Do you think I need a sound card?

[u_tommy]

true.. and you can tell its a good one because it cost 10 times what cheapest ones cost... but worth every penny! If i remember correctly i spent about £80 on my power supply.

I would disable the 16km atmosphere. It might help a little.

[sharkbit]

Thanks for the help everyone!

I think I'm going to go down the cooling road.
I'm going to clean the case as has been suggested.

I have also noticed that the power supply fan is not running. I'm assuming that it should be. I'm going to replace the power supply with a more powerful unit.(Currently have a stock 250W. Will install a 300W.)

Also there is no case cooling fan installed. I'm going to install one.

Hopefully, these actions will help.

[Redwine]

Onboard Sound cards are "resourses eaters"...

I solved in the past my FPS problems installing an X-Fi, and disabling my onboard one.

Good if you can add a PCI dedicated sonund card, you will save lot of CPU resources.

Do you have error reporting enable ?

If XP is automatically rebooting you, do this: Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup & Recovery > Untick Automatically Restart. Doing this will tell you whether XP is at fault or whether Sh3 is at fault because you should get an error report following the failure of SH3

- thanks to danlisa for above post

Now see post below of SH3 error
Might be a fix for you problem

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...71&postcount=7

Also, something to keep in mind with power supplies is that wattage is energy consumption not energy output. So look at the 12V amp rating of the power supply. For that older system I'd look for something with at least 18 amps on the 12V rail.

Originally Posted by Redwine

Onboard Sound cards are "resourses eaters"...

I solved in the past my FPS problems installing an X-Fi, and disabling my onboard one.

Good if you can add a PCI dedicated sonund card, you will save lot of CPU resources.

I personally disagree with that. I benchmarked my computer with an Audigy 2 ZS and onboard audio. There was no difference in FPS. I ended up selling the card and I'm happy with onboard. On a modern computer I think the amount of processing power used for onboard audio versus a hardware sound card is very small.

[Wolfehunter]

Originally Posted by Kraut

Also, something to keep in mind with power supplies is that wattage is energy consumption not energy output. So look at the 12V amp rating of the power supply. For that older system I'd look for something with at least 18 amps on the 12V rail.

I personally disagree with that. I benchmarked my computer with an Audigy 2 ZS and onboard audio. There was no difference in FPS. I ended up selling the card and I'm happy with onboard. On a modern computer I think the amount of processing power used for onboard audio versus a hardware sound card is very small.

I have to disagree with you dude. Actually the X-fi hi end ones do save CPU and Ram as a resource. I have the X-fi Elite pro with 64meg of XRam fully juiced up. I've gained at least 15% more power from my system. Plus games sound truly awesome in a 5.1 Dolby system. I used to have a sound blaster Audigy 2 gamer and it was amazing but nothing like a X-Fi. The two are night and day different.

It really depend on the card your using and the Mother boards. Results may vary.

[u_tommy]

Originally Posted by Kraut

I personally disagree with that. I benchmarked my computer with an Audigy 2 ZS and onboard audio. There was no difference in FPS. I ended up selling the card and I'm happy with onboard. On a modern computer I think the amount of processing power used for onboard audio versus a hardware sound card is very small.

If your cpu has extra/lots of capacity.. i.e. is not running flat out you wont notice it.

However onboard sound does use the cpu to process it's processes and therefore does add strain on the system. Beside onboard sound sounds crap too :p

Gain in performance and better sound? That's what Creative wants you to think. Because it really takes so much processing power to play .wav files that you need an add-on card.

[danlisa]

Apples & Oranges......

If your system is being taxed by a game like Modded SH3 and you are using MOBO sound then a 3rd Party Sound Card (with onboard processor) will help. It's between 5-10 FPS (in SH3) provided you remember to disable the MOBO sound in your BIOS.

Important Points:
Many Sound Cards DO NOT have dedicated processing. This will not help you.
Always disable the MOBO sound processing. If you don't your PC is still crunching the data even if you can't hear it.

[Redwine]

[quote=danlisa]Apples & Oranges......

If your system is being taxed by a game like Modded SH3 and you are using MOBO sound then a 3rd Party Sound Card (with onboard processor) will help. It's between 5-10 FPS (in SH3) provided you remember to disable the MOBO sound in your BIOS. [quote]

It is true if you have a top end processor, and you use a low demand game, you will have lot of CPU resources free. Then the diference in FPS may be not too much.

But every day, games and simulators demand more CPU. And you never know when you can need your CPU>

In my old computer, a NothWood 3.4, with an ATI 800 XT PE, and 3Gb RAM, using the onboard sound card, in the most critical situations, explosions with particles at 100%, my FPS droops down at 3 FPS, when i normally have about 30 in external view on sea surface, and about 60 in control room.
After install an X-FI (with no dedicated RAM) in the most critical moment (bottle necks) the FPS nevers droops under 30, it is 10 times more in bottle necks, and having about 50/55 in external view overs sea surface, about 100 into control room if not remember bad.

Now i am using a Q6600, nVidia 8800 GT OC, and 2 GB RAM G-Skill 800, 4-4-4-12, i have no problems now even using the dense port trafic of UWAC 3.0, i can sail at port at good time compression.

But ...what in the future ? what with another games ?

Like X-Plane ?

Always is good to have not your CPU consumend if it is not necesary.

It is good to have the most quantity of resources of your CPU ready to use.

Originally Posted by danlisa

Important Points:
Many Sound Cards DO NOT have dedicated processing. This will not help you.

Correct, you need one with own hardware processor, and if you can one with its own memory.

Originally Posted by danlisa

Always disable the MOBO sound processing. If you don't your PC is still crunching the data even if you can't hear it.

Yes... always disable in the bios the things you dont use.

[sharkbit]

Amazing what a little cleaning in the computer and an aid in cooling can do-
Blew out the dust and have been running with the side cover off and have logged about 10 hours of playing over the last 4 days without a single hiccup or CTD.
Life is good(although my wife might not think so ).

I installed a case fan yesterday evening and replaced the side cover. Played a short time with no problems, but not long enough for a real test. I'll see this weekend hopefully.