rec.autos.simulators

I am currently looking at getting a new PC so i can run GPL as it should in
all its glory as well as the more rcent sins.. Ive beenlooking through all
the magazines looking for the best deal and seem to be going round in
circles trying to make my mind up. To make matters worse i popped into PC
world and see they undercut a lot of bigger companieswith some of their
PC,s. What i would like to know is if anyone has got one from PC world and
if so how does it compare. The ones ive seen are the Advent range. They are
doing P4 2.6,  512 ram and gee force 68mb graphic card including a TFT
monitor for 999 at the moment. To me this seems a good deal although more
then i was hoping to spend.
Are they good machines or will an Evesham, mesh, multivision etc be a better
bet despite having to pay more?
Thanks
Kev Barnes

<snip>

A 2.6 P4 isn't a bad choice, but I could guarantee you that the 64MB Geforce
graphics card included would be a bottom of the range job that would
castrate the performance of any sim.  You need to be aware that the
performance of various cards in the Geforce range varies enormously - as
does the price.  A reasonable choice of graphics card to suit a P4 2.6 would
be a 128MB Geforce4 Ti4200.  These are relatively cheap and perform very
well.  Be wary of PCs containing Geforce 4 MX cards as these are stripped
down versions of the Ti4XXX cards and aren't a good choice to complement a
fast CPU for a modern *** PC.

A TFT monitor isn't the best choice for running simulations either.  They
tend to get a little blurry whenever there's motion on the screen.  They're
great for word processing but not for games.  The new ones are much improved
these days, but they're still nowhere near as good as a conventional
monitor.

So, in summary, save a few dollars on the monitor and get a better graphics
card - should work out at about the same price.

Kevin...

look at the wholesale pc stores not the high street ones...alot more for
your money,better credit terms if needed and system made exactly to your
spec.

TFT not good for *** really,they are improving but not there yet.

GF4 card will be the lower level model,you do need a GF4 ti 4200 minimum.

Take a look at Mesh Computers and configure one yourself,that will be alot
better than the Advent models at PCW or take a look at www.aria.co.uk for
example...there are plenty more like this i have in my listt if you need
them.

But don't go to PCW :)

AD

For the best *** rigs check these guys out:

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

PB

I have to contradict you there I'm afraid Aidee.  I use a TFT and I find it
perfectly OK for ***.  The trick is to scour the spec sheet for the
latency of the LCD.  The good new ones have latencies of around 30ms and are
quite reasonable for ***.  Older TFTs, and cheaper new ones, have
latencies around 50-60ms and do appear very blurry with fast-moving images.
If in-game picture quality is your only criterion then a conventional CRT is
still definitely the way to go, but if you have other priorities like saving
desk space and using office apps, then the right TFT screen can be a
reasonable compromise.

I won't argue with that...

...Andy

For Sims you need the CPU and Video card to be upmarket, a cheap vid card
(as has said before) will ruin a good CPU and vice versa.

If you do want to go TFT be very careful you get the latest variants, there
are some cheap ones on the market that sound fine but won't make it with the
moving images of sims.

If money is limited you'll get a better CRT for your 's.

Andi.

Just don't do it man, steer well clear of PC world (which is only ever good
for a rummage in the bargin bin beacuse the chimpanzies they employ quite
often make pricing mistakes). The PC's are pretty shit built up of cheapo
componets in crappy cases. Either build one yourself or get one built for
you froma specialist who knows what they're doing. I've just built myself a
ninja system mostly out of stuff bought from the venerable
overclockers.co.uk. It won't nessesarily cost you much more but you'll get a
far far better pc that you can be proud of. Compment wise alwasy stick to
quality brand names ASUS, ABIT Gainward, Maxtor, Intel, CoolerMaster ,
Samsung, Corsair ,etc etc and forget anything nobody has ever heard of
however good it is.

Some Call Me Tim

Even with a 30ms screen, the frame rate will be limited to about 33fps.
Even GPL which is frequently criticised for its low maximum frame rate has a
maximum of 36fps.  You haven't lived until you've played something like
GTR2002 at 60+ fps.

I'll bet Crammond thinks LCDs are fine though.... ;)

That's not exactly true - the game can still run at 60fps or whatever.
Frames that are updated too quickly for the LCD don't get dropped, they get
blurred together; so what you get is a slight motion blur rather than the
jerky motion you might perceive on a CRT at 33fps.  That does make a
difference.  Whether it's enough of a difference is a matter of opinion I
guess.

I'm not Crammond but I do think my LCD is fine :-)

...Andy

No-one's mentioned the other disadvantage of LCDs yet, namely that most LCDs
can't quite manage the full 24 bits' worth of colours needed to create the
illusion of analogue colour.  I find this noticeable when watching DVDs but
not in games.  Again it's probably something that varies between different
screens and different games (and different eyes no doubt).

...Andy

Oh yeah, and the _third_ disadvantage is that LCDs don't look good at
anything other than their native resolution.  So the option of dropping back
to a lower resolution if your frame rate is too low is less viable.

Hmmm.  Anyone want to buy a used 15" LCD?  (Just kidding.  I love it
really.)

...Andy