Anyone planning any new hardware purchase...

epicstruggle

Passenger on Serenity
Veteran
in the next few months?

Im looking at a complete rebuild. With the following additions:
-CPU AMD64-FX53
-MOBO for above CPU
-RAM 1Gb
-HDD(SATA) at least 2 (raid)
-Graphics Card: either nv/ati's new offering
-Case

I have been saving money for about 3 years. Now ive got about a few $k's to spend. Just need to have the wife to jump onboard.

So anyone else planing on upgrading in the near future?

later,
epic
 
I am as well, which is actually rather unfortunate as the next 2-4 months is probably the WORST time in the last many years to build a new computer. So many emergent technologies coming out (pci-express, new sockets for both cpu platforms, new motherboard/case standards (btx) etc etc). Oh well, this 3 year old box I'm using right now WONT wait past april (unless both Doom3 and Half-Life2 are delayed beyond then that is).

At any rate right now I'm eyeballing a system built around:

Athlon64 (either 3400+ or 3700+)
1 Gig of PC3200 memory
76 gig 10K Raptor drive
either ATI's or nvidia's new beast
5.1 speaker setup (looking at logitech 5300's)
19" NEC FP912SB Monitor
 
no, i wont
i currently have
Athlon XP 1800+
KT133A Board with 640 MB SDRam (no DDR)
ATI 9600 pro (my old GF4Ti4200's fan died :( )
80 & 60 GB Harddisk

its more than fast enough for whatever i do, and since this year will change a lot of things (BTX, PCI Express, 64 Bit, DDR II) i wont buy anything new until all those things are out.

i think i'll buy a new PC in a year or so
 
mat said:
no, i wont
i currently have
Athlon XP 1800+
KT133A Board with 640 MB SDRam (no DDR)
ATI 9600 pro (my old GF4Ti4200's fan died :( )
80 & 60 GB Harddisk

its more than fast enough for whatever i do, and since this year will change a lot of things (BTX, PCI Express, 64 Bit, DDR II) i wont buy anything new until all those things are out.

i think i'll buy a new PC in a year or so
I just cant seem to muster the energy/willpower to holdout much longer. I have been using an integrated sis651 chipset as my graphics card. So i really need to move up. ;)

later,
epic
 
I need a new keyboard. Been using one of the original MS natural keyboards since early '96 and it's getting a bit, mmmm, crusty these days.
 
I'm in the middle of my upgrade spree right now. ;) I've also been saving and waiting for quite a while...let me put it this way...when I first considered upgrading, Serial ATA was "coming soon."

Yes, I know that "emerging tech" (BTX form factor, PCI-Express, etc.) are all coming out during the 2nd half of this year, but then, by the time those technologies MATURE enough so I won't feel like a beta tester for them, it'll be another year, so I'm not concerned. ;)

Already purchased:
* Logitech MX700 cordless mouse
* MS black multimedia keyboard (OEM)
* Dell 2001FP 20" flat panel monitor
* Radeon 9800 non-pro w/ VGA silencer. (Though I'm expecting to replacing this card toward the end of the year)
* Samsung 16X DVD drive
* Lite-On 811s DVD+-RW drive (8X DVD+R write.)
* HP 4760 vertical scanner
* Creative Labs 3500 itrique 2.1 speakers.
* Seasonic Super Silencer 460W power supply
* Zalman 7000 AlCu CPU cooler

Will be purchasing over the next month or two:
* CPU: P4 3.0 or 3.2 Ghz. Maybe Prescott variety. Waiting for the Prescott release and some reviews.
* Motherboard: My requirements are i865PE chipset, Prescott Support, NO northbridge fan. I haven't been looking too hard yet, because I figure we'll see more prescott ready motherboards appear and reviewed once prescott is actually released...
* Memory, 1 GB, dual channel, low latency RAM, probably PC 3500 spec.
* Hard drives: likely dual 160 gig Samsung Spinpoints (SATA). Possibility of the new 74 gig Raptor in place of one of the spinpoints, but I'm leaning against it for cost and noise reasons.

* Case....

The case....

It's driving me nuts. I thought I had found the perfect case for my needs: Yeong Yang 5602: black with silver trim, dual 120mm fans, and I/O ports in the TOP FRONT of the case for easy access. The 3 1/2" bay is even on top, which is perfect placement for a memory card reader that I'll need. Alas, the damn thing was never sold in the U.S. (in black, I can get it in beige though :rolleyes: ) and has already been discontinued! :devilish: Yeong Yang has two other cases with the same chassis, just different front panel...the 5601..blech...and the soon to be released 5603. Not as bad as the 5601, but I don't think I like it either. Just not clean enough.

My leading candidate for a case is currently the Fong Kai FK330. It's a tad bit expensive though, doesn't have a 120 mm fan intake....
 
Yer it has been my plan to upgrade in february but Im not so sure right now since it probably will be a few years before I can afort a whole new setup. Hopefully its a cheap time to build the new system...
 
PowerVR S5 if released first half of this year.
Otherwise, I'll see what is available in new generations (after R300/NV40).
 
Joe DeFuria said:
* Dell 2001FP 20" flat panel monitor

I am flipflopping on this monitor every 15 minutes. Ultimately I think I'm going to go with one more CRT, and then go LCD in 2 or 3 years.

