The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

PC: $1,200
ISP: $45.00
Babysiter: $25.00
Space Empires IV: $50.00
24 hour turn fest: Priceless

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Cost of ownership http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

That is one expensive PC, especially for SE4. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Well, if you put a bunch of AI's into a game with one of your maps, turn processing starts to take a while. I had a game that was taking about 300 to 400 seconds on my old workstation. Moving it to the FX cut the turn around down to less than 60 seconds.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

And in ten years, twenty ai's and a 255 system map with full tech and sphereworlds all around will take no more than 20 seconds.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

I dunno, my 733 Mhz Pentium cost me 'bout $2000. When I bought it. That was in 2000.

Yes its less powerful than an AMD system I could build from parts costing $500 these days.

Saturday I'm off with a friend to a computer fair. I'm going to see if I can get a computer or the parts to build one -- cheaply enough that his wife doesn't skin us alive.

His Compaq Presario just doesn't cut it any more. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

[Edited to correct values-found the reciept]

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Man we have come so far so fast when it comes to CPU power and the size of memory and Hard Drives.

In 1996 I bought an Acer P75 with a whopping 840 Meg hard drive, 4 Megs ram, and a blazing fast 14.4 modem.

Just 8 short years later, and many rounds of Moore's Law, and we are sporting 4 Gig CPU's with an average of 1 gig of Ram and 250 Gig hard drives with 512 meg Video cards as the norm.

We have come a long ways, I wonder what the next 8 years will bring.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

I'll have to buy a faster computer when SE5 comes out... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

I only have 40 gigs total hard-drive and 256 megs of memory. And I doubt my graphics card has near 512 megs.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Graphics cards are only at 256 MB max...

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

yeah, but SLI is back. he could be running dual...

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

I recently heard of near future technology where computers will utilise Quantum Entanglement (my understanding is whatever happens to one atom occurrs to its twin at the same time...same thing as information teleporting). This will allow the next generation of computers to be billions of times faster just by using a small number of atoms such as 16, althogh I may be commiting hyperbole it is a huge number like that. New quantum computers, private space ships, when younger I used to fantasise about being reincarnated in the future so I could see the future technology. I now believe perhaps I made the same wish 50 years ago http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

I want a flying car! Come on, who's with me! We want a flying car! We want a flying car! We want a flying car! We want a flying car! We want a flying car! We want a flying car! We want a flying car! We want a flying car!

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Narf, all cars can fly, you just need a very high cliff to launch it from. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

I just helped my brother build a new computer. The only thing he kept from the old one was the graphics card. The rig was built with these parts..

1- Mid Tower with 300w powersupply
1- ECS KT600 Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ CPU (2.08Ghz)
512mb DDR RAM
1- Samsung 120Gig HD

Total cost = $925 (with taxes)

We took his old 80 Gig HD and put it into his external USB drive caddy. (so he lost none of his data) Abandonned in his old computer.. 1 D-Link Network Card, 1 SBLive Value, 1 Dual Port USB card. So, all that is missing to make the old computer 'functional' again is a HD and Graphics card.

Personally, I'll be upgrading over the next year, and will change my parts in this order..

1- New gForce Graphics card. (No, I won't get an ATI, I've always had very very bad luck with that company. They are on my 'dead' list.)
2- New HD, 120Gig should do fine. (my 30Gig still has plenty of room, but it's due to be retired.)
3) New MB and CPU (an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ sounds good) but by the time I'm ready to change the MoBo, I expect there will be better out there for my target price.

This is a fun topic, anyone else with computer/upgrade stories?

