Is your comp ready for HL2?

sigh, when will people learn...GET AMD! and guinny im going like mad!
 
I like it sayam. Almost the same as me. Mines changed since my 1st post in this thread. I just changed my order and am purchasing....

*Real Case (BLACK) 3G READY Tooless ATX Mid Tower Case with 400watt Power Supply. Two case fans.
*Lite On 52x32x52x Black Color CDRW Drive
*Samsung 16X DVD Drive (BLACK)
*CoolMax 80x80x25mm Smart & Quiet Case Fan w/ Double Ball-Bearing (4 fans total)
*Samsung 1.44MB BLACK FLOPPY DRIVE
*Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive 8MB
*Corsair 1024MB PC3200 DDR RAM
*Samsung 19" CRT Monitor
*Intel Pentium 4 (800 FSB) Motherboard
*Intel Pentium 4 / 3.0CGHz 512k socket 478 Hyper Threading Technology 800 MHz FSB
*Turtle Beach Voyetra Santa Cruz 6-Speaker DSP Audio Accelerator Sound Card
*ATI SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB DVI/TV 8X AGP Video Card
*Logitech Mouseman Dual Optical - Twin Optical Sensors.
*Total - $1802.46
 
First of all, the 9800 Pro is better than the 5900 Ultra. Any place that says otherwise is either being paid off by nvidia, are biased nvidia fanboys or are using the fx drivers that sacrifice image quality among other things. Face it Nvidia cheated. They knew their highly acclaimed Geforce FX card was not going to hold up to ATI's 9700 Pro. Why do you think they almost immediately discontinued the 5800 Ultra? The 5900 is just a rehash of the 5800 but with the necessary ajustments to keep it up to par with the 9800 pro. If you don't believe me do some searching, it's all over the net.

Guinny, hate to say it but you wasted about $100. You will never see much of an improvment with that extra 128 megs ram. At most a couple more fps.

Edit: Oh and yeah. Pentium 4 processors currently have the edge over Athlons. They are, however, quite a bit more expensive as well.
 
Good, AMD PWNS INTEL, and you save huge!
 
Curator, I still can change the order, as long as it's within 24 hours, you really think I should get the 128?

edit- jhero.... intel > amd
 
somebody tell me if this is good..

  • Windows XP Home Edition
  • Intel Pentium 4 1.8 ghz
  • 512mb ram
  • NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 displaying at 1024x768 32bit 75Hz

Im gonna get an upgrade on the ram... majorly but is the graphics card good enough??
 
No. Get a new card Iced. I mean its sufficiant, but you definately won't see anything fancy.
 
Yes, I would suggest it guinny. But that's just me. You can do whatever you want.
 
Oh my, guinny thats a nice machine. im also going to upgrade my sound card cause it sucks. i have a Creative pci512, i am upgrading to an Audigy 2 oem. And as for AMD, Im not a real big fan. I love my P4's! But to each their own :)
 
Guinny stick with 256mb, it will be worth it in the future.
 
sayam, save yourself the cash. get a santa cruz card. they're basically audigy2, except without the high prices. audigy is VERY, VERY much overpriced, and i can guarentee you wont notice the smallest bit of difference between the two. audigy is a rip-off. it depends on your ears. and humans arent dogs, so you wont be able to hear a pin drop in the middle of a firefight, trust me, save ur self about 150 bucks, and u wont even notice the differnece.
 
Graphics cards are my forte j. I know what i'm talking about. But like sayam said, to each his own.
 
No, please, Curator, enlighten me, you might get me to save $100. Please tell me why.
 
I have made the very tough decision of not upgrading just yet. I am going to have to put up with a medium framerate in HL2 until October because I am waiting for the next gen cards. I currently have:

AMD XP 2.1
Geforce 4 Ti 4200 (Overclocked to 300/600)
512mb RAM

So this should run Half-Life 2 ok, shouldn't it? Anyway, nothing like a bit of FPS loss to let you appreciate your new upgrade.
 
ok my turn.Ill have this 99.9% sure by the time hl2 comes.

p4 3.0 gighertz -hyperthreading -800mhz buss
512ddr - 400mhz
Dvdwriter/CdWriter in one.
Dvdrom16x
Audigy 2 6.1
6.1 Creative Labs Speakers
Radeon 9800 Pro

Im sure it'll run hl2 just fine :) .... And hopefully it will be compatiable so i can run it using my 50' DLP HDTV.
 
What are you crying about black falconm, your comp is more than suitable for hl2.
 
Bilko, next-gen cards won't be much different, to each his own though.:)
 
WTF, falcon yur comp is great! dont worry, i got same cept i got 9700 and 2.53.
 
