Upgrade itch-some sensible advice please. | Forums

[james_ander]

With the release of the x800, I have been considering doing some upgrades. I play:IL2 Aces, LOMAC, Falcon in probably that order. I have a Dell Dimension 4600 P4 2.8G, 800Mhz FSB, 1G PC3200 RAM (Cl=3) 9800 pro, living in an Antec Performance Plus case. From what I read, my 2.8 processor would hold me back from getting full FPS benefit in LOMAC and IL2. I have even considering upgrading the processor to a 3.2 (and waiting for the next round of graphics cards), though I would have to change the motherboard (b/c of Dell proprietary wierdness). Prices for the 3.2 seem to have gone down a lot lately. It would also be great to throw off the yoke of Dell opression and have a real mobo that lets me tinker as I see fit.

The sensible side of me says to wait until new sims (like BoB) require better hardware and save my money until then, rather than chasing modest performance gains right now. But if upgrading my processor or graphics card can result in some real world performance increases it might be worthwhile. Any thoughts?

Thank-you for the help

[james_ander]

With the release of the x800, I have been considering doing some upgrades. I play:IL2 Aces, LOMAC, Falcon in probably that order. I have a Dell Dimension 4600 P4 2.8G, 800Mhz FSB, 1G PC3200 RAM (Cl=3) 9800 pro, living in an Antec Performance Plus case. From what I read, my 2.8 processor would hold me back from getting full FPS benefit in LOMAC and IL2. I have even considering upgrading the processor to a 3.2 (and waiting for the next round of graphics cards), though I would have to change the motherboard (b/c of Dell proprietary wierdness). Prices for the 3.2 seem to have gone down a lot lately. It would also be great to throw off the yoke of Dell opression and have a real mobo that lets me tinker as I see fit.

The sensible side of me says to wait until new sims (like BoB) require better hardware and save my money until then, rather than chasing modest performance gains right now. But if upgrading my processor or graphics card can result in some real world performance increases it might be worthwhile. Any thoughts?

Thank-you for the help

[HH Quazi]

First of all, if your mobo came out with a 2.8GHz cpu, I'd bet it would support an upgrade to a 3.2GHz. Your 800MHz FSB is awesome for it to be a Dell. I just upgraded my Dell to the hilt, 2.4GHz to a 3.06GHz, SB Live to an Audigy 2, 9600XT to a 9800XT, and from 512MB ram to 1GB ram. The difference is mucking awesome m8. Really unbelievable. And I only have a 533MHz FSB. This is as maxed as my Dell 4550 can get. The jump I made in cpu's is what makes me think your current mobo could handle a 3.2GHz cpu. And with a 3.2GHz w/800MHz FSB, an X800 vid card should perform well. Good luck m8.


Undercover as a Sgt.

[james_ander]

Actually, I can't upgrade the processor with my current mobo. It uses a processor that looks very much like a mobile type processor and is not a typical 478 socket, according to the guy who assmebled my computer. He thinks that this particular processor had a very short production run and was some kind of deal between Intel and Dell to prevent people from doing exactly what I'm trying to do. But who knows...

[RvDijk | Baksteen72]

A lot has been said already on this forum about hardware and IL2, by people having much more knowledge about the subject than I do. Here's just my experience:

I just finished an upgrading round myself. A couple of months ago I traded my nVidia Ti4800 for an FX5900. I also switched from onboard sound to an Audigy2 sound card. And yesterday I increased RAM from 768MB to 1GB and swapped my AMD XP2400+ to an XP3000+. From these steps I can tell the following:

- RAM is important, but the step from 768 to 1GB was marginal w.r.t. IL2 performance
- a good sound card can boost performance significantly. On-board sound cards generally slow the system down too much.
- the video card upgrade didn't bring much at the time, showing that something else was the bottle neck in my system
- going from XP2400+ to XP3000+ made all the difference. Apparently, not everything in a graphically astounding game as IL2 can be taken over by the video card. With the new CPU, FPS increased 25-30%, which is more or less the increase in 'performance index' of the CPU (3000/2400).

