Hello fellow drivers.

I am on a learning curve with PC's at the moment. I'm not on the same hype of level as you guys are at the moment, so bare with me if I don't understsand .

I am going for a new pc in the next month or so, but instead of buying all the equipment I need, I'm buying some, and using some of my old stuff, that still works, onto the new PC.

Here is what I have at the moment.

Unreliable case *heat goes through it, not bounces off, so it overheats everything*
Athlon 2000+ XP (1.67ghz) - Had this for 2 years running now.
PCChips M848A Motherboard Socket 462
1280MB RAM
nVIDIA 6800GT AGP X8 256MB
5.1 Surround Sound Card
250w PSU

Here is what I am going for.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/91831/rb/19669482543

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/88109

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/96986/product_info

I'm not considering a big big gamers PC, the games I play *Excluding Call of Duty 2* don't take up the PC that much, but it would be nice to have a PC with better performance. Plus the fact having the 6800GTs true potential with a bigger processor will make me drool my head off.

Am I going in the right direction for this? Or am I missing something out?

You will need more memory as well, minimum 512mb but would plump for a gig, get DDR400 as well so processor runs at full speed

Yer you'll *probably* need new RAM for that motherboard, but otherwise that setup looks good You should see a big improvement in LFS

Sweet, those parts cost me 133 quid if I bought them.

So the processor and motherboard won't have any problems? As long the socket numbers are correct, I should have nothing to worry about?

Motherboards will generally only like processor's upto a certain speed, but that motherboard will accept anything on the market in that socket

I won't comment on the case (not into silly cases), but I would highly recommend getting a socket AM2 motherboard, since Socket 939 will be phased out soon. But of course you'll need DDR2 memory and a PCI-Express graphics card to go with it.

Quote from Bob Smith :

I won't comment on the case (not into silly cases), but I would highly recommend getting a socket AM2 motherboard, since Socket 939 will be phased out soon. But of course you'll need DDR2 memory and a PCI-Express graphics card to go with it.

Which is a bit too expensive for me at the moment, which my AGP Graphics card works really well for the time being.

Quote from Thorvertonian :

Motherboards will generally only like processor's upto a certain speed.....

Most often a BIOS update will fix that as long as the CPU fits in the socket.

One noteable exception is Intel's upcoming Conroe (officially Core 2 Duo) which uses the same Socket 775 as current CPU's but requires some additional circuitry that current boards lack in order to work properly.

Personally, I'd wait until next month when Conroe comes out. As it stands, a $300 USD Conroe will equal the performance of AMD's flagship CPU, the $1000 USD FX-62. The cheapest Conroe is set to be $183 USD.

I realised that my Dad has the same processor of the one I am going for on LFS. I checked on properties that it was 2.01ghz. He did have a pc repair a few months back, including mine by the same bloke, I had to change my bios settings to up my processor back from 1.3ghz to 1.67gz *as it should be*

What is the 3200+'s actual processing speed?

2ghz.

But your current setup is so bottle necked, your card wouldn't even be running with the lack of ram, and processor power.

Others seem to think differently. I tried the LFS demo on my Dad's PC, against 11 other AIs on the straight of Blackwood. 25-31 fps.

This is what he has.

Athlon 32000+ 64
512MB DDR
Nvidia FX 5200 AGPX8 128MB.

It's not a gamers PC, he simply uses it for work.

And the game played 31 fps against all AI cars on the straight. *without making any changes of settings to the program whatsoever for better performance. Compared to my 15-16 fps *with editing changes to make better fps*

Surely with the RAM, Graphics card that I have, combined with the 3200+ would bring out a good performance for a long while?

I am going to change the RAM when the new PC works, to give a better performance, but I'm leaving it out for the moment.

A 350Watt PSU isn't leaving a lot of headroom IMHO. On the same site I found this - http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/103064

It looks a tad gimmicky but the 500Watt PSU will come in handy.

Oh, you definitely need more RAM. 1MB is more than enough for LFS.

I have 1.3 GB RAM . But I know that I need to change the ram, so I'll worry about that later .

I don't like the look of that case, but I can always buy a more powerful PSU, since they come in cheap anyway. I prefer the one I posted on the topic, looks awesome.

Thanks for your opinion though, you have got me in the mood of obtaining a 500 w psu .

