rec.autos.simulators

I am getting this system to mainly run N99 and GPL and eventually N2000.
I am pretty cpu illiterate and would like to know if this is a good deal
for the most part.....

AMD K6-2 350 3DNOW, Pentium Motherboard-ATX, 1 MB Pipeline Cache, 128 MB
Ram, 8.4 GB HD, 8MB ATI RAGE PRO AGP VID CARD, 56.6 FAX/MODEM, and 36X
CD Rom Drive for........$1,450.

And I realize that I am probably going to get a 3D Card and that'll up
the price some but is this a good deal and will it be able to run my new
toys? :)

BTW, I read this board often and was wondering what any of you would
suggest I go with for the 3D Card. I really don't want a rendition based
card and want the best I can afford. I would be willing to spend about
$250 more for the 3D Card. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ricky Whittenburg

  By far the most power for the money is to be had in a custom computer with
an Abit bh6 motherboard, an Intel Celeron 300a cpu overclocked to 374-450
and a Hercules Thriller 8 meg pci video card. Go to several local computer
stores and get one that gaurantees their work. You should be able to get a
system like that with 128 ram and a 17"monitor for less than the system you
quoted. FYI papy sims including GPL were originally written with their code
optimized for rendition video chips and 3dfx support was added after the
fact, therefore if gpl and n2000 are your primary interests get the
thriller, if however you wish future compatibility with the most games
possible go for the 3dfx. A single 8 meg thriller will outperform two 3dfx
12 megs in sli, especially on systems under 400mhz.
JM

For these games, you almost absolutely need a Voodoo-based 3D card.  More on
this later...

I might have suggested a Celeron 300a and overclocking it to 450 MHz.  But not
all can be overclocked, and it does take some confidence and CPU literacy to
deal with it.  I tend to think that getting a "Pentium MB", which I assume
means a socket-7, presumably "super-socket-7" (for the 100 MHz bus) is a bit
of a dead end.  That's one of the reasons I might say Celeron with ABit BH6 MB
(which could later take a Katmai).   Otherwise, I think the AMD is a
reasonable and inexpensive way to go, though I've never had one of their
chips.

I assume it comes with a 17" monitor at the price?  Otherwise it strikes me as
very high.

Make sure the modem is not a "winmodem" which uses some of the windows
features as a crutch (less done in hardware, or so I'm told).

You might want to consider a DVD instead of a CD-rom.  Though DVD has yet to
take off in the computer world.  Actually, if you aren't into movies, stick
with the CD.  BTW, DVD, for movies, requieres MPEG2 decoding.  I think the ATI
card does it.  Otherwise you have two choices: a dedicated card (~$100) or
software playback (which consumes most of your CPU).

Note that most of the high speed CD drives "spin down" (ie, stop) after a
while to conserve life.  This can be annoying if the game then has to wait on
it to spin up again.  The reason I *still* have a 4x drive!  But since most
games only go to the CD for video scenes, not a big issue.

The Rage Pro is a standard OEM vid card that often comes with computers, which
doesn't mean it is a bad one.  Just that there are a lot better that are
*** oriented.  I'd try to negotiate on getting it with any TNT-based card,
or especially for you, a Banshee-based card.  Both are 16MB, but more
importantly, have fast 3D cores.  Since N99 and GPL run best with 3dfx, you
NEED a 3dfx-based card that supports GLide (3dfx's API).  That means Voodoo2
(3D-only) or Banshee.  If you stick with the ATI, get any 12MB Voodoo2 card
(CL, Diamond, STB, Metabyte, Guillemot, Canopus, many others).  They all more
or less perform the same.  Should be about $120 or so.

If you go Banshee (pretty much the same companies have one), expect to pay
about $100.  Not bad, huh!

If you get a TNT-based card, you'll still need a Voodoo2.

If you really want to go balls-out, you can hook two Voodoo2's together in
"SLI" (scan line interleave) mode for even faster performance.  But I'd say
you don't need it.

Hope this helps!

I agree with all the above, though as mentioned previously, I'd get a
different video card.

Well, in the case of GPL, 3dfx was included with the initial release.  May
have been "after the fact" but one shouldn't infer it was an afterthought or
after release.

N99 only supports 3dfx, not Rendition, not D3D, in Windows.  This may be due
to it running just fine with Rendition in DOS.  But to me it indicates
potentially no Rendition support for n2000.  This is admittedly just my
extrapolation, does anyone have real info?

Agreed.  And if one extrapolates further into the future, 3dfx's Glide may
become obsolete too, leaving perhaps just D3D and OpenGL.

I assume you meant in GPL against its Rendition support.  In any D3D title, I
think your statement would not nearly apply.

A few comments:

1.  Make SURE the modem is not a WinModem.  Trust me, you don't want
    one!

2.  I use P2's, but I don't know enough about this processor to
    make any judgements here.

3.  RAM is fine, HYD size is fine, CD-ROM is fine.  Make sure they are
    UDMA.

4.  Wait and see if you can get the ATI Rage Fury.  Current reports have
    it looking pretty sweet.

5.  If the above pans out, you won't _need_ another 3D board :)

6.  If you do need 3dfx, the VooDoo II will do nicely.

7.  Make sure the manufacturer has left you empty PCI slots for
    current and future needs.  I personally feel that 4, plus AGP
    is the bare minimum these days.

-Larry

Well, it _is_ great for movies if properly equipped, and this is a good
question to ask. Does it have the required decoder card?  This may be
part of the ATI board, as ATI does neat things like this.

-Larry