Eh, the ole AMD pwns Intel discussion. I dont think this is true. I use both Intel and AMD proccessors. The majority of my proccesors are AMD, but then I got a job, read reviews tested some systems, and currently AMD proccessors are lacking. However The 3.2Ghz P4 is Intel's last move before the P5(sometime by the end of the year) So that means AMD should bust out its new line of proccessors and put itself back on top. Both companies produce quality stuff IMO.
 
Not sure if mine can run HL2 because of my GF4MX440, but I'm upgrading to a GeForce 4 Ti4200(or whateva its called), I have a P4 1.8 Ghz, 512 MB ram and a *cough* gay graphics card.
 
*Not mine yet, soon I'll get enough money to order them
Athlon XP 2400+
512MB DDR33 (PC2700)
Geforce 4 Ti 4200 64MB 8xAGP
ECS L7S7A2 Motherboard (8xAGP)

While everyone says getting a 128MB version of the card is best, I'm pretty sure the Ti 4200 is too slow to even bother at high resolutions. My monitor only supports up to 1024x768 anyway, so I plan to play on that, or 800x600. Once the game is out and I can see benchmarks for it running on DirectX9 cards, I'll make a switch to a DirectX9 compliant card once I can afford it.

I have a feeling the Radeon 9700 pro will be within my budget as soon as the new cards start appearing this fall. While I'm confident that the Radeon 9700 pro will run Doom III and Half-Life 2 well (1024x786 at full detail everything on, well atleast 4x AA and 16x AF)... I'm not sure if it's as future proof as the Radeon 9800 pro. The F-buffer and unlimited instructions make me a bit concerned since the Radeon 9700 pro may not be so hot once games start using those features. I've never owned a high end card, but for Half-Life 2 I think it's worth it if it's at the right price. Radeon 9700 pro is still a high end card, and it can hold it's own against the Radeon 9800 pro and the nVidia counterparts now atleast. I hope the limitations of the Radeon 9700 pro in features won't set it back so far within a small timeframe. I expect to buy the Radeon 9700 pro and have it last as long as the next big game(s) come out that raise the bar in graphics... maybe Quake 4 or Unreal III, though I think it'll be a few years till we see another big jump like Half-Life2/Doom III. I hope if I get a Radeon 9700 pro it can last a few years, especially since I'm not going to buy many PC games since I'm also a console gamer.
 
Well Im upgrading for a few games. HL2, Max payne 2, Far cry and a few more. I think I deserve an upgrade with the rig I have now lol

Celeron 566@850
128mb PC-133
20gb HD
GFmx 32mb

I just upgraded to the following. Still gotta get a new vid card though. Thinking about the 9800pro. Hopefully the price drops a bit more b4 hlf2 comes out.

AMD 2500+
512mb DDR 2100
120gb Maxtor
 
Guinny, don't go with the Intel motherboard, go with either Asus P4P800/P4C800 or Abit IC7/IS7. For the video card, the 9800 Pro 256MB is way to expensive as of now, I'd recommend the 9700 Pro or the 128MB 9800 Pro. Also, why do people think that they need so much RAM? When you have PC-3200 RAM you don't need any more than 512 MB. About the fans, you don't need 4 fans, you don't even need one. Just keep the 2 fans that come with the case and you should be fine. To everybody who thinks that their computer will explode if they don't get 7 fans and a thermoelectric peltier, you're wrong. I'm only using 3 fans in my computer, the power supply fan, the video card fan, and the CPU fan, and my computer runs just fine. When you think about it, if you have 4 fans in your case, then you really have about 8 or 9 fans including the 2 on the latest power supplies, CPU fan, video card fan, northbridge fan, and case fans. Also, you'll get better results with a Western Digital 8MB cache hard drive. Or if you want to spend a little (a lot) of extra money then you could get two WD Raptors, which are SATA drives that run at 10k RPM. Don't go SATA if you're not getting a Raptor.

PS: nVidia still sucks because they thought they could sell a video card with a vacuum on it. I only hope that they can beat ATi in their next generation of video cards because their drivers are so much better.
 
2.8ghz/533 P4
100gig 7200
512 PC2100
Dvd rw/cd-rw
cd/dvd-rom
sounblaster audigy gamer
9500non pro modded to 9500pro.

No its not ready thats why im getting a 5900ultra or 9800pro this friday along with a 400watt psu.

Then its still not ready..
 
