rec.autos.simulators

I am currently deciding on:
AMD K6-III-450 or a Celeron 433

What should I go with?  I don't plan on spending any more cash than
that on the chip.

How much memory and what type?  (i haven't bought a machine in a
couple years so I might be down on the computer talk)

My current video card is a PCI All-N-Wonder.  Should I go with an AGP
card?  3DFX?  What is a good mix of a video card and 3DFX?

My current wheel is a GP1.  I am leaning towards a split axis wheel.
Which wheels offer split axis capabilites?

What type of performance will I get out of GPL and GP2?

And advice would be greatly appreciated.

Go with the Celeron 433, the price on those is going down as we speak.
(unless you want to try "overclocking" a P300a to 450 + mhz)

If you can, get an Abit BH mainboard, it is more "flexible" to
"tweaking" than other BX chipset boards, and will make "overclocking"
very easy if you want to try.

If you can afford it, get a 128 Mb (100 mhz) DIMM memory module, that
will allow for easy "expansion" later.

I prefer Western Digital hard drives, they have 7200 rpm drives
available for reasonable $$$, any name brand will do though.

Right now, the 16 Mb Voodoo AGP cards are another bargain. You should be
able to get on at $90.00 or below.

40X CD drives are available under $50 and a GREAT sound card is a
Soundblaster Live Value at around $70.00.

Tha above will give OUTSTANDING performance in GPL (what else is there
???).

I just got a Hyper Stimulator system (currently building the***pit
"kit") and have used a TM T-2 before that, so I'll defer to someone else
on giving advice on a steering wheel & pedals.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have any more "hardware" questions. I can
help you out on an Abit mainboard and CPU if you can't find them.

Take care,

EE

    What is the fascination with a high speed CD Rom drive?  a 40X is quite
fast but it does nothing for you if you do the Full Install to the HDD.  If
you do a Full install..  A 2X CD Rom drive will do.  And the 2X will be a
whole lot cheaper. And you wont have to wait as long for the CD Rome drive
to load the stuff between races.

--
=========================================
Mike Barlow of Barlow Racing?
MikeBa on the TEN network.
Member of R.O.R. 1999
http://w3.ime.net/~marknjess/noflame.html
=========================================
Racing online with the help of......

Race Communications Association
http://members.xoom.com/RCA/toc.html

Holodyne Engineering

Mystic Music

Robert
Hull, Qubec

First off where can you buy a 2x?  And a 40x will sure install the game a
lot faster than a 2x.

    True, the 40X will install it quicker.  For that reason alone a 40X is a
good purchase.  However, I just meant to say that a 40X drive is not worth
getting unless you have programs that run off the CD *ONLY*.

    You can still pick up 2X's very cheap.  They are hard to find but they are
still available.  Shoot,  just the next town over there is a store that sells a
lot of New 486's.  Complete with monitor, Keyboard, printer, ect..  Most people
I know that buy these 486's buy them just for the printers, monitors, and HDDs.
at $120.00 it's worth it.

Race Communications Association
http://members.xoom.com/RCA/toc.html

Holodyne Engineering

Mystic Music

How about 3DFX cards?  How do these work?  Are they add-on cards that
work with the video card or are they the actual video card?  

You will definitely get a lot of different opinions, here's mine.
Do a lot of research on the net from places like Tom's and Anandtech.
Keep in mind YOUR priorities, performance requirements, what kind of
software, budget etc. Then consider the paths before you, buy ready made
locally, custom built local, mail order ready made or custom. I could go
on but you get the point, think now and save later.
What would I do? Same thing I did 8 months ago when the ole 200mmx wasn't
running GPL very well. Mail ordered the parts, case, celeron 300a cpu,
Abit bh6 mobo,128 meg pc100 ram, and used my thriller 8meg etc.  I paid a
local shop $50 to assemble, set bios, load windows and test. Well worth
the money. After a breakin period and a little tweaking it has been
running at 450mhz 24/7 over 6 months rock solid. Keep in mind this cpu is
getting rare and you should read up on overclocking . Check this out,
pricey but gaurenteed. As for video, voodoodoo works fine with most
everything and although the new riva tnt is great it isn't perfect with
GPL yet. You may also want to read GPL forums for a while too. There is a
lot more but I'm even boring myself at this point. One last thing, imo an
overclocked 300a is still the most bang for the buck.
JM

I plan on purchasing the parts and putting together the machine
myself.  I probably won't save a lot of money--but I know I will be
getting all the manuals and I know what I am getting (no flaky parts).

Can't find a Celeron 300A anywhere.  I am not really into overclocking
it because you can find comparable CPUs for what you paid 6 months
ago.  Why buy a 300A when you can buy a reasonably priced PII 400.

Also if anyone can recommemd some really good video cards for
GPL/GP2/Quake2, that would be kindly appreciated.  Cost does not
matter--just performance!

<<What is the fascination with a high speed CD Rom drive?>>

I agree, but where are you going to buy a new CD slower than 40X ???

Time marches on,

EE

<<How about 3DFX cards?  How do these work?  Are they add-on cards that
work with the video card or are they the actual video card?>>

You're not reading the replies to your original question -

Get a 16 Mb Voodoo AGP, one card, one slot, GREAT GPL performance !!!

EE

<<Why buy a 300A when you can buy a reasonably priced PII 400>>

I guess at this point, after reading this entire thread, I'm asking
myself why you asked the original question if you have all these answers
???

I can tell you why a 300a at 450 mhz over a PII400 - it's SIMPLE, the
300a is FASTER !!!

Look on Ebay, there's over a hundred for sale today alone !!!

Hope you get this worked out, you can spend days trying to figure ways
to save a buck or two.

Sometimes the speed you need cost a little more.

Later,

EE

game?

Thanks for the help.