Upgrading my PC - A dilemma

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KingJimi
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Upgrading my PC - A dilemma

Post by KingJimi »

I'm new to these forums, although I do read the reviews and newsletters... Anyway, last year in May, I upgraded to these specs:

DFI LanParty NFII Ultra B mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2500
and Corsair XMS3200-C2PT 512MB RAM (so I could have headroom to overclock)

The problem I have is that although my computer is running nice and fast, I've been planning to upgrade again to the Athlon 64, cos I feel that is more future-proof (nothing is ever future-proof is it?) but I've been holding out on this to see if the prices will drop anytime soon. I was thinking of changing to:

Abit AV8 Third Eye (apparently it's one of the best overclocking A64 boards)
1GB Corsair XMS3200-C2PT DDR400 RAM (cost-effective as I only need another 512MB)
AMD Athlon 64 3500+

But then, if I upgrade later on, then months later something better and cheaper will appear and this will seem like a mistake. What should I do? Upgrade or wait for AMD's dual core processors?
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FZ1
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Post by FZ1 »

If your current rig is meeting your needs, I'd wait. Anytime you buy PC's or components something better or cheaper will come out soon after. It's the nature of the business. You can minimize this by doing your research (Anantech has a good article about this) but you can end up spending a ton of time which might not be worth the few dollars you save (time is invaluable, eh?). When you do take the plunge, my philosophy is always buy the best you can afford while knowing the most expensive items aren't always the best. :|
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Post by KingJimi »

I am happy with some aspects of my PC, but the graphics card has to go. I've had all the major NVIDIA cards upto the FX series, but should I go further or try ATI?
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Post by FZ1 »

It really depends. ATI and NVIDIA are on par for the most part (i.e. one won't blow the other away) but they tend to vary from game to game as to their performance. There are plenty of comparisons out their for your viewing pleasure. I personally went with the ATIX800 Pro a few months ago. It wasn't the best performing board out there but it was priced right for the performance and I have no problems running Doom III, HL2, etc. (BTW I'm running the AV8 3rd Eye and the 3500+ Winchester setup you mentioned in your first post). What vid card do you have now?
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infinitevalence
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Post by infinitevalence »

If your dissatisfied with your graphics then you might want to look at upgrading, i would not be supprized if this was the last itteration of AGP cards. For example look how long it took for the AGP 6600gt. If your thinking about spending $200 and up on a graphics card then i would think about switching to a pci-express system. If you want to stick with AMD then look at the nForce4 and KT890/pro chipsets as they have pci-express.

to give you an idea what i will be upgrading to is:
DFI Ultra-D (dual pci-express, with mod)
3000+ 90nm winchester
1gb kingstion hyper-x (BH-5 chips)
6800gt (when i can afford it)
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Post by cadaveca »

GO ati for video, if you buy the top-of the line. they have more bandwidth, more rendering power, but do not have SM3.0(just shortened code, or lengthend, actually, fitting into a smaller space, but anyhoo).

AV8 is a good board. i played with one for about a week when i was in the midst of buying the system in my sig. I already had the agp XTPE, tho, so decided on going 754.


Honestly tho, dude, wait until after april before you buy. Once the dual cores are out, and we find out how they are going to be socketed for the desktop market may just change your "futureproofness". I waited this long for 754, but i got a 939 chipset and cpu in 754 flavor, allowing for easy overclocks. LoL. It will all end up in the wife's machine after april, when i plan to go dualcore(thank god for tax returns!).
- Intel E6600 @ 3.33ghz -AIR - Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC6400 @ 5-5-5-15 555.5mhz - X1900CF, X1900XTX 774/774 - Ageia PhysX P1 -
AMD X2 4400+ @ 2.64ghz Stock AIR-Cooled - Mushkin XP4000 REDLINE 2GB X1800XL
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Post by infinitevalence »

AMD dual core will be skt 940 and then when ddr2 is added M1
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Post by cadaveca »

940 is the server market. opterons use 940. For the introduction of new chipsets recently, and desktop boards, and for them to not be compatible with what is out there...just does not make sense. 940 has the extra pin for ECC memory compatibility...just something that mission-critical machines cannot be without. Dualcore should be 939..but other than Nforce4, there is no glimmer of support as of yet.
- Intel E6600 @ 3.33ghz -AIR - Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC6400 @ 5-5-5-15 555.5mhz - X1900CF, X1900XTX 774/774 - Ageia PhysX P1 -
AMD X2 4400+ @ 2.64ghz Stock AIR-Cooled - Mushkin XP4000 REDLINE 2GB X1800XL
KingJimi
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Post by KingJimi »

Well, right now I have a GeForce FX 5600 that I bought nearly two years ago.. :oops:
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