upgrade

I met some wonderfull people lastnight, but due to the slow animations they were alot of steps ahead of me.

With my stats as it is now.
Compag Presario Sr 1115cl
512 mb pc 2700 ddr, memory
120 gig hrd drv
realtec onboard card.
128 geforce pci 4


To
1 gig memory ddr
256 meg ram for the card will this improve my ablility to act at the same speed as the other players?
It's hard to drink, type and do a gesture on the speed I was getting lastnight. We had fun, but it was like being in a dream world where everything was slo mo.

I am going to try the wiki performance changes now.

Also too, one member who has been here for two years said after this upgrade anyone who doesn't meet the requirements will not be able to log on. If this is so. Then if this is the case, I will have to move on.

Upgrading ram to min 1024 helps for SL, but consider your cpu to, cause SL will want that alot more then a vid card, ok so gforce 4 isnt exactly new, so it'll help some with a new card.

Sl recommendations ;
Cpu > 3ghz+
ram > 1024+
vidcard > Nvidia 6-7xxx

ok so Ati do work but i wouldnt really get one for SL

I can't afford a new computer atm . To upgrade the ram is and the card is about all I can afford.

I did contact compaq and they showed me how to max out the vid cards onboard memory. To pyschically change I found out that is not possible. I have to swap out the card completley. Will these upgrades give me enough response time to intereact with the other people here? I see that interaction is a big part of this world. More than text.

if i get the geforce 6200 chip set would that improve performance? till I get that 512 to double up the ram? Sams club has it in stock where i live.

Given that you are running PC2700 RAM on a Compaq machine, I am going to assume that you are running a 400MHz FSB Celeron.

The 400MHz FSB Celeron processors (correct me if I am wrong) only had a 128KB L2 Cache.

That cache memory can and will hurt your performance in many things. Also, the FSB (Front-Side Bus) speed is quite low.

Now I may be wrong on this, but bear with me here.

Compaq is notorious (as are many other computer manufacturers) at selling something with "good" specs (at least the ones everyone pays attention to) but bad specs where everyone dosent pay any attention.

My guess is that even with a processor upgrade, the most you can do is a P4 3.06Ghz at 533MHz FSB (which is where I am now). Now, I know that as of 1 year ago, there was an extreme shortage of P4 3.06 GHz 533MHz FSB processors available. This was also near the end of the 533MHz P4's lifespan. My guess is that you might have some trouble finding a processor for that board now, at least finding a new one with its orignal 3-year warranty would be difficult.

Now, here is my suggestion, because I am in a similar boat to you, only I have upgraded my system to the max of what it allows. Save your money. Build a new computer. Use AMD. Make sure that the board you choose is capable to run future upgrades. Again, in case I wasnt clear to everyone who will probably moan and complain about me suggesting a new computer: you will not see amazing performance increases with your current equipment (unless I am wrong and you have a board that can support 800MHz FSB). Yes, you will see increases, but they will not be "Earth-shattering".

Now, of course you could just replace components from your old PC, but lets look at the big picture here: If you go with this route, which is completely up to you, you will have to replace your motherboard, ram, processor, heatsink, possibly your power supply, video card, probably add a new chasis that is thermally-advantaged. Wow! You have just replaced almost everything in your computer... might as well splurge and buy a SATA 2 HDD as well.

lastly, the whole reason I made this long winded post: Your AGP 8x 6200 will not work in a new board, everything is going PCI-E now. Dont throw away your hard-earned money like that!

Sorry if the whole message was overworded and blunt, but I think it needs to be in this situation. I have been in a situation that your current situation reminds me of very much for the last 2 years, I dont wish it on anyone, no need to spend your cash on what will only get you so far, when you can do more with only a slight little bit more money.

While its true that the compaq does run 333 mhz fsb. and its true soon everything will be pci-e. What is not true is I don't have the money right now to upgrade or even build a new comp. Bills have to come first. my kid second, so you see that is not at this point an option.

I did buy an agp card for $100 bucks. It lets me type faster, which is important to communicate here. I am sure in a couple of years even the newest of systems will be obsolete with the demand for higher graphics, higher download and upload times for newer games and role player sims. There is a huge market right now for virtual worlds and realities. If going to another system is the demand for playing second life, then I don't think I will do it. I know the design of this game is very demanding on the loadups and resources and the cache. At least from the times I have been on here. I will continue to see how the playing goes. I am getting to know some of the toons here, and have had some good times even with the slower fps and the slo typing. I never was a beliver in upgrading to or buying a new system to just play one game or sim. I hope to see one day where virtual realty is more than a computer driven world and more like in the movies of Logan's run.

Since installing the ati agp 9550 I see the typing is more faster which to me at this stage is the best improvement I can get to talk to the players. I am having an issue witht the card shutting down my monitor. I will have to call up and find out why that is happening. I wish the card had a fan attached too it.

most of the times those little dinky el cheapo fans die out in a matter of a few months, and since your still sending juice to a seized motor all your doing is adding heat. if your woried about it either try one of those pci slot blowers (to suck the air off the heatsink) or maby another case fan, if you have the hole for it

A suggestion. All you folks who have just upgraded or rebuilt new systems. Maybe you might want to sell the old one to cyg for a nominal price? Or if they aren't complete systems, just post all the components that you have lying around. Might be able to put up some sort of SL frankenstein monster rig?

lol thanks I do appreciate that comment.

I went out and picked up an nvidia 6200 agp with 256 overclocked at 400 mhz. If this shuts down then I will get me one of those fans. Nice thing about this bios it show the temperature of the cpu and onboard mother. It says they are running around 72 degress. I will give them a test tonight at that irish bar. I am realing digging that celtic music.

70 celcius is the recomended do not go over mark on amd cpu's i would imagine intel's are about the same, most modern chips hang around the 30-50 mark

usually if you remove the fan off the cpu heatsink there clogged up with dust and funk, thus cutting off the air flow... thats usually the first place to check if you have heat issues

make shure theres not alot of wire clutter in the way from the front bottom of the case to the top back. PCI slot blowers help, but if you have the hole the box fan is usually the best (some tard when making the agp spec decided that heat doesnt rise, and thus your video card is backwards, the extra case fan happens to suck the air off the cpu, chipset and the back of the video card at once)

if you do get another fan to help out, make shure its blowing out the back of the pc

dont go fan nuts if theres an honest problem, also consider your power supply, fans are right next to hard drives and cd drives on wattage draw + if you get "consumer"grade ones they tend to be LOUD ... in a perfect world you want the largest fan you can get with the lowest rpm (high airflow and no wine, blade design deals with that but noo need to go into that) my macintosh for example generates more heat than my pc and its cooled by 1 120mm industrial grade fan (jameco.com) that you cant hear over the hard drive...

get some canned air blow out anything near a fan, make shure theres no dust clogging stuff up if you reused old parts, again heatsinks will require the removal of the fan (no biggie just a phillips head screw driver and 4 screws) if you live with a smoker you might need a toothbrush to remove the funk (dont use the toothbrush afterwards)

Lastly make shure your fans arnt burning out, they should be able to spin quite freely with just the flick of a finger, if they dont make it past 1 revolution your sucking down wattage and inducing heat, eventho they might not be completly stuck, a brand new fan with little finger effort will spin atleast a half dozen times