Computer thrills and chills...

[Ilander]

Well, here's hoping a new RPG comes out soon, because I finally have a computer that I feel like can truly run Oblivion properly...

My motherboard went out, and I just couldn't make myself get it repaired...so, I scraped together money by selling my old RAM, and got a new one...

Then, while on vacation in Sacramento, CA, I visited Fry's Electronics for the first time in my life...and they had the processor I'd been pining for at nearly $50 below online price....

Finally, I upgraded my graphics card yesterday...selling the old processor, two hard drives, and a RAID card should pretty much pay for that.

So, I've really only netted buying the processor!

Anyway, I learned a lot, so here's some advice for you all who may be doing the same:

1. The HD 2600XT is a great graphics card...don't listen to the reviews, because the latest drivers make them great value-cards.
2. Dual core processors are nice for some programs, but you won't notice a difference on everything.
3. Try to avoid buying from Micro-Star International (MSI). They made my motherboard and graphics card, but really. They're a terrible company. If I wasn't so cheap, I'd have gone with a different company.
4. 1 GB of RAM is enough to run Oblivion...on faster components.
5. The average user really doesn't need RAID 5...or even RAID 0.
6. High performance components will heat up your house...new, mid-level components won't.
7. If you have the budget, a larger heatsink/fan for your processor that runs at a slower RPM reduces noise by a noticeable margin.

So, maybe more to come, but feel free to add your wisdom to mine.

Oh, and Hosscat (my computer) has new stats:

Processor: e4300 intel
Graphics: HD 2600XT (from MSI) 256MB DDR4
Only 2 (instead of 4) 250 GB hard drives.
DDR2 800 motherboard (from MSI :sign0186
Cobalt-blue painted Eagle-Tech Server case I've had for three years.
550 W power supply that is a bit excessive.

[Kynaeus]

Looks like an awesome computer and btw, have you bought Oblivion yet? I bought it awhile ago and I hate it, so my copy is just collecting dust if you want it.

[Ilander]

I actually originally built Hosscat (revision 1) for the purpose of playing Oblivion school, with the stats of 3.0 Ghz Pentium 4, DDR 400 mobo, 500GB RAID 5 array, and an X800 GTO graphics card...so, I "beat" Oblivion in 2006.

I pick it up sometimes...now that my system is better, I can actually turn on grass, which is nice.

I liked it, though.

I also wish I'd made sure my motherboard was quad-core capable, but dual-cores still have a lot of upgrade room.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Mine is over 3.5 years old and still working fine. I did upgrade to 1gig of ram and 1 better graphics card. I still the AMD Athlon 2500+ Barton in there and I'm doing fine.
Of course, most of my games are older, since the new ones just doing seem to interest me.

[Thoran]

When I lived in Cali it was Fry's that kept me perpetually poor (there was one right down the street from the plant I worked in). I LOVED that place.

[Bungleau]

Fry's... the candy store for geeks...

[Ilander]

I was utterly amazed that there could exist a store that didn't completely shaft me on electronics prices...though, their graphics cards were a bit high.

[Trogdor]

What brand is your power supply? You might want to beef that up a bit

And I have always had the same opinion about MSI, cheap cheap cheap, and you get what you pay for

[Ilander]

I have a 550 watt SunbeamTech NUUO...it was SLI certified back when people were SLIing GeForce 7800s...It's modular, and I think it has 38 amps combined on the twelve volt rails...it's not without problems, and next time, I think I'm going to go for something better, but my system just sips power these days...It actually, at peak, uses just under what it did before my upgrades.

So, here's the brands that I believe in...am I wrong?

mobo: Abit, ASUS, Foxconn, Intel
RAM: Patriot, OCZ, Corsair, GeIL
VideoCard: Sapphire, BFG, EVGA, ATI, XFX
PSU: OCZ, FortronSource, PCPowerandCooling, Mushkin