Re: How much would this cost?
 

Heyyo,

I think that vidcard's good enough to crank out some great graphics. me bud has that an an AMD athlon xp 2500 with a gig of generic pc3200 ram, n' he can crank the graphics on full for Far Cry, n' not have to worry aboot frame drops too much. That build should easily be enough to play HL2 np. :)

Remember folks, he's not looking for state-of-the-art computer, he just wants one that'll get the job done without too much vid lag.

BTW, I have the same mobo, and it works great man. I have no complaints there. :D

The reason why sfx1999 only scored 54 frames/second is that he cranked the rez (1024*768 ) and I'm also guessing the graphics are cranked to full, and he also has a Geforce 4 TI 4200 (Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking that card, it's a good card, IMO it's one of nvidia's best cards. I'd rather get that than a fx5600 anyday. ;) )

Stick with ATI for HL2. HL2 is optimized for ATI cards.

Re: How much would this cost?
 

one question to you hardware freaks: do you know what is currently the best motherboard with integrated graphics ? graphically speaking I mean. I know, I know, onboard gfx sucks a lot, but my woodputer won't let me put a normal card cos it won't fit in.

Currently I have a K7N2G (with integrated GeForce 4 MX) but it's beginning to be the very low end for most games today. I'm thinking about upgrading for christmas, anyway I'd probably need a newer one for HL2. If you know a good one, I'm all ears.

Re: How much would this cost?
 

Shouldn't this be posted in a new thread? :D

Oh, and all I know is that Via apparently has a chipset called KM400 for AMD systems. It features an integrated S3 gfx chip, but I just didn't find a nice review where you could see it in comparison with the other onboard solutions. Besides, most mainboards with this chipset are micro-ATX, if that matters for you. Most, but not all.
If you would also buy an Intel system, Via has the same gfx chip in some northbridges for Intel systems, too, but on the Intel market there is more competition. I would be surprised if SiS didn't have some kind of onboard gfx as well, not to mention Intel themselves.
Maybe I'll find some reviews, but it's almost midnight now and I gotta work tomorrow...

Re: How much would this cost?
 

???:( ok first things first onboard grfx sucks :P

and secondly if your getting a new mobo then wouldnt u be able to get a graficks card?

Re: How much would this cost?
 

firewire is a must.

USB will be replaced by it soon. thier never going to finish the USB2 project.

Re: How much would this cost?
 

if anyones intressted.. this is an upgrade i have kept my eye on for some time..
i cant afford it right now.. but hopefully soon..
in US $ i guess it would cost around 350$

• 300492 - AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 2.0 GHz Socket 754, 512 KB cache, BOXED
• 117212 - Corsair Value S. PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB Unbuffered, Non-parity, 64Megx64, CL2.5
• 300671 - EPoX EP-8KDA3J Moderkort för Socket 754 nForce3 250GB,SATA,GbLAN,ATX,Ljud

i still need some kind of box.. tower.. to put it in.. another 100$

Re: How much would this cost?
 

Because of this:
If you haven't seen his woodputer, check the "show me your desk" thread...

I am yet to see many things that can be plugged into a PC (except for some video cameras) which absolutely need FW instead of USB. However, when I look around, I see:
USB digicams,
USB printers,
USB memory sticks,
USB scanners,
USB card readers,
USB christmas trees (no joke!),
USB keyboards,
USB mice,
USB trackballs,
USB modems,
USB external hard disks,
USB external CD burners,
USB webcams,
and more...
Don't forget that there are many devices which don't take advantage of any performance gain offered by possible future ports simply because they don't require high bandwidth etc. (be it a possible USB 2 or a future FW version). Take the accessories Nr.1+2 for a PC: keyboards and mice. Heck, you don't even have any performance gain from PS/2 to USB! In fact, I could use an old AT mainboard, plug my keyboard into it (via a USB->PS/2 adapter, which came with my KB) and a PS/2->AT adapter, and I wouldn't see any difference.
USB is so established now that it won't die quickly. It won't be replaced soon. Look at up-to-date MoBos: Most of them still feature PS/2, parallel and serial ports - simply because these ports are established and you get loads of stuff that connects to them (and which doesn't need any faster / better ports), whereas boards which discard all legacy ports (like the Abit MAX series) are the absolute exception. I would guess that MoBos in 2 or 3 years will still come equipped with USB ports. Maybe FireWire will have made its way to a further standard port by then instead of an optional addition, which it is now. You can get many mainboards w/o FW, but try getting one w/o USB... and that's for a reason.
I bet the industry said the same about parallel and serial when USB came out... "they will be replaced by USB". But there just were so many parallel and serial devices on the market, and the actual benefits from upgrading to USB were so small in many cases (not to mention inconveniences related to USB that didn't occur with legacy ports), that those legacy ports lasted until today - and they will live for some more years. So will USB.
Plus, even if you were to keep your PC for a long time, and even if you were eventually forced to add some FireWire ports, you could walk into a shop anytime and buy an add-in card for 20 bucks (possibly less if and when FW becomes more widely used).
I would only get a MoBo with FW if I were sure to use any FW device in the near future or if the board came equipped with FW anyway, and still were reasonably priced.

Re: How much would this cost?
 

Heyyo,

I think USB will be around for a long time. no worries there. Heck, firewire's older than USB2, and I only know a few people who use firewire... it's less popular right now.

N' I saw your computer PMB, very classy man, I like. But have you thought aboot maybe getting a larger wooden suitcase with wheels for your conveinience? (lol, however you spell that word. stupid gharmmar... :P ) Cause if you did that then you could get a beast of a card. I suggest not a pci-express, cause I heard they're not much better than an ATI Radeon 9800 pro...

N' I've searched for some intergrated graphics benchmarks, and as usual, I found a good one at tom's hardware guide: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...aphics-14.html

I diddn't know they made 9800's as ingergrated graphics... ya learn somethin' new every day I guess. ;)

[EDIt]
Oh nevermind... I just can't read. 9800 is not intergrated... stupid words. :P

Re: How much would this cost?
 

yes i only use firewire on my external HD. but usb2 will never be finished and USB will be replaced by firewire believe me everyday at work i see more and more firewire products theres even a new mouse out with firewire(not sure of the mouse i think i have seen it)

Re: How much would this cost?
 

LOL, why'd you full-quote my whole sermon? Better just write "@ T Wrecks", it helps to have more than 3 posts per page... :D

And I still think USB 2.0 will last a pretty long time, for the reasons I mentioned, but we shall see... in the end, only time will tell.
Maybe a wireless connection like Bluetooth will spoil both szenarios and replace USB and FireWire in the not-too-far future? It's hard to predict, especially since it's not always the best solution that becomes a standard (remember betamax / video 2000 / VHS ?)... :(