Hey Folks! Just wanted to ask all you guru's out there,<br>what would you do if you were in need of a new Computer; would you reccommend buiding one or??<br>Right now money is kinda tight, but like to get something<br> better than what I'm using now a hp w/ 1.3 Celeron-<br>512ram,100fsb,nividia geo. force 420 vid. card,It really sux trying to play online; am getting slaughtered royaly!!!<br>would like a p4 , could I get one under $1000.00??<br> Thanks so much for any help you can give me,<br>See ya in CG's,Trigon <p></p><i></i>

welcome to the forum!<br><br>I'd build one myself, but it all depends on how much time you can spend on it. it does take a bit more effort to build one rather than just to get a pre-built one. you'd have to do the research and buy each component yourself. in the end you gain mostly the experience of building one and having the components you want. pre-built machines don't usually have everything to your liking. a drawback with building your own, however, is that when things don't work, you may have to deal with several companies with varying levels of warranty service. whereas for a pre-built machine, you'd deal with mostly one company.<br><br>what kind of internet connection do you have? I think I saw you on CG1 last night but I don't remember what your ping was like. your current computer should run UT just fine. mine has a GeForce 3 video card, 1 GHz Pentium III, and 320 MB RAM. if you look further down on this forum for a thread called 'SYSTEMS', you'll find a bit more details about my computer. I used to play on a Celeron 400 with 128 MB RAM (and software rendering) until several weeks ago, and even back then I was able to win a game almost every night. and I play on 56k dial-up. getting slaughtered royally is normal for someone new to Redeemer Arena. and that still happens to me now and then. you'll get better with some practice. having high ping in Redeemer Arena isn't as bad as in regular UT. we have several guys/gals here who can really dominate games even on a 56k connection.<br><br>looks like you have a GeForce 4 MX 420 video card. if you want to upgrade at all, start with that. you should be able to find various flavors of GeForce 3 and Radeon 8500 for under $100 US, and they should do much better than your current GF4MX420. if you have a bit more money, I'd highly recommend a GeForce 4 Ti 4200. there are several other guys on this board who should be able to help you with this. I'd wait and see what they have to say.<br><br>- clemmentine<br> <p>____________________________________________________________<br>... To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank, searching for you,<br>I was moving through the silence without motion, waiting for you,<br>In a room with a window in the corner I found truth.<br><br>"Shadowplay" by Joy Division</p><i></i>

TRIGON!! It's good to see you on the boards! Welcome.<br><br>I totally agree with Clem. Your rig should run UT fine, even with the GeForce 4 MX420. There has to be another reason for your problems. <br>Do you have problems with framerates? or is it ping?<br><br>You have to remember one thing, most of the folks that play Redeemer arena have been playing for a long time. There are a lot of tricks out there to learn. One thing that I have noticed is that you like to "Hide and Guide". This will leave you vulnerable. If you are interested, try going to this link. http://web.surry.net/~jbubbaw/ <br>It may be a shameless plug, but I created this site to help newbies. You will probably not find too much information that will help you, as I kept the secrets that I have learned off the site, but if you want to know more, just e-mail me. I will be happy to help.<br>Again, Welcome to SRA. <p>The Jargonaut<br></p><i></i>

Welcome here! I'll try to give some PC input when I get some more time. Christmas Eve you know and I still haven't finished getting ready. Welcome again! <p></p><i></i>

Hey,Jarg! the card is a PNY ,verto geo. 4 PCI card w/64mb sdram. just now noticed that it requires 350w power supply, and I doubt this computer has anything even close to that!! don't know if that's the main reason why it drags in online use though. I just updated the drivers about 2- 3 wks ago.This thing looks like it should be a decent card,makes me wonder about the ability of this computer!!Thanks again,Trigon<br>Merry Christmas!!!! <p></p><i></i>

