Philoking.comfrom Jason Burns’ perspective…

Strange things happen when you can’t sleep. Last night I laid down completely intending to get some good sleep and making a stab at going to work this am. About 1 AM I finally got up and went down to the office to plink around.

Last night’s grand adventure? I decided to install Windows Vista Ultimate, 64 bit Edition on my new machine. I did a little research first to make sure my hardware was good to go and that my games would still run and all was well in the world. After having my mind settled a bit, I popped in the second disk in the Vista packaging and rebooted the computer.

A Needle In A Haystack
The install itself is identical and just as painless as the standard Vista install. Once it’s back up, then the fun begins. I had three devices that did not install automatically. Unfortunately for me, the most important one was the network adapter. The “SMB Bus Controller” was second on the list as well as the obvious, the nVidia 8800 GT video card I had just put in the system.

The nVidia driver is a no brainer, it’s available in 64-bit on their website, the other two are a different story. When you put in my computer’s model number, select Vista 64-bit as the OS, you find a staggeringly short list of 3 files, none of which are actually drivers. This left me with a quest at hand.

• Identify the network card and chipset
• Find actual 64-bit drivers for them

After tracking down a cryptic number for the network card, and doing some reading, I found that the PROVISTA64.EXE package on intel’s website will work with the onboard network controller, I moved it over sneakernet style and that at least got me on the network so I could install the nVidia reference drivers.

It took some research, but I finally identified my chipset as an intel G33 express and found appropriate drivers on intel’s website. They installed without event and I was back at ground zero. I clean Vista Ultimate box with no software (after about 500MB of Windows Updates of course).

Back To Basics
So I began with the most simple so if I crashed out at this point it would be usable in the morning. I installed Office 2007 Standard, Firefox, Windows Live Writer & Live Gallery, Flickr Uploader and Adobe Photoshop so I could do my basic work.

Game On
Ah, on comes Crysis. I have already documented my disappointments with Crysis previously, but let me say that the combination of 64-bit Vista, Crysis update 1.1 and the nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, Crysis is a dream!

I am running it at 1920×1200 with all settings on high and it’s incredibly fluid. I didn’t take a whole lot of time to play it as I finally managed to be tired, but what I did look at was more than impressive. When I got up this morning, I called Dawn in to take a peek and she sat in the chair in something near a state of awe at this game. It’s truly impressive.

Final Thoughts
This could very well just be me, but 64-bit Vista just “feels” faster. It opens dialogs and navigates the UI faster, it opens IE faster…it just has a more snappier feel to it. And I haven’t even installed SP1 yet. Perhaps I will give that a shot later and then sneak another 4 GB of ram into the system to make it truly a beast to be reckoned with.

I know it was to be expected. I also know that if I had bought my new PC with the intention of PC gaming I would have done it quite differently. The past few days since Friday have been a blur and kind of frustrating, but three days and over $1,600 later, I have something pretty darned decent.

Friday - Vista Score: 3.5
Before placing my order to generico brown box and co (www.cyberpowerpc.com) I decided to take a peek at Costco and low and behold I came home with a new computer. The computer in question was an HP Media Center PC. 2.66Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 2 gigabytes of ram, 400 gigabyte hard drive, TV Tuner, Radio Tuner, nVidia Geforce 8400 GS video card and a whopping 24″ 1920×1200 LCD Monitor running Windows Vista Home Premium. All was right in the world and as I started uninstalling Norton and the other associated garbage off the machine, and began installing my software I needed to use, I was pretty happy with the computer.

That evening I installed Lord of the Rings Online to get a feel for the computer’s graphics capability and that’s when all hell broke loose. I went to bed out $1199 not including tax and knew I was about to re-open the wallet.

Saturday - Vista Score: 4.5
I got up bright and early and headed down to Fry’s Electronics to pick up a beefier video card and some more ram. When I got home and finished my installation I had 4 gigabytes of ram (Vista only saw 3) and a XFX nVidia GeForce 8600 GT with 512MB of ram. The card set me back $168 and the ram another $78 so at this point I was out $1445 not including tax.

After installing SP1 the ram was great, but the video card, although a great step up from the 8400, left something to be desired at any decent resolution. Crysis ran ok at medium settings at a moderate resolution and so did Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, but just not up to what I consider acceptable so I was prepared to make an exchange.

Sunday - Vista Score: 4.5
Yea, Sunday just didn’t count. I was so sick I really didn’t even touch the damned thing. I did blow my nose alot and take about 10 hot baths, that should count for something…but I digress, and I digress still at $1445 not including tax.

