I want to upgrade my computer. What should I get.

[Yolky]

Now that I know that the specs are Pentium II 300 with 64 megs or ram, I believe I need to upgrade so I may take advantage of using 32 races.

I have a 300 celeron with 124 megs of ram with a ATI 32meg Radeon video card.

What should I upgrade too or what I should really be asking is WHAT do I REALLY need to play with all the bells and wishtles ON?

Would you be able to answer that Stormhound, or Alen? I know what I have read but in this industry that is usually the bare minimum specs.

I am trying to save money just for this game other wise I wouldn't bother upgrading. The MOO series is MY FAVORITE Game series.

Please don't just say a 2 ghz computer since I dont have that much money. I will probably have about 300 to upgrade so any tips would be appreciated.

Davor

[Ingeniator]

Well, I'd probably bump the speed up. It sounds like you have enough RAM, but I'd bump the speed up to about 800 MHz or so. (that's what my computer is).

[Stormhound]

Actually, the specs were set so that the game should be just as playable on a machine with the minimum specs (when you think about it, it's the space battles and other graphic displays that take the most horsepower). We know about "industry minimums" too.

A faster motherboard wouldn't hurt things, and doubling your memory (especially at today's prices!) would probably help your overall system performance. You should be able to easily accomplish both for under $300. If you still have money left, I'd consider first how much more you can raise the memory. You'd be amazed at the effect it can have, as more memory means less page-swapping (which can really kill speed).

[Zealot]

Buy an AMD processor. Since its motherboards supports Duron, Athlon T-Bird And Athlon XP, you will be making a good investment in both the processor (wich you can see wich fits your budget) and the motherboard. Make sure you don't have any problem with the motherboard and the RAM you already have!

[November Adam]

How will faster computers benefit with this game? Better quality of graphics? Are there settings to take advantage of more powerful computers?

[Stormhound]

The graphics will not be "better" with more powerful computers; there's one screen resolution and one graphics set. The space combat graphics are voxel-based (if you want to see some commentary on that, including some from Bill Fisher, see http://forums.delphiforums.com/maste...ges?msg=5823.1 for more on the topic).

Probably the biggest single thing a faster computer will get you is faster turn processing time. Since there are lots of numbers to be dealt with, then anything that speeds up your computer for processing will result in an improvement. I'm not sure how much of one (I'm not exactly there for the testing), but I suspect it'll be quite noticeable between the low-end system and a brand new P4 or AMD.

[Blade Runner]

You have 2 options depend on your budget:
1. cheaper (around 100$):
Get a quicker processor (around Intel PII 800)
(check your motherboard, if it has a slot, you can get slot converter + a PII (maybe PIII). Check the motherboard user guide about max processor speed and compatibility)
+128 MB RAM
(most probably DIMM, you have to check in the MB user guide)


2. more expensive (200-300$):
new motherboard
(Check if your case is ATX compatible. If not, you have to buy a new case. I suggest to buy Athlon compatible motherboard, with DDR RAM slots.)
Athlon XP 1600+ or more
(depend on your budget)
256 MB DDR RAM

Any of the 2 suggestions help to enjoy any game a lot. Of course the second one will be a faster one.

I hope this help,

Blade

[Yolky]

Thank you all for your advise

thanks again everyone. I believe there is a computer show coming here in April and will see what they have. They usually have good prices.

Unforntantly I live in Canada and my money is in Canadain funds. If I can save money, I will get a new mother board (mine can only go up to PII330) and a 1Ghz Prossesor, and 1Gig of ram. I can use the rest of my computer parts for the rest.


Again Thanks for your advise. It's apprceated.

Davor

[Zealot]

Re: Thank you all for your advise

Originally posted by Yolky
If I can save money, I will get a new mother board (mine can only go up to PII330) and a 1Ghz Prossesor, and 1Gig of ram. I can use the rest of my computer parts for the rest.

By April, you probably already have the cheapest processor being a Duron at 1.2 GHz...
About the RAM, I rather have just 256 MB of Crucial 266 MHz CAS Latency 2.0 ns (or even 333MHZ, if it's out in April) than to have 1 GB of SD-RAM at 100 MHz, with a CAS of probably 3 or 4 nanoseconds. So you should check your motherbord very well with this subject in mind.

(Am I being a tech geek here? )

[Sammual]

Go to www.pricewatch.com.
Click on "Motherboard Combos"
Look for a nice (cheap) Duron combos ($95 - Duron 950 with cpu, fan).
Add a Case + Powersupply ($50+) + Memory ($50+).

Sammual

[Carver]

I will sell you an HP4440 with a 333Mhz AMD chip, 64MB of RAM and "integrated" graphics and sound for $1500 American.

[korn469]

Carver

did you add one zero too many?

for 1329 (1229 after rebate) you can get the following from dell

p4 1.7ghz
256mb ddr sdram
40bg hd
17in monitor
64mb Gforce 2mx
48x cd rom
modem
speakers
ms works

[vmxa1]

Dell is way over priced. Go to Cyperpower get it with 19" for $999. A 333mH is worth about $200. In fact last summer I sold my 500 AMD for 200.00. My back up now is amd 900, probably could get 350 for it.

[markusf]

I live in vancouver and this is a good site to get an idea of what stuff costs in bc. www.ncix.com

Anything over 256 megs of ram is really a waste, as at that point the bottle neck becomes other parts of your system. If you have a celeron now, the cheapest thing for you to do is buy the highest celeron your motherboard supports. That would be about a 700 which is $40 ? and get 256 or 124 more megs of ram. Keep that for a while then in 2 years just buy a whole new case.. Because even now its getting cheaper to buy a new system then to upgrade...

[Wiglaf]

Please don't just say a 2 ghz computer since I dont have that much money. I will probably have about 300 to upgrade so any tips would be appreciated.

Unforntantly I live in Canada and my money is in Canadain funds. If I can save money, I will get a new mother board (mine can only go up to PII330) and a 1Ghz Prossesor, and 1Gig of ram. I can use the rest of my computer parts for the rest.

Scratch the gig of RAM. If you're running mainstream software, 256 will be fine (should save you a bit of money as well). The more demanding titles would be in the 384-512mb range. A gig is really way too much. On Windows 98, 95, or ME, you'll have stability issues going over 512 anyway...serious ones...so unless you've got XP and a real love and need for multi-tasking, stick with the 256-512 figure.

The 1GHz processor and 128/256 megs of extra RAM definitely shouldn't put you over $300, unless prices have really changed in the industry over the last four or five months.

for 1329 (1229 after rebate) you can get the following from dell

p4 1.7ghz
256mb ddr sdram
40bg hd
17in monitor
64mb Gforce 2mx
48x cd rom
modem
speakers
ms works

Try to stay off the SDRAM, with Intel's processors it can be much much slower at times than RDRAM. Dell doesn't let you know this, of course, but in the worst case the type of RAM you buy to save a few bucks can actually bottleneck the processor to bits. Nothing you can't switch out manually via pricewatch.com or crucial after the sale, but might as well save yourself the trouble now if you've got the cash on hand and either buy AMD processors/RDRAM with Intel.

Then again, if you can live with SDRAM (and unless you crave the latest and greatest version of Quake or Doom, you'll probably be able to) it's all moot anyway...