Building/Upgrading a PC for TS2
Hegelian:
Quote from: songsmith on 2006 September 29, 01:01:03
Obviously, I want my machine to play the Sims. We also picked up Oblivion.
From what I've been reading, the ATI boards have a clear advantage over equivalent nVidia boards in Oblivion. Plus, the X1000-series boards can simultaneously perform both high dynamic-range lighting and anti-aliasing, whereas with nVidia it's one or the other. nVidia is not necessarily the technology leader at this point in time.
Quote from: katenigma on 2006 September 29, 02:00:44
I'm still brand loyal. Easy to be, I suppose, when I'm not personally in the market for a processor, except maybe to replace my socket 939 3800 with the 4800 while I can find one ;) AMD was good to me for too many years to abandom them as soon as Intel finally figures out how to produce a fast processor at a reasonable price. :D
I tend not to be. Although to date I have had almost all Intel CPUs (there was that Cyrix many years ago, and the Motorola in the Franklin Ace), but that was based on performance, not only of the CPU itself but also of the supporting chipset—Intel chipsets (and drivers) are always rock-solid, and, of course, engineered for their CPUs, while the third-party chipsets for AMD CPUs have not always been reliable. Nonetheless, if I had had the money to build a new PC six months ago, I would have chosen an Athlon 64. Today, however, it would defnitely be an Intel Core 2.
This isn't sports: brand loyalty basically means loyalty to a corporation and its management (oh wait, I guess it is just like pro sports). I used Diamond graphics boards for a long time, and then 3dfx, 3DLabs, and Matrox. The ATI board I had was awful. But Diamond started turning out crap products and then disappeared (merged with S3, switched to consumer electronics under the SonicBlue brand, and eventually went bankrupt), while Matrox dropped out of the consumer board market (no DX9 boards), and so I took a chance on an ATI 9800 Pro, and was more than happy. So that's where I am now. As long as ATI offers a high-performance product at a good price, I probably won't change (and I have non-performance issues with nVidia). Ironically, ATI now belongs to AMD.
My brand loyalty lasts only as long as the brand offers top performance at a competetive price, or there are interoperability factors (for example, all my IDE drives have been Western Digital, but my SCSI drives have been from Seagate, Fujitsu, and Quantum).
In my view, your best bet is to shop for performance-per-dollar, rather than on the basis of corporate identity.
MxxPwr:
Quote from: Hegelian on 2006 September 29, 17:50:30
::snip:: ...This isn't sports: brand loyalty basically means loyalty to a corporation and its management (oh wait, I guess it is just like pro sports). I used Diamond graphics boards for a long time, and then 3dfx, 3DLabs, and Matrox. The ATI board I had was awful. But Diamond started turning out crap products and then disappeared (merged with S3, switched to consumer electronics under the SonicBlue brand, and eventually went bankrupt), while Matrox dropped out of the consumer board market (no DX9 boards), and so I took a chance on an ATI 9800 Pro, and was more than happy. So that's where I am now. As long as ATI offers a high-performance product at a good price, I probably won't change (and I have non-performance issues with nVidia). Ironically, ATI now belongs to AMD... ::snip::
And to take the pro sports analogy further, graphics boards have always reminded me a little of Indy Car racing. Everybody's trying to make that next tech leap, but leap the wrong way, and your race team is crippled for the next tech cycle. With graphic board manufacturers, leap the wrong way, and you take a hit in market share (or die completely).
That's what happened with ATI and Nvidia. ATI made a kick-ass board. Nvidia made two cards work together. SLI (Nvidia dual card) caught on like wild fire with the rise in sales and market share to prove it (heck, why not, selling two cards per unit has to increase sales, right?). ATI eventually came in with Crossfire, but the damage was done. So, still you have ATI with the best single board, but Nvidia with the best dual boards.
But honestly, who would've thought the next 'innovation' was blending two cards together? Funny thing the tech market.
Anyway, I really don't stand anywhere when it comes to ATI or Nvidia, it depends on what someone's after. Just posting a random thought I guess.
SpaceDoll:
Hey Dr. Beast ;D
The leap from piece of shit to mediocre is huge, and a little shocking!!