Your 256 graphics card is good, as long as you are able to run it well enough with your processor (I don't know much about processors) and your sound card seems to be good by the sound of things and you definitely don't need any extra RAM! But keep an eye on your HD space as if you don't have enough space then the RAM won't run (this is what happened to a friend of mine before i fitted a new HD for him)!

Quote from BigDave2967 :

Others seem to think differently. I tried the LFS demo on my Dad's PC, against 11 other AIs on the straight of Blackwood. 25-31 fps.

This is what he has.

Athlon 32000+ 64
512MB DDR
Nvidia FX 5200 AGPX8 128MB.

It's not a gamers PC, he simply uses it for work.

And the game played 31 fps against all AI cars on the straight. *without making any changes of settings to the program whatsoever for better performance. Compared to my 15-16 fps *with editing changes to make better fps*

Surely with the RAM, Graphics card that I have, combined with the 3200+ would bring out a good performance for a long while?

I am going to change the RAM when the new PC works, to give a better performance, but I'm leaving it out for the moment.

Hi Dave,
I have same CPU and it run LFS really nice.I never get with full grid online being last below 40FPS with GF6600(4xAA+16AF).IT run really nice LFS.Your dad PC is nice built except the FX5200 which is very limiting for LFS to get decent framerates.

During the race I get up to 170FPS!!!

I would rather try to find a bit better motherboard.I would avoid as much as possible Uli chipset as you could have some headache later.

That one cost a bit more but nforce 3 worked fine with my AGP+A643200+.
MB MSI K8N Neo2-FX, nForce3 250Gb, skt.939/800, GbE

Quote from Forbin :

Personally, I'd wait until next month when Conroe comes out. As it stands, a $300 USD Conroe will equal the performance of AMD's flagship CPU, the $1000 USD FX-62. The cheapest Conroe is set to be $183 USD.

But none of the new motherboards for Conroe socket has AGPm slot.He would need to buy a nw graphic card which are more bucks for him.

Quote from BigDave2967 :

Others seem to think differently. I tried the LFS demo on my Dad's PC, against 11 other AIs on the straight of Blackwood. 25-31 fps.

This is what he has.

Athlon 32000+ 64
512MB DDR
Nvidia FX 5200 AGPX8 128MB.

It's not a gamers PC, he simply uses it for work.

And the game played 31 fps against all AI cars on the straight. *without making any changes of settings to the program whatsoever for better performance. Compared to my 15-16 fps *with editing changes to make better fps*

Surely with the RAM, Graphics card that I have, combined with the 3200+ would bring out a good performance for a long while?

I am going to change the RAM when the new PC works, to give a better performance, but I'm leaving it out for the moment.

Changing the proc and RAM would greatly help your system. My 3000+ at stock (1.8GHz) coupled with 1GB of DDR400, and an X1900XT-X with vsync on, and all filters on full gets 75fps constant. A full grid can drop to 45-50fps, but by T1 it's back to 75fps.

However, as like my card, your card will be bottle necked by your proc. The gefo6 range was bottle necked by the FX-55, which was AMD's 64bit flagship. So unless you scale up the resloution nice and high, you'll be CPU limited. Though LFS is CPU limited anyway, I don't think you'll get into much trouble with a 3200+, as long as you have a healthy ammount of RAM.

Oh, heres a tip. NEVER mix and match RAM, though it can be done, it does create problems and system instability. If you buy new RAM make sure it is from the same batch as what you already have. Otherwise it's best to buy it all fresh.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Changing the proc and RAM would greatly help your system. My 3000+ at stock (1.8GHz) coupled with 1GB of DDR400, and an X1900XT-X with vsync on, and all filters on full gets 75fps constant. A full grid can drop to 45-50fps, but by T1 it's back to 75fps.

However, as like my card, your card will be bottle necked by your proc. The gefo6 range was bottle necked by the FX-55, which was AMD's 64bit flagship. So unless you scale up the resloution nice and high, you'll be CPU limited. Though LFS is CPU limited anyway, I don't think you'll get into much trouble with a 3200+, as long as you have a healthy ammount of RAM.

Oh, heres a tip. NEVER mix and match RAM, though it can be done, it does create problems and system instability. If you buy new RAM make sure it is from the same batch as what you already have. Otherwise it's best to buy it all fresh.

