Re: calling online gamers
 

Hi Ruslan124
After reading mikeuk thread my brain is starting to stutter :D , its time to spend some dosh and buy a new system and get ready for the BF2 coming out in june, sounds like its going to be the game of the year all I got to do now is make my mind up, Intel or AMD.
cheers all steve

Re: calling online gamers
 

AMD would be my recommendation, they tend to be cheaper. However, to make your brain hurt more, it is not quite that simple. I would suggest you figure out what your budget is going to be then tailor your upgrade accordingly.

You have three main ways to make improvements
Bigger processor
More memory
Better graphics card

If you have a limited budget I would recommend

Upgrade the memory to 1GB
Buy a better graphics card. If you like ATI go for a 9600XT or 9800XT, these are very good cards
keep your existing motherboard and upgrade the intel processor to as fast as you can afford that is supported by the board and within the remainder of your budget.

If budget is not tight

AMD 64bit Processor
2GB Ram
The fastest ATI or NVIDIA card you can afford.

Finally, to solve the stuttering on BF1942, go into teh game settings and turn down everything relating to sound quality to a minimum. If that solves the problem then start increasing the settings 1 by 1 until teh problem occurs again and then knock it down 1 setting.

Finally make sure you have the latest ATI drivers installed. I dont think it will help the stuttering but you should do this as a matter of routiner

Re: calling online gamers
 

Many good Idea's taken, looking at the motherboard in mine it will take a Intel 4 upgrade but the AGP only goes up to X4 and not X8 for a good card, the system is about 2 to 3 years old I had it built to play IGI2, later found out I got rip-off with micky mouse parts :mad: time to treat myself just don't tell the wife how much like she does when buying clothes :D.
Do you know much about overclocking, my mate has got some software to overclock graphics cards, good or bad Idea? Thanks steve

Re: calling online gamers
 

overclocking is a good way to get more for your buck, but unless you understand what your doing, don't do it...you'll need decent heatsinks and fans, and probably heatsinks on your memory as well because the system will serioulsy over heat, also it'll reduce the length of working life...a decent cpu should last at least 7 years, over clocking to the max will reduce that to about 3-4 years....
Most graphics cards are backward compatible, meaning they will work on the 4x agp, so might be worth getting a decent one, and then upgrading the motherboard later if you don't want to shell out all at once.

As for decent mobo's, Asus is the best out there, least hassle, always works...
Epox is supposed to be really good, certainly can overclock the hell out of it, but if anything goes wrong, there wank, I speak from experience, and it wasn't even an over clocking issue.
Abit are also pretty good I hear.
Soyo's, avoid like the plague, there ******* shite, get loads of features for your money, but the boards break at the near wiff of you farting on it.

Re: calling online gamers
 

It depends, overclocking works and is very easy with a couple of software programs that will allow you to do it without much sweat. However, it will reduce the life of your card and it may make no difference at all because it may not be the graphics card that is the bottleneck. If your system has a reasonable graphics card and a slow CPU, the CPU may be the bottleneck in which case overclocking the card will make no difference. If you do not have sufficient RAM in your machine it will make no difference. If you have a slow and full hard drive it will make little difference. Getting the best game performance is a fine balancing act between multiple components.

If you think you are about to upgrade your system then do not bother with overclocking. If your system is a bit slow when playing games and you cannot afford to upgrade then give overclocking a go.
Caution, overclocking increases the heat coming from your graphics card, this can in turn lead to serious system instability and corrupted graphics. It is also the reason why your card will not last as long. Be careful when overclocking that you do not try to increase the settings too quickly and by too much. The secret is to do things slowly and then test the performance using a benchmarking tool. If it seems to be OK keep going until it is not and then back the settings down a couple of notches.

Warning Warning Warning

By overclocking you can really make a serious mess of your system. Do not do it if you are unsure how to recover from a serious system crash and possible corrupt registry. Read everything you can find on teh web to get an idea of how to do it safely.

Re: calling online gamers
 

Just like to say many,many thanks guys its nice that there are people out there who are willing to help and explain the pro's & con's in a language even I can understand(A PC DUMMY) to help make my mind up in what system to go for.
cheerssssssssssssssssssssssssssss :beer: :beer: :beer:
Later steve

Re: calling online gamers
 

Be careful, I might be one of those people that thinks he knows what he is talking about but is too dumb to realize he does not. :D

Re: calling online gamers
 

My limited experiance with overclocking..

I found in some case over a certain point the mother board was often the bottle neck...

and I'd suggest using a peltier based cooling system and don't skimp on the thermal gel..

I see so many great proceser set ups with mosnster sized heat sinks but no thermal gel betwen the two.... for the few censt its cost it really makes a big differance

Re: calling online gamers
 

That is true when overclocking the CPU, which is a whole different ballgame than overclocking the graphics card. There are many more details involved in CPU overclocking and it is definately not an activity for the impatient or faint of heart. I have done a bit of CPU overclocking and found it to be just not worth the hassle.

Re: calling online gamers
 

Well if you go for it at the start, it's great, my first thunderbird athlon was a 1.5ghz and I ran that at 2.1ghz pretty stable for 2 years before the chip died...and it did make quite a bit of difference, but then I was doing a lot of render work and shite at uni and it was a cheap solution....though it was a pretty quick cpu back then as well..

Re: calling online gamers
 

I just dont have the patience to do all the setting and testing and setting and testing etc. Its just me being lazy.

Re: calling online gamers
 

that's true...but the thunderbird chip was meant to be overclocked, had an epox mobo meant for overclocking as was pretty easy, had a noisey fat fan though...but oh well...never mad enough to bother with water cooling or anything *lol*

Re: calling online gamers
 

calling my computer GURU'S :D
Just been surfing on ebay U.S, would a PC from the states work in the UK on a 240V system can't find anything on the web, you seem to get much more for your money, just running Idea's pass my wallet.
cheers lads :beer:

Re: calling online gamers
 

Depends if the PSU has dual voltage or not, if it doesn't, can just get a new one for £30.

check out the over clocking websites, can't remeber off hand, but I think...

www.overclockers.com .uk
www.overclock.com .uk

Re: calling online gamers
 

If it does not have a dual voltage switch on the PSU (Power Supply) as suggested in the previous post, you can replace the PSU in the UK for about 60 bucks. It is a very simple task to carry out. If the PC is from one of the known PC suppliers like Dell etc, there is a very good chance it has a dual voltage PSU. If it is home made then likewise, there is a chance the PSU is single voltage.