I know my computer has been out of date for a long time.

Running:
AMD Athalon 2600 Barton
1GB PC2700 DDR RAM
ECS-KT600 A Motherboard
128GB Geforce FX 5200

This setup has pretty much held me over to play HL2 at pretty crappy resolution. When Quake 4, NFSMW, and FEAR came out, I upgraded to a Geforce 6800 GT-OC Video card and it made wonders for improvements on the gaming. Yet right now I'm back to my old video card and I've been trying to play Elder Scrolls IV.

I can't get the damn start up screen even loading correctly at 640x480 resolution. My computer is struggling to keep up with this.

I've been debating whether or not I should really upgrade my system this summer. I feel like if I do I will go ALL OUT (around $3,000 on a system). I've been wanting to save up for a Macbook Pro, but I feel that since I'm done with college, there's not need for me to have a laptop.

Though I'd love a G5, One of the main reasons I am upgrading my system is to play video games.

What do you guys think?

 

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/i...08781&hl=grass

search through the tweeks in this link to see if you can spruce up performance. Oblivion is very CPU and GPU intensive game, and some tweeks are highly reccomended to get the max framerate

 

If by G5 you mean a mac....then you'll be waiting a year for the translation of that game to OSX...macs only downfall....no game support.
If you get like a new intel imac, and bootcamp. Then, you can boot up in XP and play oblivion.

 

Though you can get a intell mac, and run windows on it with the bootcamp beta they released yesterday. Apparently it's the most bestest thing ever.

only works with macs that have the x86 processors ofcoarse, A 1400 dollar imac core duo may be your solution. It has a x1600 ati card which is a okay midrange card, but it certainly should be better than what you have.

 

The x1600 is a good card. I have the XT version in my rig and I can run Oblivion at 1024 x 768 at 4x anti-aliasing on HIGH detail levels.. it looks GREAT

 

I just built a new system for about $2200.

Athlon X2 4800
2 GB Corsair XMS
74 GB WD Raptor 10K
250 GB WD External USB 2.0
ASUS 3200 Crossfire motherboard (full 16X times 2 slots PCI-E)
Sapphire Radeon 1900 XTX 512 MB
2x Samsung DVD RAM drives
Win XP 64bit

The thing is fast as hell and I can run all of my games at 1900 x 1400 with all graphics turned on.

 

I doubt it will ever make it to OSX.. Bethesday Software doesnt make games for it.

 

^ One of the setups I was looking at.

I remember back in the day the 10K RPM HDD's had an issue with spin up time, is that still the case?

Also I haven't reseached much but did anyone benchmark any difference in game load up time with a SATA Drive vs UDMA 133's?

I already picked up a 250GB External Lacie for ($90) So hopefully my setup will cost around $2,000 However I want to upgrade my 17in Monitor (Probably a 21in Widescreen?)

But then again I'm sure new technology will appear in the market in the next 4-5 months or so.

 

I have not, but my brother has. There is a big difference. However if you have over a gig of RAM, you can tweak with the .ini files and increase the amount buffered.

 

There are no Spinup issues with the Raptors. From my experience, that was a SCSI issue and usually controller related.

I recently got a 24" Acer monitor and I LOVE IT! 6 ms response time is awesome!

 

i have dual 740 raptors in raid 0, and i can install world of warcraft in ~60% of the time that i can on a computer with a faster cpu, but a slower drive

i dont know how people can even build computers without 10k drives once you see the speed, you can never go back

 

I hear ya... I just installed WoW yesterday in about 25 mins- A new record for me!

 

You should actually be able to play oblivion on the lower resolutions, at a decent 800x600 if not 1024x768, with your setup. My friend plays on his laptop which is a centrino M at 1.7 ghz with a Ati radeon 9700, w/ a gig of ram. You shouldn't need to upgrade, I mean just make sure your drivers are in check and what not, and make sure you aren't running too many processes. If you do upgrade I don't think the Mac would be too good of an idea for games, even with boot camp. Get a faster hard drive probably a 64 bit processor (AMD FX, or 64), WD Raptor, at leats a Radeon X800 or equivalent (which is cheap these days), 1 gb of ddr333/400 RAM, etc. Also keep in mind Windows Vista will be coming...