Time for a New Rig

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

I have been waiting for the new tech to come down in price a little. Of course, there is always "new tech" on the horizon, so I finally decided to buy. Found this deal at NewEgg. Other than the butt ugly case, this is a steal.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883229054

After I get XP on this thing, theoretically I should be pushing 2000 frames per second in UT (I currently can push 1000 with my current rig). I should also be able to run Crysis at decent frame rates.

Now if I could just find a better looking case...

[Tommy]

With the blue light, it might look pretty cool in a dim to dark room.

T

[Evil]

Bah you guys with the 1000 FPS... I get 30-60.

I kinda want that, but damn... I am cheap. Need to build a slightly better machine though, built this one a few years ago.

[Evil]

Also doesn't say if the MB at least has one ide port so you can get your shit off your old HDs. I suppose it doesn't, Sucks that all the new good stuff mostly only has none or one, because I have several decent size ide HDs, 250 and 160s.

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

It has one

[Tommy]

No firewire ports? Seems odd for something so new.

Guess if you don't need them, you don't need them.

T

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

I have no firewire devices so it is not too important to me. But, if it makes you feel better it has 1 Rear IEEE 1394 port.

I should be getting this puppy today. Too bad I have to work

[Tommy]

I have no firewire devices so it is not too important to me. But, if it makes you feel better it has 1 Rear IEEE 1394 port.

I should be getting this puppy today. Too bad I have to work

Yup, looked again and now I see it. Must have missed it the first time.

I never had a use for firewire either until I got a DVR. I was then able to run a cable between the DVR and the Mac and capture videos off of the DVR. Point being, it is always nice to have the option, you never know when you might need it. Also, on Mac's, when you buy a new machine, you can connect them via firewire to transfer your old stuff to the new machine. I've never done that though.

T

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

Got the new rig. It is FAAAAAST!

Got 13000 on the 3dmark 06. So far I am happy.

Gonna install XP for UT purposes.

Oh, and it is not as ugly as the pictures made it seem.

[{DOU}Pyro]

Congrats Jarg. It's all about whats inside. A strong heart. I am sure it is Loverly

[Evil]

Loverly indeed.

[{DOU}Jay]

Sweet rig, but you are aware that you can build one for a bit less, and get a bit more?

[Otis_Firefly]

Looks Like a nice machine to me - but maybe someone can tell me what difference Frame rate makes in UT. I've always had mine set to the default levels. Am I missing something? Does Processor, RAM, or V card have more to do with what frame rate I can enjoy or is it a combination of all of these?

Congrats Jager

[{DOU}Jay]

Loosely, Frame Rate is a reference of latency between your actions and the game following those actions. the difference between 60fps and 120fps is a mere 8 milliseconds of reaction time. typically, you wont even be able to see the difference of anything above 60 fps. Anything more than that is a waste in any game. Console games typically run at 25 to 30 fps, while most modern computer games run at 30fps.

So FPS can really be translated into the time between you hitting that fire button, and your sneaky little sniper guy actually shooting the rifle in the game.

Now games may feel smoother with ridiculous frame rates. this is because blur is achieved which is what is in movies and creates a natural feel to motion. It simply appears to be smoother, because this is what we witness in real life.

With UT99, its pointless really. A basic computer can run the game at 60fps, which is plenty unless you have a monitor that can handle a higher frame rate. As I said earlier, anything higher than that, and the human eye cannot see the difference in speed.

However, for more modern games, which typically run around 30 to 40 fps for the most part, you need one hell of a system to even achieve that. In this case all the components you mentioned come heavily into play.

If you have a GeForce 8800 GTX, but happen to have a slower processor and some questionable ram, your game is going to suffer.

Realistically, if your going to put together a "gaming" box, you had better invest in a quad core processor, some DDR3 Ram, and whichever cards you choose, be it ATi or NVidia, Make sure your board can support either Crossfire or SLI, respectively.

A small note about processors... If you get a 64 bit processor, you will be begging Tommy to update UTDC, as version 1.8 will crash UT99 on 64 bit systems. So keep that in mind.

Which brings me to the board itself. All mainboards are not created equal. It has to support what you want. Ram, Processor, SCSI or SATA, Crossfire or SLI, ect...

Hard drives are equally important. Slow speed drives simply wont do. SCSI 320 drives are sick, but if you want to, you can use SATA drives at 10k rpm for 300 MB/s transfer rates instead and save a few bucks. You lose a bit of speed, but the drives deliver much more space for your dollar. Plus, you can have one drive that is a bit smaller but super fast as your main drive which would host your games and Operating System, and then one that is a bit slower, like a 7200 rpm disk as a second drive for storage, which could be up to 1 terabyte.

Once you dive past those big hurdles, the next big investment would be a monitor.

After that, you've got your keyboard, mouse, a nice headset, a dvd/cd drive, network card and your off to the races.

Oh, and avoid Vista at all costs when it comes to games. Its a resource HOG and will slow you down. Aim for XP if your going to use windows at all.



Hope this helps!

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

IOW, nah, the faster frame rates will not really help or be noticeable. It is merely a geek pissing contest... or maybe I am compensating for a small hard drive