bought a new computer! got a question for the computer nerds

i'm wondering how much of a jump in performance i might see in games such as call of duty 2 and age of empires 3, and also in general programs like photoshop, etc...
i've heard good and bad reviews of the ATI x600se, hopefully someone knows more than me and can fill me in

[b2a4a29d915]im going from this[/b2a4a29d915]
emachines 1.67Ghz AMD 2000+
512MB ram
128MB ATI Radeon 8500LE AGP
(with crappy 17" CRT)

http//www.epinions.com/images/opti/81/b8/emachines_T2080_Desktops1-resized200.jpg[" alt=""/img2a4a29d915]
[b2a4a29d915]
to this[/b2a4a29d915]
Dell e510 2.8Ghz Dual Core
1GB ram
256MB ATI x600se PCI-e
(with e196fp 8ms analog 19" flat panel - which is not the one pictured below, it's [url==http//accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/images/products/large/200-35966.jpg]this one[=http//accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/images/products/large/200-35966.jpg]this one[/url])

[img="2a4a29d915]http/" alt=""/img132.imageshack.us/img="132/5264/e5104hx.jpg[" alt=""/img2a4a29d915]

You'll see a big jump. Much smoother graphics at a higher FPS...

You essentially doubled up on everything. ) Good job.


I want 1GB of ram...lipoutli

You'll definitely see an improvement over what you had, particulary with CPU and RAM, but an X600 is not a high-end gaming card at all. CoD2 is a graphically demanding game, so you won't be able to run it at the higher resolutions and/or the highest details. AoE I'm not sure of but being an RTS I don't think it would be anywhere near as demanding. If you intend to play much state-of-the-art FPS games, you'll want to save up (or do some cash freebie offers!) for a new vidcard. Something in the Nvidia 6800/7800+ or ATI X1800+ range.

1GB is pretty much the minimum amount of RAM for today's high-end games. I have 2GB and BF2 eats it up. )

[quoteed65b036fd="dmorris68"]You'll definitely see an improvement over what you had, particulary with CPU and RAM, but an X600 is not a high-end gaming card at all. CoD2 is a graphically demanding game, so you won't be able to run it at the higher resolutions and/or the highest details.[/quoteed65b036fd]

one thing that encourages me is that i was running COD2 at 1024x768 near-flawlessly with my 8500le

i had to set AOE3's graphic options pretty low to make it run smoothly though
im hoping that i'll be able to bump up those settings once this comp. is set up

dells suck, should have built it yourself

way to be positive, manofice

I'm sorry whenrabbisattack....i work as a pc technician and our company is all Dell based...they suck

[quoteba03b60e9b="manofice"]I'm sorry whenrabbisattack....i work as a pc technician and our company is all Dell based...they suck[/quoteba03b60e9b]


I had my dell since 2002 and it is working fine for me. I never had any problems.... Seems like the people whose computers you fix are idiots who don't know how to use them.

How did you do freeipods.com 2x?

You will see a huge jump but with an x600, it is nothing to be estatic about... big performance leap though.

damn, I did the same jump, from an old e-machines to a new dell D ...it's such a big jump that you will easily forget that old load....

Dells are fine for the average user...

Cool stuff the system Im going for on Trainns new site has 1gb of ram.

ati x600's aren't too hot but if you have about $180 to spend y ou can get the new nvidia 7600gt and you'll see a GIGANTIC performance boost and you'll be able to play games like bf2 at pretty much max settings with decent frames

you'll all be surprised how often the hdd's die and motherboards ...

weird i have 2 dells for well over 4 years now..

they seem fine

Well, I work with Dells every day and have for almost 10 years. While I build all of my own personal PC's and those for immediate family (wife & kids), I always recommend Dell above all others as an off-the-shelf PC for those who can't or won't build their own (and for those that I don't want to support). I've had far fewer Dell problems than I had with Compaq, HP, IBM, and others. The company I work for has been buying Dell exclusively for about 8 years now, and just a year or so ago started buying HP's as well. So far Dell has far outclassed HP. I recommend Dell quite highly...

Their support does suck though.

This computer here is probobly the monster of all gaming rigs


http//zouforums.com/showthread.php?t=3485


The lights only make it that much better, X1900XT 512MB VIDEO CARD!!!!?!?!?! YES!

