Ok.

here I go asking for more help... but alot of you know your shit, and I don't really know who else to ask.

So, Im playing AoC.. love the game btw.. and Im noticing Im only getting 15-18fps.

This isnt good.

I recently bought a new vid card... a evga 9800 GTX, and you all know I upgraded to Vista 64 and have 8 gigs of Ram. So I figured my FPS would be much higher, I was hoping for the 30s.

Anyway. Here are my other specs.

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.longhorn_rtm.080118-1840)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Dell DXG051
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A11
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 8188MB RAM
Page File: 1367MB used, 15060MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 9800 GTX
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0612&SUBSYS_057710DE&REV_A2
Display Memory: 2539 MB
Dedicated Memory: 493 MB
Shared Memory: 2046 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2umx.dll, nvwgf2um
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.7516 (English)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

If I am bottlenecked.. I was considering upgrading my Processor, but dont really know how tough that would or what is compatiable with my shitty motherboard (Dell OGC375).

I know my Power Supply is good with the 650w that XPS comes standard with... but does anyone have a alternative way to monitor the 12v rails on my GPU? Speed Fan doesnt seem compatiable with my motherboard.

Any advice would be helpful... thanks!

From what I know, that P4 is most definitely a bottleneck, especially if it's only a "Hyperthreading" CPU and not a real dual-core.

Sorry to tell ya, but its your processor. You'd probably have to drop a new mobo and proc in to really improve.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2007/serious-sam-2,390.html?p=1268%2C1267%2C1270%2C1261%2C1248%2C13 08%2C1242%2C1227%2C1241%2C1220%2C1233%2C1221%2C130 5%2C1234%2C1219%2C1300%2C1304%2C1229%2C1254%2C1318 %2C1286%2C1312%2C1284%2C1282%2C1276%2C1292

Thats one of the charts from Tom's hardware. I just selected Serious Sam, but load up any FPS style game chart and compare a "modern" processor to yours (I believe yours is P4 E 641)

My vid card and ram are inferior to yours and I get 30 - 50 FPS. I turned AA up to 16X and still got 20ish in none highly populated areas. My specs:

Intel Core Duo E8400
4 GB DDR800
GeForce 8800GTS 512
Vista 64
DX 10

I selected the Core Duo E8400 because it was cheaper and easier to find than the E8500, and had nearly the best performance for FPS style games. Dual core processors have the speed right now. The quads are more powerful, however most games don't make use of all the cores, so until games make better use of the cores and / or the individual core speed increases beyond the dual cores, you're better off getting a high end dual core. Some games, like Supreme Commander, do make good use of the quads though.

A lot of people neglect their processors when doing system upgrades because they think you see the biggest boost in performance by upgrading the Vid card and / or ram. Thats not always the case, especially if your proc is a few years old.

An upgrade for you would cost $250 - 350 for a E8400 depending on the quality of MoBo you went with (must support 8GB of ram). A little more for the E8500.

Meh. Life sucks.

Ok.. so how does this look.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127030

+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036


And what else do you imagine ill need. =(

Damn I just should have bought a boat.

I hear allot of mention of turning Anti-aliasing off. I'm not sure if it would help you though.

Unfortunately, yeah it's the CPU.

Those old P4 chips were the ones that even AMD managed to beat. Not a pretty chapter in Intel's history.

I don't have the answer to this, but you're going to need to make sure that your Dell case will accept a standard ATX board. Some of theirs do, but a lot of them use custom fitted boards with non-standard screwholes, I/O connectors, and fan/device hookups.

Far as the chip goes, that one should be perfect for what you're doing.

/cry.

I think Im not standard ATX.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps600/en/SM/techov0.htm#wp1052309

The shape and layout of the motherboard looks ATX. The main power connector also. That's no guarantee it would work, but you might not be totally screwed.

Look at the performance of the E8500 compared to the E8400. Better, yes.. but $70 better? Thats up to you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

The E8400 is considerably cheaper and all you lose is a few FPS. If you have a Fry's near you, I would suggest checking them out because they often offer pretty insane combo deals for a MoBo / Processor.

The motherboard you chose is fine.. but in the last 5 years or so I've been partial to the nForce chipset. I figure, though I haven't actually read anything on this, if the chipset is made by the same manufacturer as my video card (nVidia) it would have less issues. IT superstition I suppose.

I got an Asus board (P5N-D) for my system, with the nForce 750i chipset and I am really happy with it. NewEgg has an open box P5N-D for $120 if you want to save a little money and don't mind the risk ; p.

I set up Tholos and his wife's computers with the board that is one under mine and some different RAM and I had an issue with system lock ups until I tweaked the RAM speed in the bios (was out of sync with the system bus... caused some issues). Now it works fine.

