PC upgrade for newbies

[SFRT - Frenchy]

For what it's worth, here is my experience:
My perfs are pretty bad, as my windows run at 68% (I suck at tuning up stuff).

I had a P1.2-AMD/K7-RAID, 256 RAM, GF2, WinMe.
Run AH 25-30FR. (32bit, 1024)
Run IL2-FB good in 16K, 1024, all low details except object details to the max.

I went to P1.2-AMD/K7RAID, 512 RAM, GF2, WinMe.
Run AH 30-40 FR. (32bit, 1024)

I changed to a P1.2-AMD/K7-RAID, 512 RAM, ATI-9700Pro-total package, WinMe.
Run AH 40-60FR. (32bit, 1024)
Run IL2-FB good in 32K, 800x600, all details to the max except horizon distance to High except Max.

I also went to a computer shop, and the girl told me that a 2.1AMD would run better than a 2.6 Intel on the benchmark. Something I didn't know (if it's true). She advized me to check http://www6.tomshardware.com for hardware benchmark comparisons.

I hope it will give some ideas to the computer-hardware challenged like myself

Frenchy.

[straffo]

Je te shoote un mail demain.

Mais il ya des chances que tu ne puisse pas changer de CPU (ce qui est a mon avis le goulet d'étranglement sur ta pétoire).

As tu recement re-installé Windows ?

ça peut jouer sur les perf (au fait perso en 800*600 j'ai des perf inférieures au 1024*768 ... essaye donc de changer ta résolution)

[AtmkRstr]

I'd recommend http://www.tomshardware.com too.
They have nice charts, so you can quickly get a jist of the latest hardware.  Keep in mind that his comments and conclusions are completely biased and somtimes misleading.  

You might want to try http://www.anandtech.com and http://www.aceshardware.com there's many others too. I'd suggest checking several before purchasing anything because they're all a bit biased.

[straffo]

Olivier tu passe trop de temps a parler anglais : http://www.hardware.fr

[SFRT - Frenchy]

C'est terrible, quand je parles francais, je cherche mes mots.

[Siaf__csf]

Frenchy your framerates are awfully low for a setup with 9700 pro..

You're probably having a problem with your driver versions.