Need your advice puleeeeease

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 7:08 pm

Background:
I have a Pentium III-866Mhz Dell tower, 320 RAM and a radeon 7500 (64Mb?), Blaster Live, connected to a DEll flat panel (1500 FP) via DVI, Win 98SE. The computer is a couple or three years old and I am feeling like it is a little groogy for Descent 3 multiplayer (cable modem).

***If I were to get a better computer, would I notice a difference in D3***?

I usually play with medium or high detail level 1024x . It just seems like is a little slow to respond, but I have NO WAY TO know for sure. What do you experts think?

I am debating building a Descent 3 dream system, perhaps with an AMD chip and a good video card. I can see spending 200 for the card, but 400 sounds like craziness, especially since D3 came out long before all these cards. Would it really help?

If you all think I would notice much change my next question might be suggestions of YOUR affordable dream system.

Thanks a lot. I am good with PCs, but Descent and homebuilts are kind of new to me.

Ned

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:54 pm

pretty please?

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:03 pm

D3 should play fine on your system. I think the flat screen youhave maybe limiting your enjoyment as they are not meant for gaming really. Some can handle the fast action, most can't.

I'm running a P4 2.4, 1 gig ram, sb audigy 2 zs, winxp, ati 9800 pro and D3 runs great.

It also ran great on my P3-800 with G4 4400.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:33 pm

It may be possible that the 7500 is messing with you due to the highish resolution, but the rest of the system should be plenty to run D3 with.

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:52 pm

Is the G4 4400 similar to mine?

Maybe it IS monitor. My main complaint is when the scene is moving rapidly, ie a dog fight, I can't really seem to focus my eyes on the opponent. It seems non crisp, but things look crisp when I dont move much.

Darn, I hate the weight of CRTs

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:03 am

Yeah, its ghosting on you. Why do you think they practically gave those stupid LCD monitors away? They're pieces of ★■◆●.

To be perfectly honest with you, a dinky Geforce3 is overkill for D3. I'm running Athlon XP 2800+ (2.08GHZ) with half a gig of RAM (PC2700, 333MHz) and a Geforce3 Ti200 (64MB) and I never get below 250fps at any given time. There have been some instances where I peaked at 1000fps (NOT STARING AT A WALL).

If you're going to upgrade your computer, aim for something a bit more power hungry than Descent 3.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 1:11 am

I run descent3 on my fast system, granted I use several options that normally cost massive performance but because my system is so fast I can get away with it easly. I quit upgrading my system for Descent a long time ago. Everything I get is for newer games now. I rarely see under 200 FPS with my CPU and graphics card combined, both of them are almost three times as powerful as your setup Ned. But I would tend to aggree the problem you are having at the moment is more your LCD display then any weakness in your system. If I were to upgrade your system for Descent, I would do as MD suggested, get a Geforce3 or Geforce4 and a reasonable CRT monitor.

Actually it is rather pointless to try to upgrade that system, it doesnt have much room for improvement, throw in a new video card and the CPU will hold it back, upgrade the CPU and the video card will hold you back. I would aim for a midrange AMD Athlon XP CPU, A geforce3 or Geforce4, and 512 MB or more of system RAM.

Considering you would have to get a case with a powersupply, motherboard, CPU, memory and video card, $300 is a very big stretch for a budget, toss in a 17" or 19" CRT monitor and you could very _very_ easly spend over $400 on quality components. If you do decide cash it up for a system, we can help you configure it to get the most out of every last penny.

-Krom

Avder · Post by **Avder** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 4:01 am

Get a CRT. That thing is fine for D3 easily.

DigiJo · Post by **DigiJo** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 4:56 am

you would get most performance win out of a new mainboard + cpu, d3 on a 2000+ amd xp or a smiliar intel-chip makes it feel like a new game. graficboard is secondary, your radeon 7500 will do the job fine, a 8500 or a same generation geforce so has lots more power and the price for it on ebay isnt worth to talk about.

