A good PC?

[Gaz]

hey all, i have been considering buying this computer, i am on a tight budget so costs have to be kept to a minimum :(
here are the system specs.

Amd Athlon XP Palomino 1600 MHz
256MB 168pin DIMM 133 MHz PC133 RAM
Mercury Ge-Force II MX400 64MB AGP
PCI Sound Card
40GB EIDE UDMA 5400RPM MAXTOR HD
54X CD Rom IDE

the question is would this computer give me decent performance with fs2002 and other newer games?
and is it a good price? (£350) (about $750 i think, not sure)

Thanks for any advice you can give me on this :)

:-wave


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[RobJ]

The processor itself will keep you running for a short while - however, it was part of the initial breed of Palomino processors and is now starting to become a little dated with the introduction of the Thoroughbred processor by AMD.

As for memory and graphics, you should be looking at 256Mb DDR PC2100 & GeForce 3 Ti minimum.

To cut cost, you could aim to use onboard motherboard sound - but than can be of a low quality. I personally use the Audigy card by Creative - the best sounds (especially for Flight Sim) that I have ever come across.

If I were you I would look at saving your money a little longer and purchasing a top-end system. This would keep you happier in the long-run and most likely be less expensive.

Robert Jubb,
Reviewer & Coder,
FlightSim.Com
Train-Sim.Com

[MKaprocki]

The memory would really be holding you back. If you know what you're doing, you can build a much better system for roughly the same cost.

Matt

[tjkotula]

If you are willing to learn, have a couple of free hours on a Saturday afternoon, and a screwdriver handy, you can easily upgrade whatever your current system is now to something much better than the specs you listed. I'm assuming your current computer is 3 1/2 years old or less, uses the ATX form factor, and isn't a proprietary system (Dell, Compaq, etc.) You can reuse everything you currently have except for video card, processor, motherboard, RAM, CPU Cooler, and Power supply.

AMD Athlon XP 2000+ Processor OEM = $100.99 from Nutrend.com

MSI KT3 Ultra Motherboard = $86.00 from Nutrend.com

GAINWARD/CARDEXPERT GeForce 3 Ti200 128MB DDR = $134.00 from Nutrend.com

Thermaltake VOLCANO 7 Variable Fan Speed Control. Retail = $16.00 from Nutrend.com

256 MB Crucial Micron DDR2100 Memory = $67.49 w/ free shipping from Crucial.com

Allied 350W Power Supply = $29.00 from Nutrend.com

Total for this upgrade without shipping = $433.48

If you need or want a new case w/ the ATX form factor, they are around $25-40 w/o a power supply from Nutrend.

About your listed specs, PC133 memory is underpowered for Athlon XP processors and it won't cost you much to switch to DDR and a DDR supported motherboard.

The XP1600 is already on it's way to being outdated. Get, at a minimum, the XP1800 or XP1900. If you are the patient type and can wait a little longer to save cash, buy the XP2000 or XP2100 or even AMD's new 64-bit Clawhammer if you can wait that long and are willing to pay a premium.

Don't cheap out on a motherboard although there are plenty of good motherboards out there in the $75-100 range that will fit your needs and budget quite nicely. Anything over $100 (Asus or Soyo Dragon mobos) is usually an exceptional motherboard, but unless you've got the cash, a middle of the road motherboard will do just fine for you.

If you want performance and quality graphics, don't purchase any MX series cards or any GF2. Now, the GF2 isn't bad and if you're still stuck on pre-GF2 cards, the textures it produces will knock your eyes out, but the GF3 produces much clearer and sharper graphics with a slight performance edge over the GF2 for only $50-60 more than a GF2 GTS or Ti series card.

Building your own computer is much easier than you may think. It just takes a little common sense, a screwdriver, some knowledge of what to buy and how to install it, and a measure of patience. MySuperPC.com is great place to go for advice on what to buy and where to find it at great prices and PCmech.com is a great place to go for instructions on how to build your own machine. Best of luck no matter what you choose to do.

Tim Kotula

XP 1800+
MSI KT3 Ultra Motherboard
512 MB Crucial PC2100 DDR
Diamond Stealth III S540 32 MB VRAM

How do you know when it's time to upgrade your computer? As soon as you get the latest copy of flightsim, it's time!

[Gaz]

alright. thanks alot for the input guys, :D i appreciate it.
as for me upgrading this system, it's a 500mhz k6-2
128 mb ram.. tnt 2 pci. (!)
i dont think its worth upgrading this one :-lol

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[alastairmonk]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Aug-14-02 AT 09:49AM (EDT)[/font][p]Although GeForce 3 and GeForce 4 cards are very attractive, I have an almost identical system (GeForce 2, 512Mb DDR RAM) and FS2002 runs just fine.

I would suggest beefing up the RAM to 512Mb, but you won't have ANY problems with the rest.

As you're obviously a UK simmer, have a look at what Evesham.com is currently offering - they're reliable if you want to buy a complete system. More details if you need them.

Note to US simmers - when quoting costs to build your own, do remember that you pay on average 50-70% of what we have to, so your 500.00 USD system costs us nearer to 800.00-1000.00 USD equivalent.

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[tjkotula]

I upgraded two weeks ago from a 500 Mhz Celeron. It makes no difference how old the componets are as long as your case and your motherboard use the ATX form factor. Of course, it's up to you, but I personally would upgrade that system over buying a new computer. Now on the other hand, if your specs were anything under 400 Mhz I would have told you to get a completely new machine, but still build it yourself.

Tim Kotula

XP 1800+
MSI KT3 Ultra Motherboard
512 MB Crucial PC2100 DDR
Diamond Stealth III S540 32 MB VRAM

How do you know when it's time to upgrade your computer? As soon as you get the latest copy of flightsim, it's time!