Solution Or Best System For Enigma

I'm wondering those who haven't had any problems running Enigma, what type of system are you running?

Win 98, XP, etc. What kind of other hardware are you using?

Also if you did have problems, what did you do to solve it.

I'm prepairing to build a new system and upgrade to XP from Win98. I'll probably reuse my ATI 9700pro. Unsure of what soundcard to use. Maybe an Audigy. Any suggestions welcome.

I use windows xp home, and a geforce mx 440 vid card.

Sometimes when the game is loading once i have accepted a mission, the sound

and game blotches for a few secs,, i hit the (p) button and pause the game for

10 or 15 secs to let the game finish loading,,, once i see my hard drive indicator

light settle down i unpause the game and it works perfect from there on out.

I have only had the game "crash" one time on start up.

After reading a post from East saying there is actual problems in the encoding

on my video card itself when running enigma, i was concerned.

Im able to play other mmogs with no problems,, such as Everquest.

But as of now I am able to play the single player version pretty much ok.

Sometimes in a later mission with many ships in view if i hit the wide view

button my graphics glitches some, probably from so much data bein transffered

Well you dont have to replace your ATi card

Soundcard: SB Audigy 2 and you wont regret it

Pentium 4 2.4Ghz or greater (or AMD equviliant) (sp)

512MB DDR RAM

40GB ATA100 7200 RPM (or greater)

A CDROM drive

A Network card (or 56k modem)

Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor

Did I leave anything out? hehe:

My specs:

Windows XP Pro

CPU: Intel Pent?um 4 1.7Ghz

RAM: 512 MB DDR (PC2100)

HD0: 60GB Quantum ATA100 7200 RPM

HD1: 80GB Seagate ATA100 7200 RPM

Video: nVIDIA GeForce 5200

Sound: Creative SB Live 5.1 Player

CD0: SCSI Teac R56s CDBurner

CD1: SCSI Teac x320 CDROM

Floppy: Standard 1.44"

Mouse: Logitech Cordless Optical

Keyboard: Logitech Cordless Optical

Monitor: Phillips 17" CRT

Enigma runs 500% better after I added 256MB RAM extra in my box, but I wouldnt mind some extra CPU power, and I am most likely going to upgrade to a 3.06Ghz next year.

Oh and I have a standard Realtek Family 10/100mbit Network card too (how else can I be here)

Just my personal opinion, but I think Windows XP Pro is way better than the home edition.........I don't know why.......but seems to be more stable and can do some things that home can not.

What I got is,

Asus a7m MB

AMD 1.4

512 SDram (I thinks it was sdram)

ATI9700pro

SBlive (value or OEM , got it from the local shop unboxed)

Benq 16x dvd/ 48x cdrom

Sony 32X CD burner

Video Blaster VCR

Wetern Digital 60 gig 7200rpm HD

Acom 80 gig 5200rpm external USB drive

and an unknown 3.5" disk drive

Heavy JBL speakers & subwoofer, Koss headset,

TM Xfighter joystick, Hoffman Simped Rudder pedals and a TrackIR

I'm actually still pretty happy the way my machine runs. Enigma runs nice and smooth for the most part as does almost all the latest games I've gotten. Rather I should say being underpowered hasn't been real issue yet. The problem I've been having lately is with crashes and such. My last 3 titles I bought were Call of Duty which had video driver issues which have now been addressed. Lock-On modern air combat which doesn't run on Win98 and a boat load of other problems and lastly Enigma which runs great for 30 minutes or more at times until it freezes or just "poof" disapears. I've tried everything suggested that I could find anywhere to stop it other then reinstalling or upgrading Windows or flashing my bios. So if I have to go that far I might as well do the upgrade now. I would love to hear a problem has been adressed in a patch so I could put it off a bit, but it's already been mentioned that there is no problems with Enigma's code so that doesn't sound likely. So this might be the straw that broke the camels wallet open to go upgrade. Case, MB, ram, Soundcard and maybe one of them high speed HD's.

Oh and XP pro.

is that an AMD XP 1400 or a AMD that actually runs 1409Mhz? (AMD XP 1600 or so)

You dont need to upgrade your soundcard unless you really want to.

Case you dont need a new one unless youre tired of the old ones design.

You dont really need a new motherboard, Im sure you can just upgrade the CPU is if you like.