AHH, a PCI card, that is the start of the problem. Does your mother board have an AGP slot? AGP is MUCH faster than PCI. If so, you may want to think about a new card soon. If you are a gamer, than games like Doom 3 will chew that card up and spit it out. <br>There are a few questions that I have for you.<br>1. What resolution are you running in game?<br>2. How many graphical goodies do you have turned on?<br><br>Do you have 3dmark 2001 2nd ed? If not, then go to http://www.futuremark.com/download/?3dmark2001.shtml<br>and download the free version. Post your benchmark score here. That will help to decide if you need a new card or not. <br><br>I also have a PNY card, but it is a GeForce 4 4400. It is a darn fine card. I use a Dell with only 250 watts of power. Mine runs fine. I do notice a drop in framerates while online, but the lowest it goes is around 45 FPS. That is with all of the graphical goodies maxed out, and at 1280X1024 resolution. You may have to tweak out your settings to get a good comprimise between performance and graphics. <br>Good luck and let me know how everything goes :) <p>The Jargonaut<br></p><i></i>

welcome trigon!<br><br>Jarg's site is a good introduction to strategy. Hide and guide is fun at first, but then you get your first taste of a monsterkill with the spread strategy and the hiding goes out the window.<br><br>Mele Kalikimaka,<br>Mahatma <p></p><i></i>

Ok, here's the results of the mad onion test: 2765,<br>on the test games for ex. lobby-high res=23,low49.8.<br>I ran it a 2nd time just to double chk. the results were lower, 2740.I have been running the game at 640x480,<br>cause it would'nt run any higher without sound getting<br>all crackley & going in & out for some reason.<br>Also not sure what you mean by graphical goodies, do you mean stuff like Char. detail , blast scars etc. in the game?? last time I checked I char. det. low, world det. on high, I think, will have to go back in to check it.<br>Thanx for your time, Trigon <p></p><i></i>

Somewhere way in the back pages of this board is a thread about how to reduce game "stuttering". I followed that advice for a bit, but found that by turning off <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>all</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> of the graphic goodies I had made the game quite ugly. <br>-The first thing I'd do before any of that though is make sure that all hardware sound acceleration is OFF first. Then I'd start cutting back on the graphics. A little at a time. With a lot of experimenting, I found that I could live without the 'decals' on, and other goodies like that. But I didn't like going below 800X600 resolution. (Although I also found that going above that didn't enhance the look of the maps very much either.)<br>I like high res on the bots, too. They look so ugly in low res.<br>I decided finally that I wanted more stuff "on" than "off", so I just had to live with the lower framerates that resulted. <br>If you're using D3D for your graphics display, there's a trick you can use to free up higher framerates under "advanced" preferences. (Herm told me about it. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> ) You can get to advanced prefs by pressing the <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>~</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> key, and typing in <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>preferences</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. <br>*Edit* Dammit, I just fired up the game and went to advanced options, but now I can't remember what it was you change in D3D from "FALSE" to "TRUE" or the other way 'round! <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :( --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":("><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :\ --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/ohwell.gif ALT=":\"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> It made a huge difference, honest!<br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Herm!</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> If you're reading this, please chime in with the information I'm referring to! <br>I tried this trick on my old computer too, and even though it's running 3dfx Glide instead of D3D, this trick added a small increase in framerates for it. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub44.ezboard.com/bschwantzsredeemerarenaserver.showUserPublicProfile?gid=anamelessentity@schwantzsredeemerarenaserver>a nameless entity</A> at: 12/24/02 10:03:01 pm<br></i>

Now as far as buying or building goes, unless you're a hardware loving total computer nerd I would think twice about building your own from scratch. I looked into it and chickened out. For me it was a much better solution to let DELL build me what I wanted.<br>But the thing with DELL is that you must watch their offers very closely for a while, then pounce when their sales fall off a bit and they pack the special deals together. I just missed a nice chance to buy a second box for less money than upgrading my old PII 300 would cost me a couple of weeks ago. They had a double your ram/quadruple your hard drive offer with free shipping thrown in and I just missed it! <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START >: --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/mad.gif ALT=">:"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br>So now I'm playing the waiting game.<br><br>For now you can go to their site and configure a celeron, 4550, and 8250 all exactly the same way, then see how little they differ in prices. It's quite amazing how little more each step up from a celeron is. If you've got the extra $200 or so to spend, the 8250 is the way better value.<br><br>I've been to the Gateway and Micron sites too, but their sites are very confusing compared to Dell's, and they don't seem to have the same flexibility of configuring that Dell offers. Consumers Union rates Dell the highest for overall quality, and tied with Gateway as #1 for customer support, so for me a prebuilt box will always be a Dell. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>

That benchmarck is pretty low. I was expecting you to get about 6000. That worries me. There is something not qutie right with your system. I have never had a Celeron processor, but my friends 1 GHZ P-III runs UT fine with a GeForce 2 MX. I wish that I could check out your computer. Do you folks think that the PCI card is the problem? I totally forgot about the hardware sound acceleration. Thanks Nameless. <br>Trigon, yep that's exactly what I meant be graphical goodies. Also, for some odd reason, the game runs better in 32 bit graphics mode than 16 bit. Keep tweaking it and hopefully you can get a playable solution. Good Luck. <p>The Jargonaut<br></p><i></i>

