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I'm not gonna get into all the specifics of what kind of hardware you should have. That's a dense topic which goes beyond the scope of this simple site. Neither can I offer specific details on how to tweak each piece of hardware as that really depends on your system. All I can really offer are some general tips on how to make your hardware mesh and maybe a little understanding. So what's it take to tweak that hardware out? It helps to have new hardware. You'll get no argument here. But newer isn't always better.
Huh?
Remember, ET is an old game. It doesn't need a whole lot to run it.
Newer hardware just helps make it pretty. For example, what you use to
have to run at 800 x 600 resolution, you can now run at 1280 x 1024 with little
to no effect. So if you have the $$$, go ahead, upgrade your hardware.
Either way, you still have to make sure it works well with the rest of your
system.
The best way to do that is to start clean, from the ground up.
If you haven't already installed your Operating System (which, of course, you have if you're reading this), the bottom of the bottom is in the BIOS itself. Now, everyones BIOS is different, so I'm not even gonna try to tell you how to navigate it, suffice it to say, see your computer and or motherboard manufacturer. If you're not comfortable accessing your BIOS, stop now, move on to something else. This isn't the tweak you're looking for...
If you're feeling lucky, however, the trick here is to turn off what you don't use. Now this can be done from within the OS, but disabling a device from within will not necessarily deallocate resources which were already assigned to it. Even disabled, the OS still has to keep track of the usage so as not to conflict with the resource if it ever comes back online. This slows your OS and subsequently slows your game.
If you're like me, you're most likely running Windows XP. Like most OS's, XP is APIC compliant. APIC has to do with what is known as IRQ's or Interrupt Requests. An IRQ is basically a hardware devices way of signaling the processor (CPU) for attention, similar to flagging down a taxi. In the old days of Windows, computers were only allowed to have 15 of these so-called IRQ's. This meant that you could only install so many devices into your system at once. Once your IRQs filled up, the only way to install a new piece was by first sacrificing some other precious piece of hardware.
In stepped APIC. By jumping the number to 23, the basic problem of having enough IRQs was solved... at least, to an extent. The thing about APIC is that in order for it to work, it has to be managed by the OS. Therein lies the rub. The biggest problem is that you can't just turn it off. In fact, the only way to deallocate used resources is to reinstall your OS. What's worse is that it requires resources to manage your many resources, and you have next to no control over it. This means that any piece or hardware can steal resources away from your gaming at any time. And now, that one resource which you really need to frag that bozo on the other end of your connection may be too busy waiting for the CPU to handle other system resources which are cutting in line.
This isn't the whole picture, but the idea is that too many allocated resources will make your OS spend more time doing things it doesn't need to do and less time doing what you want it to. On the other hand, if you have a certain device disabled before your OS is ever installed, then your OS will never waste time allocating resources for it. A disabled device in the BIOS is, in essence, invisible to your OS. Of course, you'll have to know what you don't need ahead of time, but if you're not sure, turn it off. You'll always be able to turn it back on. Though you can't remove the resource on the fly, the OS is always ready to install it.
Skipping to it:
- To enter BIOS, usu. press delete - consult your manufacturer
- Disable unused ports - ports that aren't detected aren't allocated
- Upgrade your BIOS - if it works, don't fix it; upgrades may reset options
- Overclock - wear and tear
- PCI Express and SLI
- USB 2.0
- SATA drives
- A quiet fan
- A large power supply
- CRTs are faster than LCDs and less graphic intensive
- Laser mice with a good mousepad - reporting problems
This page was last updated on April 15, 2007