For the love of God don't buy a Dell.
If you absolutely want a pre-built machine, and don't mind spending the money ( doesnt seem ya mind ) go to www.alienware.com and have em custom make a computer.
YOU WILL BE MUCH HAPPIER.
Ok Killetas and gang, The computer buy.. 1 of 2..
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SuperHelix
- A Salty Surprise
- Posts: 3105
- Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2002 3:14 am
- Location: Austin, Tx.
- Contact:
You kids are so crazy.
I think the 2.8 1gb ram ATI 9800 machine at Dell is the way to go.
Yes I need a new fucking printer, my HP has exploded, and I definately want to go wireless as I have 2 systems + my laptop at home via my DSL network.
I am going to wait a week, see what proc costs go, and if they upgrade their chipset on the motherboard.. Maybe I can wait 2 weeks.
Want to make sure I have the new machine for the PS launch.
Ed, get into the PS beta foolio.
Thanks everyone for the info..
I think the 2.8 1gb ram ATI 9800 machine at Dell is the way to go.
Yes I need a new fucking printer, my HP has exploded, and I definately want to go wireless as I have 2 systems + my laptop at home via my DSL network.
I am going to wait a week, see what proc costs go, and if they upgrade their chipset on the motherboard.. Maybe I can wait 2 weeks.
Want to make sure I have the new machine for the PS launch.
Ed, get into the PS beta foolio.
Thanks everyone for the info..
Gundorf the uber
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Zeris
- Oversized Douche Bag
- Posts: 292
- Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2002 6:53 pm
- Location: look its a dude in a hat
- Contact:
Yes, you DO need a gig of ram.
If the (legitimate) tech people in this thread correct me I'll edit this, but I am extremely certain a min gig is what you need as a serious game player. I'm currently waiting for my 512mb expansion in the mail (justify my purchase goddamnit!)
If the (legitimate) tech people in this thread correct me I'll edit this, but I am extremely certain a min gig is what you need as a serious game player. I'm currently waiting for my 512mb expansion in the mail (justify my purchase goddamnit!)
markov|[shadow=red][glow=red]Terran Republic[/glow][/shadow]|zeris
yea, honestly, there isn't a whole lot of need/application for 1gb of ram.
no game is going to require 1gb for years, and the performance improvement in games that are currently out is pretty negligible.
there are some people who can really use 1gb of ram though... although probably not game related (or maybe its doing gaming + something else at the same time).
no game is going to require 1gb for years, and the performance improvement in games that are currently out is pretty negligible.
there are some people who can really use 1gb of ram though... although probably not game related (or maybe its doing gaming + something else at the same time).
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slythetove
- Dickfingers
- Posts: 227
- Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2003 10:17 am
- Location: Austin, TX
Wow, you guys have cash to burn. I just bought a 2.4 ghz Dell Inspiron notebook for $900, and it's decent. If you don't mind buying 2-3 month old technology you can really get a good deal 
The difference in buying a cheap machine with slightly dated technology and a cutting edge $2500 machine is negligable 2 years from now. You'll still have to replace them to keep up with the games. The only difference will be a marginal performance increase, and an extra $1500 you'll never see again.
But if you need to have the ubar PC, by all means buy it... but it will cost half as much 4 months from now =)
The difference in buying a cheap machine with slightly dated technology and a cutting edge $2500 machine is negligable 2 years from now. You'll still have to replace them to keep up with the games. The only difference will be a marginal performance increase, and an extra $1500 you'll never see again.
But if you need to have the ubar PC, by all means buy it... but it will cost half as much 4 months from now =)
Retireded
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Candide
- Tripped Off the Short Bus
- Posts: 537
- Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 9:07 am
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
About the gig ram...if you plan on playing SWG, look at getting 1.5 gig (whatever the numbers round out to, you know what I mean).
Their video/audio settings are determined by your ram. I mean it looks good at 512m, but you can only take it so high. Stuff is preset based on your system, with 1.5g being what you need to turn everything on, and 1g is at least an ideal point.
Second, I never buy premade, altho things are better now than in the 90's with them. See my anti ATI post in your graphics card post.
Lastly, XP pro can be the older version or corporate version which doesn't require activation. DEFINENTLY get pro vs home. There have been a lot of small issues, especialy with games, with home. As much as I absolutly hate microsoft, for the first time of any of their OS's since DOS (which was before I knew about other OS's) XP Pro has impressed me. It actually runs, without problems, smoothly.
About the only thing that truely bugs me from time to time in windows anymore is the lack of a kill -9 equivalent from unix. When I click end process, I want the damn thing ended, NOW. If I wanted to wait for it to exit gracefully, I wouldn't be trying to force end it.
Their video/audio settings are determined by your ram. I mean it looks good at 512m, but you can only take it so high. Stuff is preset based on your system, with 1.5g being what you need to turn everything on, and 1g is at least an ideal point.
Second, I never buy premade, altho things are better now than in the 90's with them. See my anti ATI post in your graphics card post.
Lastly, XP pro can be the older version or corporate version which doesn't require activation. DEFINENTLY get pro vs home. There have been a lot of small issues, especialy with games, with home. As much as I absolutly hate microsoft, for the first time of any of their OS's since DOS (which was before I knew about other OS's) XP Pro has impressed me. It actually runs, without problems, smoothly.
