How I got Doom 3 working (and got my wife a new computer)

[TrogL]

You may I remember I was whining last week about Pentium 4's and video cards and how crappy Doom 3 ran on my computer.

My wife's IBM broke. It would keep rebooting. This is very similar to a problem I had last year. I ended up building a better computer for myself because my motherboard was fried. She had the same problem - the capacitors on her motherboard looked like donuts.

I went to my favourite computer store/junkshop. One of the kids spotted me drooling over an old Imagewriter and slapped me silly. One of them fell in love with a chassis (with neon lights and lasers) but I talked him down to one I could actually afford - it's black and green.

I had already bought a motherboard and RAM, but got floored by the price of Pentium 4 processors. I also realized there was no point in having hyperthreading because Windows 2000 doesn't support it. I ended up getting a 2.4 Gz. Celeron processor, some RAM, a Nvidia clone video card and a cheap DVD-ROM.

The plan was to build a new computer for me and let her have my castoff parts. It didn't work out that way. I really didn't want to reinstall and my installation hated the new motherboard, so I kept my motherboard and CPU and started building her box. It didn't come with a power supply and her CPU needed an extra lead that the original supply I was planning on using (the one from my old dead computer) didn't have it, so I gave her my supply and I used the old one. Then I put extra RAM in mine and the new video card. She got my old one.

Her IBM was black, with black components and I was able to get a black-faced DVD-ROM, so I cannibalized as many components as I could from her old IBM (ever seen a black floppy drive?) and shoved them in the new box.

My living room became a disaster. From left to right:

• Her computer with the covers off, wires everywhere
  
• My computer with the covers off, wires everywhere
  
• My linux box (runs at 120 Mhz - a whole other story)
  
• My laptop (downloading drivers)
  
• My synth rack, covered in cast off cables and hardware
  
• The guts of her old IBM, in a million pieces
  
• The guts of my old computer, in a million pieces
  
• The cat castle, with various broken motherboards perched on top
  
• The telescope, festooned with IDE cables
  
• The piano, covered in manuals, disks, chassis covers
  

I fired up her computer and installed Slackware (it's getting XP eventually).

I ran Doom 3. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! When people talk, their lips move at the same time, not 10 seconds later. You can actually hit a moving target. When you run, things go fast.

I ran Flight Simulator with the options turned way up. The control panel and scenery looked like you could reach out and touch it. The plane flew flawlessly with no flickers or jerks.

Total cost - about $500 CAN for major upgrades to TWO computers.

I may be able to salvage at least one of the motherboards and build a linux box out of it.

[fujiyama]

1. I played the Beta edition of the game

Cool game...great graphics and sound (very atmospheric and creepy ambience with the lights turned off and good speakers).

Unfortunately I have a pretty old computer and mediocre video card (AMD Athlon 1800+ - about a 1.6 GHz, 256 MB RAM and a GeForce2MX video card with 64 MB).