300 mhz

[easy]

As I said in my post before, there are much more to be considered besides CPU. Only a CPU won't be able to determine the system performance. P2 CPU clock ranges from 266MHZ to 500MHZ. If your system is 400MHZ and up, RAM, HD, video card are also well equipped, then I think you should be able to play the game without problem. If your CPU is the early stage 66MHZ FSB P2-266, 64MB RAM, 5GB HD, 2MB video ram or onboard graphics, then you may need to buy a new one.

Originally posted by The Civ3 Site
Sorry but I don't understand any of this technical stuff. I know that my computer has a Pentium 2. Is this enough?

[Col Bigspear]

Im using a PII 300 mmx. This used to be in my room, but the the motherboard packed in on the PI 200 mmx in the front room so my dads buying me a PIII 1.0ghz with a RIVA TNT2 vid card

Looks like I'll be set for the next.....oh 8 1/2 months maybe


AH the joys of being 16 and living at home

[Sharpe]

My computer doesn't quite reach the civ III requirements it seems.

I have a PII 266 with 32 megs of RAM ... and it is one of those motherboards with the sound card built into the hardware, so that slows the system down even further.

I am seriously thinking of either upgrading my computer or buying a new one, but can't decide which is better.

If I upgrade , I can get a lot more RAM (512MB for a PIII 1000) than if I buy but would have to live with small monitor and hard drive (11 GBs)

I am worried about Win ME as a friend got it and couldn't run half of his games including Test of Time.

Any suggestions?

[Nemo]

The Civ3 Site: it depends. Pentium II's range from 266Mhz to 450Mhz. Percent wise (if i did this right) you only have a 14.29% chance of having less than a pentium 300Mhz. Which would mean that you have an 85.71% chance of meeting the civIII specs

[Nemo]

The CivIII Site: an after thought. assuming you have win 98 you can goto: start>programs>accessories>system tools>system information. on the right side of the screen it will show you clock speed in MHz next to 'processor'.

[Executor]

Doesn't it normally show your CPU speed when you boot up?

Even if you don't meet the specs, you could try overclocking. If its an old computer, what do you have to lose? On mine, I can overclock my CPU and RAM just by going into the BIOS. Don't need to touch anything on the motherboard. I can also overclock my video card.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: You should buy a new PC now

Originally posted by easy
An old harddisk will slow down your system speed greatly and a bad video card will also slow down the graphics display. I don't really mind about sound card though, I can't hear the difference.

Another good news for people who is still using tiny monitors. There is 19" Compaq P900 Trinitron monitor with 3 years warranty onsale for only $279! I think it's a terrific price.

It depends. HDDs rarely make a difference. So my movie starts a second or two later. No big loss. As for video card Civ 3 has a very low requirement. Almost any graphics card bought within the last 3 years will do fine.

Compaq produces lousy equipment these days. If it's a Trinitron it's likely to be a Sony OEM item. However Sony monitors tend to have minor problems that are irritating nevertheless. I recommend NEC or Mishibushi.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Sabre2th
I would imagine most new comps come with at least a 32 meg video card and probably 128 megs of RAM. The 32 meg card is fine, but I would recommend getting 256 megs of RAM and win2000 if you can.

Note: win2000 will run most games for win95/98, but not all.

No point in getting Windoze 2K. Not if all you do on the computer are games and other personal stuff. It's useful in a corporate or business environment, but not at home, not even home office really.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Col Bigspear
Im using a PII 300 mmx. This used to be in my room, but the the motherboard packed in on the PI 200 mmx in the front room so my dads buying me a PIII 1.0ghz with a RIVA TNT2 vid card

STOP!

The TNT2 is a shitty video card. It looks like your father is getting a packaged system and is getting gypped off. Check for things like the monitor, video card, speed of memory, etc. to see where the corners have been cut.

[BeBMan]

UR, I agree that Win2k is not really necessary if you are a gamer, however, my own system runs much better now under 2k, under ME the program I saw most was ScanDisk popping up after a chrash...
This happened not a single time after I uprgraded to 2k.

[Sabre2th]

I disagree. New games support windows 2000. It's faster and much more reliable than any other version. 98 is old and ME just plain sucks. Win2000 is by far the best ever.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Sharpe
I am seriously thinking of either upgrading my computer or buying a new one, but can't decide which is better.

If I upgrade , I can get a lot more RAM (512MB for a PIII 1000) than if I buy but would have to live with small monitor and hard drive (11 GBs)

I am worried about Win ME as a friend got it and couldn't run half of his games including Test of Time.

Any suggestions?

Upgrade tends to be the more economic path. You get to pick and choose the parts you want, and you don't need to throw all your money away at the same time.

RAM: you don't need more than 256MB. Anymore is just a waste of money

CPU: I'd shop for a cutoff point in price. Let's say there's a huge difference between 850MHz and 900MHz, I'd go for that. I'll also compare the price between AMD and Intel, since it looks like you will need a new mobo so there's no restrictions in that area.

HDD: 11GB is a lot of storage. You really don't need more. Get a CD-R burner if you have a lot of data to offload.

Monitor: How big is "small?"

Operating System: Chuck Me and get 98 SE.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by BeBro
UR, I agree that Win2k is not really necessary if you are a gamer, however, my own system runs much better now under 2k, under ME the program I saw most was ScanDisk popping up after a chrash...
This happened not a single time after I uprgraded to 2k.

That's a problem with Windoze Me. 98 SE is much better, esp if you apply Winlite 98 to remove silly parts from the OS. My Wintel box runs 98 SE and it usually doesn't crash more than once a day

The problems with 2K are:

- it's a resource hog
- $$$

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Operating System: Chuck Me and get 98 SE.

Have you ever used win2000 UR?

GET 2000

My computer sucked before. It crashed constantly and basically was crap. I upgraded from 98 to 2000 and have not had a single problem since.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

upgrading is chaeper if you know what you buy.
A good walktrought can be found at http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/0...115/index.html
but there are others around the web if you look for them...

At the moment i would say that in UK (but i guess worldwide) the cheapest/ best is to bu a AMD duron 750/800 (£40) 256MB PC133 (£20) and a motherboard of your likeing but you can get a decent new one for 65 -70 £. in total 130£ and that should be enough until the next Civ game dont but Intel at the moment since it is much worse price/preformance wise. AMD is just as stable . an one more thing if you but such processor you might have to upgrade your old Power supply unit ( a 300W is 15-20 £).

that should do it, and a 20GB HDD is 60£. I am not sure how much it is in canadian $ but it is surely chaepest it has ever been.