Monday - Vista Score: 5.5
Having gotten little to no sleep Sunday night I really didn’t touch the computer during the day at all, I did know that at some point I would be making a 15 mile pilgrimage to Fry’s Electronics to return the video card I had just bought and get another, but we’ll get to that after the afternoon delivery. Dawn was taking her family to the company store so I asked her to pick me up a new keyboard and mouse for the new computer. I selected the Microsoft Reclusa Gaming Keyboard and Microsoft Explorer 3.0 Mouse. They showed up around 1 PM and I am quite happy with them.

About 6 PM I mustered the energy to take a little road trip. The exchange process at Fry’s is pretty painless and in less than 15 minutes I was back on my way home with a XFX nVidia GeForce 8800 GT with 512MB of ram. I got back home and unboxed it, took a peek at the specs and then at my computer and realized my power supply was about 150 watts short of the recommended spec. Not wanting to brown out and destroy a new video card I had just plunked $289 down on, I reached into my existing PC which had a 500 watt power supply powering a 128MB anemic GeForce circa 2004, I made the exchange (not as easily as I had hoped) and was back up and running. This brought the total to $1626 and I had something worth using.

Add into that the purchase of Crysis, Halo 2 for Vista, Rise of Legends and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and this was not a very cheap weekend. I guess the good thing is I have quite a nice computer setup for playing around on with games and what not. I am sure Dawngrrl will be doing some great game reviews on some of the latest PC games now which is something we haven’t been able to do until now. But that’s the saga. I can’t say it’s been fun, but I can say it’s what I have come to know and expect from the world of PC Gaming.

To throw something interesting and different into the mix, I flattened the hard drive and am currently installing Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition on the computer. I’ll probably go pick up another 4 GB of ram to make it a atrocious 8 GB too

This morning I was up as soon as my body would allow and on my way to Fry’s. I had decided that my newly purchased PC would bring me back into the realm of PC gaming a bit. That being said it was a little anemic in the Video department and I couldn’t exactly be running around with a laptop that has more ram than my desktop!

I picked up a 512 MB nVidia GeForce 8600 GT to replace the 256MB 8400 GS and I also picked up 4GB of DDR2 Ram to beef it up a bit. A nice set of Logitech surround speakers and a battery backup completed the trip and I was on my way home again.

The video card went without a hitch, the Ram was another story. I installed, all was good, but Vista only reported 3GB of available RAM. Doing a little research, I found out SP1 fixed this issue and having access to it, I tried it. I am happy to report that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 does solve the 4GB RAM issue.

On a related note, 4GB of RAM was $79. Are you kidding me!?? If I ever switch this box over to the 64-bit version of Vista you can guarantee I’ll be back for another 4 to give it a whopping 8GB.

The point of all of this is just to mention what I had conveniently forgotten about PC gaming. While the games I have picked up to play around on are awesome… Crysis, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and Lord of the Rings Online.. I had not realized how spoiled I had become in the world of console gaming.

It’s been a long time since I maniacally changed resolutions, texture details, terrain distances…..just to find the perfect match for the game and the PC’s capabilities.

I am happy to say that on medium settings Crysis performs quite admirably and with the addition of a wired Xbox 360 controller, it’s quite a bit of fun to play.

GRAW2 is just awesome, it picks up right where I left off with Rainbow 6 Vegas on the Xbox 360 and I can’t wait to play it more.

The jury is still out on LOTR Online. I wasn’t overly impressed with it the first time but as I refuse to get sucked back into WoW, it’s going to have to be my MMORPG fix.

That being said I am quite happy with this new computer. The new monitor is just jawdropping. 24 glorious inches at 1920×1200 resolution makes for one sweet gaming monitor. Tack onto that full 5.1 surround sound and pack it all in nice sleek black components and you have the makings of one sweet mid-range gaming rig.

The final tally is:

• 2.66Ghz Core 2 Duo processor
• 4 GB of PC2-5300 RAM
• 400GB SATA Hard Disk
• Dual Layer Lightscribe DVD+/- RW
• TV Tuner with Media Center Remote
• Full compliment of USB/Firewire ports
• wireless keyboard and mouse
• Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 1
• 24" 1920×1200 Widescreen LCD Monitor
• Logitech 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers
• Xbox 360 Controller

With the total investment coming in at around $1,500, I am quite pleased and the machine is just fast. It runs Vista incredibly well. When I feel a bit better I will dive into the Microsoft included media applications and compare/contrast them with the OS X/iLife counterparts.