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Well, i recently build some computers from discarded parts from the office... i upgraded my wife old Pentium 166 to a new Duron 600mhz in the following way:

Previously / After Upgrade:
Pentium 166 / Duron 600mhz
32MB Ram / 128MB Ram
1.2GB HD / 1.2GB HD
2mb Video Card / Onboard video card
33.6kbps modem / 56kpbs modem (onboard)
No network card / Network card (onboard)
Windows 95 / Windows 98

The only things i left from the original were the HD (because i didn´t have any from the scrapped computers of the office) and the external cask (my wife really love the external cask), then, wityh the pieces i got from her old computer, another 1.2gb HD and one of the casks from the office (and an old 14" screen) i built the following computer for my nephew:

Pentium 166
32 MB Ram
1.2Gb HD
2mb video card
33.6 Modem
No Lan
Windows 95

I considered putting linux in the old machine, but since my nephew never used any computers i thought Win95 would be easier to him.... just to complete my collecting, these are the configurations of my other computers:

Home / Office / Notebook
Duron 1.2ghz / Duron 1.4ghz / Via C3 1.0ghz
256mb Ram / 256mb Ram / 256mb Ram
60gb HD / 40gb HD / 30gb HD
Geforce2 64mb / Onboard Card (shared memory) / Onboard Card (shared memory)
No Modem / No Modem / 56kb Modem
No Lan / 10/100 Lan / 10/100 Lan
Windows XP / Windows XP / Windows XP

I still have a lot of old pieces and Boards from the computers sscrapped at the office, but only old things like Pentiuns 100 an 166, and don´t have any HD to put in them, but i´m waiting for the next upgrade frenzy in the office so i can get more pieces (i made an agreement with my colleagues at the office that i would fix any problem and upgrade their computers if they gave me the old Boards and equipaments when they upgrade, so i really don´t need to buy anything, just wait for they to upgrade...)

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

I have an old machine 200Mhz I paid 2300 for it had a LARGE (at that time) 4 Gig HD and 16 Meg ram!

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Go ahead and get one. Its already been tested in California altho the new dutch design looks more promising.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

"The more things change, the more they stay the same"

Ive had some pocket-rules about PC tech which have held fairly true for a long time. Like when people say "should I wait for the price to come down" I tell them that prices havent come down in years. Basically its $1000 for the computer people are starting to get rid of, $2000 for the one everyone has, and $3000 for the one they want if they could just swing the cash.

Then of course I often end up in the personal server territory when talking about the left over pieces and thats where the surprises come in. If you buy one then the prices shift to $200, $500, $1000 respectively. And when they ask about filling in things like graphics/sound/harddrive I tell them to go absolute minimum since no shop can give you one too small. People are surprised that it takes far less machine to server their needs than their desktop machine. And the only things worth spending money on are CPU and memory.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Eh, I don't know about the "$1000 for what everyone's getting rid of". I built my current one for $1300 a year ago, and that's including LCD monitor, surround speakers. Since then, it got mangled by UPS, and I built it again with the insurance check and some salvaged parts, so I have right now:

P4 3.4GHz on an Intel board
1GB PC2700 (I bought this for an AMD processor, so that's why the lower speed)
gForce 5900 128MB DDR
MAYA 5.1 Surround Card
40 GB HDD
160 GB HDD
LiteOn DVD+/- Burner
Altec Lansing 5.1 surround speakers
17" LCD screen
Epson C66 Inkjet

I also got a copy of Win2K Pro free through the CS department at school, since my tuition partially goes to pay outrageous fees for MSDN access http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif

So, even if you factor in the cost I would have paid to buy a copy of Windows, I ended up paying around $1500 a year ago for a computer most people were paying $2500 to get from Dell/Compaq/et. al.

I also (re)built my parent's computer over the summer, from an Athlon 733MHz/128MB they got 5 years ago to a AthlonXP 3000+/512MB DDR. New case, board, processor, memory, and a cheap video card came out to a whopping $300. For a machine they most likely won't need to replace for another five years (heck, they didn't really even need to replace the 733, but something got fried on the board).

