Xendoshi

Okay guys Thanks for all the great advice.
Along with what you all said plus the articles I have been reading
all over (Toms Hardware, Tech Spot ect) I have tweaked my build.

The verdict:

I am going quad. Why?

Well I am a gamer and that's what I do with my free time.
But I also record my own music. That was the biggest factor influencing my choice.

Granted I might not see a big improvement in gaming but I will make up for it when it comes to recording. so the money isn't wasted. As for the OS I will keep my 32 bit for now. I will get a 64 bit after I build my PC. I am also just going to go with a singe GPU.

So here is my updated parts list.

CPU: Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz
Mobo: ASUS P5N-D
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX
Ram: 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (X2 2GB for 4GB)
GPU: EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
HDD: HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb
Case: XCLIO A380PLUS-BK

Grand total is $916.93 Not too bad.

Also I am going to buy the CPU and the MOBO at the same time
as mentioned above by Ironblade I need to at least get my CPU and Mobo at the same time.
Next month I will get my PSU and Ram. My Case and HDD will be bought last.

Thanks for your replies. I really appreciate you pointing stuff out to me! this is my #2 build for myself,
but I have built as least 14 in total. Although this is my first build involving either Dual or Quad CPU. Hence the thread.

Again Thanks!!

Xendoshi

I am going to be building a new pc as my old P4
is not good enough, has been a great 5 year (6 or how ever long) run.

I want to stay Intel. I have my reasons.

Now these are the parts I have put onto my wish list.

Mobo: Asus P5Q Pro
CPU: Core 2 Quad Q8200
RAM: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (x2 for 8GB)
HDD: HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA
PSU: Rosewill RX750-D-B 750W
Case: XCLIO A380BK (firm on this too)

Now for the GPU I had the EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
in the list, but I read on the mobo specs it is X-fire ready.

I have been an avid Nvidia user and I am really apprehensive about using
ATI since I would be a new user to them. but I always try things twice!

Games building for:
FS 9/X
X-Plane
City of Heroes
Silent hunter series
Sims 2 (Sims 3 pre-ordered)
Looking forward to Star Trek Online (watched movie last night (may 7th) and I recommend it to any Trekkie out there )
As well as Jumpgate Evolution.

all prioritized in the order I play most.

About the Ram.

I will be running Win XP Home.
Can XP even use 8GB effectively or should I stick to just 4 GB?
I know 4GB doesn't register. Is this even a valid concern?

OR

Should I upgrade to Win Vista or even Win 7 RTC?

Biggest question is this: Is all this compatible? will it work well? I probably wont be able to build for another 3 years min so I hope this is what I call "future ready". I am on a fixed income so I will have to be buying these parts at one to two parts a month. CPU, GPU, Case is first to be bought as they are most expensive. the rest are cheap. Also since I am on a fixed income I will not OC. if I screw up I can't just buy new parts ya know!

As soon as I get my stimulus money this month I am going to buy the CPU. So this is kind of a timely topic! :0)

Xendoshi

Yea I went and installed it yesterday, want to see if I fixed the problem, was reading on the net about a guy that keept having BoSD's with SP3 like me, so he turned off his HT and it all stoped, so decide to try it out. dunno you know PC's they can be odd.. worked on one that you had to have the CD/DVD drives hooked up on the same IDE as the HDD, if not, it wouldn't register the CD/DVD drives... dunno anyhow

Back to topic.. No, when I mean lag I mean my FPS nose dives to 0.24-5 FPS I played last night with network graph on and noticed that everytime I lagged I had a huge network spike just before or during the lag and or freeze. and when I mean freeze I mean the game is unresponsive for longer then 30 sec. sometimes so long I think the game has crashed.

Havn't had too much problem by mapservering, rubberbanding has increased a little though, but I think that's due to a lot of people getting on for i14 and the anniversary.

With my set up what kind of FPS should I be seeing? I know it's not going to be 50 fps+ but would like to know around the norm I should be having.

