Need some advice on an older system
 

As a spare computer and a secondary computer, we have an eMachines T1090
with a 900MHz Intel (Celeron). Right now, it has the onboard Intel 82810
graphics controller. We can play Quake III Arena with that, (although we do
get a message when you open Quake) but the only way to get it run even
semi-smoothly is to set the screen resolution to something less than 640x480
and to set all settings at their lowest. The eMachines only has PCI slots -
no AGP or PCI-E. First of all, what's more the slow-down - the onboard
video, the CPU, or both? The eMachines has 384MB of SDRAM and only a small
amount of programs installed. If my goal was to get Quake III to work
smoothly at least at a 640x480 screen resolution on medium settings, would
it be possible with this system with just an upgraded PCI video card or is
it worth the time and effort at all? Secondly, any ideas if the Bestec PSU
can handle it? Quake III is the only game I'm concerned about - no plans to
run Doom 3, obviously. Thanks

Specs (nothing special):
8x4x32 CD-RW drive
Floppy drive
Windows XP Home
120GB Seagate 8MB cache 7200RPM HD
384MB of SDRAM
Intel 82810 onboard graphics

Need some advice on an older system
 

"Travis King" wrote in message news:vcmVf.640731$084.285153@attbi_s22...
As a spare computer and a secondary computer, we have an eMachines T1090
with a 900MHz Intel (Celeron). Right now, it has the onboard Intel 82810
graphics controller. We can play Quake III Arena with that, (although we do
get a message when you open Quake) but the only way to get it run even
semi-smoothly is to set the screen resolution to something less than 640x480
and to set all settings at their lowest. The eMachines only has PCI slots -
no AGP or PCI-E. First of all, what's more the slow-down - the onboard
video, the CPU, or both? The eMachines has 384MB of SDRAM and only a small
amount of programs installed. If my goal was to get Quake III to work
smoothly at least at a 640x480 screen resolution on medium settings, would
it be possible with this system with just an upgraded PCI video card or is
it worth the time and effort at all?

It really isn't. Both the cpu and PCI bus are bottlenecks, and if
were to upgrade one, the other would become much more of a
bottleneck.

Bottom line: For certainly the same (and probably less) than the
cost to upgrade that system to play Q3A reasonably well, you
could get a basic or used P4 or AMD system -- including a new
power supply, motherboard, cpu, memory and AGP/PCIe video.

Secondly, any ideas if the Bestec PSU
can handle it? Quake III is the only game I'm concerned about - no plans to
run Doom 3, obviously. Thanks

Specs (nothing special):
8x4x32 CD-RW drive
Floppy drive
Windows XP Home
120GB Seagate 8MB cache 7200RPM HD
384MB of SDRAM
Intel 82810 onboard graphics

Need some advice on an older system
 

"Bob" wrote in message
ink.net...
"Travis King" wrote in message
news:vcmVf.640731$084.285153@attbi_s22...
As a spare computer and a secondary computer, we have an eMachines T1090
with a 900MHz Intel (Celeron). Right now, it has the onboard Intel 82810
graphics controller. We can play Quake III Arena with that, (although we
do
get a message when you open Quake) but the only way to get it run even
semi-smoothly is to set the screen resolution to something less than
640x480
and to set all settings at their lowest. The eMachines only has PCI
slots -
no AGP or PCI-E. First of all, what's more the slow-down - the onboard
video, the CPU, or both? The eMachines has 384MB of SDRAM and only a
small
amount of programs installed. If my goal was to get Quake III to work
smoothly at least at a 640x480 screen resolution on medium settings,
would
it be possible with this system with just an upgraded PCI video card or
is
it worth the time and effort at all?

It really isn't. Both the cpu and PCI bus are bottlenecks, and if
were to upgrade one, the other would become much more of a
bottleneck.

Bottom line: For certainly the same (and probably less) than the
cost to upgrade that system to play Q3A reasonably well, you
could get a basic or used P4 or AMD system -- including a new
power supply, motherboard, cpu, memory and AGP/PCIe video.

Secondly, any ideas if the Bestec PSU
can handle it? Quake III is the only game I'm concerned about - no plans
to
run Doom 3, obviously. Thanks

Specs (nothing special):
8x4x32 CD-RW drive
Floppy drive
Windows XP Home
120GB Seagate 8MB cache 7200RPM HD
384MB of SDRAM
Intel 82810 onboard graphics




Then I'll just let it go then. Thanks Bob. P.S. in a month or two anyway,
the eMachines will become a third computer and my mother's current computer
(With an AMD Athlon XP 1800+ & NVIDIA GeForce4 MX4000) will take its place
as the secondary computer.

