In article <[email hidden]>,
Leo Greco <[email hidden]> wrote:
> I'm planning to make a small upgrade to my computer soon, and I was
> wondering what would give me the best improvement in frame rates for
> gpl. My current system is a PII400 with 128MB of ram, a CL Banshee,and
> a Sound Blaster PCI128. I'm thinking of either getting a voodoo 33000
> and a 3d sound card, or getting a PIII600. I'm also open to any other
> suggestions in that price range (especially now that we have the d3d
> patch).
>
> Any advice would be much appreciated,
> Leo
The Voodoo 3 would probably make the biggest initial difference - I'd
recommend getting a V3-2000 if you don't care about TV-out. The V3-
2000 can easily and safely be OC'd to 166Mhz (default V3-3000 speed).
An OEM SB Live would help, but the next thing I'd do is the CPU
upgrade. What kind of motherboard do you have? Are you against
overclocking your CPU? You could probably manage the V3-2K and an
overclocked (800 or 850Mhz) Celeron II for what you were looking at for
the PIII-600. The CeleronII is not as fast as a PIII at the same clock
speed (noticably so - the cache is cut in half), but it's alot cheaper
to start with, and the 100Mhz FSB of the OC'd Celeron II let's you keep
your existing memory and eliminates other potential OC'ing problems.
Alot of the warnings you hear about CPU overclocking don't apply as
much to the new Coppermine PIII's and Celeron II's - the .18micron
process, and lower CPU voltage means the processor runs much cooler to
start with. As long as you don't go crazy (1+GHz), the first level of
OC'ing is almost a sure bet (PIII-E's @133FSB, CeleII's @100FSB).
HTH!
Kendt
PS Check out www.pricewatch.com for good prices on the components
you're looking for. Feel free to email me for more info, you want
specific things if you're going to do an OC'ed system. www.pcnut.com
also seems to be a good supplier.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
I'm planning to make a small upgrade to my computer soon, and I was
wondering what would give me the best improvement in frame rates for
gpl. My current system is a PII400 with 128MB of ram, a CL Banshee, and
a Sound Blaster PCI128. I'm thinking of either getting a voodoo 3 3000
and a 3d sound card, or getting a PIII600. I'm also open to any other
suggestions in that price range (especially now that we have the d3d
patch).
Any advice would be much appreciated,
Leo
