Team Fortress 2 Server Up!!!

[Pilot_51]

Just get more RAM and you should be good to keep all your background apps running. RAM is ridiculously cheap these days, like 2GB DDR2 800 for around $40.
You should see my system tray, it has like 25 icons on average. I run so much stuff at once that I needed to double-size my task bar.

[RealPanda]

I wish paypal was faster :/
And I have to double size my taskbar too :P

[ShadowMarth]

I did upgrade this computer's RAM recently (to 1 GB), but it's really not worth it to upgrade this one any further. Getting a new computer soon, this one's been outdated for years.

[Pilot_51]

If it's still using DDR (not DDR2), then I don't blame you. A year ago I upgraded from a system limited to Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz), 4xAGP, DDR266, and ATA100. It could still play most of the new games like Doom3 and BF2, but I had to set them to the lowest settings if they were going to be playable.
I find that major upgrades (anything including the motherboard) are only needed about once every 4 years. My previous motherboard (currently in my server box) dates back to 2002; I upgraded to it right after I got BF1942. Believe it or not, BF1942 ran on my 350MHz system, but only at about 0.5fps or something crazy slow like that.

Save your cash for a new system. If you're custom building (as I highly recommend for gamers and people on a budget), then you could save some extra cash by reusing some of your old parts such as your case and disk drives and maybe a PCI card or two.

[Lite_Noxus]

Originally Posted by ShadowMarth

Yeah, but only for Steam games... However, I do shut down Xfire when I play TF2, because shutting down a bunch of background apps increases my framerate ridiculously. Soon I'll have a computer good enough that I won't have to do that, but for now... I've probably got 50+ hours not logged on Xfire.

I'm gonna sorta have to disagree with the only for steam games part because I believe I remember playing a non steam game and tab+shifting and it worked. Maybe I'll try it when I start caring again.

[Pilot_51]

I don't know Steam nearly as much as Xfire, but I do know Xfire has video recording capability while Steam doesn't and I'm not sure but I don't think Steam supports screenshots or uploading screenshots to profiles or any of that. I know Steam supports instant join for Steam games and mods, but does it support it for non-Steam games? Does it have a server browser and favorites list and recently visited list for non-Steam games? Does it support automatic downloading of game patches for non-Steam games? I think the answer to most if not all of these is "no". Therefore Steam is only useful for Steam games and for the most part only adds in-game chat with Steam users in non-Steam games.

I'm not saying either should replace the other, I'm just trying to prove a point that Steam isn't that great for non-Steam games vs. what Xfire is capable of doing. I use both because Steam is needed to play Steam games and about 10 reasons for Xfire.

[Wraith]

Originally Posted by Pilot_51

Save your cash for a new system. If you're custom building (as I highly recommend for gamers and people on a budget), then you could save some extra cash by reusing some of your old parts such as your case and disk drives and maybe a PCI card or two.

yeah. it is true.

I custom built a 4000 dollar PC.
The total cost was around...1500 dollars

[arthur_is_tight]

Wow man thats cool
are you using it now to post on TDS

[Pilot_51]

It cost me about $900 to upgrade nearly all the major components in my system. $200 was payment for building my sister's gaming PC about 4 months later, which I used to buy a new hard drive and fans and 2GB more RAM. Prices dropped insanely for some components, especially for RAM and video cards. Her entire system was built from the ground up for about $1100 with mostly better parts than I put in my system.

My upgrades (Jan.-Feb. 2007)
Athlon 64 X2 4200+: $169
High-end motherboard: $185
GeForce 7600GS 512MB PCI-E: $135
1GB DDR2 800 (Jan.): $130
1GB DDR2 800 (Feb., 12 days later, same brand/model): $115
My upgrades (June 2007)
400GB SATA2 hard drive: $90
2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800 dual-channel kit (yes, now 4GB): $93
3 LED case fans of different colors and bearing types + 1 black non-LED magnetic barometric bearing fan: $18
LED HDD cooler fan: $4

My sister's system (June-July 2007)
Same motherboard as mine: $185
Athlon 64 X2 4600+: $113
GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI-E: $140
2GB DDR2 800: $115
500W power supply: $90
250GB SATA2 hard drive: $60
19" 5ms widescreen LCD monitor: $190
PCI TV tuner card: $30
Black 3.5" floppy drive: $7
PCI 802.11g adapter: $46
Black SATA DVD±R burner w/LightScribe: $38
Logitech Media Elite black wired keyboard: $24
6 button + wheel laser gaming mouse: $23

[arthur_is_tight]

WOOOOW!!!!!!!0.0
DUDE that is allot of typing lol