[quotedd36b68f56="Vector"]This computer here is probobly the monster of all gaming rigs


http//zouforums.com/showthread.php?t=3485


The lights only make it that much better, X1900XT 512MB VIDEO CARD!!!!?!?!?! YES![/quotedd36b68f56]
Not hardly. And the rest of his box is weak for that much vidcard.

His rig benchmarks

3DMARK05 9035
3DMARK06 4645

My rig benchmarks

3DMARK05 [bdd36b68f56]11180[/bdd36b68f56]
3DMARK06 [bdd36b68f56]6784[/bdd36b68f56]

And I haven't even started overclocking yet. P ;)

[bdd36b68f56]Edit[/bdd36b68f56] Just realized he has an X2 4800 for a CPU... not weak. However his mis-matched 1.5GB RAM and SBLive card are definitely amateur. And for anyone who's curious, here's what I'm packin' (cut & pasted from the "Show off your setup" thread)

AMD Opteron 175 Dual Core
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
2GB Corsair XMS Platinum PC4000 RAM
2x eVGA 7800GT in SLI
WD 74GB 10,000 RPM Raptor (boot/OS drive)
2x WD 320GB 16MB cache SATAII in RAID0
NEC 3540A DL DVD±RW
Creative Labs X-Fi Platinum sound card
Logitech Z-640 5.1 speakers
Enermax Liberty 620W Modular PSU
Ultra Aluminus Black case
Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD
Logitech G15 gaming keyboard and G7 gaming mouse
Windows XP Pro[/sizedd36b68f56]

[quotea145dbe2af="dmorris68"][quotea145dbe2af="Vector"]This computer here is probobly the monster of all gaming rigs


http//zouforums.com/showthread.php?t=3485


The lights only make it that much better, X1900XT 512MB VIDEO CARD!!!!?!?!?! YES![/quotea145dbe2af]
Not hardly. And the rest of his box is weak for that much vidcard.

His rig benchmarks

3DMARK05 9035
3DMARK06 4645

My rig benchmarks

3DMARK05 [ba145dbe2af]11180[/ba145dbe2af]
3DMARK06 [ba145dbe2af]6784[/ba145dbe2af]

And I haven't even started overclocking yet. P ;)

[ba145dbe2af]Edit[/ba145dbe2af] Just realized he has an X2 4800 for a CPU... not weak. However his mis-matched 1.5GB RAM and SBLive card are definitely amateur. And for anyone who's curious, here's what I'm packin' (cut & pasted from the "Show off your setup" thread)

AMD Opteron 175 Dual Core
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
2GB Corsair XMS Platinum PC4000 RAM
2x eVGA 7800GT in SLI
WD 74GB 10,000 RPM Raptor (boot/OS drive)
2x WD 320GB 16MB cache SATAII in RAID0
NEC 3540A DL DVD±RW
Creative Labs X-Fi Platinum sound card
Logitech Z-640 5.1 speakers
Enermax Liberty 620W Modular PSU
Ultra Aluminus Black case
Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD
Logitech G15 gaming keyboard and G7 gaming mouse
Windows XP Pro[/sizea145dbe2af][/quotea145dbe2af]

i'd just like to say that i hate your rich ass.. i just got my g7 yesterday and i'm not liking it too much, i came from a mx518 and the two missing buttons (especiallyt he forward key) are really pissing me off...

[quotec5bcf8c110="Aurelius"]i'd just like to say that i hate your rich ass.. i just got my g7 yesterday and i'm not liking it too much, i came from a mx518 and the two missing buttons (especiallyt he forward key) are really pissing me off...[/quotec5bcf8c110]
lol Hey, don't hate the playah, hate the game (or whatever it is you crazy kids are saying today). When you're my age and have raised 3 kids, 2 of which are on their own now raising their own kids, you're entitled to your toys. ;)

I love the G7. I never used more than one thumb button on my MX1000, so moving to the G7 was natural for me. I love the mouse, and the G15 rocks as a gaming keyboard as well.

You dont even need more than 1 gb for any game right now, and for the vid card he has, he is going to sli later on and upgrad the ram/cpu IF needed. very nice benchmarks on your pc


i cant wait till i start buying parts for my next upgrade

[quotea7b33bf232="Vector"]You dont even need more than 1 gb for any game right now,[/quotea7b33bf232]
Apparently you haven't played FEAR and BF2 with 2GB. D

While I would agree you don't lineedli more than 1GB, 2GB gives a significant performance gain over 1GB in BF2, and most any recent high-powered game. You don't lineedli it... until you see how much better it runs. Then all of sudden you decide you DO need it, after all. )

[quote8d1e6de7c2="dmorris68"]
lol Hey, don't hate the playah, hate the game (or whatever it is you crazy kids are saying today). When you're my age and have raised 3 kids, 2 of which are on their own now raising their own kids, you're entitled to your toys. ;)
[/quote8d1e6de7c2]
Heh heh, that's awesome. A granpa gamer owning all the kids with his rig... I suck at FPS so you'd probably destroy me.

