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"My new beast is up and running!"

Oh yes, the beast is born!

All parts arrived ontime and intact (thanks E***er) and so I set to the mammoth task of building her yesterday! :D Specs are as follows:

Athlon XP Barton 2800+
1024mb ddr pc2700 (Crucial RAM)
Leaktek 5600FX 256MB
Seagate Barracuda 60gig
GNR 17inch TFT
Windows XP Pro
Neon lighting, loads of fans and extra goodies besides...

Well, still got a few teething problems (monitor and floppy drive), but the system is up and running and in a fit state to play games, which is all that matters. :)

So, installed UT2003 last night, and the game automatically set video and details settings to maximum. Loaded up a tasty outdoor map and got fraggin'. Needless to say the game looks absolutely stunning and runs like a greased-up rat through a drain pipe. :D

And that's in standard spec...wait till I start tuning her...

3dMark results to come soon(ish).

Your video card is waaaay better than mine Adrian. I reckon my FX5600 must be the bottleneck in my system. Might well get a top of the range jobby at Christmas, see how if runs the likes of Half-Life 2 first. :)

Uncle Albert wrote:
> Hmm, well, I've run 3dmark2001se, and the results are as follows:
>
>
> 1024x768, 32bit colour, compressed textures, no FSAA...
>
>
> 10453 3d marks.
>
>
> It's oookaaaay, I 'spose. Was hoping for nearer 14000 though. :/
>
>
> (Still I'm sure it performs more favourably in 3dmark 2003, what the
> my gfx card's DX9 support. There's no way I'm downloading 177mb for it
> though.)

Yeah it is quite low. I get 15600 with my system which is nearly the same as yours. Got 1024mb PC3200(400mhz) RAM running in dual channel, but only actually runs at PC2700(333mhz) as its best to run memory in sync with the FSB on the CPU and as thats a XP2800 Barton (333mhz) I run my RAM at that speed. Also got a 128mb Radeon 9800 Pro and 2 x 120 Gb Maxtor 7200 rpm 8mb cache hard drives.

Wonder if i do 1280x 4x AA 2 x AF with a R9800..

Memorandum wrote:
> I envy my mate. He got a 9600 Pro, and can run UT2003 at 1024x768 32
> bit colour with 4xAA and 16xAF...
>
> *drools*
>
> And here I am stuck with my old 8500. :'(



I still find my old 8500 has plenty of poke for anything I want to do with it. 3DMark2003 brought it to its knees, but 3DMark2003 is an advanced, abstract, sloppily programmed series of rendered scenes that don't particularly reflect the games of today or tomorrow.

I'm considering upgrading in the middle future so I can run Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, but if I have to be completely honest I don't really want to play either game, and spending £200+ just so I can is not the way I buy PC hardware :O/

Uncle Albert wrote:
> 10453 3d marks.
>
>
> It's oookaaaay, I 'spose. Was hoping for nearer 14000 though. :/

If it's an FX5600 and not a 5600 Ultra then 10k was to be expected.

I envy my mate. He got a 9600 Pro, and can run UT2003 at 1024x768 32 bit colour with 4xAA and 16xAF...

*drools*

And here I am stuck with my old 8500. :'(

Can't wait to see how good image quality of these cards are, but i'll probably won't use AA so much.

Mate, if I hadn't been so blummin' impatient (Ebuyer were out of 9600's), I'd have a 9600 sat in my machine right now. :/

Lovely Radeons are still the best for AA :P

Hmm, well, I've run 3dmark2001se, and the results are as follows:


1024x768, 32bit colour, compressed textures, no FSAA...


10453 3d marks.


It's oookaaaay, I 'spose. Was hoping for nearer 14000 though. :/


(Still I'm sure it performs more favourably in 3dmark 2003, what the my gfx card's DX9 support. There's no way I'm downloading 177mb for it though.)