Tomorrow I'll put my hands on my dad's new shiny PC!

[Guden Oden]

Yeah the Winamp/iTunes/WMP visualisation always really ticked me off, i mean how hard can it be to make some GPU dependant visiualisations?

There ARE many good D3D/OGL plugs to be found, I never really bothered tho because they all get repetetive after a while. AVS in the hands of the right preset author can do GORGEOUS things even though it requires mad CPU to run smoothly at any decent res. I still forgive it tho... Put it on random at 40 second intervals, with a couple hundred/thousand presets... Endless variation.

Unknown,
DDR2 is 400MHz , but hey, can't be any worse than the DRDRAM I got in my own box. I'd change the gfx card too btw, but it's not my box and I don't have any money to upgrade his system! It's perfect for teh dad tho, it does everything he needs to and a lot more besides. Some day I might be able to get a 6600GT or something like that to stick in that PCIe slot tho, that would really rock!

The audio is Intel's Azaela HD whatsitscalled thing built into the southbridge. CPU-driven, I know, but it's good enough for teh dad, and for me when I come visit him! And less hassle with drivers n shit too I might add, which is a plus in this case.

19" is Dell, either 1901 or 1905 I think, I'm not quite sure which one. Not sure response time either since I don't know the model, but definitely fast enough, for me anyway. I gamed and watched DVDs on a Dell 1701 from 2001, I had no problems at all. Have NOOO idea what response time it was on that panel...

 

[London Geezer]

Yeah the Winamp/iTunes/WMP visualisation always really ticked me off, i mean how hard can it be to make some GPU dependant visiualisations?

There ARE many good D3D/OGL plugs to be found, I never really bothered tho because they all get repetetive after a while. AVS in the hands of the right preset author can do GORGEOUS things even though it requires mad CPU to run smoothly at any decent res. I still forgive it tho... Put it on random at 40 second intervals, with a couple hundred/thousand presets... Endless variation.

I know but just imagine, today's GPUs can throw around tens of millions of polygons per second easily, especially when that's all the system is doing do (not a game situation).
There is so much potential...

 

[Unknown Soldier]

The 400Mhz is fine .. especially for the 3Ghz CPU. I was suprised to see the DDR2 though and that's why asked for the speed. Usually the 3Ghz takes 400Mhz DDR .. and not DDR2. You sure it's DDR2?

You swopped the X300?? What did you replace it with .. and what did you do to the X300??

Intel has a 7.1?? Wow .. didn't know that. Then again it's nice that it's onboard like you said. Less driver hassles.

I so much want a LCD .. just can't afford it here atm(too bloody expensive).

US <-- Off for the weekend .. might pop in tomorrow though. Have a great weekend B3D and patriots

 

[Moloch]

Unknown,
Like I said, I'm not interested in your silly childish posturing. You want to obsess in a fanish fashion over irrelevant details then go bother someone who gives a damn about such things. I don't, so stop pooping on my thread. And that goes for Radeonic too, I might add.

Thanks!

Whatever
You can't laugh at peoples mistakes?
The fact of the matter is that amd has had a much more sucessfull die shrink.
If you and your intel buddies wanna deny that, go right ahead, but sooner or later you're realize the truth.

 

[Guden Oden]

The fact of the matter is that amd has had a much more sucessfull die shrink.

Why... Would... I... CARE... About... The... God-damn... Die-shrink... You... Friggin... Loonie?

It's not even my computer for frick's sake!

The processor is just there to run program code. It doesn't matter to me who made it or how well the die-shrink went. I don't even care how much power it draws, I'm typing on a Prescott core P4 right now and I can barely hear the system! It's quieter than a whisper, the taps from my fingers hitting the keyboard keys is several times louder than the cooling fan...

