The Ultimate Aces High PC?

[Duckwing6]

I'm asking for some advise of the more competent guys around here regarding the optimal AH Pc.. i've had massive dump problem since the last patch and i suspect it's my graphic card (i''ve seen this kind of behavior before when it's chip overheated....)

Now i'm stuck currently with a socket 7 AMD K6 333 (overclocked to 350 because iff i do more the graphic card overheats), and a Creative labs Banshee card. All the rest in the puter i consider ok.

Now my question:

What would you guys buy .. and i don't mean a Athlon 1.1Ghz or so because that's somewhat out of my budget .. but a suggestion for a new Motherboard and CPU at reasonable price that allows more than the 17FPS max FR i'm seeing withj this AMD chip..

Thanks in advance!
 


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Phillip "Duckwing6" Artweger
Flight Officer "E" Flight
Skeleton Crew

[Saintaw]

Celeron 566Mhz, Based on an 810E Motherboard will get you quite a nice way for a decent price...

Also, look for a DDR version of a Getforce Video card...

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Saw/Saintaw
BISHOP'S FINEST FLYING BRICK
   
GMT TOD page is: http://www.wardogs.org/ah/

186th Wardogs (Falcon4 Squad)
 http://www.wardogs.org/
"Firepower Mate, that is what separates the men from the boys..."


[This message has been edited by Saintaw (edited 02-16-2000).]

[maik]

Hi DW6,

like Saintaw said, get a fast Celeron or a PIII. I recommend the good ole BX-Chipset.

What kind of Graphics-Adapter do u use?

Maik

[Granger]

AMD is gotta be the worse processor for gaming, even though its hyped like it runs fast. The new athlons run fast, very fast but the ol k6s just cant cut it.

Celeron all the way..I like the abit boards myself, but asus makes a good one as well.

They are cheap, and run 50 fps or so at 1024x768 with a g-force card. I disagree with getting the ddr version tho..unless you got a real fast cpu you gain no speed.

In my celron 450, i gained less than 1 fps on benchmarks usin the ddr card verses a regular gforce.

On my atlhon 600 its a bit more..like  6fps ..but in aces high at 1200x1600 i get 50-60..no more..no less using either card.

If the gforce is outta your price range, get a good ol TNT2 card. Leave the voodoos alone.

Keep in mind I work for 3dfx..and even so..much prefer Nvidias products..i have tested video cards extensively both at work, and at home..nothing comes close to the gforce..yet  

I even have an old celeron 300a overclocked to 450 and an abit bh-6 motherboard gathering dust..if you are interested in it let me know..I could part with the cpu and the board for $100 bucks without ram.

got my atlhon for christmas and since then its just sittin there in its little box.

Good luck whatever you decide to do..

[Rude]

Greetings

Had the AMD K6-2 450 meself and got a whopping 24fps, even though I had a 32meg vid card (TNT2).

HTC simply will not support AMD, so..........

I bought a Celeron 500mhz and an ASUS jumperless MB along with the Viper 770 32meg Video Card I already was using...the result...average fps is now 50.

MB.....140.00
Celeron 500mhz.....112.00

I would suggest a better video card...Gforce is what most consider the best...around 210.00 from what I've seen.

Hope this helps you out

Rude...........Out!

[Saintaw]

Or....
Xeon III 550Mhz, 2 MB cache X 4 on a SC450NX...willcost you only about 12.000 US$ witthout the memory...but I guarantee good performance  

Seriously, I'd recommend waiting a bit, then go on an 820i based Motherboard. It should then support AGP4X (1GB/s) and the Bus has a different architecture...the PCI bridge is now placed at the end of the BUS, ie doesn't clog the Video anymore...

There are still some issues with the existing MB's today, but should be solved soon...

One last thing, If you have enough Dosh to buy a Pentium instead of a Celeron, go for a Copermine Model, and preferably a FCPPGA, not a slot 1.
256K Cache VS 512, but , it's true speed...
BUS is at 133MhZ Vs 100Mhz...

