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[tahujdt]

I have an oppourtunity to pick up a free computer that would otherwise be slated for donation. All of my selections are slightly obsolete, but most of them are in great shape. Which attributes should I look for in a computer for playing DF?

[LordSlowpoke]

From my personal experience, memory isn't very important outside of worldgen (or very, very long lasting fortresses) while CPU is always needed. One core only, mind you, with a tiny bit offloaded to a second, and that's it.

[L3TUC3]

From my personal experience, memory isn't very important outside of worldgen (or very, very long lasting fortresses) while CPU is always needed. One core only, mind you, with a tiny bit offloaded to a second, and that's it.

For DF, a higher clock speed is more important than the amount of cores. Try to nab the faster speed.

Though I wouldn't go back to a single core if you multitask (which everyone with a PC does).

[darkrider2]

Man if only I could purchase cores in a way where they all aren't the same. One core that is super powerful and 3 others that are mediocre.

[tahujdt]

From my personal experience, memory isn't very important outside of worldgen (or very, very long lasting fortresses) while CPU is always needed. One core only, mind you, with a tiny bit offloaded to a second, and that's it.

For DF, a higher clock speed is more important than the amount of cores. Try to nab the faster speed.

Though I wouldn't go back to a single core if you multitask (which everyone with a PC does).

Sorry, I'm sort of a newb when it comes to hardware. Which is the speed? Is it the number with the Ghz after it>

[ledgekindred]

Man if only I could purchase cores in a way where they all aren't the same. One core that is super powerful and 3 others that are mediocre.

Actually you can.  The Intel chips have a thing I think they call "Speedstep."  It says, "I see you are running a very CPU-intensive single process.  I shall now underclock the other cores and overclock just this one.  Cheers, mate!"  I have a 2.6Ghz i7 in my Macbook Pro and it will overclock a single core to something like 3.2~3.4Ghz.  Newer ones go even higher.

Sorry, I'm sort of a newb when it comes to hardware. Which is the speed? Is it the number with the Ghz after it>

That would be it.  The higher, the better.

[darkrider2]

Man if only I could purchase cores in a way where they all aren't the same. One core that is super powerful and 3 others that are mediocre.

Actually you can.  The Intel chips have a thing I think they call "Speedstep."  It says, "I see you are running a very CPU-intensive single process.  I shall now underclock the other cores and overclock just this one.  Cheers, mate!"  I have a 2.6Ghz i7 in my Macbook Pro and it will overclock a single core to something like 3.2~3.4Ghz.  Newer ones go even higher.

My AMD cores are supposed to do that, but I think it maxes a single core at 2.5 Ghz. Sigh, should have bought an intel.

[krenshala]

Man if only I could purchase cores in a way where they all aren't the same. One core that is super powerful and 3 others that are mediocre.

Actually you can.  The Intel chips have a thing I think they call "Speedstep."  It says, "I see you are running a very CPU-intensive single process.  I shall now underclock the other cores and overclock just this one.  Cheers, mate!"  I have a 2.6Ghz i7 in my Macbook Pro and it will overclock a single core to something like 3.2~3.4Ghz.  Newer ones go even higher.

My AMD cores are supposed to do that, but I think it maxes a single core at 2.5 Ghz. Sigh, should have bought an intel.

For most things, DF included, AMD and Intel chips are effectively functionally identical.  There are edge cases where one may be better than the other, but if you fall into one of those niches you probably already know it.

It takes about 40 to 50 minutes to generate a medium world to the year 1050 on my AMD Phenom II 560 (16G memory).  Newer chips can do this in about half the time, but this is also way better than my previous CPU (Athlon XP 4800).  And I have no problems with 5x5 embarks, even with rivers and multiple waterfalls (thought that map did occasionally slow down to about 30 FPS in spring when the water was doing crazy pathing).

[wuphonsreach]

CPU speed (for an individual core) will be your first priority.  Just don't try to compare AMD GHz to Intel GHz or this year's CPU's GHz to one from 3 years ago.

After that, RAM speed starts to come into play.  Make sure you have enough not to swap, ever.  Then try to go with the faster RAM type (which AFAIK is DDR3 over DDR2).

[M_So]

CPU speed (for an individual core) will be your first priority.  Just don't try to compare AMD GHz to Intel GHz or this year's CPU's GHz to one from 3 years ago.

After that, RAM speed starts to come into play.  Make sure you have enough not to swap, ever.  Then try to go with the faster RAM type (which AFAIK is DDR3 over DDR2).

Don't forget RAM has MHz too. (1333MHz DDR3 > 1066MHz DDR3) But DDR3 in it's self is great.

[WaffleEggnog]

W-w-w-w-wiki pageeeeeeeeeeeeee

People aught to use the wiki more often, its all alone! It needs some love! Here is the page on the wiki; http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/System_requirements

It doesint say much, but it says a bit of stuff some super-geeks here on the forums can hopefully use.

[Xenos]

The cache size of your processor is also very important.  If I had to choose between a 3.6GHz processor with 2MB L2cache and a 3.0GHz with 4MB L2 cache i would take the 3.0. 

So get a decent clock speed with a nice large cache, you dont need much more than 2GB free RAM to give DF all it would need, but if you get a higher RAM clock speed that will help your performance, 1600MHz memory will work nicely.