Wormsie Posted October 21, 2004 Odd. My Firefox has started crashing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Posted October 28, 2004 Update: I have just fulfilled an unfulfillable dream of mine circa 1996, and have placed an order for an Alienware desktop system. Oh man, just typing it makes me giddy. I don't even know if it's a great machine or merely a sufficient machine, since I haven't kept up with that crap for years, but at least I know that Half-Life 2 has moved from being a heartbreaker to a GPA-wrecker. AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 512MB DDR RAM ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128MB (ie, 8 times the amount of video ram in my now-defunct PC) Oh man oh man I'm excited. I (hope I) will finally be able to play new PC games for the first time since about 1994. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Intrepid Homoludens Posted October 28, 2004 (((((Chris)))))) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jayel Posted October 28, 2004 Congratulations ATI Radeon 9600 XT, a wise choice. Stand strong against the evil propagandas of NVidia!! Never forget what they did with 3DMark03!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Intrepid Homoludens Posted October 28, 2004 Playing: With myself EIW!! My first grade catholic nun teacher said that you'll go blind doing that!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Posted October 28, 2004 I think he is already blind. Note the "I'm a blind guy" shades in his self-portraitesque avatar. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Intrepid Homoludens Posted October 28, 2004 So now he can play with himself all he wants with no fear. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erwin_Br Posted October 28, 2004 Update: I have just fulfilled an unfulfillable dream of mine circa 1996, and have placed an order for an Alienware desktop system. Oh man, just typing it makes me giddy. I don't even know if it's a great machine or merely a sufficient machine, since I haven't kept up with that crap for years, but at least I know that Half-Life 2 has moved from being a heartbreaker to a GPA-wrecker.AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 512MB DDR RAM ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128MB (ie, 8 times the amount of video ram in my now-defunct PC) Oh man oh man I'm excited. I (hope I) will finally be able to play new PC games for the first time since about 1994. Hey that's awesome! Your ATI Radeon 9600 XT card is exactly the one that I bought last week! If it's in an Alienware system, it must be really good. (I'm not very much into hardware either) I can tell you that Doom 3 plays great on it. The reason I bought it was Half-Life 2, of course (My previous card was a GeForce MX440 with 64 MB) --Erwin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jayel Posted October 28, 2004 So now he can play with himself all he wants with no fear. damn right. except I tire of shaving my palm every day. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ysbreker Posted October 28, 2004 The only potential weak point in your specs that I can spot might be the amount of ram you have. 512 MB of ram for such raw processing power is a bit on the low side But it's still an awesome machine. oh and welcome to the 21st century computerwise, mr Remo sir! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Posted October 28, 2004 Yeah, I skimped on the RAM because I was pretty much hitting my upper spending limit and I figured it would be the easiest thing to upgrade later, certainly easier than the processor or the video card. Anyway, I'm sure this thing can handle Half-Life 2, and after the amount of money I just spent, that's the only game I'll be able to afford for a while... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ysbreker Posted October 28, 2004 It will handle that game like a bucket full of delicious pork strips! And yeah, ram is the easiest to upgrade. What kind of HDD did you pick? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Posted October 28, 2004 The cheapest one, a "High Performance - Serial ATA - 80GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache". I can't imagine I'll need much more space than that, since my previous PC had 40GB and that was enough with my 40GB additional external drive. I don't pirate music or anything so hard drive space has never been much of an issue for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Simon Posted October 28, 2004 Congratulations, your new 'rig' sounds awesome Chris. I think it's a reassuring sign of the integrity of Thumbs readers that this thread didn't turn into a hardware pissing match once you posted your new computer's specifications. At the end of the Summer, I finally gave in and took a new hardware plunge myself, for the first time ever. But I still probably need to upgrade my graphics card. Presumably a Radeon 7200 will not handle Half-Life 2. Is the Radeon 9600 still an AGP card? Actually I was considering leaving ATI if there was better value for money elsewhere. Any thoughts, anyone? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Salka Posted October 28, 2004 AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 512MB DDR RAM ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128MB (ie, 8 times the amount of video ram in my now-defunct PC) Oh man oh man I'm excited. I (hope I) will finally be able to play new PC games for the first time since about 1994. That sounds pretty awesome. How much is it setting you back? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ysbreker Posted October 28, 2004 that's a very nice HDD aswell Especially since it's serial ATA, that way you can take it to your next pc. What with the disappearance of the old IDE standard. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erwin_Br Posted October 29, 2004 Is the Radeon 9600 still an AGP card? Yes. It even supports the old 2x AGP standard. Anyway, mine's an ASUS which has 'GameFace' technology. That means I can display a little webcam window showing other players with a cam, while playing a game. Or watch TV at the same time. I still have to try it out. --Erwin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
