BF2S Forums To upgrade or not upgrade THAT is the question...

Looks like a nice machine - but i would not raid the drives.

And be sure to have enough cooling to the motherboard, only negative about DFI lanparty cards, and Asus beats them at bundle but DFI is better on the rest :-)

The processor is prolly one of the best u can get nowadays but its expensive.

EvilMonkeySlayer wrote:

Do you find the frame rate takes a nose dive when you're on Sharqi, inside the tv station and there are a few people on the server?

It does on mine.

nope...

but here whats i would do to upgrade if i had ur system...

p4 3.0 ghz
975x mobo
crucial bastilix ddr2 667 mhz ram

why i use intel u ask? conroe. stick w/ the p4 now, and get conroe when its released thats what i would do imo

come to Australia, see what we got, and then consider the upgrade, but why not choose lower parts and overclock?

-_{MoW}_-Assasin wrote:

come to Australia, see what we got, and then consider the upgrade, but why not choose lower parts and overclock?

or he can come to taiwan where WE make the goddamn parts

EvilMonkeySlayer wrote:

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:

-_{MoW}_-Assasin wrote:

come to Australia, see what we got, and then consider the upgrade, but why not choose lower parts and overclock?

or he can come to taiwan where WE make the goddamn parts

Plane tickets already bought for Australia i'm afraid, plus I goddamn love Australia.
Bonus points too since the native (erm.. new native, not aboriginal) language is English.

dammit well on ur return trip come to taiwan i'll help u get parts

I'm on the same boat with waiting for the new parts.  RAM is a good minor investment that'll keep the system alive for just a little while longer.  Socket AM2 and Intel Conroe are two major things coming out this year and upgrading the system to new stuff now will only stab you back when the new stuff blazes past recently built system.  Try to tolerate it a little while longer and then see how the numbers go.

A small investment in RAM will set you back $150-$200, depending on make, model, and speed.  I'm sure that you'll be able to make back the money spent on the RAM and be able to go full-out when the time comes.

Getting either of the two (AM2 processor or Conroe) will keep the system current and "not-so-slow" for a long time, or until the next big thing comes along.  Personally I think either processor (depending on your patience) will be good for the next 1.5 years at most.

-_{MoW}_-Assasin wrote:

EvilMonkeySlayer wrote:

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:

or he can come to taiwan where WE make the goddamn parts

Plane tickets already bought for Australia i'm afraid, plus I goddamn love Australia.
Bonus points too since the native (erm.. new native, not aboriginal) language is English.

visit my house

Sydney?

Off around south/south east Australia too. First week i'll probably be spending in Sydney for new years.

I was there for December 2004 through to January 2005.

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~mccasey/Australia/ (just a TINY sample of pictures I took)



^ Click for fullsize.





^ The actual directory that contains ALL the photos I took. 905, fear. (3 weeks worth of photos)


On the computer front i'm still mulling things over; should I go for a slightly lower end processor like the 4400 instead etc?
I mean, nowadays it's all about the graphics card.

Last edited by EvilMonkeySlayer (2006-04-09 07:12:42)

i did the opposite, i went ahead and upgraded now because what i had didnt run Bf2 well AT ALL, but then again i upgrade every year, sometimes twice a year, so im not really worried about it. but i have to tell you i spent less than 1k and its a WORLD of difference. but honestly i think the jump from 512mb to 2gb did the most and i was on a 128mb 9700pro that was 3 years old and dieing

4200+ AMD x2
A8n32-sli deluxe
2x1gb Corsair XMS TWINX2048-3200C2
BFG 7800GT OC

great computer and runs BF2 with no problems. within a few months i MIGHT buy a second 7800GT but i hear a new chipset is coming out and i might wait on that because this card runs BF2 at a pretty constant 70-80FPS with all on Ulta High @ 1600X1200 resolution even goes over 125 at times. not bad for what i paid

personally i dont see whats wrong changing with the video cards so buying one now doesnt really make a difference because we all know tommorow is always bringing something bigger and better so you cant avoid that. RAM is always good but varies so much on what you want to spend, Here is MY problem, i wanted a new video card, but didnt want to waste money on another AGP card. thats honestly the only reason i bought what i did now instead of waiting. because my radeon 9700 is about to die and i dont want to buy more AGP stuff

Last edited by mtm87tx (2006-04-09 11:02:55)

I got my Athlon 3000, Radeon 9800 etc on September 2003.

So it's been a while since I last got a new machine, to think...

"1 x     Hercules 3d Prophet 9800 Pro 8x AGP 256MB OEM     51526     Warehouse  Invoiced     £317.80 £317.80" (from ebuyer order history)

£317.80 ($553.81) for a 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro.. With VAT and delivery that's £382.23. ($666.08... Mark of the devil!)


I think buying a new machine every year or six months seems a bit overboard, I originally bought my current machine to last.

Last edited by EvilMonkeySlayer (2006-04-09 14:17:37)

dont get me wrong i do keep majority of the pieces a year or to, just i tend to add something every year, like this year could be a whole new comp, this one now going to my brother or just another 7800GT. just what i feel like at the time.

as with ALL new stuff if is very very expensive when its released and i will wait for prices to come down. its like trying to buy a FX-60 or a 7900GTX 512mb now. its insane prices but in a year it will be way more than enough and tons cheaper

-_{MoW}_-Assasin wrote:

i dunno..... wait for AM2 and DirectX 10, then you wont regret it a year on

i agree, or wait for conroe, heard its awsome

EvilMonkeySlayer wrote:

Do you find the frame rate takes a nose dive when you're on Sharqi, inside the tv station and there are a few people on the server?

It does on mine.

My new setup laughs at EVERYTHING I throw at it, but let me give you the history:
XP 2800 1 gig (2 ddr400 512s) with a crapppy gforce 5500, fps in BF made me uprade so:
XP 2800 1 gig with a new 6600GT, very happy until CIV 4
needed a video upgrade but didn't want to drop the dough for an AGP 6800 series when I could get a PCI-e 7800 for almost the same $ so it was time for a big upgrade:
new a64 3500 1 gig (same 2 512s) with new 7800GT, BF2 load times still TOO slow and 3500 chip running too hot with mild OCing, so here's where I went for ultimate bang for my BUCK.
new Opteron 146, new 2 gig (2 ddr500 1 gigs) with 7800gt.

My Opteron is currently OCed up to 2900MHz, the ram is only running 240MHz, and I have not OCed the 7800gt at all yet, although I got tired of the noise and put a zalman cooler on it.  Even though I've cooked the OS once (maybe twice, my registry has issues right now) this box is FRIGGIN LIGHTENING.  I fully admit I made mistakes that caused the different OS failures.  Once I left my HTT up at 4x and raised my FSB over 250 (251x4=1004=BAD), do the math, keep your FSBxHTT<1000 (thats a "less than" sign).  This latest failure was because I didn't slow the memory down and at 280 it ran windows, but quickly errored and cooked my registry.  OCing is an art, so take it slow and read everything you can find if you plan on doing it.

If you want to try and build a system similar it will be be very inexpensive (compared to a new AMD FX series chip).
Most people like the DFI boards, but just about any Nforce 4 board will be a good OCer (I have the ECS SLI Lite, they can be had for under $100 from Fry's), so figure between $100 and $150 for a mobo.
You can get an Opteron cheap from monarch computers one of 2 ways.  Either use a coupon code here: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/message … did=593991 or pick up a maximum PC mag and quote them the price from their ad.  I got my 146 for about $160 shipped.  It's up to you if you want to go with a single or dual core CPU, but MAKE SURE YOU ORDER A 939 NOT A 940 CHIP.