See reply to Starbuck. 

Don't buy Alienware. You're paying a ton extra to get a neat case. 

(me secretly wants the groovy case) 

case aside - they make spiffy systems, no? 

alienware makes nice stuff, but they are overpriced.

you'd be better off making the thing yourself. you can save quite a bit that way. and you can buy a nice case. ;) 

Given that most of the people on this board are specifically upgrading with Doom 3 in mind I thought I'd compile a couple links to benchmarks for actual CPUs recommended for the game. Many benchmarks that have been posted so far only take into account the graphics card and not that platform that the card is running on.

As I've mentioned before I read that the Prescott cores for Pentium 4s are faster and below you'll find evidence of that. Unfortantly many of these articles only account for higher end processors. Still they are very informative and will give you a guiding light in creating the right system for you.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/doom3-cpu.html
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2149
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6104596/p-4.html

Those are really all I could find but the Anandtech one is the most comprehensive. It says all that needs to be said about the CPU and Doom 3.

I am considering post a series on creating different gaming rigs on certain budgets. If anyone is interested let me know.

P.S. Don't by Alienware, there is a multitude of reasons, but most because they are just too pricey. 

For the record, I am very impressed with how well doom3 runs on my (new) athlon64 3000+ with only a geforce 4 (without tweaks). I run 1024 med and it just flys. I haven't seen a noticeable slowdown yet. I'm sure a gig of ram helps things also. I was planning on seeing how it ran with the gf4 before considering buying a new graphics card and I'm glad I did, I'll be waiting a while. Something to consider for those looking to upgrade methinks. 

I'm about to order my computer I posted above right now, so I'm wondering if there's anything else anyone noticed about it. (incompatibilities, nuances, etc.)

Also, scampie I looked at that heatsink you linked and it says it's only for 3.6ghz and over so I dunno if that'll work. 

it doesn't matter as long as it's for the proper socket, otherwise it won't fit.

i think they probably meant it's good for 3.6ghz and above plus everything below. 

yeah, evesham was definitely an option, but for the same money, MESH Computers win by a fair margin, and I see them as a similar company. I generally agree with the case statement, but that mesh case is just :P :P.

Also, you are of course right about CRT's but this is for my room at my halls of residence, and i want to have room to sleep.

As far as the "build your pc or you aren"t a real man" comments go. i haven't seen any spec that can beat that mesh for the same money if you buy individual components, and i've asked some smart clevor people. As i said before though, prove me wrong! 

Starbuck: Computers built by hand go faster, thus you get more for less. 

I run 1024 med and it just flys.

Try putting it on the high detail setting. You'd think it would run a lot slower... but for me, there is actually no difference in performance between medium quality and high quality (the resolution change made a big difference, but the change from medium to high quality made no difference, at least in timedemos). I have to run at 800x600 high qaulity (also with a geforce4) but my cpu is a good deal slower than yours. 

Try putting it on the high detail setting.
You mean 800x600 high like you run? I briefly tried 1024 high and saw a noticeable performance hit. I'm more than satisfied with 1024med but I'll try 800high or 1024high, maybe with those image cache tweaks, and see what its like. 

Nah, I wouldn't want to drop the resolution - if its running well at 1024x for you, then that's excellent.

I just meant that, regardless of the resolution, make sure you try all the settings (well, except ultra :)

When I first set it up I just assumed I couldn't run it well in high quality because the game recommended 'medium' for my setup - and from what I read on the web, medium was best for 128 meg cards. However, at least at 800x600, setting it to high had no performance hit. 

that completely depends on who's building it on both sides. Most people could beat Dell or something, but you must be having a laugh if you think you could build a better system than Scan or overclockers 

http://forums.hexus.net/showpost.php?p=282141&postcount=14

here's a post by moi that outlines two computers i'm considering, any advice? 

i've said things to the contrary to various people and forums for a week or two already, but i've decided to take the plunge, as no company out there seems to be willing to give me the option to choose the components i actually want. After some consideration and a lot of question asking, this is the spec I have ordered:



AMD Athlon 64 3500 (Socket 939)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Socket 939) Motherboard
2 X Crucial Ballistix PC-3200 512MB DDR RAM

Coolermaster Wave Master - Black
OCZ PowerStream 470W Power Supply

Leadtek WinFast A400TDH GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP)
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 200GB SATA 8MB Cache
NEC ND3500 16x DVD�RW Dual Layer ReWriter

Viewsonic VX910 X Series 19" TFT Monitor with DVI
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX
Creative MegaWorks 5.1 550 THX� Speakers
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX



If this thing lives up to my expectations, I think i'll be having some fun soon. I really splurged to create a fairly future-proof system. Lots of things in the spec shouldnt need changing any time soon. 

very nice system starbuck, your obviously richer than me. :P 

I am taking a break from building my PC -- so far it has been nightmarish at the very least.

I am only 10% done with it and stopped because outside of setting and resetting the CMOS1 jumper (which came with a jumper cap), I have no fucking idea which other jumpers I need to set and how. The manual talks about them, but doesn't say whether I need to set them or not (it did say so for the CMOS)

I hate you all for letting me think it would be relatively easy to do this =( 

There is no one in #terrafusion I can talk to right now =( 

well, when i installed my motherboard, i didn't touch any of the jumpers, beyond resetting my cmos. so i don't think you need to worry about that. unless the manual specifically says to do something, just leave it be.

the only jumpers you'll need to worry about are the ones on your cdrom and whatever drives. they need to be configured properly so that they are in either slave of master... don't fret so much! you'll get through it. :) 

Thanks necros maybe I will just let the rest of those be. I am seriously freaked out right now :o

Are you in #terradusion right now? 

Hey all. I have this motherboard: ABIT "IS7" i865PE Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU

I'm at the part where I'm trying to install the processor and heatsink/fan (this one: ALPHA Heatsink/Fan for Intel Socket 478, Model "S-PAL8952M81") and I've hit a bit of snag.

The heatsink calls for me to secure it down to 4 holes in the motherboard surrounding the socket, but the Retention Module Base that came pre-installed with the motherboard is already using those holes and seems to be fastened in with some kind of plastic piece. Let me know what I should do here. Thanks

PS I asked this on a hardware forum, but I'm asking here in case some of you diehard hardware people can help me with it 

you apply heat to the plastic piece, bend it down and remove it.
The way that people seem to suggest is using a hair-dryer, but that sounds a little scary to me. 

=)