Changing CPU?

[Emre Yigit]

(I guess this is the best forum for this question?)

OK. It seems I need to upgrade my cpu (PII 400MHz) at least, and possibly my video card. I have enough (256MB PC-100) RAM, and plenty hard disk.

I have never changed cpus. Is it difficult? What should I be aware of? Is it as simple as detach one cpu and plonk in another?

Can anyone help, or point me to a nice online site?

 

[Jos Theelen]

I don't have an answer, I have probably the same question.
My present system has 128 RAM and 366 MHz CPU. EU2 is slow, with these specifications. What would the the smartest, more RAM, another CPU or both ?
What can people advice ?

 

[Derek Pullem]

PII 400 is ok (that's my spec) if you play at 800x600, music off. Will get some lag but its acceptable IMHO. If you are going to upgrade, double the RAM to 256 MB or more. Easy to do and won't cost more than $20-25. Should get an enormous performance boost and might also reduce crashes (less disc writing).

Changing processor is complicated and I wouldn't bother in a BX board. Wait till you buy a new machine. EU2 is good at faster speeds but not THAT good.

 

[viper37]

First, try without the music if the game runs faster. If it does, than instead of changing CPU, buy a new sound card with a dedicated MP3 processor and a lot of memory. This should increase your speed dramatically.

Personnally I have an old Monser Sound II card, wich is about equivalent to a Sound Blaster AWE 32 (old thing) and the game is slow with music and sound effects. Sound cards don't cost that much and they are easier to change than CPU.

And besides, I think I heard people complain the game was slow even with high-end machine.

Changing your CPUs is complicated to do if you've never done it. It's fragile, there's a lot of tiny pins and they have a tendancy to react badly to brute force . And if you change CPU, you are limited by what your MB supports and you will have jumpers to change. Newer boards handle this with the bios, but PII 400 is on the board, either dip switch or jumpers, anyway, you'll need your manual to know the correct config (it might be found on the web, at you mb manufacturer's web site).

If you want to increase overall speed, chech with this site, and try some of their tricks:
www.tweak3d.net

A word of advice: do some backups before you change anything in your registry (see the sticky thread) or before you delete any files you don't know on your drive.

 

[Emre Yigit]

Thanks all. Keep the advice flowing.

 

[viper37]

This game doesn't use 3D graphics, so even if you have a GeForce 3, you won't notice any improvements in the speed realm.

About the Music: Try to disable the music, and then load WinAmp and have it play all the music in the background. I'd like to know if it changes something in regards to the game speed (I can't do it myself, my card won't support it).

 

[King]

Originally posted by Emre Yigit
(I guess this is the best forum for this question?)

OK. It seems I need to upgrade my cpu (PII 400MHz) at least, and possibly my video card. I have enough (256MB PC-100) RAM, and plenty hard disk.

I have never changed cpus. Is it difficult? What should I be aware of? Is it as simple as detach one cpu and plonk in another?

Can anyone help, or point me to a nice online site?

I have chnaged my CPU in my PC. I also needed to replace the main baord, the powerpack, and the CPU fan. Thre again I went from an Pentium III 500 to an AMD 1100. I would check these things before replacing the CPU. It could save you a lot of trouble. Actually fitting the CPU wasn't that difficult (compared to doing the rest).