Do you understand now why this is all irrelevant bullshit? You're arguing a point that is COMPLETELY moot. It's not a matter of me and "my intel buddies", I don't HAVE any intel buddies. My dad bought this pooter because Dell makes high quality shit at a good price. He got a really great system for not that much money, comparatively speaking (just over SKR10.000). Well, apart from this lame-ass graphics card in it of course... OMG, 64-bit Radeon X300... OMG. Still, even you couldn't blame THAT on Intel!

Just FYI, the CPUs in my own PCs have been: AMD, AMD, Intel
Mobo chipsets: Intel, VIA, Intel
3D graphics: PowerVR, ATi, Nvidia, ATi
Gaming consoles: Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Sony, Nintendo

As you can see, I don't have any fanb0y tendencies whatsoever (apart from consoles perhaps ). I pick that which offers the best performance and features at the moment at the price I can afford. Now, are you QUITE finished with this silly discussion?

 

[Guden Oden]

You sure it's DDR2?

Yea, it's DDR2 alright...

You swopped the X300??

Unfortunately no. I have nothing to swap it with! If there had been an AGP slot in this box I'd brought my own R9800Pro, but there isn't one. And the X300 is a 64-bit model too, geez FFS, etc. I noticed that immediately upon opening up the box. I can only hope it's 128MB of on-board memory at least and not 64...

Intel has a 7.1??

Yea, the latest southbridge offers that. It even has dolby digital encoding in realtime like Nforce soundstorm, but it's not hardware-driven. Eats up a fair chunk o CPU. Still, doesn't matter with this box coz there is no SPDIF out on the backplane, only analog outputs from what I can tell. His speakers are standard 2.1 stereo + sub too btw; he doesn't need realtime DD.

I so much want a LCD .. just can't afford it here atm(too bloody expensive).

Ohh, this flatpanel is DIVINE... "Only" 1280 res, but MWAAHH, I love it! Very bright, very good contrast, USB hub built right in too, I must get one of these for myself.

I knew this computer would be well-made btw. Dell stuff always is. The Dimension 5000 takes things into the next level however with neato solutions for everything. The case is a mid-tower laid out according to the new BTX standard, and has four expansion slots. 1 PCIe16x, 2 regular PCI, 1 PCIe1x. Screwless drivecages for 2 SATA, 2 opticals + 1 floppy or flashcard reader. The cable management in this box is SUPERB. Power and signal cables are routed very very neatly around the system using clips to attach them to various points inside the case, and there is a power connector routed to each device pointed right where it's needed.

Top marks!

One drawback tho, apart from lameo graphics card: keyboard has NO MULTIMEDIA KEYS... I love those. In all tho; amazing PC. Very very nice. Super quiet too.

 

[digitalwanderer]

The fact of the matter is that amd has had a much more sucessfull die shrink.

Why... Would... I... CARE... About... The... God-damn... Die-shrink... You... Friggin... Loonie?

It's not even my computer for frick's sake!

The processor is just there to run program code. It doesn't matter to me who made it or how well the die-shrink went. I don't even care how much power it draws, I'm typing on a Prescott core P4 right now and I can barely hear the system! It's quieter than a whisper, the taps from my fingers hitting the keyboard keys is several times louder than the cooling fan...

Do you understand now why this is all irrelevant bullshit? You're arguing a point that is COMPLETELY moot. It's not a matter of me and "my intel buddies", I don't HAVE any intel buddies. My dad bought this pooter because Dell makes high quality shit at a good price. He got a really great system for not that much money, comparatively speaking (just over SKR10.000). Well, apart from this lame-ass graphics card in it of course... OMG, 64-bit Radeon X300... OMG. Still, even you couldn't blame THAT on Intel!

Just FYI, the CPUs in my own PCs have been: AMD, AMD, Intel
Mobo chipsets: Intel, VIA, Intel
3D graphics: PowerVR, ATi, Nvidia, ATi
Gaming consoles: Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Sony, Nintendo

As you can see, I don't have any fanb0y tendencies whatsoever (apart from consoles perhaps ). I pick that which offers the best performance and features at the moment at the price I can afford. Now, are you QUITE finished with this silly discussion?

