Upgrade for better racing?

I'm currently running ICR2 and Nascar on a Pentium 60MHz, 16Meg Ram, 1Mb Vram......Can someone tell me what would give me the best performance boost for the buck...Forget multitasking etc....Looking for best sim. performance. 2Mb Graphics Accel. ~ $350 16Mb Ram Memory ~ $170 Overdrive Processor(60 to 122MHz) ~ $350 If you where spending your money...what would you buy? Please don't say all of the above. Thanks in Advance

could someone please tell me the exact release date for GP2. thanks, Brent

Get the processor. You've got plenty of RAM, and more won't help. The graphics card might be a better buy than the RAM but the net increase in performance tends to vary system-to-system and if it's a 3D-based card you won't get any improvement unless the software is specifically compiled for that single brand of board. Regards, John

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> I'm currently running ICR2 and Nascar on a Pentium 60MHz, 16Meg >Ram, 1Mb Vram......Can someone tell me what would give me the best >performance boost for the buck...Forget multitasking etc....Looking for >best sim. performance. > 2Mb Graphics Accel. ~ $350 > 16Mb Ram Memory ~ $170 > Overdrive Processor(60 to 122MHz) ~ $350 > If you where spending your money...what would you buy? Please >don't say all of the above. > Thanks in Advance

-- John C. McCanless Department of Electrical Engineering University of ***ia

I'd go for the Overdrive Processor(60 to 122MHz, later, PS- Email me with the results of your choice! ->->->->Mark Mann->->->-> http://www.netrunner.net/~markmann ************************************** !!!Go Fast or Don't Go At All!!! ************************************** Go Jacques Villeneuve - #6 Williams-Renault Go Greg Moore - #99 Player's/Forsythe-Reynard-Mercedes

Don't go for the Overdrive. Get a new motherboard that'll take up to a 200, and stick in a P120, the price has just dropped to below P100 prices. The boards ca be picked up for arounng 80 quid, say $120 and the procs are around 110 quid say $170. Don't buy an overdrive, you will regret it. Like the others are saying, memory wont make much difference, and the video card will depend on the chipset you buy. Video cards are due for a drop, so hang in there. Norm

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> I'm currently running ICR2 and Nascar on a Pentium 60MHz, 16Meg >Ram, 1Mb Vram......Can someone tell me what would give me the best >performance boost for the buck...Forget multitasking etc....Looking for >best sim. performance. > 2Mb Graphics Accel. ~ $350 > 16Mb Ram Memory ~ $170 > Overdrive Processor(60 to 122MHz) ~ $350 > If you where spending your money...what would you buy? Please >don't say all of the above. > Thanks in Advance

How about "None of the Above" - in true Richard Pryor tradition! :) What you need is more CPU power, since that will define the speed of your system. Try looking for a P-133 and a Triton-II motherboard with pipeline cache (SuperMicro P55T2E is good). By selling your current motherboard and CPU this would be within you reach, and the P-133 would be a BIG improvement over the overdrive. Buying an overdrive means you are stuck with 60Mhz bus (slower), and you will still have the slower motherboard. I'm sure you'll get lots of opinions, and that's mine! Sim Racing News hardware section will be dedicated to upgrading systems, so have a look at that when it is released (a week or so). Cheers! John _________________________________ __ _____| |_____ __ ________| |__| :| John Wallace | |__| |________ \ :| |::| :| Team WW Racing TSW | |::| | / > :| |::| :|_________________________________| |::| | < / :|__|::|____/ * Sim Racing News * \____|::|__| \ /______:/ \::/ http://sneezy.dcn.ed.ac.uk/simnews/index.htm \::/ \._____\ http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~harmon/simnews

Hi Craig, : 2Mb Graphics Accel. ~ $350 : 16Mb Ram Memory ~ $170 : Overdrive Processor(60 to 122MHz) ~ $350 : : If you where spending your money...what would you buy? Please : don't say all of the above. I think that's easy... buy the overdrive but isn't it possible to buy another mainboard incl a processor for $350 ? (i don't know the Americain prices). Greetings, Twan

>could someone please tell me the exact release date for GP2. I think it was 19th July. Cheers Martin

>could someone please tell me the exact release date for GP2. > thanks, > Brent By reading the many posted articles in this newsgroup pertaining to GP2, I am pretty sure the game is out.

