Author Topic: Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up  (Read 33059 times)

J*** H*******

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #50 on: 2001-12-16 21:51:00 »
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Goku7

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #51 on: 2001-12-16 22:20:00 »
It's called Jetway.  The main reason they suggested it was because it has support for DDR, P4, and an ISA slot.

The board also has a gameport, so if it does any better than the pitiful one my XG card has (the one that forgets the calibration every time windows starts up), then I can forego putting the SBAWE64 in, since I won't need its joystick port anymore......

Anyway, they said they're gonna let me bring my gamepad in to the store and test out whether or not the gameport on the Jetway board will forget the calibration.  That'll be on this coming tuesday or wednesday.

SiS chipset?  When I go back to test the gameport, I'll take a closer look at the board; see if the chipset is a SiS chipset.
[edited] 239 2001-12-16 23:24

J*** H*******

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #52 on: 2001-12-17 00:44:00 »
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Threesixty

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #53 on: 2001-12-17 06:39:00 »
Well...the price is right. Go for it!

++++++++++

I still like Athlon more than the P4, though.

However, if you must go with the P4....get the Rambus, don't go DDR. Your going to be really, really disappointed with DDR performance on a P4. Athlon can pull it off, but the P4 can't. The P4 was really designed around the Rambus architecture, for better or worse.

If you really want to go DDR, and don't want an AMD, look into the P3's. The architecture of the P3 is more suited towards DDR, than the P4.

-------

BTW: The 1.2 Athlon 266fsb CPU (that's revision C) is equivalent to the P4, 1.4. (give or take)

So...what exactly are you getting for the 410?
(you might not be getting a deal)

Epox EP-8k7a (with Raid chip) = $105 dollars (American)
256DDR Memory = $62
1.2 rev.C athlon = $83

Total = $253

Once you add the extras....case, storage, input devices, etc......you end up adding at least 800 dollars to the price. And if your cannibalizing another system....the Athlon is still, 160 dollars cheaper.


Honestly....If your going Intel....you might as well get a Dell system....complete with 17" monitor, printer, scanner, speakers, software. Probably can get a complete, P4 1.4gig for about $899, maybe less.

[edited] 65 2001-12-17 08:10

Intel-Xeon

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #54 on: 2001-12-17 23:44:00 »
I guess I should be here talking too... Intel hates gamers... AMD cares about them but has worse support for games than Intel. This is a strange world... :z

Threesixty

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #55 on: 2001-12-18 00:37:00 »
Well...I'm not sure that applies anymore. AMD has a higher FPU calculation than Intel right, now. In the past that was what killed AMD. As far as Intel hating gamers.....I don't see it. If that's true, why are they playing a number game with the Mhz.

I may sound bias....but I'm, really, not. Right now it's AMD. Tomorrow it may be Intel. When Intel puts out a product that beats a mhz to mhz war. I'll switch alliegences....Or if AMD goes out of Buisness. It could happen...it happened to 3dfx.

Goku7

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« Reply #56 on: 2001-12-22 01:40:00 »
Ok.  I've looked over everything, and it looks like everything will work fine.  Thanks for your advice, everyone.

Oh, yeah --- one more thing of a slightly comical nature.  You see, the store had all the components except for the P4 1.4GHz, which they they had to special order because they didn't have any in stock.  So, we said, "OK" and right as we start up the truck, the same store employee walks up to us and says, "the P4 1.4's are in short supply, I won't be able to get any in time for christmas.  BUT, they do have the P4 1.5GHz available in that time frame.  There's only a fifteen dollar difference."

Needless to say, we took him up on the offer.  So, now my system's gonna be a 1.5 instead of a 1.4! :D

Sukaeto

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« Reply #57 on: 2001-12-24 01:55:00 »
Not only do AMD's chips beat Intel's in speed rating, but I think that AMD's chips have been alot more stable lately.  Remember the P3 Recall a little over a year ago?   And the RAMBUS P4 recall (which brings up another point . . . I thought the P4s that were being manufactured today were little more than beefed up P3 coppermines, I not really sure.)

Back when it was PII vs K6-2, Intel was by far the winner; but AMD's gotten much better, and, IMO, Intel's going downhill in their quallity.

J*** H*******

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #58 on: 2001-12-24 02:41:00 »
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Goku7

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« Reply #59 on: 2001-12-24 03:56:00 »
Well, I believe congratulations are in order.