Almost, I just wanted to add that AMD rules!

/me runs away laughing!

 

[Guden Oden]

Almost, I just wanted to add that AMD rules!

/me runs away laughing!

You're right! AMD DOES rule! So does Intel. They BOTH RULE, that's what's so great now... Two CPU manufacturers to choose from that does not suck. Well, Intel is more expensive of course, but that's always been the case. And they don't support x86-64 either yet, but as there is no 64-bit XP either (coincidence...? NAAH, can't be! ), it doesn't really matter for most people.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Pfffft, it's all good as long as they game for ya. 8)

Have you tried anything on it yet? Gamewise or benchmarkwise? If you could run 3dm2k1se I'd appreciate it....

 

[Guden Oden]

I haven't tested anything yet, no... I am in the process of configuring it so it's useable by other people than total n00bs like my dad.

He's one of those people who squints at the screen, lowers his glasses and squints more, then emits sounds of frustration and annoyance as soon as a window unexpectedly pops up on the screen, squints to read it, then saves the file he's about to download right on the desktop.

Whenever I come to visit, I find something new polluting his desktop, some program update, an archive program, etc... I've told him to use the download folder I created for him, but he's an old dog... Well, at least he knows how to program a VCR, and he can use the car computer to check the mileage, temperature etc, so he's not inept with technical stuff.

 

[Guden Oden]

Ok, 3DMk 01 score = 6768... Pretty miserable, but still not completely crap I suppose, considering the crippling 64-bit bus. With 128-bit, I guess it could have done well over 8000 considering my old GF3 could do that much, and that was years ago.

Btw, this is with the quality slider one step away from "crappiest possible" and the AI option set to its most aggressive. I guess slightly older games could be quite playable in 640 res. Wolfenstein should fly, for example.

And Winamp was a total success, btw. When using AVS in docked mode to the default modern skin, the FPS counter shot up to well over 150FPS (hovering around 160-170, peaking higher) when "wait for retrace" and pixel doubling modes were disabled. It didn't even use 100% CPU to accomplish those figures I might add...

Fullscreen tho was LOTS slower as usual. 400*300 is crazy doable with FPS in the 70+ range (generally too fast for most presets). 512 seems to be the sweet-spot, 640 is sluggish, around 25-30. Enabling 2-thread mode doesn't seem to do anything except use more CPU on the second hyperthread-CPU, so I keep that disabled.

 

[Guden Oden]

Ok, back home in front of my old crappy PC again... That Dell was a dream to use, it ran MAME like a sonofabitch, Killer Instinct @ a perfect 60fps no matter what, and in fact updating at 150+ FPS with the speedbrake disabled. Yum...

Prescott seems to be a badass CPU for emulation, I like lots!

 

[Moloch]

You're a riot.
You don't care because intel isn't doing well
I'll stop pointing out the flaws if the prescot, since you don't want to hear them it would seem.
But to stop bashing intel for a moment, that 3dmark score is.. comparable to my 8500 on a 2500+

 

[Guden Oden]

No man, you're the riot here, not me. Like I already TOLD you, I don't give a shit who makes my CPU as long as it's fast and has all the features I want. AMD is adding SSE3, Intel is adding x86-64, when those chips are out on the market it doesn''t matter to me which one I get. They'll both kick ass and take names in any system I care to build.

You however go by brand loyalty, which is always stupid because it's not based on anything located in the realm of rational thinking. I once thought like you did as well, and then I got a clue. You should try that too you know.

And the low 3dmark score is of course due to the el-cheapo ATi graphics card, not anything Intel-related, but even a 'tard should be able to understand that... In fact, anything that was Intel-related, ie CPU/chipset/memory related gave wonderful, fantastic performance. My AVS and emulation FPS scores show that without a single doubt, in fact I'm very disappointed MAME isn't used more as a benchmark because lots of people are interested in retro emulation. Would be nice to see some comparisons between different systems methinks.