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 10:29 pm

thanks for all of the good comments. I am debating building a good AMD system. The problem is I know nothing about MBs and CPUs. Uggggg. Budget is maybe like up to fifteen hundreed, incl good monitor

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 10:38 pm

LOL

I remember when we were doing everything we could to get over 50 FPS!

woodchip · Post by **woodchip** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 6:36 am

no post

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 8:36 am

Ned wrote:thanks for all of the good comments. I am debating building a good AMD system. The problem is I know nothing about MBs and CPUs. Uggggg. Budget is maybe like up to fifteen hundreed, incl good monitor

Two years ago I didn't know how either but I came here for help and found what I needed. When I built my first box I did so while on the phone to SickOne ... he was a great help. Now, 14 PCs later, I feel a lot more comfortable building them. For $1500 you should be able to build a decent system, especially if you use AMD.

Putting the system together takes very little time (like a few hours max), the time consuming part is deciding what parts to buy, where to buy them from, and waiting for them to arrive.

More likely than not you will get a part that either you aren't happy with, doesn't fit/work with your MB, or some other reason. This will cost you more time ... waiting for the replacement.

If you have the time and the patience you can do it ... Just come here and post when you have problems and someone will help you out.

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 8:57 am

Here is an example system I quickly spec'd from www.newegg.com ... I am not suggesting that this is what you should do but it is a good starting point.

Item Cost Description
Case $28.00 POWMAX Black/Silver Mid Tower ATX Case with 400W Power Supply, Side Window & handle, Model "CP0327PL-4" -RETAIL
Power Supply $0.00 Included w/Case
Motherboard $67.00 ASUS "A7N8X-X" nForce2 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
CPU $140.00 AMD Athlon XP 3000+ "Barton", 400 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - OEM
RAM $155.00 Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, (Twin Pack) 184 Pin 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-3200 with Platinum-Silver Heat Spreader - Retail
Video Card $178.00 ATI AIW RADEON 9600XT Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, FM/TV/AV In/AV Out, 8X AGP, Model "ALL-IN-WONDER 9600XT" w/ REMOTE -RETAIL
IDE HDD $78.00 Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD1200BB, OEM Drive Only
Floppy $10.00
CD-RW $50.00
Keyboard $25.00
Mouse $25.00
Joystick $50.00
CPU Shim $5.00
CPU Cooler $30.00
Heatsink Compound $5.00
IDE Cable $5.00
Case Fans (2) $10.00
Y Adapters (2) $5.00
Floppy Cable $5.00
Monitor ???????

Total $871.00 + Monitor (Hint: use your existing monitor, keyboard, mouse, joystick)

WarAdvocat · Post by **WarAdvocat** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 10:01 am

Please fix code field so it isn't 3 pages wide.

Thx!

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 6:23 pm

War, you runnin 800x600?

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 9:29 pm

Thanks Iceman. I usually bought Dells. I may need to get more adventurous.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:51 pm

Yeah. The problem with pre-built machines in general (not just Dell, but ANY manufacturer since they all use the same parts) is that they use the cheapest parts they can get (since they're buying in bulk) and often time use proprietary solutions to keep you from buying stuff elsewhere and sticking it into the system. (ie: buy a new motherboard and replacing the old one, which gets fried by the proprietary power supply connector and you're left with a rather expensive doorstop.) When you do actually look to buy parts from that manufacturer, half the time its something you can get retail for much cheaper.

The nice thing about building it yourself is that half the time its actually cheaper than buying it pre-made, and you get to choose exactly what goes into your machine. You customize the whole thing, and you get to have the fun of building it yourself and the satisfaction of seeing it come to life for the very first time.

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 9:32 am

Don't buy Dells anymore, they're dead-end systems. They're making everything nice and proprietary, just like Compaq did.

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 7:15 pm

Hey Y'all,

I tried an experiment. I hooked up a CRT instead of my LCD. The choppy/blurry problem was the same, if not a little worse. I noticed in the outdoors scene of D3level1 my fps was about 25 and it looked crappy.

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 7:24 pm

So NOW my question is: is the problem my CPU or my graphics card. Its a 64 mb radeon 7500. Maybe my CPU is not keeping track of all the data in the scene well? Dell Pentium3-866 320RAM, W98SE

Anywhooooo, I am still considering seriously building an AMD/ASUS system. Suggestions for a good CPU and Mobo are appreciated. I am not an overclocker or into the mods, just need a good basic setup that outperforms my current (I can't remember, maybe 2-3 years old) system. I am really wondering of its CPU or vid card. I think the CPU and memory speed maybe a little slow. I wish I could play D3 on a really top end system to see if it reacts better.

If anyone is really good with stupid questions I can give you email for off site communication.

Be good,
Ned

Need your advice puleeeeease

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