Ok here is the info you asked for. just got in and fixin to log into the game

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.7---

DxDiag gathered at May 1, 2009 22:36 (-06:00)
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
System Manufacturer: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Model: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
BIOS: BIOS Date: 07/23/03 19:44:27 Ver: 08.00.09
Central Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Memory: 3070MB
.Net Memory Report: 2665MB out of 3069MB available
Page File: 4723MB (236MB currently in use)
C Drive: (HDS728080PLAT20) 54945MB out of 78520MB (69%) free
D Drive: (Maxtor 6Y120P0) 105070MB out of 117232MB (89%) free
E Drive: (LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1633S) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DirectX Diag version: 5.03.2600.5512 (32-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 7600 GT
Video Memory: 256.0 MB
Driver Version: 6.14.0011.8208
Driver Date: 2/18/2009 2:44:00 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [DF00]
Driver File: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.1196
Driver Date: 8/11/2006 2:45:38 PM

WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: P4G800-V
Motherboard Version: Rev 1.xx
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 07/23/03 19:44:27 Ver: 08.00.09
BIOS Version: A M I - 7000323
BIOS Release: 20030723000000.000000+000

Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1680x1024
3D Resolution: 1680x1024 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: No
Maximized: Yes
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: No

Physics Quality: Very High
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No

Anti-aliasing: None
Anisotropic Filtering: None
Texture LOD Bias: Crisp
Water Effects: High Quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: No
Shader Detail: High

World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.000

Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 1.000
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 265153 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 18.20090324.20T2
Installation Directory: C:\CoH

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

_________________________________________
Hijack this

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 10:40:04 PM, on 5/1/2009
Platform: Windows XP SP3 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP3 (6.00.2900.5512)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\MsPMSPSv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZuneBusEnum.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\David\Desktop\HiJackThis.exe

O2 - BHO: AcroIEHelperStub - {18DF081C-E8AD-4283-A596-FA578C2EBDC3} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelperShim.dll
O2 - BHO: RealPlayer Download and Record Plugin for Internet Explorer - {3049C3E9-B461-4BC5-8870-4C09146192CA} - C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer\rpbrowserrecordplugin.dll
O2 - BHO: Java(tm) Plug-In 2 SSV Helper - {DBC80044-A445-435b-BC74-9C25C1C588A9} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jp2ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: JQSIEStartDetectorImpl - {E7E6F031-17CE-4C07-BC86-EABFE594F69C} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\lib\deploy\jqs\ie\jqs_plugin.dll
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} - C:\WINDOWS\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: @xpsp3res.dll,-20001 - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} - C:\WINDOWS\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O16 - DPF: {17492023-C23A-453E-A040-C7C580BBF700} (Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool) - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=39204
O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) - http://www.update.microsoft.com/windowsu...b?1235850948734
O18 - Protocol: skype4com - {FFC8B962-9B40-4DFF-9458-1830C7DD7F5D} - C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\Skype\SKYPE4~1.DLL

--
End of file - 2202 bytes

Thanks for the input.

As far as SP3, I did two things.
1. did a complete format then deleted the partition, reformatted reinstalled XP Then didn't install anything else, no graphic drivers sound drivers nothing, still had problems with SP3,
2. I bought a new HDD formatted it then installed XP then without installing anything else tried to got SP3, still had problems so I don't know what the problem is. Oh and the problem I get is after I install SP3 I get a ton of BoSD.

Also, No I haven't tried the /unloadgfx I will give it a try.

I will upload the other two things later tonight.

I think I have had it with my lag.
with the occasional game freeze.

First off I went to the support and went through this page and process.

http://help.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/ncsoft.cf...amp;p_topview=1
But it just lead me back to the KB. Lotta help it was :0Þ

Before I get in too deep here are my specs.
P4 3.0 Ghz with HT off
4 gig ram
Nvidia G-Force 7600GT AGP (yea I know it's old)
Soundblaster audigy 2 ZS
have everything turned off via msconfig both processes (except for main system processes) and start up.

I have up to date sound and video drivers.
my internet speed is 12Mb. I usually use wireless but for trouble shooting I connected strait to the router. I can not hook strait up to the modem as my PC does not have a 10/100/1000 network adapter.

Now, I understand my computer is old. I don't have the funds to build myself a new PC.

Now, My brother has the same build except for he has 2 gig ram and an Ge-Force 8600 PCI XP 2.0 card.

I am also runing Win XP up to SP2 as SP3 don't like my computer :0Þ

Now here is the problem. Some days I run fine all day long with no lag, some days I get really bad lag but I can restart my PC and it fixes the lag, other days I lag so bad I quit for the day as not even restarting my PC helps. Before I hear "Turn down your graphics" I have tried everything. As low as I can get, as high as I can get, safe mode, it doesn't matter. I even went as far as reformatting my PC, and still have the problem.

So either my PC is too old to handle the game or I am missing something or CoH hates me

is there ANYTHING I can do to reduce my lag that doesn't make me rebuild a new PC?