This game is truly amazing!

[Druadic]

Dr, this is NOT a bad setup! But, get a 500MHz pentium II NOT A III. Or go for the AMD Thunderbird series! GREAT slot A chip, but you need a new board.

As for me, I have an AMD Athlon Thunderbird at 900MHz, 512MB of RAM, an ATI Rage Fury with 32MB of memory, TWO hard disks: One Maxtor at 8 gig and one Western Digital at 13.5 gig (any larger is truly a pain to clean the free space), an Acer View 56L 17 in monitor and a new Xoom v92 modem running at 115,000 baud. Yeah, a fast system but I saved my money like the dickens since I wanted to play Thief so bad - Oh, before I forget, I also have a Creative Labs X-Gamer Live! sound card which I got on sale at Best Buy for $79. GREAT CARD.

But Dr O, your memory is perfect; 196 MB is MORE than enough! As for VooDoo 2, I had the Creative Labs one and it was good. But, it was time to goto an ATI Rage Fury 128 with 32MB. It cost me only $79 on Ebay. Check there for great prices even if they are not boxed. Most of them are OEM which are refurbished or just have no packaging. You get the driver disk CD with the manual and graphic card. A great deal. Why go with the ATI Rage Fury 128? Simple; the Rage Fury Maxx overheats something fierce on my system and I have 5 fans in this puppy! The ATI Rage Fury 128 has a small heatsink and WILL NOT over heat. You do NOT need more than 32MB of memory for ANY GAME. Turst me, you don't need anything higher for the next three years EASY.
Also look for a 500MHz Pentium II for about $70. That's cheap too. Just watch feedback ratings on Ebay - funny, I bought 90% of my system from there!!! No joking and everything works. My 512MB of memory was only $200 even!

Personally, if I was looking to update my system for cheap (I'm not saying you are, but people like to save moola!) then I'd look for the following:

1. Processor: AMD Thunderbird Slot A OR Pentium II Slot A at 500MHz or higher.
2. Creative Labs LIVE! Sound Card series (most stable).
3. Memory: You're fine here! 196MB is MORE than enough!
4. Windows 98 THIRD EDITION or higher (I use the THIRD edition and it's stable!)
5. OR you can port over to Linux 7.1 or higher which now runs Windows proggies
AND GAMES. Yes! Finally it does!!! I'm going that route.

All these are JUST OPTIONS, but the best way to update is to figure out how high your motherboard will allow the processor to go. You should have the manual for the MB and see there. If it goes to 500MHz, I HIGHLY suggest you do so - fork out a little "extra" cash on Ebay and see what I mean. Watch for the people that have HIGH feedback ratings and NO negatives. You can get a great deal then. If your MB CAN take a 500MHz Pentium II slot a processor then go for it. As for the graphic cards, stay away from DDR. Right now (I'm not saying this card is garbage so just give me a sec to explain) it's in the BETA stages and yet the companies are pushing them. Stay away from them just for a year or so as they have a few "kinks" to get out of them. Go after ATI cards as they are EXTREMELY stable. DO NOT BUY an ATI card from Best Buy. They'll rip you off. Goto Ebay and look for one. You CAN email me if you wish to have help on what to buy and find that best will suit your system to YOUR specs. Buy what YOU LIKE, not from what I said. Each person has a different preference and that is important! You can post here again and I'll recieve an email saying that you posted here. Yeah, I like to watch this section just to see what other have to say.

Lastly, I WILL NOT slam anyone about what they use. I can really say though with my system I have NO PROBLEMS. I've heard ALOT of problems with socket a and Intel Pentium IV processors so I have NO IDEA what is going on but that does NOT make them bad!!!

BEFORE I FORGET: This is a kicker - I use the OLDEST MOTHERBOARD CHIPSET! The AI61 by Microstar. It's so stable that the new boards look like (nevermind). If you decide to upgrade to an AMD then use the AI61 - you can get one at Aberdeen for a measly $80 NEW! LOTS OF SLOTS TOO! I think it has 7 PCI and one AGP port but it only runs 2x AGP speed - very slow. But with ALL my games I've NEVER had a prob!

You have a GOOD setup pal! Just update it piece by piece like I did. It's all worth the money. Take YOUR TIME to buy and look and watch. Everyone online waits and watches for good deals on Ebay, Yahoo and the like. I have to go, but post and I'll get the email! Please feel free to write to me anytime folks! I want to hear what systems you all have! It's fun to learn new things!!!

Sincerely;
Druadic

[Sazerac]

bump up...

-Sazerac