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My Current Most Played Games
»WarRock
»Hero Online
 »Combat Arms
»C&C Games

My Favorite Old School PC's
Atari 400
Atari 800
Color Computer 3
Commodore C-16
Commodore Vic-20
Commodore C-64
TI-99/4A System
Commodore 2000HD
Apple IIe
My Modded X850 XT PE AGP
Stock X850 Pro
Stock Cooler (Front)
Stock Cooler (Back)
ZALMAN VF700 Cooler Installed

Benchmark
These results are the min/max FPS @1280x1024, high settings, and max temp observed in heavy gameplay at an average room temp of 23C (75F)
WarRock
Combat Arms
Team Fortress 2
Half Life 2 EP2
Hero Online
C&C 3
Doom 3
Dungeon Siege 2
Game Temp FPS
46C 70-120
52C 63-110
51C *
54C 50-88
* *
52C 19-28
52C 80-120
48C *

Notes:

C&C3 FPS cap = 30

 
X800/850 Links
ATI Tool
X850 Mod Guide and Patch
X800/X850 Pro Mod Guide
What card do you have and can you unlock it?
Strider's PC Games
This is a list of my personal favorite PC games from my many years as a gamer. I have played and liked a huge list of games over the years, but if I tried to list them all this page would be far to big and unmanageable. I started off gaming as primarily on Atari era consoles and computers like the Commodore's and TI-99/4A until the mid 80's when I became hooked on the good old NES . Then in the early 90's with the release of games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom I really started my migration to PC gaming and started to leave the consoles behind. I still played every major console released from the Atari's to the PS1 along with my PC gaming. However, I am now primarily a PC gamer. I only go to the consoles for some RPG's and "Retro Gaming".

Ranking
Life not worth living unless you play this game!
Great game to waste many hours of your life on!
Good game that deserves a place in your collection!
Good game worth playing, but don't have much replay value!
Doom
The original Doom Series of games was what hooked me on the concept of the "First Person Shooter" as well as PC gaming in general. These games were, in my opinion, some of the best ever made. The still survive to this day in the form of "source ports". With the release of Doom 3, this series ranks as the top selling FPS of all time.

Command & Conquer RTS Series
On the flip side of the coin, the Command & Conquer series ranks as the top selling "Real Time Strategy" series of all time. I have played, and own, every incarnation of this series and rank them on the same level as Doom, some of the best ever made. If you have never played a C&C title, you have no idea what your missing. Now with C&C3 Tiberian Wars, the franchise is still going strong, over 12 years after its initial release.

Command & Conquer Renegade
The one and only FPS game based on the C&C Universe of GDI and NOD (Until "Tiberium" is released anyway). Released in 2002, it takes you to ground level where you play as Captain Nick "Havoc" Parker, the star of the single player missions. The games multiplayer feature allows you to play as almost any character in the game from the Stealth Black Hand to Havoc himself. The multiplayer gameplay is great and in my opinion, better than most other multiplayer FPS games. There are several characters and vehicles to choose from as well as many different maps available. To this day, there are several servers that support Renegade. My favorite are the Gamerz0ne Servers. Stop in and check us out sometime!

Half Life Series
The Half Life series is one of my all time favorites. It was the first FPS since Doom to really capture my attention and force me to waste hours of my life sitting behind my PC, the only other game to come close was Duke Nukem 3D. Half Life has an original story and immersive worlds with great replay value. I did not really get into the multiplayer aspect of the game until HL2. Now with the Episodic release of HL2 underway. I am sure to get many more years of enjoyment out of this game.

WarRock
I have never been much of a fan for the run of the mill tactical FPS, but this game is far from typical. With a multitude of weapons, 5 different player classes, an experience based ranking system, several game modes, and many maps to choose from. This MMOFPS is in the league all its own! It fast became one my favorite online games! Check it out!

http://www.warrock.net/ or http://www.gamersfirst.com/

Currently Installed Games

1 = Play Rarely (When I get bored) | 2 = Play Every So Often | 3 =Play Very Frequently
Game Name

Rank
3 WarRock
1

Counter Strike: Source
2 Operation 7
2 Doom 3 & ROE (As well as Doom and Doom 2 Source Ports)
2 Doom & Doom 2 Source Ports + ZDaemon (Online Play)
2 Dungeon Siege 2 & Broken World
3 Dungeon Siege  & LOA (Plus many additional mods)
2 Half Life 2 as well as Deathmatch and HL2 Episode 1 & 2
1 Half Life Source
1 SiN Episodes Emergence
2 Battlefield 2142 Deluxe Edition
3 Combat Arms
1 RollerCoaster Tycoon 2
1 MapleStory
2 Command & Conquer 3 Tiberian Wars Kane Edition