Thanks lads, much appreciated!

I have a friend that is selling me 2x 512mb PC3200 of RAM, and I do have a 256mb PC3200 in one of the ram sticks I have right now. So my new pc would have 1.25gb of RAM PC3200 . I think that's plenty enough hehe.

And I found a 3500+ 64 bit (Venice, 939 Socket) 6 quid more than the 3200+ so I'm going for the 3500+ instead .

So here is how the new pc would look.

AMD 3500+ 64 bit
Socket 939 Motherboard
6800GT 256MB AGPX8
1.25GB RAM PC3200
5.1 Surround Card.

Anything I should be aware of?

The current PC I have can only give me a maximum of 60fps when alone, and 40fps when racing other drivers and 30 for multiple drivers after the T1. I wonder how much big of a difference will there be? *drools*

Quote from BigDave2967 :

Anything I should be aware of?

Two things:

1) Does the motherboard have an AGP slot on it? (i.e. the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2) If not, your current AGP video card is worthless.

2) Intel's new chip, Conroe (officially named Core 2 Duo) is due out in late July.

My advice, wait for Conroe. Of course, that will also mean buying a new video card and RAM, so... if you really don't have the cash, go for the ASRock board mentioned above.

EDIT: Whoops, I see I already mentioned this... My advice still stands, though.

Quote from Forbin :

Two things:

1) Does the motherboard have an AGP slot on it? (i.e. the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2) If not, your current AGP video card is worthless.

2) Intel's new chip, Conroe (officially named Core 2 Duo) is due out in late July.

My advice, wait for Conroe. Of course, that will also mean buying a new video card and RAM, so... if you really don't have the cash, go for the ASRock board mentioned above.

EDIT: Whoops, I see I already mentioned this... My advice still stands, though.

Yeah the motherboard I am after has the AGP slot.

How much is the Conroe and how fast is it?

Looks like a good setup to me, mine is pretty similar to that except my motherboard and PSU are a bit beefier, only for OC'ing though.

Going to Conroe will cost you more in the end, you need new RAM, videocard, motherboard, it's a whole other way of going about building your rig. For now, the AMD64 s939 is the most cost effective if you want to uprage right now. Since your 6800GT is still pretty well up-to-date, I wouldn't worry about it, and the 3500+ isn't going anywhere, either. That setup will keep you safe for a couple of years, at least.

Basically, just build that system and enjoy it. Don't worry about it too much.

Thanks very much mate .

Quote from SHIFT_ :

Looks like a good setup to me, mine is pretty similar to that except my motherboard and PSU are a bit beefier, only for OC'ing though.

Going to Conroe will cost you more in the end, you need new RAM, videocard, motherboard, it's a whole other way of going about building your rig. For now, the AMD64 s939 is the most cost effective if you want to uprage right now. Since your 6800GT is still pretty well up-to-date, I wouldn't worry about it, and the 3500+ isn't going anywhere, either. That setup will keep you safe for a couple of years, at least.

Basically, just build that system and enjoy it. Don't worry about it too much.

Agree, agree and agree. I just upgraded my old PC to a Socket 939 setup (AMD 64 3000+, 1 GB RAM, DFI NF4 motherboard) and it's the most cost-effective solution nowadays by FAR! And since, like me, you aren't a hardcore gamer, I fully recommend you to do the same and go for a Socket 939 computer. Yeah ,it will won't be top notch soon, but it will be a strong performer for a long time anyway. And I bet that buck for buck, it will be better than a Conroe or whatever new processor comes out.

Good luck!

Quote from Marty502 :

And I bet that buck for buck, it will be better than a Conroe or whatever new processor comes out.

Perhaps, but only due to the fact that new memory (DDR2) and a new video card (PCI-E) are required for Conroe. If that were not the case, the price/performance ratio would definitely be in Conroe's favor. It's that much faster.

As I said above, $300 Conroe = $1000 AMD FX-62.

Quote from Forbin :

Perhaps, but only due to the fact that new memory (DDR2) and a new video card (PCI-E) are required for Conroe. If that were not the case, the price/performance ratio would definitely be in Conroe's favor. It's that much faster.

As I said above, $300 Conroe = $1000 AMD FX-62.

Should have mentioned that on his scenario it would be better.