Computer Upgrades
<div class="IPBDescription">I turn to you..</div> Allright im thinking of upgrading my computer because, i just want to..
Specs:
P4 H/T 2.6 Ghertz
800 mhz Bus speed
512 MB PC-2700 DDR
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Some mobo that came with it... its about 5 months old..
Now what im asking you guys is.. what kinda upgrades do you think i should get, i was thinking of a new mobo and ram, but i dunno.. plus i think my specs are the reason why i dont get constant fps in ns ??
Any comments/suggestions would be great.
Tri
Specs:
P4 H/T 2.6 Ghertz
800 mhz Bus speed
512 MB PC-2700 DDR
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Some mobo that came with it... its about 5 months old..
Now what im asking you guys is.. what kinda upgrades do you think i should get, i was thinking of a new mobo and ram, but i dunno.. plus i think my specs are the reason why i dont get constant fps in ns ??
Any comments/suggestions would be great.
Tri
Comments
:/
You will need to change the main board to support the AMD 64
Otherwise, get about a gig of Corsair or Crucial RAM. Processor doesnt make a massive deal of difference when playing games, and atm theres nothing that can top the 9800 :|
But i would think its most likely a technical thing thing with ns
BTW, if you want a AMD 64 <a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?catalog=343&DEPA=1&submit=property&mfrcode=0&propertycodevalue=4954' target='_blank'>click here.</a> You'll definately need a new mobo so <a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?catalog=22&DEPA=1&submit=property&mfrcode=0&propertycode=&propertycodevalue=4936' target='_blank'>click here</a> or <a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?catalog=22&DEPA=1&submit=property&mfrcode=0&propertycode=&propertycodevalue=4868' target='_blank'>here.</a>
I've only built from scratch and I've never replaced a cpu and mobo but IIRC you need to reinstall windows after connect the new parts.
EDIT: Looks like you might get away with an OS repair as opposed to reinstalling. Tread lightly.
That's probably your problem right there. Are you running HL in DX or OGL modes?
Otherwise, you can probably get performance boosts in other areas by setting up a RAID 0 (striping). Other good things to invest in are a good soundcard, big monitor, and a nice speaker system. I wouldn't call a 64-bit processor a worthwhile upgrade for another 6 months.
<!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
...
And like.. I totally hate carrying around these 1000 dollar bills all the time! Like, oh my god! It's totally heavy!
<!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
...
And like.. I totally hate carrying around these 1000 dollar bills all the time! Like, oh my god! It's totally heavy! <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Getting a Job + Bargain Hunting =
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 Processor
1GB Registered DDR SDRAM PC-3200
120GB Seagate Serial ATA 8MB Cache
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 256MB
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->Alienware
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Price: $3,351.00<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->vs.
Homemade<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Price: $1,500.00 or less<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->I did this a few months ago: Took a top of the line alienware, then tried to see if I could build it myself, and how much cheaper it would be. If I spent the FULL $3,300, I was able to build a system vastly more powerful then the alienware, with a 20-some-inch flat panel monitor. I think it had a terabyte of drive space too. Building a rough equivilent cost less then half what they wanted, and cost about as much as a mid-line computer would cost off the shelf.
Now Triphase... learn how computers ACTUALLY WORK before you whine that you're not getting 100 FPS. Unless your monitor is some super-secret piece of alien technology, chances are your refresh rate isn't 100 Hz. It probably isn't even 80. Going over your refresh rate:
1) Makes it look worse.
2) Makes it perform worse.
3) Is stupid.
If your FPS seems to hovering around 60 and never going higher, thinking that more = better is foolish. 60-75 FPS is the IDEAL FPS for <b>anything</b>.
Here's what I got:
Athlon 64 3000+ (running at 2 GHz w/ 512 cache, at about $220US)
Asus K8V motherboard (nicely decked out, and only $135US)
ATI 9600XT ($180, but comes with free copy of HL2, when it comes out of course, so that saves me $50)
Seagate 120GB SATA HD (Also nicely cheapish at about $100US)
I've currently got a 512 MB stick of PC2100, which is a serious bottleneck right now. I'm gunna save some money and snag me 1 GB of PC3200, probably Corsair.
It runs like a dream right now. It'll run like a wet dream when I get that new memory inside.
Course, this is my upgrade from a AMD Athlon 850 <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Same monitor, using my old DVD and CD-RW drives. So i just had to buy a case for it.
Course, truthfully, your Intel HT system will probably run just as well as this thing. 100 fps is useless like Teflon said.
*Thinks for a second...**Hurls*
Uhhh back on topic...
Don't expect to get 100 fps on halflife, because of the age of it's engine don't expect godly like performance out of it, if you arent' getting uber frames with it, it's probably not your decked out(and incredibly awesome) computer, more like non-compatible stuff. This reminds me of people building awesome computers because "they want to play CS fast" Im running a 200$(or less) computer here(that has a mx440 with 64mb ram and agp 4x) and get steady 60 fps on all HL mods.
I heard that haven a onboard sound card enabled really runs on your fps also... is this true ?
I heard that haven a onboard sound card enabled really runs on your fps also... is this true ? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
If the south bridge uses CPU clock cycles then yes it can ruin it, but as far as I know most Nforce2 boards (which are the current AMD mainstream) have separate APU's.
Disable that, and any settings that have any sort of fancy names on that tab. Because I don't own a Radeon, I don't know which settings to actually turn off. Talesin actually knows about this, I'm just trying to post from memory.
As for upgrading your PC....I would add another 512 gigs of RAM if you ask me, but really, that comp sure beats the schnizz out of most people :O
P3 866MHz 133 FSB (ahhh)
512mbs sd Pc 133 (qahh)
200 watt PS (WTH?)
GF 2 (akdshfdslfhsd)
30 gig WD HDD (/shoots self)
Enough was enough of that! So I did what SuperTeflon did and built my own comp.
Standard tower case
P4 2.4GHz w/ 800Mhz FSB and 512 cache
768 MBs DDR PC 2100 (I know not that great)
GF 4 ti 4600
120 gig WD HDD
52x CDRW
8X DVD rom
450 watt PS
SB Live sound card (need a new one for sure)
All this cost me $2000, and I installed it all my self (going to school for computer networking helps <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> ).
I upgraded the CPU fan to an even large one, added 4 more case fans, this baby runs COLD! (loud as hell but COLD).
About 75Hz is when eyestrain is pretty minimized. But you can get 30 fps at 75Hz refresh rate and still get most of the benefits.
It's actually better to have a rock solid frame rate than a high and varying one, anyway. That's why you can set your maxfps to 60 or so: it'll be nice and smooth.