Upgrade time....

mickwill wrote:

Well I don't think my P4 2Ghz is cutting it any more

So it's time or the dreaded upgrade.

I run Win2K and usually have FS2004, UT, AISmooth, and FSPassengers running on a P4 2GHZ, 1GB Ram, AGP nVidia 6600GT 128Mb and to be honest the frame rates are poor to say the least. I upgraded from a FX5700 256Mb to the GT6600GT in an effort to get round the frame rate problem, alas it has not made it go away. So it is time to bit the bullet and do the upgrade thing.

Now here is what I am looking at:

AMD Athlon FX55 939
2 x 1Gb DDR400 RAM Modules
MSI K8N Sli Platinum Motherboard
Leadtek WinFast PCX6600GT-TDH GeForce PCX6600 GT 128MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express)
Win XP Pro

So what do you think ❓

BR

Mick

I am not a specialist in this but untill the others awake from their slumber i'll tell you the little I think I know about.

The AMD Athlon defenately has got to be 939 socket
I'm not familiar with the FX55
2 x 1Gb DDR Ram sounds good (I'm not sure about the 400 - I think it depends on your motherboard)
The MSI K8N Sli Platinum Motherboard is very popular and I think it has a wicked soundchip onboard (check on the website)
Leadtek WinFast PCX6600GT-TDH GeForce PCX6600 GT 128MB DDR3 sounds good to me , pretty much the current standard unless you wanna pay through your nose for a top range card that will cost have of it's present price in six months time.
TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) PCI-Express is the way to go when your building a new machine no doubt about it.
Win XP Pro - don't know. I have always used the Home edition and have been perfectly happy with it. But then, I'm only a mad FS Home user.

The specialists will correct everything that i've said to mislead you, be sure of that - but for starters your selection of parts looks very sound and promising.

Good luck,
Rick

Looks good to me, make sure you have room for more ram when the next version comes out, especially if your going to switch to Windows Vista when it comes out.

Go with XP-Home, It's a better gaming system unless you NEED pro for business use.

Get a good power supply, minimum 450w, best 600w. Antec is one of the best.

Totally agree with Dear TailHook and RadarMan.I only would like to add that if i had to get a new VGA i preffer get one with 256mb of Ram. 😉
Better ,and without strees, performance.

RadarMan wrote:

Go with XP-Home, It's a better gaming system unless you NEED pro for business use.

Since you bring it up Radarman I have to ask you - you have mentioned this before - and as I have a tendency of going boldly where noone has gone before, I laid it on the local IT-"Professional". I told him that for FS purposes XP Home is better than XP Pro. - His demeanor and the way he looked at me following such an outrageous claim was enough for me to leave his shop with my tail between my legs. I must mention though, that he had no idea what FS was.
So, I'd be really interested as to what you base that statement on - your own experience - other Simmers experiences - anything in particular??

I'd really like to know RM, my twisted fantasy is to go back to that shop and argue with that "Professional" until he either faints or calls the cops.

This is no priority, don't rush - whenever you got nothing better to do, but I am curious 🤔

Thanks'
Rick 🙂)

Tailhook,
My understanding is that they (of course) are built on the same base. Home is just what it say's, Pro has other applications that are used for business purposes and won't have any good or bad effect on "gaming" so why pay twice the price.
You can get (full) Home OEM for $89-$99.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp

Am I wrong, don't know!

RadarMan wrote:

Tailhook,
My understanding is that they (of course) are built on the same base. Home is just what it say's, Pro has other applications that are used for business purposes and won't have any good or bad effect on "gaming" so why pay twice the price.
You can get (full) Home OEM for $89-$99.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp

Am I wrong, don't know!

Thanks for the link to the article (gets a bit technical after a while) - BUT:

Basically the article and what you are saying confirms my theory that XP Home does everything we need to run FS efficiently and also everything else that I am doing with my computer. So why have all the extras which will most certainly draw more processing power, use up more HDD space and due to its complexity (possibly) cause more conflicts?
I am satisfied with your reasoning Radarman, thank you.

