So I upgraded my motherboard, processor, RAM, video card, and power supply recently...

ASUS P5N-E SLI
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 E6420 E6600
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 800
XFX 8600 GTS XXX EVGA 8800 GTS
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610

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So thanks to some tips from some FF forum folk, I decided to exchange a couple of the parts for better parts without losing much money.

Apparently the E6420 came out in the past week or so, so I worked my magic on a newegg support whore to let me return my E6400 even though it's been a little more than 7 days. So now my CPU will have 4MB L2 cache instead of 2MB. I don't even know what other differences there are, but it's 6420 instead of 6400. The 6400 can go screw.

But then I realized the E6600 came down in price, so I ordered that instead. The E6420 can go screw.

I also decided to return my XFX 8600 GTS XXX for an EVGA 8800 GTS at only $30 more (after a $20 mail-in rebate). So I'll have 320MB of 320-bit memory instead of 256MB of 128-bit memory, slower core/memory speeds, and 90nm instead of 80nm. Some trade-offs, but OH WELL. It's an 8800 instead of 8600 for not much more, but apparently the performance is more than "not much more" and that's all I care about. The 8600 can go screw.

Anyways, onto the old babble about the old parts and the old FF and just sit down...

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http://trepid.net/ff/images/new_hotness-01.jpg

That's with everything maxed and only getting 30 fps. Haha, while 30 fps is kind of disappointing, I guess it's expected with 16xQ AA and me skimping on the parts to save a few hundred dollars. I mean, why save money? That's just crazy talk. But uh...I still see jagged edges. What the hell, mang? I would think "16xQ" AA at 1600x900 would mean no jagged edges anywhere. Maybe I didn't set something right.

At any rate, FF can look and run faster than my old setup, which is nice. Only FF, though. No other games will run better. I think I may overclock my E6400. I read somewhere that even with the stock cooling, it can go from the default 2.13 GHz to over 3 GHz. I don't know if I want to go that high, though. I get scared sometimes.

I wish I had more time to mess with FF stuff like I used to. But noooo, I had to be selfish and get a job. I try to find time here and there, but it seems like I'm always trying to do something that requires a little more time than I can devote to it...and it seems like I try to do too many things at once instead of just focusing on one thing until that one thing is done. Like uh...I have some AC optimizations started but not complete, glow shell shader and implementation started but not complete, a dynamic lights "manager" started but not complete (including dlights on a lot more things, which is where the "manager" comes into play...which is mainly just an options menu for enabling/disabling dlights for players on fire, rockets, ICs, explosions, muzzle flashes, rails, and so on...dynamic lights are cool, and I want 3 or 4 of them...possibly a little bit more than that, Jim), and what was I babbling about?

Annnnywho, it'll be cool when my computer starts crashing. I like upgrading only to have bad parts.

crinkle crinkle