This is the first message I'm typing on my shiny, brand-spanking new 1.5Ghz system.  :D

Yes, it's an Intel P4.  I tested FF7PC, FF8PC, and FF9 PSX (running on the ePSXe emulator, at 640X480 resolution) on it already.

I'm still drooling from the smoothness and speed of everything!  Heck, I'm even thinking about testing FF8's software render in full screen mode and see how fast it goes.

In case your wondering how the transition during the upgrade went, crash-wise, I am happy to report Win98SE detected everything, and installed all the mobo drivers perfectly, without a single crash or conflict.

Again, thank you for your advice.  Now, I'll think I'll go play FF9 at a resolution that will make the people using a PS2 for that envious!!
MWHAHAHAHA!! :rotfl:

ahem....Sorry.  I just don't know what got into me.

PurpleSmurf

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« Reply #60 on: 2001-12-24 04:11:00 »
I. HATE. YOU. the best upgrade i'm getting in the near future is a new geforce 2 and 256 more mg of ram.

Darkness

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« Reply #61 on: 2001-12-24 04:57:00 »
you can play ff9 at different resolutions? your joking....

Anonymous

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« Reply #62 on: 2001-12-24 18:10:00 »
Quote

On 2001-12-24 00:57, Darkness wrote:
you can play ff9 at different resolutions? your joking....


I'm not joking.  (Thank God for 3dFX!)  ePSXe has the potential to use a 3d acclerator card to go to resolutions higher than 800X600.  Lemme see.... the max resolution my card supports for ePSXe is 1600 X 1200.

So, in theory, I could.....hey, put the knife down! :erm:

PurpleSmurf:  I forgot to mention that its also got a 400Mhz Front side bus.........

Goku7

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« Reply #63 on: 2001-12-24 18:12:00 »
Yes, the above post was by me.  

Guess I forgot to log in since I'm so excited about my new system!

Well, I guess my friends at school don't having bragging rights anymore.....

PurpleSmurf

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« Reply #64 on: 2001-12-24 18:17:00 »
ok now your the devil my current system only has a 133mhz front side bus. :( . how much did you pay for it?

Reznor007

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #65 on: 2001-12-24 20:25:00 »
Goku...what GPU plugin are you using? Pete's OpenGL 1.55 is the best in my opinion. Makes everything look so nice. And the best way to emulate PS1(and N64 for that matter) is 640x480 in 32bit color with the best FSAA your card can use. The 2D objects look best that way.

Goku7

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« Reply #66 on: 2001-12-25 02:15:00 »
I'm using pete's D3D renderer; version 1.55 I think.  It uses the DX7.0 interface.  It runs pretty well.

32bit color & FSAA?  Well, I'm still using my 3dFX Voodoo3 2000 PCI.  You named the two features it DOESN'T have.  It's not that bad though, being stuck with 16bit color.  Don't get me wrong, the card can go to 32bit color for windows, its just the 3d graphics buffer was not designed for 32-bit texture quality, and therefore does not support the 32-bit color option for hardware acceleration.

Now, you know the part where Zidane, Vivi and Freya are making their way toward Burmecia?  I think the place is called "Gizamaluk's Grotto."  Anyway, I was fighting the boss, and I noticed that one of his attacks created a graphic glitch.  It looked like the plugin didn't know how to draw it.  Other than that, and some missing colors on the background sky during battle scenes, the plugin works well.

-edit-

Oh yeah, I forgot to answer PurpleSmurf's question.  I paid approximately $425 + tax for the upgrade.  Remember, it was only a bare-bones upgrade (CPU, RAM, PSU & case; and motherboard.)

Speaking of motherboards, the sound chipset the mobo came with has HARDWARE DLS!  (enter hallelulah chorus).  FINALLY!!!!!!

*plugs in XG card to get hardware XG with FF7*

Ah, fiddlesticks!  It wants to use only one of the two.  I tried to install them one at a time, but windows simply removes the mobo sound chip drivers and replaces them with the XG card's drivers; thus disabling the hardware DLS the mobo sound chip has.

Is there any way I can get both the XG card and the mobo sound chip to run concurrently in windows?
[edited] 239 2001-12-25 03:26

J*** H*******

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #67 on: 2001-12-25 02:25:00 »
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PurpleSmurf

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« Reply #68 on: 2001-12-25 02:58:00 »
wow only 450? i might have to star saving so i can have nice new system bus like that :)

Reznor007

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #69 on: 2001-12-25 03:03:00 »
Hehe, yeah, I'm well aware of everything V3 can and can't do :)

Somewhat strange though, as I've only used V3's in friends systems and such, never owned one. I have a V5 though(beautiful FSAA).

