and buy COD 4, crysis and all the other games that require
top notch computers. why not join a MMORPG while your at it (if you haven't already). i play guild wars i recommend it. go out and enjoy your machine for what its meant for.

[LimpingFish]

Um...nobody seems to have mentioned that Crysis turned out to be a bit...shit.

Just a bit, mind you, but still...

[InCreator]

As a fps game? Yes.
But there's no better "walk in the jungle"-simulator yet. A beautiful jungle.

But I recommend COD4, AGAIN. That's really a game to play. It's best fps game I've played since original Half-Life 2 came out. It's worth to have good computing equipment so you could see all the beauty.

Nah, not the game, Call of Duty has been seen and done...
But those two game sequences. One as president and one as that shooter inside plane. It's like "Liveleak - the interactive game". I totally fell in love with those two.

For some more recent games, World in Conflict is worth to max out. If you can, of course. Command & Conquer 3 and its expansion are not. To be honest, they look much better with low graphics, because as it's so common nowadays, designers went mad and blurred-lighted-shaded everything well enough to make sure player gets epileptic quickly.

But if you're a sims2/battlefield2/counter-strike/minesweeper/WoW player, you have simply wasted money.