RAM: if you want more, add a new 256 or 512 MB stick to your current.

OS: Get rid of Win98 as fast as you can

Harddisk, Unless you need a 3rd drive you have no need to for a new Harddisk, but you could replace your slow USB drive

Finally: XP Home is according to Microsft not a good choice over XP Pro, XP Pro however costs more.

I once read an article and now I cant remember what the reason was, but they said it was buggy.

maxtor 120gb hd (7200 rpm)

512 ddr ram (2100)

nvidia gforce mx 440 (64mb ddr) vid card <<128mb equivalent>>(modified with larger cooling fan).

amd athalon 1.8 processor (1.56 ghz clock)

gigabyte motherboard

onboard sound (works fine)

10/10 ethernet (i use cable modem) very nice

is that an AMD XP 1400 or a AMD that actually runs 1409Mhz? (AMD XP 1600 or so)
You dont need to upgrade your soundcard unless you really want to.

Case you dont need a new one unless youre tired of the old ones design.

You dont really need a new motherboard, Im sure you can just upgrade the CPU is if you like.

RAM: if you want more, add a new 256 or 512 MB stick to your current.

OS: Get rid of Win98 as fast as you can

Harddisk, Unless you need a 3rd drive you have no need to for a new Harddisk, but you could replace your slow USB drive

Finally: XP Home is according to Microsft not a good choice over XP Pro, XP Pro however costs more.

I once read an article and now I cant remember what the reason was, but they said it was buggy.

It's a 1.4 thunderbird. Not an XP

I want the best soundcard. Good sound is very important to me. (Audigy 2 is what I'm gathering)

The A7m266 mb can go up to a Athlon XP 2100+(Model 6)(Palomino) but I'd have to update the bios. Which I'm a bit scared to do since I've never done that before. Also the Palomino's are hard to find.

I'd like to double the ram.

I'm going to try XP pro

I'd like to add another HD.

I'm not concerned about the USB drive now. It's only for backup. Pictures and some occational temporary TV video captures.

What I'm thinking of doing first if possible is get another HD and put XP pro on it. I can change the device sequence in my bios to boot on that drive when I want XP or vis versa.

Get it all set up while still having the win98se drive to fall back on.

I'm hoping this will be as simple as it seems and there wont be conflicts attempting this. I actually found a site that describes how to use more then 512 ram on win98se and have it actually use it.

http://jerseyd.com/ninetyeighttweaks.htm

So I'm hoping that won't cause problems when booting on the Win98 drive.

Doing this will give me a bit more time with the CPU and MB upgrade to see whats around the corner.

However I'm not exactly set on doing this. I wouldn't exactly mind having a faster CPU and FSB now.

I would, while youre at the upgrading process buy a new motherboard aswell as a CPU, one that supports 3Ghz CPUs (for Future upgrades)

ASUS.com is a good place to find the perfect motherboard.

Before you buy, you need to make up your mind of what CPU type you want. AMD or INTEL. Buy a motherboard for the CPU you want.

Also, the motherboard should have atleast 3 DDR DIMM Sockets (RAM Slots) and 4 or 5 PCI Slots, and the AGP Port should support x8

AMD Board

Intel Board

RAM: DDRRAM Type PC2700 or PC3200 (depending on your financials), 512 or 1024MB dont settle for less than 512.

Soundcard: State of the art right now other Audigy2 cards listed last on the page.

Videocard: Keep your ATi Radeon 9700 Pro.

Harddisk: Again it depends on your financials.

Maxtor 40GB or Maxtor 80GB

If you need larger drives:

Western Digital 120GB or Western Digital 250GB

Powersupply: You will most likely need a new one. 350watts or better.

Keep also your current Mouse, Keyboard, FLoppydrive, Networkcard, Joystick, Microphone, CD/DVD drives.

And keep also Case(cabinet) and Monitor (unless its smaller than 15")

OS: Windows XP Pro, dont settle for less.

Within this year MS will drop support for Win2000, that leaves WinXP and Win2003 as the only fully supported OS's

Flashing a BIOS is quite simple, all motherboard manufacturers has very detailed instructions for how to.

If ever in doubt then just dont do it, ask another for help or get the local PC store to do it.

If you flash your BIOS with an incorrect upgrade you wont be able to boot the computer untill the BIOS has been replaced.

Shout at me if I left anything out or need anything else