Just some personal observations as I upgraded:
64 MB RAM -> 128 MB RAM decreased my zoning times from about 2.5 minutes
down to just over 1 minute.
Increasing Video RAM from 4mb AGP ATi to 32mb AGP ASUS GeForce increased my
playability from 3 songs on a good night to 4 songs easily.
Going from a 33UDMA 5400RPM Hard Drive to a 66UDMA 7200RPM Hard Drive
decreased my zone times from just over 1 minute to just under 1 minute.
Going from a PII-300 to a PIII-600 decreased my zoning times from just under
1 minute to approximately 20 seconds.
I don't have the reference (believe you can find it on
http://eq.castersrealm.com archives), Brad mentioned that he used 128 MB on
his machine, then upgraded to 256 MB for Kunark Testing. He also hinted
that this was 'optimal' for running the Kunark expansion.
I would suggest dumping a couple of hundred dollars in RAM before upgrading
just about anything else. (I build these things for a living...more RAM
always helps the equations)
Note: Windows 95/98 does not use RAM effectively above 128MB. If you do a
performance analysis, there is a large dropoff at the 128MB mark. Win2K (I
haven't done an analysis yet, so this is hearsay) should be able to use up
to 1 GB of RAM effectively, assuming your processor/bios/motherboard is up
to the task. Incidentally, I don't use anything but Intel chips in
machines, because every AMD I've tested has problems of one sort or another,
and I stress the dog out of every processor I own. I don't believe the AMD
chips are bad, but the motherboard chipset support seems lacking. This is
probably changing as we speak, as AMD needs to be a bit more stable than
Intel, since they are selling alot of chips to the 'I've never used one of
these things before...' market. I'll continue to test AMD chipsets in the
near future, and maybe I'll be happy with stability soon...maybe not.
MacGrough Mich'Rathe
23rd Song Bard
Solusek Ro Wanderers
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin L. Crawford" <Lyrnia@...>
To: <eqbards@egroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: [eqbards] twisting troubles
> Heh yep if that's a 3d NOW system then it's more than likely your RAM.
I'd
> also consider the video card but the 3DNOW should take care of any
> insufficiencies in the display adaptor.
>
> Go to 128mb of RAM and you'll notice a pretty dramatic improvement.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Elijah Meeker" <elijah@...>
> To: <eqbards@egroups.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 4:09 PM
> Subject: Re: [eqbards] twisting troubles
>
>
> > >> But is that really a K3? Like before
> > >> the K5/K6? I didnt think
> > >> they HAD a K3 400.
> > >
> > >It is a K6 III 400 3D NOW processor. Sorry for the typo;-)
> >
> >
> > Heh, then it is almost definitely your RAM.
> >
> > Tszaaz E'Taurguin
> >
> >