IA is supported by AH, as opposed as AMD...


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Saw/Saintaw
BISHOP'S FINEST FLYING BRICK
 
186th  Wardogs (Falcon4 Squad)
 http://www.wardogs.org/
"Firepower Mate, that is what separates the men from the boys..."

[This message has been edited by Saintaw (edited 02-16-2000).]

[Swager]

Gota go with Rude here.  All the post contained good advice. I have a Celery 400  o/ced to 450, but I would love a celeron 500, with about 128M RAM and a Viper 770.  Also with that new jumperless ASUS board.  I have a ASUS P2B and no problems at all!

Friend of mine has a Pentium III 500 MHz and got great FPS with it!

Rude have you tried Overclocking that beast???  I heard the higher celerons are more difficult to O/C.

Duck!  I don't know what you're running for a monitor, but a 19" is wonderful.  Alot of good 19" monitors out there for great prices.  

Remember Duck It is all what ya pay for.  

Start asking around what is the best and what people are have luck with.  All the people together that fly here, are like a walking consumers report for computer components.  Tap into what they know.

Check Price Watch for computers and computer component prices.  There is a web site called PC Hardware Review.  People write up reviews on computer hardware.  Good site!

Well Duck, Good Luck!!

Keep us informed!!  

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Damn Ghostrider!  This bogey is all over me!!

[LLv34_Camouflage]

I'd definately go for this:

Abit BE6 v2
Celeron 466 or better

You will also need a slot adapter for the cpu.


I also recommend updating your graphics card to AGP:

If you don't need Glide: GeForce 32MB

If you need Glide: Voodoo3 3000 16MB

Camo

[DoctorYO]

First I would like to know your budget??

But ill break it down for you, as of current the best deal for the money is a celron processor.

you could get a celron 500 with a nice Abit board(jumperless of course) with 128 megs of ram for under 400.00 dollars US. (the ram costs the most)

Right now im running 300a celron running at 450, with a venerable voodoo2 card..  I cranks at 800 x 600 about 40-50 frames except on take offs with about 25-30...

No as far as graphics cards I disagree with buying the gforce..  its too damn expensive..

you can get a voodoo3 2000 for 80 dollars US

Triangle fill rates (good way to tell how fast card is with one rating; note at various resolutions certain cards out proform eachother.)

Voodoo banshee - 2 million Tri/sec
Voodoo 2 - 3 million
voodoo3 2000 - 6 million
voodoo3 3500 - 7-8 million
Geoforce  - 15 million
New savage card from diamond - ??? competes with geoforce at lower resolutions. (good ratings from www.firingsquad.com)

Now note that graphics cards still need a fast cpu with the exception of the geoforce which is a GPU(it offloads processor and does the goemetry itself) What do I consider a fast cpu? anything over 500mhz using x86 instructions is fast. G4 for mac or any athlon system is really fast but thats cisc, and risc and another can of worms to explain.

now the industry is hyping 800mhz 1000mhz cpu's but what programers so far have taken advantage of these new technologies on a home PC level...None that I know off... (If your running Citrix winframe/metaframe that may be different) Quake3 is the most intensive graphic engine on the market(Unreal is up there too)...  With my current setup I play Quake 3 with no problems at over 40 frames a sec...  My bottle neck is my graphics card(voodoo2) but i'll wait till voodoo3's or the next best thing comes out for cheap.

As far as upgrading I never buy the newest stuff on the market its just not cost effective to be outdated by hawdware in 6 months when the software is lagging behind...

I make my decisions on the current level of applications on the software market.. the computer industry is a big catch 22...And right now the most games dont require 800mhz or higher coupled with a geoforce.


my 2 cents,


DoctorYO

[Lephturn]

The GeForce is going to be triple the price of the V3.  The V3 2000 or a TNT2 will be the best value for this type of gaming.  I use the V3 2000 and it performs very well in every game I've got.

