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Intel 820 chipset, not a VIA chipset. RAMBUS memory, which IS faster than
SDRAM. But still, I share your concern as to whether a slowish CPU with whatever video card will be able to sufficiently meet the demands of a modern video game... Ben Myers On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 23:17:20 GMT, kony wrote: On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:39:21 -0500, Eddie Crismond wrote: WinXP and the RDRAM are the only things that could not be transfered over to another system. And because of that, I agree that it is hard to justify the upgrade because of the cost of those two components. But the Sims!2, video card, and even a hard drive (although any modern HD I install will be limited by the IDE controller, which I think is ATA-66 in this PC), could all be used in another system. I also might get some geek satisfaction from taking an old system and making it better. Hey, some people have more expensive hobbies. I am still afraid however, that she may not be happy with the performance of The Sims! 2 + Windows XP/2000 on this 600Mhz system. The Sims! 2 + Windows 98SE may be a consideration. It's not 2K or XP that'd be slowing it down, it's the CPU and amount of memory, memory bus speed, etc (maybe video card too?). Win2K or XP might need a few dozen more MB of memory than Win98, but putting that into context of a system that has 512MB and SIMM games which are notorious for needing piles of memory (usually 1GB is a good target), and the OS isn't going to be enough of a difference to matter during gaming, expecially due to DirectX/GL the OS itself will have minimal impact. If the IDE is ATA-66, is that a Via 693 chipset board? I ask because that chipset has very poor memory performance already, it's sort of the opposite of the ideal board for SIMMin' even ignoring the slow CPU. In other words an Intel BX or Via 694 chipset board with all other components same might SIMM 10% faster just due to that issue alone. 10% isn't much on a box that can do it @ 50 FPS, but might be on a box that does it @ 14 FPS. You'd have far higher performance just buying a $55 nForce2 motherboard, an Athlon XP2000, and 2 x 256MB PC3200 DIMMs. If the case won't accept these parts you might need a different case too, but the end result is a much faster system. I may consider building her a new system. I doubt I will be able to use the Compaq EN Series case. The Compaq MB has a PCI riser card. You might be able to buy an upgradeware Tualatin Celeron adapter and get the system up to ~ 1.4GHz or so, don't know for sure if the board would be compatible or not. Otherwise it might make a router, fileserver or ??? someday. But, I also have a Dell Dimension with Pentium III 866Mhz, 384MB SDRAM, ATA-100 hard disk controller and what ever else I decide to throw in it. This may be more suited for The Sims!2. So trading her the Dell for the Compaq is worth considering. MIght be though 384MB is a little light for the SIMMS too, someone I know is playing on a box with 768MB and wondering if they should upgrade to 1280MB. 384MB is a nice size for moderate WinXP use though. |
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