spiralstairs September 2, 2004 Share spiralstairs Member September 2, 2004 Aright, so I've pretty much missed out on the past 4 or 5 years of PC gaming (CS is pretty much the only thing I would play) but now that I've got a machine to be reckoned with (3.2 ghz, 2gb kingston, x800 pro vivo) I want to see what I've been missing. So, recommend me the best of the bunch outta the last few years please. -noah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiralstairs September 2, 2004 Author Share spiralstairs Member September 2, 2004 Oh and I'd like to add a question to this thread... Is there anything I should do now while its completely fresh outta the box (cept for installin steam, winzip, and musicmatch jukebox so far). What is the typical protocol for a new computer? And while we're at it... will I be able to overclock my x800 pro vivo to 16 pipelines??? -noah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r September 2, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member September 2, 2004 BF:V is where im at. 1280x1024, 4aa/8af High qualtiy pretty much the best looking multi-player evar, and pretty fun too. King of the hill with that setup is Farcry, it doesn't get any better yet. Nice setup, almost identical to mine. Pretty much BF:V, Farcry, UT2K4 are the best looking new games, and you will be able to play those at pretty much any settings you want. I play all D3D games except cs and use 4aa/8af high quality for all of them. Most i play in are 1280x1024 also, games like BF1942 and lower you can throw on 1600x1200 no sweat. I would install a benchmark and make sure its performing right before i installed everything else. Thats always my first step just to be sure everything is setup right and ready for games. Use 3dmark01 or 03. ATITOOL for the x800 overclocking (google search it). To get to 16 pipes you need a bios flash, and that's not something i'm gonna tell you how to do, because its risky. Just oc it with the ATITOOL and be happy, later if you want to learn to flash a bios and get in that deep thats cool, but not yet ATITOOL also has a built in Overclocker, it does the work for you to find the max settings. Its not perfect, but it gets pretty close, i recommend it highly. Enjoy noah, thats a sweet rig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gOOters September 2, 2004 Share gOOters Member September 2, 2004 yeah, BF multiplayer (or even single player) will give your new comp a good warm up...congrats!!! Try Far Cry as well...and of course Doom III. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zerodamage September 2, 2004 Share Guest zerodamage Guests September 2, 2004 (edited) I first need to know what type of VIVO card that you have. Another, you want SP2 for Windows XP. Another, make sure you have the latest drivers for your video. Another, visit www.blackviper.com and look at his services tweak guide for XP since I think that is what you are using. Make sure that dispite what his site says, you need DCOM service running. This is what I have running for services. I put on Manual that Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extension. and disabled Windows Image Acquisition. If you scanner stops working, just put it on Manual. Edited September 2, 2004 by zerodamage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zerodamage September 2, 2004 Share Guest zerodamage Guests September 2, 2004 Let me add a couple of things. Defrag a lot. It does help. Then use TweakXP which can be found at www.driverheaven.net You will see the link on the left. It does help a lot. Also, on the list above... I edited it, look under it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiralstairs September 6, 2004 Author Share spiralstairs Member September 6, 2004 Thanks AK. Good call on telling me stay away from flashin my BIOS. You obviously picked up on the fact I dont know much about computers. I was only going to try to get it to 16 pipelines if it was something I could do safely. Got the Farcry demo just now, it looks gorgeous. The water, oh my... My 20 year old brother came into my room while I was playing it, and he is NOT into computer games at all. and he just said, "whoa, that looks %(#)$ sick." I let em try it for a sec, and he ended up playing the entire demo for about an hour until he could beat it. I wish i wouldve bought that instead of Doom 3...cant believe i spent 60 bucks on a really nice tech demo... Thanks ZD for all that info and trying to help out a computer nub. I first need to know what type of VIVO card that you have. Ati Radeon Sapphire x800 pro vivo. Another, you want SP2 for Windows XP. yeah, i dont have this installed yet. but there is a windows update i got today that is trying to install SP2. should i? are there no downsides to it? what exactly will it help? Another, make sure you have the latest drivers for your video. Went to the ATI site. Guess I should download Catalyst 4.8? It says I gotta have Microsoft’s .NET Version 1.1 Framework installed. What the heck is that? Is that built in to XP? I've never messed around with TweakXP. I guess I should? Does it really make a big difference in performance? And yeah, I try to defrag a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gond September 6, 2004 Share Gond Member September 6, 2004 Yes, install SP2. It fixes lots of holes & adds a free personal firewall. It will take hackers at least another 3 days to find the hole it in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiralstairs September 8, 2004 Author Share spiralstairs Member September 8, 2004 ATITOOL for the x800 overclocking (google search it whoa, this vastly improved my performance. farcry plays sooo much smoother now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zerodamage September 8, 2004 Share Guest zerodamage Guests September 8, 2004 Flashing that card's bios should not be hard. I would recommend however that you do some research on it. Go to www.rage3d.com and into their forums, there is one for Overclocking under the ATI section and a big old thread about X800 pro to XT. Most of those that have been modded are Saphire Vivo cards. GOod luck and avoid it if you do not think you can do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar September 8, 2004 Share Crowbar Member September 8, 2004 IMPORTANT: make sure you've got Norton Antivirus, or an equivilent AV program installed. I would also recommend a couple shareware programs such as the two I use: Spyware Doctor and Ad-Aware. Run both those programs once or twice a week to clean out any adware and spyware you get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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