DescentBB

I could use a little help in upgrading my system. Finally gave up on trying to find a motherboard to replace my old Abit BE6II-Rev2. Abit no longer supports or repairs them. Interestingly I received notice of a class action suit from owners of these motherboards because of the capacitors which were always blowing. Iâ??ve got a case, soundblaster live, 3dfx voodoo 5 5500, 3 ata 100 harddrives, 400watt power supply suitable for Pentium 4. Iâ??d like to spend about 800-1000 dollars. Of course I want to be able to play Descent 3 and if possible use 1 of the 4 Sidewinder 3D pros I have which require a gameport. Last I remember there were some problems with the Sidewinder and Windows XP or Processors >1 Ghz. What do you suggest?

Using the same chip?

I prefer Asus, then MSI. Asus for my game machines, and MSI for my workstations. If you're using Pentium4, I just built one with an ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE 865PE Newegg), which ran nice. Shame it wasn't for me!

Keep in mind, the voodoo5 will not work in new motherboards.....so you will have to allow for a new card in your upgrade as well.

So what do you guys recommend for a motherboard, memory, processor, video card for under $800. Can you use the 3D Pro with any of the new systems?

Puffer just upgraded to a AMD 64 with an ASUS MB and he had to buy a gameport-USB convertor for his 3d pro and the only thing that doesn't work is the hat.

If you need the hat, I'd suggest buying a new stick also.

MSI K8N neo2 platinum board, 3000+ processor and some decent dual channel ram is a good start....not sure what you want to spend on a vid card tho.

Abit NF7-S2 $65

CPU - 3200+ 400mhz fsb $150

You will want a Spacer $10

Heat Sink/Fan $35

Ram - Corsair 512MB DDR3200 x2 $200

GeforceFX 6600 128mb $188

Thats all $648

I recently upgraded a system to a Gigabyte NF3 ultra board, 1 GB of corsair value RAM, a 3000+ A64 939 pin, a $33 dollar XFX GFMX4000 and a cheap case with a 350W PSU (obviously not a gaming system) for $500 all from newegg, the only things I kept from the orignal were the drives.

It will completely destroy a NF2 / Athlon XP system if you give it a decent video card. An AGP Geforce 6600GT would be a good start, but since you are looking to spend $800 you could probably squeeze by with a 6800 non ultra or even a 6800GT depending on how much you spend on the rest of the system, there might be room for faster RAM or a 3200+ A64 instead with that budget.

This is slightly over the low end of your (800-1,000) budget:

$146 - AMD Athlon 64 3000+
$140 - MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, SATA, RAID
$237 - Corsair TWINX1024-3200XLPRO 1GB Kit DDR400 Xtra-Low Latency Dual-Channel
$339 - MSI NX6800GTX-T2D256E GeForce 6800GT 256MB PCI Express
$862 - TOTAL

I've seen great gaming performance, and reliability, from MSI boards.

what about the gameport? Do the newer mb's come with gameports now? not being able to use a hat with a 3dpro ruins the use of the stick.

this is something I totally spaced on when deciding on a mb for my new system.

I've got 4 or so new in box 3dpros, as well as almost a dozen refurbished ones.....not being able to use them is a big deal.

Hmmmmm... worst case you could get a cheap PCI soundblaster with a gameport and disable its audio functions.

That's what I did.

Thanks for the ideas folks. Like Readyman I've got several 3D Pros laying around and would like to use them. I've got an old Soundblaster Live. Can I get the 3D Pro (including 8 way hat) to work with Win XP and and a newer system? How did you do it Unix?

I just plugged it in and in the game controller tab chose Sidewinder AutoDetect. It worked fine for me. Every button works properly.

what about the current sb cards? like the audigy zs? dont they have a game port? I'm pretty sure I'll have one with my new system.

ReadyMan wrote:what about the current sb cards? like the audigy zs? dont they have a game port? I'm pretty sure I'll have one with my new system.

Via a dongle. The port isn't built into the cards themselves simply because there isn't any room.

Dunno how many times I have said it, or how many times I'm going to have to say it again: the MS 3D Pro sucks donkey testicles.

If you believe it's still a good stick then you are looking through the rose-tinted retrospectoscope! Don't get me wrong: it *was* a good stick in 1995, but 10 years have passed, and now it rates slightly lower than a small piece of brown poo.

If you want a genuinely good stick, then buy the NEW 3D PRO from Logitech, it eats the MS stick for breakfast, dines on it for lunch, and then consumes it for dinner as well.

You're simply wasting your time trying to get an 8-way HAT working on a crappy old stick in a brand new system: and this from a man who has 2 brand spanking new 3D Pros - one of which is in a factory-sealed box!

Do yourself a HUGE favour: consign the MS 3D PRO to the dustbin of your gaming history.

Everyone together now! "STFU! Nobody asked for your opinion Mobius."