Need some advice on an older system
 

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 01:34:19 GMT, "Travis King"
wrote:

As a spare computer and a secondary computer, we have an eMachines T1090
with a 900MHz Intel (Celeron). Right now, it has the onboard Intel 82810
graphics controller. We can play Quake III Arena with that, (although we do
get a message when you open Quake) but the only way to get it run even
semi-smoothly is to set the screen resolution to something less than 640x480
and to set all settings at their lowest. The eMachines only has PCI slots -
no AGP or PCI-E. First of all, what's more the slow-down - the onboard
video, the CPU, or both? The eMachines has 384MB of SDRAM and only a small
amount of programs installed. If my goal was to get Quake III to work
smoothly at least at a 640x480 screen resolution on medium settings, would
it be possible with this system with just an upgraded PCI video card or is
it worth the time and effort at all? Secondly, any ideas if the Bestec PSU
can handle it? Quake III is the only game I'm concerned about - no plans to
run Doom 3, obviously. Thanks

Specs (nothing special):
8x4x32 CD-RW drive
Floppy drive
Windows XP Home
120GB Seagate 8MB cache 7200RPM HD
384MB of SDRAM
Intel 82810 onboard graphics



Back in the day when Quake III came out, I was running it on a
Celeron 366Mhz with 128MB SDRAM, and a 3DFX Voodoo 3 2000. I ran it at
640x480, and from what I remember, it ran in the high 40's FPS. Maybe
higher even.
I would think that if you got an FX5700 PCI, or maybe the 6200
PCI that it would run Quake III at 800x600 pretty fast on that system.

Need some advice on an older system
 

"Larry Roberts" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 01:34:19 GMT, "Travis King"
wrote:

As a spare computer and a secondary computer, we have an eMachines T1090
with a 900MHz Intel (Celeron). Right now, it has the onboard Intel 82810
graphics controller. We can play Quake III Arena with that, (although we
do
get a message when you open Quake) but the only way to get it run even
semi-smoothly is to set the screen resolution to something less than
640x480
and to set all settings at their lowest. The eMachines only has PCI
slots -
no AGP or PCI-E. First of all, what's more the slow-down - the onboard
video, the CPU, or both? The eMachines has 384MB of SDRAM and only a
small
amount of programs installed. If my goal was to get Quake III to work
smoothly at least at a 640x480 screen resolution on medium settings, would
it be possible with this system with just an upgraded PCI video card or is
it worth the time and effort at all? Secondly, any ideas if the Bestec
PSU
can handle it? Quake III is the only game I'm concerned about - no plans
to
run Doom 3, obviously. Thanks

Specs (nothing special):
8x4x32 CD-RW drive
Floppy drive
Windows XP Home
120GB Seagate 8MB cache 7200RPM HD
384MB of SDRAM
Intel 82810 onboard graphics



Back in the day when Quake III came out, I was running it on a
Celeron 366Mhz with 128MB SDRAM, and a 3DFX Voodoo 3 2000. I ran it at
640x480, and from what I remember, it ran in the high 40's FPS. Maybe
higher even.
I would think that if you got an FX5700 PCI, or maybe the 6200
PCI that it would run Quake III at 800x600 pretty fast on that system.
Thanks.

Need some advice on an older system
 

"Travis King" wrote in message
news:PnGVf.886504$xm3.799169@attbi_s21...
"Larry Roberts" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 01:34:19 GMT, "Travis King"
wrote:

As a spare computer and a secondary computer, we have an eMachines T1090
with a 900MHz Intel (Celeron). Right now, it has the onboard Intel 82810
graphics controller. We can play Quake III Arena with that, (although we
do
get a message when you open Quake) but the only way to get it run even
semi-smoothly is to set the screen resolution to something less than
640x480
and to set all settings at their lowest. The eMachines only has PCI
slots -
no AGP or PCI-E. First of all, what's more the slow-down - the onboard
video, the CPU, or both? The eMachines has 384MB of SDRAM and only a
small
amount of programs installed. If my goal was to get Quake III to work
smoothly at least at a 640x480 screen resolution on medium settings,
would
it be possible with this system with just an upgraded PCI video card or
is
it worth the time and effort at all? Secondly, any ideas if the Bestec
PSU
can handle it? Quake III is the only game I'm concerned about - no plans
to
run Doom 3, obviously. Thanks

Specs (nothing special):
8x4x32 CD-RW drive
Floppy drive
Windows XP Home
120GB Seagate 8MB cache 7200RPM HD
384MB of SDRAM
Intel 82810 onboard graphics



Back in the day when Quake III came out, I was running it on a
Celeron 366Mhz with 128MB SDRAM, and a 3DFX Voodoo 3 2000. I ran it at
640x480, and from what I remember, it ran in the high 40's FPS. Maybe
higher even.
I would think that if you got an FX5700 PCI, or maybe the 6200
PCI that it would run Quake III at 800x600 pretty fast on that system.
Thanks.

The computer's built and is running well!