People keep saying or thinking like Tim Taylor on "Tool Time" ( Home Improvement sitcom TV show )
I have used for last 3 or 4+ years a partially hand me down computer ( will list what was New )
(new ) Asus MB Ane-X Deluexe AMD AthlonXP processor type ( Socket A )
used AMD Athlon XP 2800 Processor
used 1 gig of Memory PC3200
used video card ATI 9800pro 128 meg AGP slot
used fan and heqat sink for processor
used SOYO case with 2 80 mm fans
used antec TruPower II power supply 550 watt
onboard sound
(new) (2) hitachi SATA I 120 gig HD's set up in RAID 1 configuration
(new) ASUS DVD Rom drive IDE type
(new) ASUS DVD DL RW IDE type
with these parts, I was able to maintain a constant 55 to 65 FPS using 1024 High res texture pack and preloading textures running the screen res at 1024 x768 ......this thing would dip down into the high 40's in FPS in heavy combat areas ( think 30 + icons & fire & smoke etc.)
after upping the video card to an Ati X850 256 meg DDR3 AGP slot vidcard , adding a dedicated soundcard strictly for the gameport ( SB PCI512 )adding 2nd Gig of Ram.....( well even before the 2nd gig added )
and installing another Antec 650 watt truPower II PSU ( which in my opinion the TruPower II series was the last of the best made Antec line )
I improved the screen rez & refresh to 1280 x 1024 using high res 1024 textures and 95+ % of the time hold constant 69/70 fps......
it really is more in how you setup and combine your computer parts, set up your OS & set what processes you want/have runing, more so than buying top elite high priced computer parts.........
also, this may just be an opinion or personal train of thought of mine, but I always self set the page file of my computers to remain constant......either at 2gigs ( well 2,000 mb's ) or 4 gigs ( well 4,000 mb's ) for both the min and the max.......( on my laptop it is set to 6,000 mb's ) instead of letting Windows OS systems managing it for me.........it may just be me, but it has always seemed to be a small improvement verses letting windows handle it......
so my old measely little 2.0 ghz of ancient by todays standards PC seems to keep up with and sometimes even outperform many of the other AH flyers computers .....and I also had an AUdiophile soundcard with a multitude of input connectors for my digi design stuff & controllers installed, as well as a motherload of music editing software/recording software
my apologies for rambling.......but pick the right parts, pick the right theory in setting up the OS and the Bios settings etc... and then you truely will not need to spend money on those super duper parts ........
only reason I built the new PC was this one had lighting run in on the ROuter patch cable/cable modem/router and knocked out a Lan Port........so I wanted to be ready when it finally dies off.......
( I think the used parts when I received them were at least 2 or 3 years old and had been used thrashingly in Aces High , when my squaddie Whels donated them to me )