When I do get around to building that box, I'd like to play Oblivion on the not lowest settings, any suggestions?
songsmith:
My head hurts! :D
I am looking at HP and Velocity. The Velocity machine is $1200 more. What I don't know is if it's worth it. My husband wants to make sure we are Vista ready when the time comes. Here are the proposed specs:
HP Pavilion d4650y customizable Desktop PC
RF170AV#ABA
- Genuine Windows XP Professional
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor E6600 (2.4GHz)
- 1GB DDR2-533MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x512)
- 500GB RAID 0 (2 x 250GB SATA HDDs) - performance
- LightScribe 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
- 16x max. DVD-ROM
- Sonic DigitalMedia Deluxe-Burn/Copy, Label CD/DVDs
- 15-in-1 memory card reader, 3 USB, 1394, audio
- Logitech X-230 2.1 Speakers
- 802.11 b/g Wireless LAN PCI Card
- No TV Tuner w/remote control
- Up to 512MB ATI RADEON X1600 XT with HyperMemory
- Sound Blaster Audigy 4, 24-bit ADVANCED HD Audio
- HP Wireless Keyboard, Wireless Optical Mouse
- Microsoft(R) Office Small Business Edition
- HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
$2,037.99 $2,037.99
And the Velocity Micro
Power Supply 550 Watt Antec® TRUE POWER 2.0 Quiet Power Supply with 120mm Smart Fan (SLI Certified by NVIDIA)
Power Cable Standard Power Cable
Case Lights None
Motherboard Asus® P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe - NVIDIA® nForce™ 4 SLI MCP, PCI Express Motherboard with DDR2
Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor E6600, dual 2.4GHz cores
CPU Cooling Arctic Cooling® Freezer 7 Heatsink, Ultra Quiet Fan, Copper Heat Pipes, plus Arctic Silver™ 5 Thermal Compound
DDR2 Memory 2048MB Corsair™ DDR2 PC5300 DDR667 (2x1024)
PCX Video 512MB ATI® Radeon™ X1950 XTX*, 2 x DVI out, 1 x S-Video out
Video Cooling VideoCool™ Positive Pressure Airflow System - Speed adjustable, with light
Video Tuning Moderate 3D Video Performance Tuning & Optimization (Requires VideoCool™ system)
Physics Processor None
Monitor 19" Viewsonic® LCD Display (VA902b), 1280 x 1024 resolution, 8ms Response Time - Black
Audio Creative Labs SoundBlaster® Audigy™ 4, high performance 7.1 channel sound
Speakers Creative Labs SBS380 2.1 Channel Stereo Speaker System with Compact Subwoofer - Black
Hard Drive 1 150GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm SATA/150, 16MB Cache, NCQ (Incredible Performance!)
Hard Drive 2 250GB Western Digital WD2500JD 7200rpm SATA/150, 8MB Cache
Optical Drive 1 16x Lite On® DVD+/-RW/CD-RW Dual Layer, Black Bezel
Optical Drive 2 16x DVD/48x CD-RW Lite On® Combo Drive, Black Bezel
Floppy Drive & Media
Reader
8-in-1 Floppy Drive & Media Reader Combo, Black Bezel
Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000MBps Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter
Network Adapter 2 or WiFi
Adapter
None
WiFi Router None
Modem None
FireWire 2 Integrated IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports, 1 front & 1 rear
USB 2.0 Ports 6 USB 2.0 Ports, 2 front & 4 rear
Operating System Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional w/Service Pack 2 on original CD, Installed & Performance Tuned
Productivity Software Genuine Microsoft® Office 2003 Small Business - Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher
Benchmark Software NEW - FutureMark® 3DMark06® Velocity Micro Basic Edition - gaming performance benchmark software
Security Software None
Recovery Disk Custom DVD Restore Disk, returns your system hard drive to the original factory installation
Is the Velocity really worth that much more? I'm confused. We tend to buy computers every 5 or 6 years, so I like to look to the future and hope that a machine will last longer without much upgrading needed.
The Velocity has the option of a 2-150GB Western Digital RAID 0 drive, but I didn't want to spend that much. I like the idea of the faster drive and added the least expensive second hard drive for storage. We already have a 150 Gig external drive at home.
And thanks for the help you've already given me!
ZiggyDoodle:
Hegelian, I owe you a bottle of fine vintage wine.
The new power supply (from PC Power & Cooling), the new ATI Radeon X850XT card, and the additional card fan Dell mandates are all installed and running beautifully.
Crisp, clean, and fast. No more jerky movements or lapses. What a delight!
Most interesting of all, my Dell 8400 DVD drive (I have two) constantly made roaring sounds when the system was booted up and during game play. This system is now quiet as a mouse and I have to attribute that to the new PSU.
Your wise counsel is most appreciated.
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