I am currently considering buying a PC and was wondering what I should look
for in the way of speed, video cards, ram, etc, to enjoy the current crop
of sims discussed on this ng, as well as the older ones I missed out on.
Are those package deals any good? (Gateway, Dell, etc.)
Thanks
They are pretty good, but they are sometimes proprietary which means
upgrading can be a hassle. I would go with Dell over Gateway, which I
did when I got my first PC. But, you will probably get a better
machine, and for less, if you look for a local shop that will build to
your specs. There are many choices in the PC market, but if you want
the most compatible and a very fast system without overclocking then
get the below minimums.
P3 800+ (get fastest cpu you can afford)
Voodoo5 5500 vid card (I had a Geforce2 and much prefer the Voodoo5,
especially if you are into sims)
128mb ram minimum
UDMA66 hard drive or maybe UDMA100
SB Live! or Aureal sound card
Full tower case (better for upgrading later and will fit the Voodoo5
easier)
250-300w power supply (may as well make it 300w now)
Go do some research on motherboard chipsets before you buy too. I
personally still think the BX chipset is the way to go right now, but
there are alternatives like VIA Appolo and i815.
--
Nos
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
--
Scott Moore
The Sports *** Network
http://www.racesimcentral.net/***.com
Great! I'm not one of the "PCs are the only thing that counts"
brigade, but when it comes to racing sims, they beat the rest hands
down.
I don't know what the situation is overseas, but here in the UK if
you have the confidence to buy from a small company via mail-order,
it's a lot cheaper and you usually get better service than on the
High Street - just ask people in the UK their opinion of the Dixon's
chain, and put some earplugs in first! A lot of the "big brands" over
here have very poor reputations for customer service.
As for what spec to get - the easy answer is "the best you can
afford". Anything now on the market will handle older games like GP2 or
Colin McRae Rally without problems. GPL runs fine at 800x600 on my
Celeron 400 with 64 megs of RAM and a Voodoo 3 graphics card. GP3 we
don't know about yet. F1-2000 needs a couple of Crays...
CPU - Fastest you can get (Pentium III is best, Celeron is next).
Intels have the best compatability, but the new Athlons from AMD seem
to be OK as well.
RAM - At least 128 megs for preference. Memory is expensive in the UK,
though, so a lot of us here (like me) only have 64 megs.
Video: If you have an AGP graphics card slot (most, but not all, new
PCs do), then it's between a Voodoo 5 and a GeForce. GPL used to
require a 3dfx (or Rendition) card, but the Direct3D patch now
available fixes that one. If you only have a PCI slot (eg on the
machines, like mine, with a *** onboard graphics system), then a
Voodoo 3 will do the job. Most models of the V5 will apparently also be
available in PCI, but I haven't seen one yet.
Hard disk: Big. I have 8 gigs, and it's getting full. GPL replays take
up a lot of space, you know :-)
I'm no expert, and I'm sure a lot of people will be able to advise you
better, but I hope that helped a bit.
--
David. (GPLRank handicap: -1.01)
"After all, a mere thousand yards - such a harmless little knoll,
really." (Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh)
Cheers,
...Colin
1.) P3700E (E=100MHz Front Side Bus, EB =133MHz FSB and is to be avoided)
2.) Asus P3B-F motherboard w/a "Slotket" converter for the CPU (this mobo is
based on Intel BX chipset)
or Asus CUCLX motherboard (this mobo is based on the new Intel i815 chipset)
3.) 128MB of SDRAM, PC133 w/CAS 2 latency (Crucial/Micron or Mushkin brands are
best here ...)
4.) 20-30GB hard drive, pref. 7200RPM. I like IBM or Western Digital "Expert"
series (which are basically IBM drives)
5.) SoundBlaster Live! soundcard
6.) If you're just running driving sims, then for right now I would go with the
trusty Voodoo3 3000 AGP. They're rock solid, highly overclockable for more
speed, very compatible with all games, and dirt cheap nowdays. The latest video
cards such as the V5 or the GeForce series are all insanely expensive and do not
provide enough of a benefit to justify the cost. Upgrade this later when the
next generation of cards come out.
7.) CD-ROM. Depends on whether you prefer IDE or SCSI I/O. If you wanna stay
simple, go IDE and pick up one of the Asus drives, say a 40X or so. Very good
units, reasonable prices, and they provide both digital & analog outputs. If you
like SCSI, then the only way to go is with Plextor. And if you are planning on
doing any CD burning, esp. "on the fly" then SCSI is definitely the way to go,
with both a Plextor source drive and a Plextor recorder.