[quote58454fa94c="hehehhehe"]Heh heh, that's awesome. A granpa gamer owning all the kids with his rig... I suck at FPS so you'd probably destroy me.[/quote58454fa94c]
We have several grandpa's (and maybe a few grandma's) in my gaming group (we don't like the term 'clan' but it's much the same thing). A bunch of older/mature gamers who will game until we're in the grave.

Crusty Old Fossil Rockers[=http//www.cofr.net]Crusty Old Fossil Rockers

Brutus, who hangs out here, is also a member. I turned him on to FiPG back when I got my free iPod. He has since surpassed me in the freebie world, so I'm back now to play catch-up. ;)

[quotee4306f2f74="dmorris68"][quotee4306f2f74="Aurelius"]i'd just like to say that i hate your rich ass.. i just got my g7 yesterday and i'm not liking it too much, i came from a mx518 and the two missing buttons (especiallyt he forward key) are really pissing me off...[/quotee4306f2f74]
lol Hey, don't hate the playah, hate the game (or whatever it is you crazy kids are saying today). When you're my age and have raised 3 kids, 2 of which are on their own now raising their own kids, you're entitled to your toys. ;)

I love the G7. I never used more than one thumb button on my MX1000, so moving to the G7 was natural for me. I love the mouse, and the G15 rocks as a gaming keyboard as well.[/quotee4306f2f74]

damn g15... that's the next thing i need. i'm using a saitek gaming keyboard right now and it's pretty solid but who can say no to an all logitech peripheral setup? still trying to get used to bf2 with one side button (no insant missile, bomb switch that i've gotten so accustomed to) (

[quotedf31aecdb5]1GB is pretty much the minimum amount of RAM for today's high-end games. I have 2GB and BF2 eats it up.[/quotedf31aecdb5]

mmm, not really. 512MB is still the minimum for decent performance, but I'm running off a gig for every new game fine cept for BF2 which I can deal with an extra 15 seconds of load time right now.

That said another gig of Ram is only like $80 now, so just an issue of when to do it.

[quote374cda6c80="Vector"]This computer here is probobly the monster of all gaming rigs


http//zouforums.com/showthread.php?t=3485


The lights only make it that much better, X1900XT 512MB VIDEO CARD!!!!?!?!?! YES![/quote374cda6c80]

is that right when it says you only have less then 150 gb? why so little? i thought a "super" computer like that would have more than that? i know it's got a wicked fast load time, but is 150 all you need?

[quote7e2227225d="Darkfire001"][quote7e2227225d]1GB is pretty much the minimum amount of RAM for today's high-end games. I have 2GB and BF2 eats it up.[/quote7e2227225d]

mmm, not really. 512MB is still the minimum for decent performance, but I'm running off a gig for every new game fine cept for BF2 which I can deal with an extra 15 seconds of load time right now.

That said another gig of Ram is only like $80 now, so just an issue of when to do it.[/quote7e2227225d]
I beg to differ on the 512MB point. We must play different games or something. 512MB is becoming pretty marginal for many of the newer higher-horsepower games. We have several people in my gaming group who had 512MB and tried to play BF2. Most all of them upgraded to 1GB to make it tolerable. You're right that most all games play well on 1GB, but many will take advantage of 2GB and show a big improvement. Beside BF2, F.E.A.R. and Q4 really liked 2GB. The trend is only going to continue. With RAM prices dropping drastically, it just makes sense to stuff 2GB in a box if you intend to keep up with the latest games. If you don't game much or run some very specific applications, then 512MB-1GB is plenty.

[quote2d23f4cb3e="crazyates"]is that right when it says you only have less then 150 gb? why so little? i thought a "super" computer like that would have more than that? i know it's got a wicked fast load time, but is 150 all you need?[/quote2d23f4cb3e]
150GB would be plenty for a lot of people. Not for me personally, but a lot of people. I know people with otherwise high-end rigs that only have an 80GB drive because they never keep stuff on the HD and only install 1-2 games at a time. Just depends on the person and their storage habits.