* /me doesn't use a sw 3d pro

ReadyMan wrote:what about the current sb cards? like the audigy zs? dont they have a game port? I'm pretty sure I'll have one with my new system.

I have an SB Audigy2 ZS card. You can plug-in a Joystick/MIDI bracket (with ribbon cable) onto the card. Thats what I did.

Mobius wrote:If you want a genuinely good stick, then buy the NEW 3D PRO from Logitech, it eats the MS stick for breakfast, dines on it for lunch, and then consumes it for dinner as well.

Logitech sticks are the worst -- besides they are barely up to par w/ a sw3dp, they won't last a month. If you don't play D3 anymore (like Mobi) they will work for you but if you do play D3 on a regular basis nothing beats a Mickeysoft stick so far.

first off: I'm holding onto the 3dpros for Core Decision. I've got sidewinder sticks with USB, and even a sidewinder ff stick in my closet. All good sticks, but nothing equal to the 3dpro. I've had a few pilots say what you said mobius, however, none have been able to keep up with me and my oudated 3dpro. I'm betting that it'll be the same with core decision, and if I find that to be wrong, I'll switch then.
In the meantime, I'm happy to pay to have the freedom to use whatever stick I happen to want to use at the moment.


newegg's CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER says this in the description:

15-pin MIDI / Joystick port extension header


does that mean I still need the "Joystick/MIDI bracket (with ribbon cable)"?
and if so, where can I buy one?

thanks Red-5

-RM

ReadyMan wrote:newegg's CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER says this in the description:

15-pin MIDI / Joystick port extension header


does that mean I still need the "Joystick/MIDI bracket (with ribbon cable)"?
and if so, where can I buy one?

thanks Red-5

-RM

Yes and I have no idea where you can get them. I got mine from an old P200 PC I had laying around. I would think you could get them from any PC stores that sell PC stuff. Maybe radio shack or Frys? Here in aus it would Dick Smiths or IT Warehouse.

Thanks folks, for all the info. Looks like no ones using Intel processors any more. Any reason at all to choose them over AMD?

I'm using an Intel P4C 3.2GHz 800MHz FBS, 512 Cache, w/HT.
Gigabyte 8IK1100 Motherboard.
2 - Corsair 512MB TWINX-3200 DDR SDRAM (Ultra low latency, Intergrated heat spreader)
Leadtek GeForce FX5950 Ultra 256MB Video card.
2 - 80GB SATA/150 7200rpm 8MB Cache HD.
And so on.....
I play Half-Life 2 with setting ALL THE WAY UP, and get smooth action with no probs.

Anyways. I've never used an AMD before so i can't really say which is better.

I hear the hyperthreading on the Intel processors really improves performance. But as I only run AMD processors so far I'm not much help.

Hyperthreading helps in situations where you are doing a lot of multitasking, the rest of the time it doesn't do as much. And in a sense it's a "fake" dual processor, a real dual CPU has much better performance in the same multitasking situations.

Right now for single thread performance and gaming, nothing Intel has can beat the Athlon 64.

ReadyMan wrote:fnewegg's CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER says this in the description:

15-pin MIDI / Joystick port extension header


does that mean I still need the "Joystick/MIDI bracket (with ribbon cable)"?
and if so, where can I buy one?

thanks Red-5

-RM

Dude, everything you need should come with that card. If they give you the bracket, the cable is attached to the bracket. All you do is just connect it to the card before you mount the bracket in your case. You can see it in the image here on the bottom-left hand portion of the image. If it didn't come with the card, newegg would say so.

thanks md!
guess I'm getting that audigy gamer card

Krom wrote:Right now for single thread performance and gaming, nothing Intel has can beat the Athlon 64.

Not only that, but the price is lower, and I've heard of far less heat issues than with the Intel Extreme Edition, for example.

MD-2389 wrote:

ReadyMan wrote:fnewegg's CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER says this in the description:

15-pin MIDI / Joystick port extension header


does that mean I still need the "Joystick/MIDI bracket (with ribbon cable)"?
and if so, where can I buy one?

thanks Red-5

-RM

Dude, everything you need should come with that card. If they give you the bracket, the cable is attached to the bracket. All you do is just connect it to the card before you mount the bracket in your case. You can see it in the image here on the bottom-left hand portion of the image. If it didn't come with the card, newegg would say so.

Funny you should say that... I remember now that it did come with the card! DUH!!! hehe I got the other bracket for a friends PC. Thanks MD!

Testiculese wrote:Using the same chip? I prefer Asus, then MSI. Asus for my game machines, and MSI for my workstations.

Why the different applications for the two mobo's?

woodchip wrote:

Testiculese wrote:Using the same chip? I prefer Asus, then MSI. Asus for my game machines, and MSI for my workstations.

Why the different applications for the two mobo's?

Probably quality of construction and general stability.