A good Abit mainboard like the BE6 is a good choice.  Check it out at http://www.bxboards.com/mainboard/slot1/be6-ii.shtml  .  This board also had an ATA66 HD controller in addition to the norman ATA33 one.

Get the fastest celeron you can afford.  If you want to over-clock, find yourself a 366 celeron someplace, or a 400 if you can't get a 366.  My 366 runs at 500 no problems with the retail heat-sink.

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Lephturn
The Flying Pigs
Visit Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH news, resources, and training data.
 http://users.andara.com/~sconrad/

[Pongo]

Duckwing
I have a 366(458) celeron and an old TNT1 card 64megs of ram and a Sound Blaster Live card. FPS are 40-50 in 32 bit colour. The only part of the system I bought for Aces High is the SBLive. That is because it works real well with RW in duplex. The only reason I would get more video card for AH was if I had the monitor to suport more than 1024 and still be clear.  I guess that I am saying that other then staying a way from the K6 generation of AMD processors, you cant go too far wrong. AH is not a horribly power hungry app the way it is now written, my computer is mediocre and plays it just fine.
Go to gamespc.com and you can defitly build the "ulitmate" if you would rather, but AH wont know the difference I think.

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Pongo
The Wrecking Crew

[Mox]

Duck, I'd stay away from the AMD chips if your machine is mainly for gameing.

I agree with most of what everyone has said here....

Stick to the Celeron if your on a budget and a TNT 2 32meg card is a great card (I own 2 of them and a GeForce DDR).

If you have the money get the GeForce 256 DDR version... NOT the SDR.  I had to look around for the DDR but I finally found it.  

DDR version is pricey, around $300 but it's the fastest gameing video card I've ever seen.

If you're on a budget and need some cheaper video cards I have 2 of the Diamond Monster II's 12megs each, just sitting around my place.  I was running them in my second gaming machine... performance was decent and support high enough reso but only 16bit color.  Once I had my TNT2's I had a hard time playing in 16bit color!.

Mox
The Wrecking Crew

[Mox]

 

Originally posted by Granger:
Keep in mind I work for 3dfx..and even so..much prefer Nvidias products..i have tested video cards extensively both at work, and at home..nothing comes close to the gforce..yet  

I didn't know 3dfx had a place here in the Dallas area...  Did 3dfx keep the STB office open up in Plano?  I used to live really close to it some years ago.

Mox
The Wrecking Crew

[Rude]

Swager...

I haven't tried to overclock yet, 50 fps is plenty good, although more horsepower is always a good thing

If I though it would help me kill someone, I would do it in a New York Minute

Cyas Up!

Rude

[Vermillion]

Actually if you want the most bang for your buck (ie Overclocking), skip the Celeron 450-500's, since its at the end of its product life, and you can't squeeze much more out of it than its rated speed.

Right now the hot overclocking processor/motherboard is the new coppermine chips. The PIII-550E Coppermine processor, paired with a Tyan Trinity 400 motherboard. Basically it is like the early Celeron's, in that it is a capable processor as fast as the highest PIII's out there, marketed down (ie marketing gimmic) to a 100Mhz FSB.

Basically, put it in the new VIA 133A chipset motherboards at 133Mhz FSB, and VIOLA!! you now have a PIII running at
825 Mhz, with the stock cooling fan.

Pair that with a Guillemont 3D Prophet SDR Ge-Force Video Card at $167 off of http://www.pricewatch.com  and you have a system that will compete with the best, but still be economical.

PIII-550E is $260-270
Tyan Trinity 400 Motherboard is $82
Guillemont 3D Prophet SDR Gforce is $167

Total Upgrade Cost of $510 plus shipping and handling, and you will have a machine running in the 800Mhz range, with a G-Force Video card.

IMO this is the peak of the price/performance ratio, and I am currently looking to purchase this myself.

The Celeron stuff at around 500Mhz, is just a minimal upgrade. If you go this route, you will be looking to upgrade again in about a year.

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Vermillion
**MOL**, Men of Leisure,
"Real Men fly Radials, Nancy Boys fly Spitfires"