TW's PC Adventure Thread

[Twilight Wolf]

Holy freakin' flax, you guys.

I just installed TF2. Maxed out EVERYTHING, 8x MSAA, 16x AF, all that good stuff. ABSOLUTELY GORGOUS, and in empty 2fort, I'm getting around 170fps, and up to 200fps in some places. And might I add that this is at 1920x1080?

Holy flax. o_o

Right now I'm off to try the video stress test in Counter-Strike: Source. I'll post the results when I'm done.

EDIT: Done. Average of 248fps.

Wow.

 

[Joeyjoe9876]

i'm going to steal that computer.

 

[jleemero]

And now you know what it's like.

 

[XCVG]

I forgot which video card you have. Which one is it?

 

[Bibin]

And now you know what it's like.

This.

Except at 2048x1152

 

[Twilight Wolf]

i'm going to steal that computer.

Good luck, you're gonna need it.

And now you know what it's like.

YES. And I love it.

I forgot which video card you have. Which one is it?

Sapphire Radeon 5770. I already overclocked it, too.

And now you know what it's like.

This.

Except at 2048x1152

I don't know, 1920 x 1080 is pretty nice on its own. :O

Also, I overclocked my CPU to 3.4 GHz, and I unlocked the other two cores in my Phenom II X2 to make it a quad-core. With multi-core rendering enabled in TF2, I've noticed my performance increase noticeably -- I just came from a 24-man Gold Rush match, and even in massive firefights, my framerate never dropped below 59/60. Totally badass!

 

[samjc3]

my god thats amazing!
what was the final cost of this build?

 

[jleemero]

By the way, you weren't maxed out.
Not even close.

There are settings you can touch outside of the normal ones given to you by the options menu.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

I know of a few of those. mat_picmip -10 is one I have enabled. I know there's one for the "Meet the Team" models, but supposedly there's no facial animation, which isn't any fun.

Unfortunately, TF2 keeps crashing on me whenever I change maps. I'm trying to find a fix for this now. :<

EDIT: I reinstalled the game and that seems to have fixed it so far. *Fingers crossed*

 

[Twilight Wolf]

So, I went to Goodwill today and picked up a SpeedStream DSL modem for $10. Probably not a permanent fixture, but it'll do until I have more money and can get something superior. I now have a wired connection and am successfully connected to the internet with it right now, but the real test will come once I try gaming a little later on tonight. If the ping spikes are gone, I'll be totally happy. Wish me luck!

 

[Twilight Wolf]

So, the modem I bought seems to work fine. Played for several hours last night, no ping spikes. I was really happy! That's all well and good, right? I fixed the problem? Maybe.

But now there's a new problem.

All last night while I was using my desktop, nobody else in the house could access the internet. Our 2wire modem/router that provides a Wifi signal for all our laptops apparently wasn't doing anything all night. Nobody could connect. I turned my modem off, and now the 2wire box is working fine again (I'm posting this from my Mom's laptop to make sure). Holy flax. Why is it that whenever I buy something in an attempt to fix a problem the thing I buy either turns out to be broken or makes things worse?

 

[J.D]

Sucks to be you.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

Not helpful.

 

[J.D]

Umm...get a different router? Hopefully it's not a coxucker modem.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

Yay, spend even more money I don't really have for an attempted solution that might do something. ._.

And it's not a Cox modem - it's SBC, just like our 2wire. I'd be surprised if it were Cox, though, since the only area of Nevada that can get it is Las Vegas.

 

[PalmerTech]

You cannot use two modems in the same house off the same phone line.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

Oh, well, I guess that's it, then. Wonderful, back to wireless for me, then, and $10 down the drain.

So... what should I do now? I still don't have the space for a modem that can replace our 2wire (seriously, that SpeedStream is tiny, like the size of two CD cases on top of each other, which is one of the reasons I liked it), and chances are something decent will cost me too much money. I got $100 for my birthday, free-and-clear, it wasn't to help pay off my desktop, nothing like that, $100 cash. I wanted to use it to maybe buy a few games and a couple of other odds and ends I wanted. Did I get to? Of course not. I've already wasted $60 of it trying to get my computer on the internet, and seeing how much that money helped, I'm not wild about the idea of spending even more of it.

I feel like King Midas in reverse: everything I touch turns to flax.

FML.

 

[vskid3]

So what exactly is your problem? It sounds like your other modem is one that has wireless built in, correct? Try moving that one up to your room, plug your computer into the ethernet port on the back of the modem, and let everyone else use the wifi from it. Then you can return the wifi adapter you got from Best Buy.
Also, are you sure your ping spikes aren't caused by someone else in your house watching a youtube video or downloading something?

 

[J.D]

Oh, well, I guess that's it, then. Wonderful, back to wireless for me, then, and $10 down the drain.

I feel like King Midas in reverse: everything I touch turns to flax.

FML.

Fabulous, lol

 

[Twilight Wolf]

vskid, I don't have room for the 2wire box, which is the one that puts out a Wifi signal. I did have room for the SpeedStream modem, though, because like I said, it's only the size of two CD cases. It's also pretty old, so if I were to install anything everyone else was gonna use, too, I'd want something newer so everyone could benefit.

Also, I don't want to return the Linksys card I bought because there's nothing wrong with it. I'd feel dishonest.

As for the downloads/videos/whatever, I don't know why they would cause a problem because they never did in the past. It's only recently (the past few months) that I've been experiencing these ping spikes over wireless; it all started after I had already been playing TF2 on my Dad's laptop with no problems for a month or two. Nothing changed in our network, we have no sort of bandwidth cap or anything, etc., so I don't know why it happens.

Either way, I removed the modem from my room. I'm on wireless again.