About the only thing that truely bugs me from time to time in windows anymore is the lack of a kill -9 equivalent from unix. When I click end process, I want the damn thing ended, NOW. If I wanted to wait for it to exit gracefully, I wouldn't be trying to force end it.
Venderic, Candide or Mercutio in games.
Candide wrote:About the gig ram...if you plan on playing SWG, look at getting 1.5 gig (whatever the numbers round out to, you know what I mean).
Their video/audio settings are determined by your ram. I mean it looks good at 512m, but you can only take it so high. Stuff is preset based on your system, with 1.5g being what you need to turn everything on, and 1g is at least an ideal point.
Not that I claim to be an expert on SWG, but based on the trailers, if they need 1.5gb of ram to be able to run that game at a decent frame rate with some goodies turned on, then the people who coded that thing are ridiculously retarded.
I would think you'd have about 1 million other bottlenecks before 1gb of ram was a bottleneck. Heck, even 768mb.
only real big advantage would be if you have dual channel memory banks. Which would open up the bottleneck, but like killet said, there are many other bottlenecks in the system before memory..
Just allows more crap to run in the background and fuxx0r up your system... Run ad-aware! and close some of those windows before running a game..
Just allows more crap to run in the background and fuxx0r up your system... Run ad-aware! and close some of those windows before running a game..
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Aenslaed Kasugano
- Oversized Douche Bag
- Posts: 259
- Joined: Sat May 03, 2003 2:51 am
- Location: Toronto, Canada
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Between Dell and Alienware, Alienware any day of the week. My god I've had the displeasure of tearing apart two dell systems. They do everything they can to make it seem proprietary. The only case that I found was more hellish was the HP Pavilions but thats another story.
On your Alienware system that you specified, there are a couple things that may need mentioning.
First of all, the Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 is a HUGE mouse. I have one myself. After nearly a year, my wrist still isn't used to it. Of course I'm azn. <insert asian hand size to penis size insult>
1GB ram is a must. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
The 875 is a new chipset. Good bad? Well, its got alot of good things going for it. Since you are buying prebuilt as well, you problalby wont' have to play with the insides yourself so the negatives disappear.
WinXP Pro at least. Though I'm a 2k Pro kinda person. No need to use up more system resources so you can have a gaudy huge ass start button for those people with hand eye deficiencies.
ATi's drivers have been getting better and better. There are still a few cases where you'll find graphical errors due to developers using nvidia specific calls. That will change though. Nvidia really shot themselves in the foot and it'll take them at least another half year to stop the slide in market share. What does that mean for the ATi 9700/9800 user? Alot more support driver wise (catalysts drivers come out almost as fast as NEDs do) and the knowledge that you have the fastest consumer level graphics card in your rig. For the next half year anyways.
Plus, its no joke about the 5800 sounding like a vacuum cleaner. Its like sitting beside a couple delta blacklabels. Hope you are wearing headphones.
On your Alienware system that you specified, there are a couple things that may need mentioning.
First of all, the Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 is a HUGE mouse. I have one myself. After nearly a year, my wrist still isn't used to it. Of course I'm azn. <insert asian hand size to penis size insult>
1GB ram is a must. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
The 875 is a new chipset. Good bad? Well, its got alot of good things going for it. Since you are buying prebuilt as well, you problalby wont' have to play with the insides yourself so the negatives disappear.
WinXP Pro at least. Though I'm a 2k Pro kinda person. No need to use up more system resources so you can have a gaudy huge ass start button for those people with hand eye deficiencies.
ATi's drivers have been getting better and better. There are still a few cases where you'll find graphical errors due to developers using nvidia specific calls. That will change though. Nvidia really shot themselves in the foot and it'll take them at least another half year to stop the slide in market share. What does that mean for the ATi 9700/9800 user? Alot more support driver wise (catalysts drivers come out almost as fast as NEDs do) and the knowledge that you have the fastest consumer level graphics card in your rig. For the next half year anyways.
Plus, its no joke about the 5800 sounding like a vacuum cleaner. Its like sitting beside a couple delta blacklabels. Hope you are wearing headphones.
Aenslaed Warrior, Aenslands Healer, Sakkura Shaman, Satsujiin Shadowblade, Arashii Huntress
Participate Bot, Dopplereffect Bot
-To face Life is to face Death, to face Death is to face Pain.
To face Pain is to face Life, and all those in between.
Participate Bot, Dopplereffect Bot
-To face Life is to face Death, to face Death is to face Pain.
To face Pain is to face Life, and all those in between.
I liked my original intelimouse explorer, except the wire kept getting shortages in it.
After splicing it together about 3 times, I finally got it to the point it would need more work than it is worth.
I'm using a Logitech MX 500 and it is most excellent. The first optical mouse I have used that didn't get confused and jump around all corners when using heavily.
After splicing it together about 3 times, I finally got it to the point it would need more work than it is worth.
I'm using a Logitech MX 500 and it is most excellent. The first optical mouse I have used that didn't get confused and jump around all corners when using heavily.
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