New Computer questions:

[basite]

I have the perfect video card for ya Bert!

which is?

do mind I'd like the pc to be 'media center'-ish, since I'm planning to get a projector or so in the future...

and gaming is still important too

[Rich-n-Texas]

Look at my first post above to see my rig's specs. "Media-center-ish" is going to be very expensive. I was considering that route because I wanted to play games on my HDTV but when I saw the prices just for media center cases, I changed my mind. My TV is able to receive DVI in and my graphics card has DVI out and good control s/w so when things settle with my room layout and new receiver purchase I'm going to bring the PC out of the computer room and have a go with the TV.

Actually that would be my second post.

[basite]

well at the moment my pc consists of:

2x 512mb DDR ram,
AMD athlon 64 3500+
Asus A8V mobo
Sapphire ATI radeon x1600pro (slightly overclocked by sapphire) w/ 512mb DDR2 ram
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS soundcard driving:
Cambridge soundworks Megaworks THX 550 or something like that,
LG L1980Q monitor
2 sata HDD's, by maxtor
Liteon CD/DVD player/writer
LG cd/dvd reader
and probably some more of which I forgot the name...

Running Win XP pro, service pack 2, with fancy skin

No real performance complaints so far, works good for the games I'm playing, albeit not on the highest quality...
what does bother me is that my graphics card is still AGP, and my mobo doesn't support PCI-E, so I can't really upgrade that anymore...

So I'll be looking for a new mobo, new CPU, new graphics card, new RAM memory,and probably a new PSU too...

all this to be good for another few months

nah, but the media center thing isn't exactly like a media center, it's more like a pc capable of doing all the modern HT stuff, so I want HDMI, fast things, no ghosting while watching movies (I've had some problems with deinterlacing before) all that stuff...

I'll probably wait again, till summer or so, new things come way to fast in pc world, so maybe it will become cheaper too then

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Yeah, AGP is going the way of the dinosaur quickly now which forces you to upgrade the motherboard. Forgot about that.

Incedently, I use and am subscribed to Steam to play HL-2, and you can install a game server utility so more than one machine on a network can play games. I had this server installed on one of my older machines and was able to play CS; one computer against the other. The only problem was I had to keep running back-n-forth between the one in the living room and the one in the computer room in order to kill the enemy. Could never figure out though why my soldiers were always dead by the time I got back to the computer room!

[topspeed]

Thanks for the article Wooch. It was enough to make me seriously reconsider cyberpower.

Kex, I don't even know what Linux is! That's how much I care if people think I'm cool.




So, I've narrowed down a couple of systems:

Dell XPS 420: $1189
3Gig memory
Intel Quad Core Q6600, 2.4Ghz
ATI 256MB HD vid card
320GB HD
16x DVD/CD burner
Dell 19" LCD Widescreen HD (1440x900) monitor

or

Dell XPS 420: $1340
Same stats as above except NVidia Geforce 512mb 8800GT
yes, that damn card is an additional $250!!!

or

HP Pavillion Ultimate: $600
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz
2gb memory
400 GB HD
DVD dual layer burner w/ Lightscribe (whatever that is)
Flash card reader
NVidia GeForce 8400GS 256mb w/ HDMI & DVI
No monitor

All come bundled w/ Vista Home Premium and the Dell's also include Adobe Elements studio and MS Works 8 (although I've never used either)

Sorry Beefy, I can't pull the trigger on that monster vid card. I know, I know, shoot me.

[Feanor]

More that 2x from highest to lowest; maybe you should narrow that down.

The high-end video cards are really only necesary if you're want to run 3D games or the like. Otherwise the more modest is fine, (although I hear one should avoid DirectX 10).

"Lightscribe" uses laser to enscribe labels onto special CD-R blanks.

[topspeed]

I do like playing FPS games, so the card is kind of important, Feanor. Call of Duty 4 is on my list to Santa, and since I know the guy pretty well, I'm confident it will be under the tree .

[topspeed]

Thanks for all your help guys!

I ordered the XPS 420 yesterday and it should be here by the 20th. After much research, most of the systems I tried to build from HP, Gateway, Cyberpower, and others were almost the same price. I ruled out Apple simply because they were fairly expensive comparatively and I didn't like the idea of running two different OS's in my home and office (my office has a Dell PC). Other factors were comfort with the company and its CS (this is my 4th Dell) and the knowledge they'll be around for awhile if I run into issues. I figure a Quad Core chipset w/ 3G of memory coupled to the 8800GT vid board should keep my computer up to speed for at least the next 3 years or so.

Yeah, right. Hey, a man can dream, can't he?

Thanks again for all the replies. Merry Christmas!

[basite]

Thanks for all your help guys!

I figure a Quad Core chipset w/ 3G of memory coupled to the 8800GT vid board should keep my computer up to speed for at least the next 3 years or so.

Yeah, right. Hey, a man can dream, can't he?

Thanks again for all the replies. Merry Christmas!

yeah, you can dream, but in reality your pc will do the current stuff (like games) pretty good, and in 3 years it will still do those same games pretty good, but games that are released then?

in 3 years that pc will be old like all the 3 year old pc's today...



Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Bet I can kill you before you can kill me in CoD4!