2 Command & Conquer Generals & Zero Hour
2 Command & Conquer Red Alert 2
3 Command & Conquer Red Alert 3
2 Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun & Firestorm
1 C&C Renegade
1 Painkiller: Overdose
1 Halo
1 FEAR
1 Pariah
2 Team Fortress 2
2 Resident Evil 4
1 Tribes: Vengeance
1 Terror Strike
2 Taito Legends 1 and 2
2 Portal
1 On a Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1
2 Puzzle Hero
3 Hero Online
1 Activision Anthology
1 Star Wars: Republic Commando
2 Unreal Tournament 3

Retro Computing and Gaming

Commodore VIC 20
The Commodore line of computers were one of my all time favorites for the era. I had the pleasure of owning most every model released in the United States up through the 2000 HD. The VIC 20 was the first Commodore PC that I really used for gaming, followed by the hugely successful C64 that hit the shelves in late 1982. By the time C64 was available I was the proud owner of a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. A system that was light years ahead of its time and an extremely excellent gaming rig for its day. However the VIC 20 deserves the credit for putting me on the track to PC gaming at a time when I was all about Atari. That was of course until the NES came along and derailed me until the early 90's.

Released:

January 1981
Price: $299
CPU: MOS 6502 @ 1MHz
RAM: 5K total - 3.5K useable
Display: 22 X 23 text 176 X 184 @ 16 colors max
Peripherals: cassette recorder - printer - modem - external floppy drive
OS: ROM BASIC

My current system specifications
Self made W/ Asus A7V880 (Socket 462, 5 PCI, 1 AGP 8x, 1 WiFi, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Memory: 2.0 GB DDR
HD Capacity #1: 180GB WD1800 Western Digital IDE X 3
HD Capacity #2: 320GB Seagate Barracuda SATA
HD Capacity #3: External 300GB Seagate eSATA Drive (Networked)
Optical Drives: Lite-On DVDRW SHW-160P65
Video: Radeon x850 Pro 256  (AGP) Modded to X850XT Platinum Edition
Audio: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 24-bit Advanced HD
LAN: Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter
Monitor: 19' CRT
Gamepad Input: Gamemon USB Converter (PS1, PS2, Gamecube, X-Box)
Keyboard: Logitech G15 Series 2
Mouse: Saitek GM3200 Gaming Mouse (800-3200 DPI)
Operating System: Win XP Pro (Customized with "XPlite" and Optimized for gaming)
Notes: My poor PC is getting up there in years, but for its age, it can easily handle all the games I like to play. It's not all about the numbers if you set your PC up correctly and know how to tweak the OS and hardware to get every last ounce of performance out of it. Perhaps that's why I have yet to do a full system upgrade. All in all, I have no complaints at all about any of my hardware or my system in general. It has, and still does, serve me well.
ATI Radeon X850 Pro 256MB AGP Performance Review:
As far as AGP cards go, the best card by far is the Radeon X850 series for nice FPS and eye candy. The Pro, XT, and XT PE versions boast very fast memory transfer rates and overall architecture that out perform most every other card until you get into the HD ranges where the 40+ pipelines start to show their power. In fact, the first non HD card I have seen that was able to compare to the stock X850 Pro was the X1650 Pro.

However, you can use a modified hardware flash to activate the 4 disabled pipelines on the pure ATI X850 VIVO AGP version cards that have the 1.6ns memory chips, it will NOT work on the PCIe versions. These cards in particular, like the X800 Pro, do not have the extra 4 pipelines laser cut like in all the other versions. They are simply disabled. The only difference between the Pro and XT is the pipelines. The Pro has 12 and the XT has 16. You can even overclock the X850 Pro to be a full XT or PE if you have a good cooler for it, the stock Pro cooler is simply not enough. Attempting to mod the card with a stock cooler may result in you frying your card. I highly recommend the "ZALMAN VF700-CU 2 Ball VGA COOLER" or even the VF900. This cooler will keep your overclocked temperatures well within the safe operational range of the card. My modded card never goes over 55C under sustained heavy load.

The X850Pro (unmodified) has no problems playing games like Unreal Tournament 3 on all max settings at 1280x1024 with 50-60 FPS minimum, Not bad for an older card. If you decide to open up those other 4 pipelines and overclock it to XT PE speeds, you will see a rather impressive FPS increase across the board.