Something you'll need to keep in mind is what type of ram you have. I'm guessing if you have 8GB, you have four 2 GB chips, which would point to more modern ram. DDR 800? I'm using DDR800 on my system, works great.

As to the case, you need to make sure you're power supply has the 4 pin power cable that most newer CPU's use. I didn't see it listed on that page you linked. I'd say get the MoBo and Processor and see if you can replace the board (the XPS systems are branded as "Gaming" systems so they typically will have somewhat higher end hardware in them... you may be able to swap it out). If not, get a case with a 500+ watt power supply ($100 - $200).

So...

Ive figured out I need a new case because Dell is teh gay.

So a new case,
any suggestions?

And what else? Power source?

And Can I just transfer my hard drives over for OS and all my programs?

You can transfer your hard drives over assuming your new motherboard has an IDE port ( I'm assuming you have IDE hard drives since they were the standard for the last 15 years ). One of two things will happen, either the machine won't boot or it will but you will get all sorts of errors and new devices found since the old copy of your OS doesn't know about your new motherboard ( likely you will get all sorts of things like PCI bridge, Real-time clock and other scary sounding things ). Easiest thing to do in either case is to reload the OS as a non destructive rebuild. If you have your copy of XP, just boot from it and tell it to install in your existing partition. It will rewrite the /windows directory and update/replace the registry, but leave all of your old programs. Just don't let it format.

So...

Ive figured out I need a new case because Dell is teh gay.

So a new case,
any suggestions?

And what else? Power source?

And Can I just transfer my hard drives over for OS and all my programs?For cases I like to shop locally at Fry's Electronics, so I can make sure it's aesthetically pleasing and has ports where I want them. DON'T go cheap on the case, figure $70+. I bought a budget case for my wife, not knowing better, and that $30 piece of junk is so flexible and poorly made that it's a pain to work with. I have two different Raidmax cases that came with pretty good stock cooling fans, and are easy to work in.

Look on Newegg for a power supply that meets your needs. Generally speaking don't use the one that comes with the case, throw that thing away. Don't skimp on a power supply, a bad one can kill your computer, or worse. You probably want one with a PCIe for a graphics card, that's what I'm missing right now. Plan on spending $50ish. Fry's Electronics seems to have decent prices on power supplies, it's one of the few things they don't overcharge on. Just go with a brand name.

What Filatal said about your hardrives sounds right - plan on reinstalling your OS. Drives are cheap, if you're lugging around old ones (I still have my old 10gig running, couldn't tell you why) you might as well replace those too.

Vista 64 bit actually handles being transferred to different hardware VERY well in my experience. With XP you used to be guaranteed a BSOD if you plugged the hard drive into a different MoBo (XP's handling of the HAL wasn't very elegant... if anything major changed, everything would explode).

When I built my new system I was duly impressed with how smooth everything went. I had a nForce MoBo and was using on-board raid to do raid0. I unplugged everything, swapped out the MoBo, proc, and vid card (used the same ram), plugged in my hard drives, went into BIOS, turned on raid and let it boot. Booted right into Vista. Apparently Vista is able to amend its HAL on the fly (at least the 64 bit version... not 100% sure on the 32 bit). If you're not running a raid, that's just one less step for you. All you *should* have to do is plug in your drive and power it up.

IF you do get a BSOD, try running a repair install. Note: In XP, you're first presented with an option to repair windows. If you select that option, you are sent to command line - not where you want to be. If you select to install windows, it will look for previously installed copies of Windows and if it finds the same version that you are trying to install, it will offer to try to repair it. This is the option you want. I believe it works a little differently in a Vista install, but ultimately it will accomplish the same thing. A repair install will install a new HAL for your hardware and you'll be golden. Like I said, though, you should only need to do this if Vista doesn't work upon boot up.

Note: You don't want to do the "re-install windows" option that Fil was talking about with Vista. In XP it worked a little different. In Vista, it takes your old windows folder, as well as your old users folder and Program Files folder(s) and puts them in a Windows.old folder. What you boot to is a "clean" install of Vista. All of your files are still there, but your programs are likely not to function. I had some issues on my system (I was playing around with stuff and broke something hehe) and I figured I'd try that with Vista. Everything was put in Windows.old. I found that some of the stuff still worked if I tried to run it right out of the Program Files folder in Windows.old, but not everything (remember, your registry has been blown away, so any program that is dependant upon data / settings stored in the registry is likely not to function). Games were hit and miss. Some games worked, but when it came patch time, the patch wouldn't apply. This meant re-installing and fully re-patching WoW and several other games. Bleh.