Yes, Geforce2's FSAA is an iffy thing...I hate the method they use...works horribly with direct framebuffer writes and many other effects. I prefer Geforce3's 2xRGMS method when forcing 64 tap anisotropic filtering.

Goku7

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #70 on: 2001-12-25 16:26:00 »
Check this out:

I tested how well FF8PC's high-resolution movies ran.  Strangely enoughly, there's still gaps in the sound :-?.  Not as bad as with the old system, but you can tell it's not streaming the sound properly.

This leads me to believe that my cd-rom drive can't keep up with the rest of the system.  Let's see....its a Toshiba 24x, with the DMA option enabled.

The sustained transfer rate for a 24x drive w DMA is what, 2megs per second?  That would explain why I'm getting gaps in the sound stream......

Oh well, it's not gonna matter much.  The cd-drive on the computer that my sister uses from time to time is failing, so my dad had originally planned to replace that with a 50x drive.  After hearing that my current drive isn't keeping with the rest of my system, he told me he's gonna replace my drive with the 50x, and use the 24x drive to replace the failing one on my sister's computer.

This keep's gettin' better and better! 8)

J*** H*******

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #71 on: 2001-12-25 18:20:00 »
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Goku7

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« Reply #72 on: 2001-12-25 21:20:00 »
I'll try it without the DMA later.  Gotta go to grandma's now, so I can't try it out now.

Threesixty

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Yes, it's now my turn to ask for advice on a major system up
« Reply #73 on: 2001-12-27 02:03:00 »
Quote

On 2001-12-24 14:17, PurpleSmurf wrote:
ok now your the devil my current system only has a 133mhz front side bus. :( . how much did you pay for it?


Well actually, The P4 uses a 100mhz FSB.....they just say 400FSB because of the Rambus (the speed rating of rambus is said to be 4 times faster than normal Sdram). Unless he's got that DDR SDram board....then he has a 200mhz FSB. (DDR basicly stands for Double Rated....2 times the speed of normal Ram)

Current Athlon chips are really running at 133FSB, then they times it by 2 because of the DDR, so it's listed as a 266mhz FSB. If they ever made an Athlon that could run with Rambus you would see a number of 532mhz FSB. I doubt that will ever happen though. I imagine Intel would go to the lawyers, if they did.

It's just a numbers game. there is only about a 10% increase between DDR and normal SDram. So that means that there is about a 10% increase between 133FSB and 266FSB. And the difference seems to get more exaggerated, the higher you go.

But from an overclockers point of view....a 133mhz board overclocks a lot better than a 100mhz board. ;)


Do you guys remember when Athlon first came out? They where saying that their FSB was at 200mhz......what  they didn't tell you was that they meant it was 200mhz with DDR Ram. I imagine that they thought that when the DDR was finally put out on the streets (Back then DDR was experimental) that all you would have to do is plug it in your current Athlon motherboard and it would work.....guess they were wrong, huh.

You see....Intel isn't the only one guility of playing the numbers game. Those older Athlon systems really had a 100mhz FSB (SDram), and AMD was claiming it as a 200mhz FSB.(DDR SDram)
[edited] 65 2001-12-27 03:24

[edited] 65 2001-12-27 03:27

Goku7

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« Reply #74 on: 2001-12-27 05:20:00 »
Oh well.  It's still fast enough to get the feeling of "Weeeeeeeeeee!" (say that from a little kids perspective.  I'm not talking like some sicko here.)  from the frame rate alone.

Anyway,  I just found the coolest thing to use for FF9 on ePSXe.  It's Eternal's SPU version 1.1.  If you've got a really fast comp, click on the reverb checkbox until it's both greyed and checkmarked.  You've just enabled some high quality reverb by doing that.

How good is it?  It sounds like someone piped the PSX sound output through EAX!  It might be a little louder than usual, though.

-edit-

I just got that 52x cd-rom drive I was talking about earliear installed on my comp!

Anyway, I have another question.  On the box, there's a list of cd formats it can read.  One item in particular it lists is "CD-ROM/XA"

Is this refering to the XA audio format that PSX games use?
[edited] 239 2001-12-27 20:44