Thanks again,I compared those numbers to some of the test reports in Com.Gaming mag, that's Terrible no's I'm<br>gettin'...lol!!<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START >: --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/mad.gif ALT=">:"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START >: --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/mad.gif ALT=">:"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> just saw you in deads miss. mad.<br>Jarg, did it seem like I was moving real slow to you? Man feel like I can't get out 'a ma' own way!! did make some the changes to the settings not sure if really helped or not..<br>Turned off decals,& changed the detail to med. on both char. & world...Thanks again, And please,please don't <br>Use a fruitcake Mutator,could kill somebody!!!LOL!<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :lol --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/laugh.gif ALT=":lol"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br>Trigon <p></p><i></i>

Remember, the benchmarks in that mag are on machines made for gaming. HP is not known for there gaming machines. <br><br>You did not look like you were moving slow to me, but I did notice you fire a 'deemer into walls right beside you, killing yourself. That is a product of your framerates. <br><br>Oh man, I just downloaded the fruitcake mutator. All it does is makes everyone look at you with a fake smile and say "Thanks Grandma." What does that mean??? <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p>The Jargonaut<br></p><i></i>

PCI? yikes! personally, I've never had a PCI video card, and never considered getting one now that AGP cards are all over the place. the power supply shouldn't be the problem. mine is only a 235 watt unit and it works fine with my GeForce 3 and two hard drives. do note that I don't have a sound card, no CDRW, and no special external devices that is drawing power from my power supply.<br><br>you said it sucks playing online. try setting up the same game situation when you're playing locally on your machine (not online). do you still have the same problem? if you still have the same problem, then the problem is on your computer and not your internet connection.<br><br>since I've upgraded to my current GeForce 3 (using OpenGL in UT), I've noticed a few differences (besides the much improved graphics) during online game play (compared to my old 8MB ATI Rage Pro in software rendering). online game play with my new GF3 would become jerky in some spots when I'm guiding the missile, while guiding through the same places playing on my machine locally was as smooth as any other place. I've never noticed this problem when I was using my Rage Pro. I believe this is because my Rage Pro couldn't update the screen as fast as my 56k connection, so my game play was limited by my graphics card. now that I have a fast GF3, what I'm seeing now is the actual lags of my 56k connection.<br><br>I agree. if the problem is your graphics card, go with an AGP card without a question.<br><br>if the game play is really that bad, you might want to try software rendering at 640 x 480, and everything turned on (and 32-bit color depth). also turn down the sound quality. that's my setting when I was using my Rage Pro. I'm playing with no sound card, however. FPS was not that great (in the 20s), but was playable to me (online and offline).<br><br>the Celeron should not be the problem. I had a Celeron 400 and 128 MB RAM before the upgrade and UT played fine.<br><br>what's your ping? what kind of internet connection do you have? if your ping gets above 500 or so it becomes very difficult to play online, even in Redeemer Arena.<br><br>- clemmentine<br> <p>____________________________________________________________<br>... To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank, searching for you,<br>I was moving through the silence without motion, waiting for you,<br>In a room with a window in the corner I found truth.<br><br>"Shadowplay" by Joy Division</p><i></i>

Hey Clem!! thanks for your post!!!<br>I did do a " simulated" Redeem,Arena today infact!,I used the timelog to chk framerates & all while going in to<br>a match scenerio,& trying it out @ differant settings,<br>this is what I got: at 800x600,32bit= med world,med skins-frame rate ,avg.49.52. The same except 16 bit=<br>50.48, And 640x480 = 49.85 w/32 bit color, w /16 bit ,51.19. ON 16 bit & 640x480 , as Nameless posted , looks terrible<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :( --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":("><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> !!The lowest the no's went on 800x600 32 bit,was 32.96 .I usually ping around 80 + or -,as I got DSL w/ earthlink just a while back.What will the software<br>rendering do?? not to familier w/ tech.jargon..Also read an article on win.XP,wherein the author tells you how to "clean up" some useless stuff running in the background to help speed up games stuff like turning off sys.restore,purging unecessaryservices,task schedular etc... what do you think? will turning off this stuff help speed it up? Thanks again,Trigon<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :D --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/happy.gif ALT=":D"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>