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Building one is always an advantage. You can usually get a gain of at least one level by doing it yourself. Im usually being asked about the price of computers, and whether or not they should wait for the price to come down on the new models. I tell them that if you do, its not the new model anymore. The computers move but the prices dont. There will just be another computer in that same price slot.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

The note about graphics/sound/harddrive space applies to desktops, but it doesn't really apply to gaming machines.

There you 100% DON'T want to do the cheapest option unless its actually an old part that's been reduced- often the bottom of the line parts are, ah, [censored], and the previous generation works much better.

That and gaming machines typically need more graphics more and -sometimes- HD space than plain desktop machines.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Doh! I forgot, my brother also bought a new DVD/CDRW combo 52/32/52. the old computer has a separate DVD player and CDRW. so he saved on space and the DVD/CDRW combo only cost him 59$

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

That's not flying, that's falling. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif
Where do you buy from?

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

I beg to differ Narf, it's flying up until the moment of harsh landing. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif (of course, the sudden decelleration will be drastic and punishing.)

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I see your silly and raise you two degrees of sanity. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Muahahahahaha.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

My guess would be any combination of directly from the hardware manufacturers, Online stores which sell at discounts, or computer fairs. Any of these sources will allow you to buy the hardware and assemble the PC yourself at often _half_ the cost of buying an equal PC from a PC manufacturer would (especially from the insidious likes of Dell). Sure you don't get the tech support from that company, but the tech support is often only good at reading scripts anyways... Nearly all pieces of hardware will have warranties provided by the manufacturer, so you can just get replacement parts from them if something fails (within 1-3 years or however long the warranty is).

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Nope. For an object to be flying, it has to be substantially altering it's course by it's own power. A car's wheels provide to little air friction to even minimally alter it's course. And it is not gliding, because a car's body also provides too little lift to minimally alter it's trajectory. You're the silly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif It's falling. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Will what do you mean "mangled" by UPS? Did they run over you computer or something?

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Same thing happened to my computer, sort of, when I shipped it with UPS - when I got it somehow they had managed to knock the CPU chip out its slot!!! Anyways, problem was easily fixed but boy was I mad about that! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

NEVER - ship your PC. Man what were you guys thinking? If you have to ship something like that, you fill it full of foam or an old towel. They knock them around horridly. Besides I have had a lot of thing stolen while being shipped via UPS. We ordered four pistols for our shop once, two day delivery, when they arrived two weeks later, two of the four were missing, and the remaining two were missing their clips and barrels. UPS did not accept responsiblity for it, despite the fact that the shipment was IN THEIR CARE. Needless to say, I was not the only deal to have this happen. Since they were purchased via the business visa, visa covered the theft.

I ordered Dungeon Odessy and what I got was an empty wet evelop with a tire mark on it. Shrapnels great customer service handled the problem for me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Thank guys. I think that on was shipped FedX.

UPS, FEDX, USPS, none of them care about the package, all they care about is the quota to get the done. So ship at own risk now.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

A friend told me this story. He was entering his place of work on Wall St. When he heard a *BANG*. He flinched and ran -- because it sounded like a gunshot. Again and again. *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

It was the UPS guy ... unloading computer monitors. He was delivering them, so I assume they survived.

Maybe they know something about packaging materials that we don't. Or just don't care.

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

That's not falling, that's falling...with style! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

We have always bought our computers. But I plan on building my next one for home use. It is always nice knowing that you put together such a wonderful machine. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Popular Mechanics had an article about a flying car back in the 60's. It had wings that you folded up and put in the trunk when driving on the street. If I remember correctly, it looked something like a VW. They predicted that everyone would be flying cross country within 10-15 years.
I find that it's difficult to deal with bad drivers; it would be worse if all of them could fly!

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

Yeah, I've seen stuff about that flying car on tv. But I havn't seen anything saying it's for sale, so it doesn't help me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: The Truth About Space Empires IV
 

A flying car would be so fun to drive! I sure hope they go on sale one day! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

No more traffic jams...