System upgrade??

[DaveSylvia]

Also, I do agree with acidosmosis; HL2 will not need uber equipment to run well and look good. Anything in the middle ground should be fine. I personally think that my GF4 Ti4200 will be able to play HL2 decently (decently being around 60fps) at the medium settings.

 

[JSR]

i guess the best

way to summarize this, would be at what point, you pull the trigger...............it's only a matter of months before the 9800 will be at the 9700's price. of course, by then the price of the 9700 will have dropped proportionately to the drop of the 9800. so, if the 9700 is in his budget, and right now is when he needs it, then, i say get it.............if, he can wait that few months to coordinate with the release of those games, then, i'd say wait until it comes into his price range. :grinthumb and, about half life? you're right, but, just for that game. other games will be more demanding...........it just depends on where you do most of your gaming.

 

[Nic]

I guess what one person decides is decent, may be inadequate to another. By way of example, I have a GeForce 2 Ti, and when I play Heavy Gear II (an old game) I get very good frame rates with no slowing apparent. However, when the action heats up and there are a lot of things happening onscreen my framerate drops to levels that are unplayable (i.e. my game controller seems stuck in a time warp and response is very poor). If you wish to maintain smooth gameplay when the action is happening, then those previously acceptable cards, will become a serious drawback. Also, what's the point in having DX9 when you're forced to turn off the eye candy and lower the resolution just to get acceptable framerates? I for one want it all maxed out at 1280x1024, which is the native resolution of most 17 inch TFT panels that I have my eye on. Just a thought.

 

[XtR-X]

Originally posted by amazon_sephy
I highly doubt a geforce 4mx would get me even 10fps. Its not even dx9. My geforce 3 can barely get me 25fps in ut2003. No, one would need a Radeon 9700pro for around 50 fps with visuals turned up. Right? And i want 50fps to be a minimun, sry, didnt mention that above...

I get 60 fps minimum on Counter-Strike in OpenGL mode. I use GF4 MX 400.

 

[amazon_sephy]

Yeah you get 60fps in CS but that is half-life 1, Im talking about Half-Life 2. Big difference there.

Also, with that Abit IS7, is there any difficulty with the ide cables being plugged in? In my case the harddrive actually goes over the ide port, making it extremely hard to plug in or unplug. That is the other problem with mobos these days. Their getting so wide... and the dimm slots are way too close to the agp port...annoying!!

 

[Nic]

Sounds like you need a new system case as well.

 

[amazon_sephy]

Yeah, well i've been looking at the Antec SX635BII (Black one) which runs for 82 bucks right now. It looks good and isnt too expensive, now doed anyone know if it has enough room for those big mobos? Or of another case that would do me well?

link to product-- http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=80637

 

[Nic]

Looks like a good case. You shouldn't have any problems with Antec, as they are normally well designed. That particular case is a good size, so you shouldn't find it cramped at all. Go for it.

 

[DaveSylvia]

Originally posted by amazon_sephy
with that Abit IS7, is there any difficulty with the ide cables being plugged in? In my case the harddrive actually goes over the ide port, making it extremely hard to plug in or unplug. That is the other problem with mobos these days. Their getting so wide... and the dimm slots are way too close to the agp port...annoying!!

Here are a few reviews of that particular Abit board:

http://www.ninjalane.com/display.aspx?docname=abit-is7

http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=572

Edit: Here's another review of the Abit board as well as a roundup of 20 motherboards:

(Page with the Abit IS7)
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1831&p=4

(Starting page of the whole roundup)
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1831&p

 

[amazon_sephy]

The abit is nice, but I have found a board that also seems to be nice. Its Aopens AX4SPE-N. looks nice, and has some features the abit doesnt have. http://www.aopen.com/products/mb/AX4SPE-N.htm
I like aopen and have used their mobos for my past two systems. Cant find any reivew on this tho, if you can plz let me know. Let me know what you guys think about this board. Thx.

 

[Nic]

Looks like a well specified mainboard. Not sure if there is a bios mod to enable PAT on that board, but its likely one will be available. If not then its going to be quite a bit slower than other similar boards.

 

[amazon_sephy]

Uh, Pat, that is an unsupported thing in the 865's. Intel isnt too happy about board makers inplementing it, they said it can cause instability....

 

[Nic]

Intel aren't happy because it will lose them money in reduced sales of 875 chipset mainboards (on which Intel makes 3 times as much profit: $60 for 875 vs $20 for 865). No other reason.

Intel steaming over Springdale PAT

 

[DaveSylvia]

The Aopen AX4SPE-N seems like a fine board. They do cater to the oem croud more so than they do to the consumer/enthusiast croud but that shouldn't an issue at all. I, too, can't find any reviews on it. Just out of curiousity, did you read about all 20 of the motherboards reviewed in that roundup from Anandtech?

 

[amazon_sephy]

no, havent had the chance yet, but will soon. Ill see if anything sparks my interest, but performance isnt all im looking for. Good board layout is just as important. The ide slots need to be at the botttom or I'll probably just disregard it. These things do matter to me.

 

[XtR-X]

Get a bigger case or so. Do you have a link of ur current case? We might be able to suggest boards of size.

 

[amazon_sephy]

no, i got my case three years ago and was having a friend build it. Didnt know much about computers then, so no idea where he got it from. Tho, it is a full tower, its the width that is the problem. Looks like i need a motherboard that is 220mm wide or smaller. My current one is like 240, so it goes under the harddrive. If i didnt have a mobo sliding tray in the case, i would have had to return the mobo.

 

[XtR-X]

You may be running a MicroATX based mobo, if ATX.

Also, is your computer AT based, or ATX based?

ATX is where the MOBO comes with all the stuff.... perhaps audio, network ports, COM, USB, etc.

AT doesn't come with all that and most of all of the stuff are on PCI slots.

 

[Nic]

ATX vs AT