Only problem - I'll have to think of another excuse to get back at that smug "IT Professional"

Regards,
Rick

There is no way to get back at them, they are always right in their own mind.
I would just avoid the subject with him, I usually let them talk and if I disagree say "OK" and go about my way.

Again, experience has taught me that you're absolutely right. I'm always wrong- they're always right, and nowadays I like to think that I'm mature enough to just let it all pass for the benefit of all involved. BUT :

I still haven't managed to overcome the irresistable urge to make up my own movies/scenarios in my mind when the TV gets just to pathetic to watch, the concentration is exhausted for the day and you guys are all in bed, at the golf course ore eating dinner at 12 noon - how weird is that!- and everybody else is asleep in El Dorado.

I'll be working on that, though... or should I ❓

As undecided as ever,
Rick

Leave it be and concentrate on something worth while, what I don't know but try.

on pro you can run the system admin tools

pro comes with IIS installed

XP Home does not have file access control, so all users of the machine have access to all files in the same way as on Windows 98.

XP pro has Access Control – restrict access to selected files, applications, and other resources.

XP Professional has support for multi-processor PCs

XP pro has remote desktop

pro has Encrypting File System - protects sensitive data in files that are stored on disk using the NTFS file system

I am unsure but with AMD dual core processors, as they actually are 2 actual processors in one unit, with intel HT it doesn't have 2 procs.. just the one with multithreading support and Home doesn't support multi processors.... does this mean AMD dual core procs won't work on home?

These are all from:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx

I don't think Home would be any better for gaming as such as a result - but involves less administration

this one might be a valid one for some users,
only pro has this:

Multi-lingual User Interface (MUI) add-on - change the user interface language to get localized dialog boxes, menus, help files, dictionaries, and proofing tools etc.

Also----

I am a network admin and I sometimes have to work from home via VPN, XP home has *most* of the corporate network bits stripped out and as such is no good to me!

Not when I have two Win 2003 servers, two LinuX AS and a bunch of Win2k workstations to manage!

If you do want to stip down the bloatware that is Windows I highly recommend a book called Windows Annoyances by David A Karp. The web site is --> http://www.annoyances.org/

As to performance - XP Home is a little bit faster as it does not have some of the services that Pro has running.

BR

Mick

if of course those services are running 🙂

and that would be a margnial performance increase at best I would say (depending on what is running)

Fascinating gentlemen, and also thank you for those two links now in my folder.

mickwill wrote:

Well I don't think my P4 2Ghz is cutting it any more

AMD Athlon FX55 939
2 x 1Gb DDR400 RAM Modules
MSI K8N Sli Platinum Motherboard
Leadtek WinFast PCX6600GT-TDH GeForce PCX6600 GT 128MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express)
Win XP Pro

So what do you think ❓

BR

Mick

Belatedly perhaps, but who knows?

The board I was referring to is actually the MSI K8N Diamond (Chipset: NVIDIA nForce4 SLI)

"... one of the distinguishing factors on this board is its built in Creative SoundBlaster Live! audio chip, which provides the best audio capabilities of all the boards we have heard. It supports up to 7.1 speakers and has analog as well as digital ports on its rear port cluster..." the list goes on.

Regards.
Rick

Very interesting this, I just wonder, I may get shot down in flames by someone more knowledgeable, but I have an ASUS K8N E Del Mobo, and when I built this, I installed two extra HDs (I do a lot of digi photo work), connected using the SATA option, boy what a surprise, you can set to boot from them, and the speed increase was most noticeable.

These SATA options are great when space is an important issue. If required I could have up to 10 drives total internal, that does include the ide ones.

And yes a good PSU, I use a Hiper 580, and it is so quiet, you need a stethoscope to hear if it is running, and the fan runs on after switching off, to cool the Unit down completely. Thoroughly recommended, will use them in future builds.

Hope some of this helps..