I would say that on your system, you could expect the same when upgrading from 2.8 tot 3.2 GHz, i.e. some 15% FPS increase.
You didn't mention what kind of sound card you have, but I suspect you have on-board sound as well. If you would switch to an Audigy card you would win some more FPS.
And if the CPU upgrade requires you to swap the mobo as well, it sounds you're almost half-way towards a new system...

Just my 2 cents, hope it helps

AMD XP3000+ / 1 GB / FX5900 (53.03 driver) / 1152x864x32x100Hz / Audigy2

[fordfan25]

a 2.8 is still very fast right now youd prob be better off waiting awhile and then building a whole new system.by then the pci E boards will have cought on good and the 64bit cpus will be cheaper.

[Spectre-63]

James -

from what I'm seeing of your system specs, I don't see anything that's in obvious need of upgrading. On the other hand, if you've got money burning a hole in your pocket, there are some things that you could do.

* You're right that the Dell board you currently own is going to hold you back - switching to a new 800MHz board (but I'd recommend against one of the PCI-Express models that are out now - the standard's too new and is too likely to have major revisions made) is an option...of course if you did that, sounds like you'd have to do processor as well.

* if you did the motherboard upgrade you could go for one of the Extreme Edition P4's that have a massive internal cache. Again, though, the biggest question remains how much of a performance enhancement you're getting for your money. <edit> disregard that idea...the P4 3.4EE (2M cache) is going for around $985 on Pricewatch ...that is, unless you've got more money set aside for that upgrade than I think you do... </edit>

If it were me, I'd be listening to that "sensible side" at least for the time being. The performance delta you'd see from performing the upgrade I talked about above would be ~10% - only you can say whether another 3-5FPS is worth ~$300 to you.

[james_ander]

Thanks for the help everyone. I guess I will sit tight until PAcific Fighters comes out and see how my system handles that. Anyway, I will think it over a while longer. I appreciate tha advice.

Thanks

[TgD Thunderbolt56]

Sitting tight until PF comes out may not be a bad idea. Given your dilemma about not being able to upgrade your processor, you may want to wait and get a new mobo as well. IL2 (and all of its iterations) are very CPU dependent and a jump from 2.8 to 3.2 would give some nice performance gains. Additionally, the new generation of video cards (i.e. X800 and 6800) are head and shoulders beyond what we had before and was the reason I decided to go ahead and take the upgrade plunge now myself.

I looked at my upgrade options and the performance gains I could expect and was going to wait for PCI Express myself...then out came the new video cards. I saw the performance they were giving and started the process.

I ended up doing a complete new build instead of upgrading and must say I am amazed at the difference. I had a p4 2.8 533 with 1 gig of dated RDRAM. The price of more Rambus and its finicky OC ability along with the 533 fsb made my decision a little easier.

I went from an Intel mobo to an Abit IC7-MAX3 and from a P4 2.8 to a p4 3.4. I got some Corasir TwinX pc4400 (for future fsb OC). I also went Serial ATA on dual HD's.

The whole thing ended up being a little pricey, but performance is amazing. My bottom line is this: If your planning on getting a new video card, the new generation offers enough performance improvement to justify a build now. If you simply want to wait, then your current system should last you a few more months...and through PF.

my .02c

TB

TB

http://www.greatergreen.com/il2

[james_ander]

I got all upset when I found out about PCI express, because I thought that my new system was suddenly obsolete. I have seen PCI express stuff out, but I think it will take awhile to catch on and I'm not going to wait for it. I still haven't ruled out upgrading my mobo and processor, but I think I'll see how it does with PF. Eventually, I would like to ditch everything Dell. Another advantage to an upgrade is that I could put the Dell back in its case and have it as a second computer. And thanks for your advice.