Here is my current system history and specs, since I am going to ask a bunch of questions about this, and don’t want to have to re-write it for every question. I started with a white box computer that my older brother gave me before moving out – about 8 years ago. It was OK, and it was free. The first thing I did to the computer was add a Creative Fatal1ty sound card. It was a big improvement over the on-board sound, and I ran it through an amp and set-up a small 5.1 system which rocked. Then I got into Quake and Unreal, and had to start-up grading my system. In 2006 my brother visited, and since I was happy with the Fatal1ty sound card, we got one of their ABIT-Fatal1ty Fp-IN9 Motherboards, and he bought me an Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 - 3.46 Ghz ( 1066MHZ ) - 2MB X 2 L This was a big improvement, but I was lacking in the graphics card department, and on eBay I was able to snag a used XFX-Fatal1ty 8800GTS which made Quake a hell of a lot more fun!! I ran this for a couple of years with no problem till my original Antec PSU crapped out on me. Went on NewEgg and their in the PSU section was a 550W Fatal1ty power supply by OCZ, and I also upgraded my memory to the OCZ Fatal1ty memory. So, in a round about way, I kind a ended up with a Fatal1ty computer system. It is funny cuz I didn’t really know Fatal1ty was a gamer till I got the motherboard and his story was on it. I am not interested in competitive gaming, but I like the Fatal1ty brand cuz most of the parts in my system are Fatal1ty brand, and I am quite happy with them. I use my computer now about 8-10 hours a day, at least 6 days a week. I have not had any hardware problems, with the exception of the Antec PSU, which was 6 years old when it died. About 6 months ago, I replaced all my hard drives with the following SATA set-up: One OCZ Agility 120GB SSD – Windows XP and application drive (Thanx Bro!!) Two Hitachi 7800 rpm 500 GB hard drives More then enough storage space for the next decade. I have NO overclocking on the system. The current system produced the following 3DMark scores (I don't have any newer versions of 3DMark): 3DMark03 = 33330 3DMark06 = 6548 I don’t know if this is fast, but my system has been super stable and serves me well. Summary Specs: Mobo = ABIT-Fatal1ty Fp-IN9 775 LGA Socket CPU = Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 - 3.46 Ghz CPU Cooler = Zalman 9500a Memory = OCZ Fatal1ty DDR2 1066MHz 4 GB Fatal1ty Edition Dual Channel Kit Graphics = XFX-Fatal1ty 8800GTS - 320 MB - GDDR3 SDRAM Sound Card = Creative-Fatal1ty Champion Series X-FI PSU = OCZ-Fatal1ty 550w Modular PSU DVD = Memorex Lightscribe DVD-RW OS = Win XP SP3 – 32 bit Are these 3DMark score reasonable for my system? I am not looking to game professionally, I just want a good and fun experience for some on-line Quake Live gaming. 3DMark03 = 33330 3DMark06 = 6548
Ok, first off, Fata1ity isn't a brand... ABIT, OCZ, Creative....those are brands. But, for your system, those scores are about right. Faster processor would increase your scores though. With a more balanced system, you should be up around 8-9k I believe, if not a little higher. The Fata1ity logo is nothing but a gimmick to sell overpriced parts. They don't perform any better than parts not carrying that logo. The quality of the parts isn't any better. They just cost more. Your motherboard will support faster processors, unfortunately there's no longer any support for any ABIT products as they're no longer in business.
er whats the context? you mean is it a reasonable result for your rig or reasonable to game with nowadays with?, for the first i would say yes, for the second i would say barely
yea those scores look about right.. i had p4 530 @ 3.6ghz with a 8800gts 320mb and got around 5900-6200k in 3dmark06 at win xp.. im not sure anymore, but when i upgraded to this q9450 with oc @ 3.2ghz i got 13.800k with same gpu.
That CPU is basically obsolete. But if Quake or some of the older games are all you are in to, should be OK. And if it has 'served you well' for what you currently do with it, then why spend money for newer parts?
Thanks for the input. Actually, I am trying to figure this out - why should I spend more on newer parts. I first wanted to find out where my current system stands. Concerning the Fatal1ty brand, I did take a class on branding and marketing, and many manufactures like ABIT, Creative, OCZ and others license brands like Fatal1ty as a way to attack a niche market or differentiate their products. I looked into this yesterday concerning the Fatal1ty brand, and it looks like that all the manufactures put unique features into their Fatal1ty products and Johnathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel does seem to have varying levels of involvement product development. The below video is a good example of this: http://www.youtube.com/user/Fatal1tyTV#p/u/38/oWvVPJY2GGM Again, I have had a very positive experience with the Fatal1ty branded products. I can't say for sure that they just slapped a label on them and charged more - that is not how most brand marketers think. I came upon the brand because the features I wanted of the Creative X-FI sound card were only available in the Fatal1ty branded version, which kinda shows that it wasn't Creative slapping a label on the card and charging more money for the same product. I am a good example of how branding works. I am happy with Fatal1ty branded parts, so I trust the brand and will buy Fatal1ty products over others. On the other hand, I am thinking about a new motherboard, and I will not buy a Fatal1ty one since they don't make any now.
IF you are looking to upgrade a new motherboard, CPU and GPU would all be in order, the rest of your system is fine by the standards of the day. I'd look into a new mobo & CPU, but depending on what games you play and the resolution you may get some more life out of the GPU.
No offense, but the hardware with the "Fata1ity" moniker attached to it, isn't even high-end anymore. It includes parts such as: XFX GeForce 9600GSO (mid-range DX10 gaming) XFX GeForce 9400GT (entry level/budget DX10 gaming) DDR2-1066 (CL5 or CL6) DDR3-1333 (CL9, 1.8v - CL6-CL8 would be performance memory, Core i7 needs memory voltage 1.65 or lower) X-Fi ExtremeAudio (software based audio processing handled by the CPU) X-Fi ExtremeGamer (identical to the standard X-Fi ExtremeGamer) X-Fi Go (mobile version of the ExtremeAudio) Anyone that buys those parts...are paying strictly for the "Fata1ity" moniker as they're all entry-level or mid-range parts. None of them are "high-end" like Fata1ity.com claims....nor are they "used by the pros". http://www.fatal1ty.com/ If you're looking to buy only "Fata1ity" labeled parts for future upgrades....your only options are OCZ Power Supplies or Creative sound cards as nobody else is doing "Fata1ity" labeled components anymore. He lost credibility when "Fata1ity" got slapped on low-end parts like the 8500GT....which is no longer available.
I got a good chuckle from this. I can get though why some one new to pc building would think everything with the Fatal1ty logo is Ultra high end or ultra high quality. Thats what they bank on in order to peddle the warez, people who simply dont know any better and get duped into a good marketing ploy. They did have a few great items in that marketing line though, esp the XFX 8800 GTS. Got to mention though that most people who cared to do so were able to get the same performance from their 8800 GTS OC cards by oc'ing to the same clocks as XFXs card, so mostly you were just paying for the convenience of not having to oc that high yourself and do heavy testing at that oc to make sure it was stable. And please dont take this as a insult Pentium691, it is just really obvious you are new and that you dont have any real incite as to how the pc parts market works. You are def not a experienced builder. You can learn a lot here though if you are interested in doing a new build. At any rate, you def have some untapped power left in your graphics card if you wanted to swap to a better cpu/motherboard combo. A 8800 GTS OC can hit 9000-11,000 in 3D Mark 2k6 fine if you have a solid build. Honestly though this is not needed if your current system does exactly what you want it to at performance you find acceptable, and you don't feel you need anything more out of it.