Originally posted by ankalar
Guinny, don't go with the Intel motherboard, go with either Asus P4P800/P4C800 or Abit IC7/IS7. For the video card, the 9800 Pro 256MB is way to expensive as of now, I'd recommend the 9700 Pro or the 128MB 9800 Pro. Also, why do people think that they need so much RAM? When you have PC-3200 RAM you don't need any more than 512 MB. About the fans, you don't need 4 fans, you don't even need one. Just keep the 2 fans that come with the case and you should be fine. To everybody who thinks that their computer will explode if they don't get 7 fans and a thermoelectric peltier, you're wrong. I'm only using 3 fans in my computer, the power supply fan, the video card fan, and the CPU fan, and my computer runs just fine. When you think about it, if you have 4 fans in your case, then you really have about 8 or 9 fans including the 2 on the latest power supplies, CPU fan, video card fan, northbridge fan, and case fans.

PS: nVidia still sucks because they thought they could sell a video card with a vacuum on it. I only hope that they can beat ATi in their next generation of video cards because their drivers are so much better.

9800non-pro is the best card on the market right now for the price..all you have to do is flash the bios to a 9800pro and viola!..you got a 9800pro.

(im either getting that or a two week old 5900ultra 256 meg for $325)
 
Why not Shockwave, that machine with a 9800Pro would be awesome.
 
Originally posted by Shockwave
9800non-pro is the best card on the market right now for the price..all you have to do is flash the bios to a 9800pro and viola!..you got a 9800pro.

(im either getting that or a two week old 5900ultra 256 meg for $325)

Or you could get the 9500 with the correct reference design and flash the bios and voila! You've got a 9700 Pro for 200 dollars less.
 
my computer is ready. no need for me to brag like the rest a yall
 
Neither is mine, Frankenthug. I'll be getting a new computer this Christmas though. At the moment mine is:

P3 650MHZ
Intel Shit Motherboard
256MB PC-100 RAM
GeForce2 Ti

I hate having to render on this machine.

/me shivvers
 
When a game comes out like HL2 I just can't enjoy it if I have to play with 50% of the visuals on. Its the whole experience, graphics and gameplay. Your playing it for the eye candy.
 
Originally posted by ankalar
Or you could get the 9500 with the correct reference design and flash the bios and voila! You've got a 9700 Pro for 200 dollars less.

You cant find those boards anymore..if you can your lucky as hell, ATI and every company stopped producing them in Janurary. Also the success rate of that outa 3,400+ that confirmed they tried only %25 or so was an actuall success with NO ARTIFACTS.
 
I would say mine is ready. I AM looking for an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. though. So if anyone's got any suggestions where you can get them cheapest - please feel free to speak. (And yeah, I'll probably end up waiting for 'em to become cheaper - but still, can't hurt to look eh...)
 
Current Specs:
Athlon 1500+,
256MB DDR,
Gigabyte 7VA-XP,
80GB 7200rpm 8MB Cache Maxtor DiamondMax,
20GB 5200rpm 1Mb Cache Maxtor,
GF2,
Soundblaster Live 5.1,
Floppy, Zip.
Alu Case (Forget the name, its good enough)
Cooled by Globalwin TAk68 (Damn I love installing this cooler!)

I'm not upgrading yet because I might as well wait for prices to drop a bit.
But I will be getting:

Athlon 2800+,
1GB DDR400,
Radeon 9800.
Soundblaster Audigy 2 6.1 OEM.

I'm set on everything except for the gfx, I will have a 9800 but need to decide which one, all look great. I could go out and spend £350 on the biggest price tag but I'm not into overclocking and really if it only adds on a few seconds to speed I don't wanna spend £50 for that.
However if one card is highly priced and nearly blows your monitor, tell me.
 
no my comp is not ready at all .... i got a p3 666mhz, 384mb, geforce2ti.... i have the minimum specs for hl2 ... BUT i'm still going to buy a new computer this fall...

i'm looking for a p4 3.00ghz,
geforce fx 5900 or ati 9800
512 mb ddr 400mhz
40gig
i'm going to have ~3000$ Canadian for.
i don't know how much it will cost but right now it's around 2250$ with taxes..

this fall i think it's will be ~1500$ - 1800$ how know's.
 
My current computer is horrible:

AMD Athlon 1.2GHZ
1GB SDRAM PC133
ATI Radeon 7000 64MB
Sound Blaster Live! Value
60GB 7,200RPM 2MB Cache

Here is the one I plan on getting:

Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHZ 512K 800MHX FSB
1GB Kingston Hyper-X PC3200 DDR400 SDRAM
ATI 128MB Radeon 9800 Pro
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
36GB 10,000RPM 8MB Cache, will go higher on space when it comes avialable
 
Im waiting for the september release of the ATI Radeon 9900 product so maybe the ATI Radeon 9800 will lower in price.
 
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