Sweet Gaming Goodness

[JLC]

I've put off a full PC upgrade for 4 years. I have gone through a few video
cards since then, my last being the 9800pro. But my GHz P4 was starting to
really slow me down as well. I just couldn't wait any longer because I was
tired of having to turn down/off most of the eye candy and having to run
some games as low as 800x600. I really started having problems around the
time Doom 3 came out. Most of the AAA games that have come out since that
time were to demanding on my system. The only exception was Prey which ran
great at 1024x768 but I still had to turn settings down and no AA or AF.
So I took the plunge and bought myself an Intel E6600 and a ATI
x1900XT(256meg) video card. As well as 2 gigs of Corsair DDR2 800 RAM. I'll
skip going into all the other parts, but I was able to get it all for
$1,400.
Let me tell you I'm in gaming heaven. The first thing I wanted to try was
HL2 The Lost Coast. OH my GOD!! I'm able to play it at 1280x1024 with HDR
turned on, every setting maxed, and with 4x AA 16x AF!! Now this might not
sound like a big deal to a lot of you guys, but for me it was really mind
blowing. I'm now playing FEAR, and Oblivion and I couldn't be happier with
my rig. I had been playing Oblivion with my old rig and it was OK, but man,
oh man, now it looks like a totally different game.
I really can't believe how much of a change it is. Sure every time I've
upgrade my video cards over the years I thought it was great. But now that
the games really look amazing with all setting set to high, it's a totally
different situation. It's a HUGE improvement, not just a few more FPS,or
being able to turn AA on.
So for all you guys that have been waiting around for DX10/Vista and have
older rigs like I had. I say go for it and upgrade! Start enjoying your
games now. The 256 meg x1900XT is a really good deal at $260 and it kicks
some serious butt let me tell you!
JLC

 

[William]

I've put off a full PC upgrade for 4 years. I have gone through a few
video cards since then, my last being the 9800pro. But my GHz P4 was
starting to really slow me down as well. I just couldn't wait any longer
because I was tired of having to turn down/off most of the eye candy and
having to run some games as low as 800x600. I really started having
problems around the time Doom 3 came out. Most of the AAA games that have
come out since that time were to demanding on my system. The only
exception was Prey which ran great at 1024x768 but I still had to turn
settings down and no AA or AF.
So I took the plunge and bought myself an Intel E6600 and a ATI
x1900XT(256meg) video card. As well as 2 gigs of Corsair DDR2 800 RAM.
I'll skip going into all the other parts, but I was able to get it all for
$1,400.
Let me tell you I'm in gaming heaven. The first thing I wanted to try was
HL2 The Lost Coast. OH my GOD!! I'm able to play it at 1280x1024 with HDR
turned on, every setting maxed, and with 4x AA 16x AF!! Now this might not
sound like a big deal to a lot of you guys, but for me it was really mind
blowing. I'm now playing FEAR, and Oblivion and I couldn't be happier with
my rig. I had been playing Oblivion with my old rig and it was OK, but
man, oh man, now it looks like a totally different game.
I really can't believe how much of a change it is. Sure every time I've
upgrade my video cards over the years I thought it was great. But now that
the games really look amazing with all setting set to high, it's a totally
different situation. It's a HUGE improvement, not just a few more FPS,or
being able to turn AA on.
So for all you guys that have been waiting around for DX10/Vista and have
older rigs like I had. I say go for it and upgrade! Start enjoying your
games now. The 256 meg x1900XT is a really good deal at $260 and it kicks
some serious butt let me tell you!
JLC

Mine's in the mail, can hardly wait. I've downloaded all the manuals and
read them while waiting for the UPS man to show up. The last thing that got
me to commit was the Vista coupon that came with the XP-Pro OEM package. I
had XP-Home sp1, so I wanted to upgrade and capture sr2b with the new
system.

I went with the X1950 Pro instead. (Wanted to keep it a single slot
solution.) MSI 975mobo, E6600, 2g corsair, 500wt Antech/neohe pws (85%
efficiency).

Did you remember to burn a 3 1/2" floppy for the SATA drivers before you
started to put the thing together? (The last one I put together I had
forgotten to - had to break out an old lap-top to get it).

I've been backuping my hd for days. Getting ready to purge and re-partition
it for the new system. Fun.

William

 

[Ron Krebs]

So for all you guys that have been waiting around for DX10/Vista and have
older rigs like I had. I say go for it and upgrade! Start enjoying your
games now. The 256 meg x1900XT is a really good deal at $260 and it kicks
some serious butt let me tell you!
JLC

Damn, man you should have seen the deal on the X1900XTX 512MB for only
$279!!! I have the same rig you have but with the 512 card. At the price I
got it for, there is no better deal around.

Ron

 

[JLC]

Mine's in the mail, can hardly wait. I've downloaded all the manuals and
read them while waiting for the UPS man to show up. The last thing that
got me to commit was the Vista coupon that came with the XP-Pro OEM
package. I had XP-Home sp1, so I wanted to upgrade and capture sr2b with
the new system.

I went with the X1950 Pro instead. (Wanted to keep it a single slot
solution.) MSI 975mobo, E6600, 2g corsair, 500wt Antech/neohe pws (85%
efficiency).

Did you remember to burn a 3 1/2" floppy for the SATA drivers before you
started to put the thing together? (The last one I put together I had
forgotten to - had to break out an old lap-top to get it).

I've been backuping my hd for days. Getting ready to purge and
re-partition it for the new system. Fun.

William

I didn't have any problems dealing SATA drivers. I have the Asus P5B Deluxe
MB and two 320GIG Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 HD's. I made a bootable CD so I
could format the HD's, but AFAIK the program didn't install any drivers.
This might be old school for some of you guys but I was able to upgrade my
bios last night using my Creative MUVO flash drive MP3 player! It was so
cool. I just loaded the bios onto the MUVO plugged it into one of my USB
ports and rebooted. Went into the BIOS and then into the EZ Flash program.
It saw my MUVO and the upgrade BIOS file and all I had to do was hit enter.
Took a few seconds and then reboot. Man that was so damn cool!
JLC

 

[First of One]

Took you long enough.

Meanwhile, typing away on my Crossfire system...