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> at that when it is released (a week or so). > Cheers! > John > _________________________________ > __ _____| |_____ __ > ________| |__| :| John Wallace | |__| |________ > \ :| |::| :| Team WW Racing TSW | |::| | / > > :| |::| :|_________________________________| |::| | < > / :|__|::|____/ * Sim Racing News * \____|::|__| \ > /______:/ \::/ http://sneezy.dcn.ed.ac.uk/simnews/index.htm \::/ \._____\ > http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~harmon/simnews

John, have you reviewed the stealth 2000 3d in your magazine? I am looking for a vid card to replace my aging tseng 4000/w32p. But since (for some reason) Israel is a video card deprived country, The truth of the matter is, my ONLY choice is the diamond stealth 3d. Should I stick with the tseng or spring for the Diamond? BTW, I am upgrading from a pent. 100 to 166, after the Intel price cut gets here.

NONE OF THE ABOVE - I agree. Save the $800 - $900 in upgrades, sale your current system, and buy a new one. VEKTRON system available... P-166 32MB EDO Ram 3.0gb HD Diamond Stealth 64 w/4mb VRAM 8x CD Rom AWE-32 sound Yamaha M15 speakers w/subwoofer Supra 33.6 v34 fax/modem/voice w/spkr phone 17" MAG DX17 .25 monitor 3.5 floppy WIN95 installed $2970 If you can get all this brand new through mail order for under $3000, why not back off on some of the high-end options and get it into your price range. Such as 133 speed, 16mb Ram, regular Soundblaster w/spkrs, 28.8 modem, 15" monitor, and 1gb hd. price would probably come down a bit. http://www.vetron.com I own one of their P-100 systems (18 months ago) and prices just keep plunging. Andrew

Hey, you've got an Intel fab in your country, you should walk along there and ask them for a new CPU :) The Stealth 2000 3D is "okay". It's not a particularly good DOS performer, but it's not as bad as other 3D cards have been. It's also not particularly good in Windows. The "3D" performance is good, but only if you have games which support it..... (you can see the problem). If you bought it I think you would be initially very happy with the performance of the bundled games (and the usual fun at having something new!), but then you would find it wasn't a good buy. I would recommend you to have a look at www.pricewatch.com - see if you can find a dealer who will export you a good card from the USA, instead of suffering the limited choice in Israel. If you accept the limited choice, you will always have it. I buy a lot of stuff from America (I am in the UK), and I've had no problems. Cheers! John _________________________________ __ _____| |_____ __ ________| |__| :| John Wallace | |__| |________ \ :| |::| :| Team WW Racing TSW | |::| | / > :| |::| :|_________________________________| |::| | < / :|__|::|____/ * Sim Racing News * \____|::|__| \ /______:/ \::/ http://sneezy.dcn.ed.ac.uk/simnews/index.htm \::/ \._____\ http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~harmon/simnews

Lessee, build one yourself like this: Mid tower case (with power supply) - $50 Tyan Tomcat 1 motherboard - $190 (Intel Zappa for $150) P5/133 - $250 16mb of 60ns EDO RAM - $110 (the more the better) 2.5 GB WD hard drive - $325 (IDE) 8X- IDE CD-ROM - $175 (IDE) 3-1/2" floppy drive - $40 Soundblaster 16 - $150 (do NOT get OEM) USR 33.6 External modem - $189 Speakers - $75 Keyboard - $40 Mouse (Logitech 3-button serial) - $60 ET6000-based video card - $200 (Herculese? VideoLogic?) Grand total is $1854, but you still have to pick a monitor. I would recommend a 17-inch either Sony, Viewsonic, or Samsung. Don't worry about getting a monitor or video card that can go up to 1600x1280 resolution because you can't read the friggin text at that res anyway. Seems to me that even if you pick the Sony 17sf2 ($820), you're still coming in well below the $2970 mark. Besides that, you'll be sure of EVERYTHING that's going tinto your machine. One more note - buy locally whenever possible because you may need to take something back if it doesn't work right away. Oh yeah, Intel is droipping prices on their CPU's this month. Watch the 133 price drop like a stone...

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> > 2Mb Graphics Accel. ~ $350 > > 16Mb Ram Memory ~ $170 > > Overdrive Processor(60 to 122MHz) ~ $350 > > If you where spending your money...what would you buy? Please > >don't say all of the above. > I'd go for the Overdrive Processor(60 to 122MHz, > later, > PS- Email me with the results of your choice! > ->->->->Mark Mann->->->-> > http://www.netrunner.net/~markmann > ************************************** > !!!Go Fast or Don't Go At All!!! > ************************************** > Go Jacques Villeneuve - #6 Williams-Renault > Go Greg Moore - #99 Player's/Forsythe-Reynard-Mercedes

Why don't you try the Cyrix line of cpu's. I've got the 6x86/120+ and it flies. They offer the chip in 120+,133+,150+,166+,and 200+. It also helps to have a PCI video card. that's my 2cents.