New Computer this week

Submitted by Nick on Mon, 01/07/2008 - 12:39pm

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Computers

I'll be assembling a new machine on Wednesday, and I currently plan on running Vista. Any tips from those who have already built a Vista box?

This will also be my first dual-core proc. I'll check out some of the standard websites for info as well, but thought I'd see what y'all have to say.

Current computer core bits: Athlon 64 3700+ (2.21GHz), 2GB RAM, 2x GeForce 6800 in SLI

New: Athlon 64 X2 6400+ (3.2G), 4GB RAM, 2x GeForce 8600GTS in SLI

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You might check for speaker

Submitted by griffon on Wed, 01/16/2008 - 2:26pm.

You might check for speaker settings in windows media player. Also I think the vista sound widget has different behavior modes like speech etc that you control the properties on individually. No idea how well any of that will behave with creative, who hasn't written a good driver in years.

well

Submitted by Nick on Sat, 01/12/2008 - 1:46am.

All the speakers work if tested through Vista system settings or the Creative panel. Using a program called ALchemy from Creative, I've gotten surround working with DDO and LotRO, but still not with Half-life 2 (which I'd like to actually finish when I play one day again). No idea what the issue is with WIndows Media Player not utilizing the other speakers, though it isn't really important I guess.

I still need to reinstall and setup TS before I try to game with the group again. Speaking of which looks like you're still on tonight, but it's really late here already so I'll check in next time.

The sound controls are

Submitted by griffon on Fri, 01/11/2008 - 9:54pm.

The sound controls are pretty good for vista but the sound card drivers tend to lag WAAAYYYY behind. Especially creative for some reason. If you poke around you might just be able to enable it, failing that I consign you the hell of creative lab driver support :p.

not 64

Submitted by Nick on Thu, 01/10/2008 - 3:18pm.

The licensing agreement allowed me to get Vista Ultimate, not Vista 64 (which means my computer is only recognizing about 3.4GB of RAM rather than all 4GB).

I've got everything up and running. The only issue I've discovered so far is that I don't get 3D sound in LotRO with my Soundblaster X-FI. I've already tried updating my OpenAL drivers and my card's drivers. It's a little annoying to go from a 5.1 sound setup to a 7.1 and notice you're only getting stereo sound. I need to test other games out with this as well now, though it seems to be happening with Windows Media Player as well.

The issues Mike mentions are

Submitted by griffon on Wed, 01/09/2008 - 11:22pm.

The issues Mike mentions are more prolific in the 64 bit version of vista, but stability will be better.

A Few Comments

Submitted by szaijan on Tue, 01/08/2008 - 2:26pm.

1 8800GT >> 2 8600 in SLI. Other than DX10 performance and better performance in many games poorly optimized for SLI (most, in my experience), noise and heat are much better on the 8800GT.

Create a second Vista account that is NOT the admin account and use that one almost exclusively.

DDO will need to be run in XP SP2 compatibility mode. Just change the properties of the shortcut.

Make sure you pay attention to all of the firewall dialogs and answer them appropriately, especially when running an app for the first time under Vista.

If an app fails to launch properly, look for a covered up Admin permissions dialog and approve it.

Have fun!

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