BF2S Forums Suggestions and Questions

NamelessMarine wrote:

My Rig:

2.4ghz MMD 64 Processor
1gig RAM (twin 512 Kingmax)
ATI Radion 9600XT 256mb
nVidia nForce Audio (onboard for my DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb Motherboard)
Logitech $8 Optical Mouse
Logitech internet keyboard


I run the game ok but I have ingame ping of 61 (Verison DSL) and as you can see my vidcard is a bit outdated.  I was wondering if you would give me some suggestions on improvements?  I can't go out and buy the best vidcard out there, mainly because of cost but also because I dont' think its really nececary for a long time from now to accually get it.

Currently I'm looking at getting a Zboard, and an ATI Radion 9800XT.  Additionally I was thinking about getting a joystick and a better optical mouse (this one has some pretty odd tracking issues from time to time, sometimes it will accually "read" lines on a mousepad and the pointer will follow the line and not the mosue movement)

I was wondering if you guys could help me; mainly I'm just trying to make a better overall gaming rig.

You're not going to see much of a improvement going from a 9600XT to a 9800XT and Zboards aren't really all that.  They look cool, but you get about the same functionality from them as a regular keyboard.  It would be better to put more money towards a new video card and a new mouse.

For the vid. card, I would definitely go with a Radeon X800GT 256MB.  It's about $170 which is about $10 cheaper than a 9800XT and smokes it in the benchmarks.  You're kinda limited to what video cards you can upgrade to since you don't have a PCI-Express slot.  You can definitely get more card for your money w/ PCI-Express vs. AGP, but that's just the way the market is now.

For the mouse, I would suggest a Logitech MX518.  If you have the extra money, you could go for a G5, but you probably won't notice much a difference between having 1600dpi and 2000dpi.

As far as a joystick goes, I would get one only if you like to fly jets a lot.  With choppers, I've found it's a lot easier to fly and fly well with a mouse and keys vs. a joystick.  I can just make a lot more fine tune adjustments with a mouse than with a joystick.  With jets, you can fly a lot better with a joystick vs. a mouse and keys.  For joystick recommendations, you can go with either a Saitek Cyborg Evo (heard lots of good things about this one) or a Thrustmaster Top Gun Fox 2 Pro.  I'd stay away from the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro.  I used to have this one and had nothing but problems with it.  It wouldn't stay centered when you weren't even touching the stick (and I've read on these forums of a bunch of ppl. having the same problem with it).

Last edited by Xponential (2005-12-10 21:18:26)