Possibility of the new 74 gig Raptor in place of one of the spinpoints, but I'm leaning against it for cost and noise reasons.

The new raptors, while definitely costing a premium, are VERY quiet. They have fluid bearing motors (finally) and the high pitched whine some people seemed to have issues with has been eliminated.
 
Hey Joe,
why are you going with prescott. Do you prefer intel chips? Most of the news/rumours for prescott havent been that good. Anyways, if prescott does suprise me with better performance than AMD64FX, then ill go for it.

Oh, Id also like to go with that dell 20.1" lcd. God that looks beautiful.

And a new desk too. ;)

later,
epic
 
Joe DeFuria said:
* Case....

The case....

It's driving me nuts. I thought I had found the perfect case for my needs: Yeong Yang 5602: black with silver trim, dual 120mm fans, and I/O ports in the TOP FRONT of the case for easy access. The 3 1/2" bay is even on top, which is perfect placement for a memory card reader that I'll need. Alas, the damn thing was never sold in the U.S. (in black, I can get it in beige though :rolleyes: ) and has already been discontinued! :devilish: Yeong Yang has two other cases with the same chassis, just different front panel...the 5601..blech...and the soon to be released 5603. Not as bad as the 5601, but I don't think I like it either. Just not clean enough.

My leading candidate for a case is currently the Fong Kai FK330. It's a tad bit expensive though, doesn't have a 120 mm fan intake....

Joe,

What about the Antec P160? (http://www.antec-inc.com/us/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=81600)
 
That case does look nice, i just cant seem to like it enough to buy it. The front cover seems too pretty to be a computer case.

later,
epic
 
mat said:
no, i wont
its more than fast enough for whatever i do, and since this year will change a lot of things (BTX, PCI Express, 64 Bit, DDR II) i wont buy anything new until all those things are out.


Have to say the same about my rig. It's more than fast enough to last until all the new Hardware shakes out. AMD is going to orphan 940 pin sockets and go with 939's which will support Non Registered Ram and dual channels, so that is something to wait for. PCI-Express is another thing to wait on now unless your system is truly on it's last legs and has trouble running QuakeIII at 40 fps :LOL:

So No I won't be upgrading anytime soon.

My present rig includes:
Epox 8K5a2+ KT333 MB
XP2100+ "B" core @ 2466Mhz (Air cooling)
512MB Corsair mem
Radeon 9500Pro @ 345/315
Dual WD 800JB SE= 160G RAID 0 array
SB Audigy Gamer (Audigy 2 Softmodded)
ATI TV-PCI TV Tuner

Scores @ Default Bench settings:
Sandra CPU ALU----9144
Sandra CPU FPU----3667
Sandra MM Int.-----13105
Sandra MM FPU-----14176
Codecreatures------3026
3DMark03-----------4506
3DMark01SE--------14,845
AquaMark-----------36,251
UT2003 Flyby-------193.7
UT2003Botmatch---79.4


see! no need to upgrade... ;) ...But Good Luck with yours.
 
epicstruggle said:
Hey Joe,
why are you going with prescott. Do you prefer intel chips?

Well though I do tend to prefer intel, one of the main things I'm going to do doing with this box is video editing / transcoding / encoding. And this happens to be a documented strength of the P4 vs. current AMD chips, including A64. If it were just for gaming, I may have gone with an AMD rig.

The "maturity" of the 865 chipset vs. A64 chipsets is also a minor plus for me.

Whether I go with a prescott or non-prescott CPU will depend on priice and actual performance compared with a non-prescott. In any case, I will be getting a prescott capable motherboard for a potential CPU upgrade down the road.

Most of the news/rumours for prescott havent been that good. Anyways, if prescott does suprise me with better performance than AMD64FX, then ill go for it.

Again, whether it's "faster" or not all depends on what you're doing with it. For gaming, it looks like the A64 is overall faster, but for media encoding, I usually see the P4 on top.

Oh, Id also like to go with that dell 20.1" lcd. God that looks beautiful.

I am very pleased with it. No dead pixels either!
 
elroy said:

I was considering that for a while...but after seeing it in person, I'm not too thrilled about the front panel aesthetics. A bit too busy for me. Don't like the platic "chrome" touches on it. I love the placement of the ports though.

Also, I actually prefer steel construction to aluminum, as I don't care about the weight, and steel cases tend to be quieter. (Less resonance from panels, etc.)

If antec decides to make that case in black brushed aluminum and reworks the front panel a little bit, I would go back and consider it!
 
You can pretty much say that the P4 is always on top in video encoding because of its better SSE2 implementation compared to the A64.
 
The Baron said:
You can pretty much say that the P4 is always on top in video encoding because of its better SSE2 implementation compared to the A64.

Right. In addition, there are some (13?) new instructions with Prescott. Obviously, I don't expect to see any immediate benefit from this, but media encoding apps are typically the first ones to exploit new instructions, so it can only be an added benefit over the already top of the line SSE2 performance.
 
You can pretty much say that the P4 is always on top in video encoding because of its better SSE2 implementation compared to the A64.

Is it a better SSE2 implementation or is it just that the clockspeed is higher? I was under the impression that the higher clockspeed made the difference in video encoding and not the actual design of the SSE2 bits.
 
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