I got my Dell 300mhz P-II on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, I don't have
F1RS yet (man I want it...don't have the cash right now though....stupid
college :-) But CPR with the patch runs great. If you get the Velocity 128
card, there is an annoying flickering problem that occurs occasionally
(usually on ovals, where the framerate gets really high). I believe the
absolute lowest I've ever seen the framerate get was about 15, (I've got all
details on and everything cranked up full....full field of cars, best sound,
etc....).
ICR2 and N2 both fly.....I've never noticed any slowdown on those. GP2
runs great, except at...you guessed it....Monaco. With everything on full
detail, there is STILL 150% occupancy. Simply shocked me that I couldn't
get Monaco to run smooth as silk with my system (check out the specs at the
end of post). I have not had any other major problems with any other
track...the game is as fun as ever!
I considered putting Power F1 on my computer, but then I laughed at that
idea so hard that I fell down. :-)
I downloaded the Andretti Racing Demo just to see what it is
like.....it's an OK arcade game, but if you want a sim...this isn't it. But
it is a lot of fun (I think anyway). Again...runs super smooth.
Basically, my system can run almost anything very smoothly. Flight
Unlimited 2 doesn't run well in D3D due to some conflict, but I believe
Looking Glass is creating a patch. Also, STB (maker of the Velocity 128) is
working on a patch that will address the flickering problem in CPR and some
other games. These new drivers from STB will also be OpenGL capable! This
means that you'll be able to Run GLQuake with your Velocity card!
In general, this thing hauls as well...not just in games. IE4 opens up
instantaneously, as does every part of Office 97. I don't know how much of
this is due to my excessive amount of RAM (128 Megabytes), but it still
amazes me how quickly it does everything. I find it hard to use my
roommates 233 MMX Pentium because it runs noticeably slower than my system.
I love my system, and Dell's support is good (although they're still a
bit swamped from the holidays). If you post to their support forum, you
will usually get a response within a day or two that addresses your problem.
Sorry for all of the rambling, but I figured you'd like information more
in depth than "It's great...buy it". Hope this has been informative and
helped. My system specs are listed below my signature. Good luck computer
shopping!
Mike McCloskey
CPR Playground
[link lost in import]
Dell XPS D300 (Pentium II processor)
128 Megs of SD Ram
STB Velocity 128 AGP video card (OEM version does NOT come with packaged
games....kind of a let down. It also lacks a TV out feature that the retail
version has)
14/32 X CD ROM
6 meg ATA hard drive
Altec Lansing ACS 495 speakers (has USB control, big subwoofer....they are
REALLY cool, but somewhat expensive, and they lack a headphone jack)
AWE 64 Value soundcard (an option that was turned on by default on my
Microsoft Intellimouse (pretty standard on computers....I really like the
3rd rolling button thingie...very neat)
That's all that comes to mind right now. If I've made some glaring
omission, please let me know and I'll post whatever info you want. If you
have any other questions I'll answer them to the best of my ability.
Anybody out there got a new Dell XPS D300? I'm ready to buy one but need
some reviews
from real users. How do the Racing sims run on it? How is it overall?
Thanks in advance. Dan
It is an awesome system. I've had no major probs in the 3 months since I
got mine. The STB Velocity 128 AGP card is great for 3d games. Just add
a Canopus Pure 3d and you get the best of both worlds. I have some
screenshots of F1RS, CPR and Road To Indy that I took using both cars.
You can check them out on the screenshots and reviews pages at
http://gamepad.org/
Ken
The Game Pad
http://gamepad.org/
> Anybody out there got a new Dell XPS D300? I'm ready to buy one but
> need some reviews
> from real users. How do the Racing sims run on it? How is it overall?
> Thanks in advance. Dan
I recently got the Dell 266 PII, Altec 495surround sound (Awesome!) speakers,
STB 128 AGP (fast but not rendition) video card....ect ect ect. I love
it!!! I run N2 with all graphics, all cars drawn, max sounds with no skip!
I just wish I had a rendition card or the 3d patch would come out. All in all
unless your building a computer yourself and know exactly what the deal is Dell
is the way to go. In my humble opinion...
Good luck on your quest!
R. Faust
aka Xducer
I have had great success with Dell!! Unless you've got connections for some
good hardware pricing, you'll probably find you really can't save anything
by building it yourself.
--
Don Burnette
I-65 Racing
Dburn on Ten