8.) Case - I prefer full towers, both for the room and the cooling capacity. The
SuperMicro SC750A is quite nice, and comes with a 300W power supply made by
Sparkle Power Inc. (SPI), which is one of the best. Addtronics is the OEM maker
of this case, and also sells it under its own name, with only a few minor
cosmetic differences, and is a coupla bucks cheaper. Get the optional caster
wheels.
9.) 19in. monitor. With prices so low today, you can buy a 19in. for what a
17in. cost a couple years ago, and the increase in screen real estate is quite a
bit (somewhere around 30-40%). My first choice is the Sony G400, but if you
wanna save $75-100, try the Mitsubishi DiamondPlus91 or the Viewsonic PF795 (not
the 790).
The rest of the stuff, ie. keyboard, mouse, speakers, modem, Win98 (Win2000 is
not a great platform for ***) etc., is pretty much up to you, ie. whatever you
prefer. Logitech makes great mice (I like the Mouseman Wheel) and their
keyboards are very decent too (their Internet Keyboard is nice, has 'Net hot
keys, plus volume controls, etc.)
With this system as spec'd above, you ought to be able to run at
7x133.33=933MHz. The advantage to the newer Asus mobo with the i815 is that it
has a 1/2 AGP bus multiplier, and therefore the video card will not be
overclocked when you overclock the system. With the older P3B, the AGP mult. is
2/3, and at 133MHz system bus speed you are running the video card slightly out
of spec. While this is a problem with some cards, the 3dfx cards handle it with
no problem, so don't sweat it.
And don't worry about overclocking in general. With proper cooling it is
relatively easy, and harmless. Sure, you will get increased electromigration in
the CPU, but the average life of a CPU is several times the average length of
time a person keeps a system. Besides, you get a "933MHz" CPU for about 1/3-1/4
of the cost.
As spec'd above, you're looking at about $1950 with the Sony, or ~ $1875 with the
Viewsonic or Mitsubishi, including shipping costs for all the parts. No sales
tax either. <g> And you will have a killer system running at ~ 1GHz that ought
to last you for a while, but you will wanna upgrade the video card sometime as I
noted. Probably be at least 6-9 months before the next gen of vid cards hits.
Note: These costs are based on an IDE CD-ROM and no CD burner either. If you go
the SCSI route, add in $50-$75 for a decent SCSI controller, and $175 or so for a
"burner".
Oh yeah, forgot to add in the cost of a wheel & pedal setup. <G> Depending on
your fancy, anywhere from $75 to $500.
> I am currently considering buying a PC and was wondering what I should look
> for in the way of speed, video cards, ram, etc, to enjoy the current crop
> of sims discussed on this ng, as well as the older ones I missed out on.
> Are those package deals any good? (Gateway, Dell, etc.)
> Thanks
About best system to buy noe.
Don't agree. Buy an AMD: More CPU for your money. Maybe a AMD 900 MHz is as
fast as a P3 850 MHZ (although I'm not convinced of that), the AMD CPU will
be much cheeper.
I have very good experiences with Geforece 2. Moreover, Voodoo is a dead end
street imo.
IMO soundcard is not that important unless you're the kind of guy that hears
the noise on an audio-CD
Also better for ventilation
grtng, HGRM
> >Don't agree. Buy an AMD: More CPU for your money. Maybe a AMD 900 MHz is
as
> >fast as a P3 850 MHZ (although I'm not convinced of that), the AMD CPU
will
> >be much cheeper.
--
Scott Moore
The Sports *** Network
http://www.racesimcentral.net/***.com
Shut the hell up. If you read my post properly you would have seen I
also said the most *compatible*. I can't stand people who contradict
good advice. Sheesh.
Canadian Prices
AMD K7 Athlon 850MHz 100MHz/200MHz Bus 512k Retail (Slot A)
$557
Intel Pentium 3 800MHz (E) 100MHz Bus 256k OEM (Slot 1)
$529
--
Nos
Not to mention the fact that most games have MMX support, but not
always 3DNOw. Oh yea, Athlons generate more heat and need a tighter
tolerance when it comes to voltage supply. I think either cpu is good,
but as I said, I gave the advice that provided the best compatibility
and stability. I've also owned a Geforce2 so i didn't just base my
opinion on a bias either.
--
Nos
Eldred
--
Tiger Stadium R.I.P. 1912-1999
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
GPL hcp. +69.95
Never argue with an idiot. He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.
Eldred
--
Tiger Stadium R.I.P. 1912-1999
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
GPL hcp. +69.95
Never argue with an idiot. He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.
> >I work for a software company that provides mission critical software for
> >telephone companies. We use Dells exclusively. Pretty much says it all
> >really.
> All it says is that your company chose Dells. :)
Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy
"Team Mirage" http://www.teammirage.com/
"The Pits" http://www.theuspits.com/
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