[topspeed]

Bet I can kill you before you can kill me in CoD4!

You know, I've never actually gamed online, so I wouldn't even know where to begin. If I figure it out, I'll definitely take that challenge!

BTW, shouldn't you be changing your avatar soon? I thought you were crossing over to the darkside?

[Rich-n-Texas]

You know, I've never actually gamed online, so I wouldn't even know where to begin. If I figure it out, I'll definitely take that challenge!

Truth be told TS, I've never gamed online either. I'm afraid I'd be severely embarrased, but like I said earlier I can download a utility that will let me set up a dedicated server, and it may be possible that I can attach IP addresses so a limited and/or select few people could join in a game of Counter-Strike or Day of Defeat and a couple of other Steam games that slip my mind right now. If there's enough interest here I can investigate further. Heck I'd be willing to buy a multi-player racing game...

BTW, shouldn't you be changing your avatar soon? I thought you were crossing over to the darkside?

I'm getting cold feet. Gas prices can only go up and I dam sure don't want keeping a V8 full to become a significant drain on my income. I must say though that I do like the looks of the Burgundy colored Premium edition GT with the (non-functional) hood scoop and rear spoiler.

Good luck with your new purchase. When you load up some of the PC games available these days, with their intense graphics engines... you'll be BLOWN away!

[basite]

Truth be told TS, I've never gamed online either. I'm afraid I'd be severely embarrased, but like I said earlier I can download a utility that will let me set up a dedicated server, and it may be possible that I can attach IP addresses so a limited and/or select few people could join in a game of Counter-Strike or Day of Defeat and a couple of other Steam games that slip my mind right now. If there's enough interest here I can investigate further. Heck I'd be willing to buy a multi-player racing game...

Start with Wolfenstein enemy territory, it's free, and fun, and easy, so a good place to start. You will die quite a few times in the beginning, but it's an exellent place to learn, I know, because I've played (and still play) this myself.

if you ever play it, and pings are not too high, you can sometimes find me on the Weedheaven server, found at IP 84.244.186.26

also, an online racing game: Try Test drive unlimited, good graphics, nice driving huge island (real island btw, part of Hawaii)

Don't be ashamed of yourself, all beginning is hard

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Start with Wolfenstein enemy territory, it's free, and fun, and easy, so a good place to start. You will die quite a few times in the beginning, but it's an exellent place to learn, I know, because I've played (and still play) this myself.

if you ever play it, and pings are not too high, you can sometimes find me on the Weedheaven server, found at IP 84.244.186.26

also, an online racing game: Try Test drive unlimited, good graphics, nice driving huge island (real island btw, part of Hawaii)

Don't be ashamed of yourself, all beginning is hard

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

I found the game for free at GameZone, but if I understand "stand alone game" correctly I won't be able to play it in a multi-player environment right? And how do I join the game at that IP address?

[Rich-n-Texas]

I try it Bert. I'm a little paranoid about downloading s/w from unknown sites, but I'll give it a shot and let ya know if I can connect to the Weedheaven server.

[basite]

I haven't got any problems with it, it's available on alot of sites though...

the game is pretty 'basic', unlike other games with 2501 different moves, this one has fire, zoom, jump, crawl, sneak, ... just the basic moves...

in the beginning it might feel weird, but as soon as you've got it, it's easy and fun.
oh yeah, maybe I should give you some extra notes:

check yer PM

[Rich-n-Texas]

Well, Bert, three hours later and the game is still downloading. I've got a 15Mb/s connection so it's not at my end. Looks like tomorrow is another day...

[basite]

whoa!

what site are you downloading it from?

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Rich-n-Texas]

C/Net was the only place I could find it. Apparently the Castle Wolfenstein website no longer exists.

[basite]

here ya go

http://returntocastlewolfenstein.fil...erritory;14380

(and the patch)
http://returntocastlewolfenstein.fil..._Windows;39483

I hope that goes faster

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Got the game loaded and configured last night and was able to play on some test server, but I was never able to find one named Weedheaven. Is it for members only? The list of servers seemed endless and I didn't see any way to enter IP addresses after clicking on "play online", but I'll spend more time on it tonite.

Hey TS, today's the 20th!

[basite]

it's not in the list, that's correct...

press the button 'connect to IP' at the bottom of this page. If you don't have the button, it probably means that you haven't installed the patch (see last link in my previous post...)

after installing the patch, the button should be there...
(patch version is V2.60, not V2.60b)

(i've uploaded a pic, so you know where to find the button )



Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Rich-n-Texas]

You're right, I don't have the patch installed so I'll do that tonite. My game name is Sgt_Saunders. BTW, how many pings is too many?

[basite]

how many pings is too many?

depends, the higher it gets, the more chance of having some 'lag' issures, everything under that is fine. 999 will remove you from the server.

I once had 400 and was still able to play fine...

How much did you average?
btw, if it's really busy on the server, lagging will become more common, and you might occasionally lose connection, but you can always reconnect then...

I checked the server yesterday around 11 pm (which is 4 pm CST), and there were like 17 players, so no issues then...


Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Rich-n-Texas]

I was seeing around 250 - 290 when I looked at one or two pages of servers. If I recall correctly aren't some servers private?