Buy now or wait?

[disk11]

As you can see, my main PC is getting really old and slow. I can't figure out if I should spend $400 or so getting a slightly newer system or wait until the spring and see what new stuff comes out. Its no fun when F@H WUs take a day or two and running games @ 640*480 with no details on and getting 30 fps standing still. If I were to upgrade, I'd be looking at an Barton ,T-bred B, or a P4 2.4c; a decent inespensive motherboard that overclocks well; and a $200 or so video card (or holdover the ti200 for the time being) and clocking the crap out of it. I would be gaming, running F@H, and doing some video encoding with this new box. Any thoughts?

[NewbiePerson]

barton 2500+ with an abit nforce 2 or an intel 2.6ghz c (costs about the same as a 2.4ghz c) with an abit If7 (not sure if thats the right board). Intel wins for encoding but its like $100 extra or so. If you have a touch more patience and want to save a little extra then go amd. Also you could keep ur ram if you went with amd, with intel you may have to get faster ram. DDR 2 is coming out this summer.....
Theres a but load of stuff coming out this year though. So the newer a64 should become affordable.
Your video card is fine for now even though it is bare minimum in a few games now. If you were to upgrade a 9800np can be had in newegg refurb section for less than $200. Going to anything less than a 9700 isn't really worth it. Going to anything less than a 5800 on nvidia's side isn't worth it considering the card you have now. Remeber ati if you can. If you can't a 5900 would be a nice upgrade as well. New cards are coming out spring of this year..... Hold off if you can and you'll have a very nice card while all of these saps still have their 9800s.... Or you could buy one from them for around $100 or so probably :)
I'm sure alota people would say a 9600 or 5700 would be a nice upgrade but a ti4200 (your card is like maybe %15-20 behind a ti4200 just guessing if you oc it to ti500 you'll be doing fine. I think thats something like 225/500) comes close to them without af and al even still they will only handle so much af and al due to lack of 256bit mem and 8 pipelines.

[t_biggs]

For $200, I upgraded my computer (NF7-S and 2 256meg sticks of PC3200 ram.) Since you have $400, you can easliy throw in a Barton 2500+, and you'll still have money left over.

A setup like that would work fine with a GeForce3 Ti200... For the most part. It was totally adequet for all of my games. I did recently get a hand-me-down Radeon 9500 Pro, without it I wouldn't be able to play Halo or Prince of Persia at acceptable framerates. Otherwise, it was fine for games I play (UT2K3, GTAVC, and Minesweeper.)

The only thing I reccomend against doing is waiting. Come spring, you'll wonder if you should wait for Summer. Come Summer, etc... It's pointless to wait for the next product cycle to get new hardware. Its like waiting for the bar to have that free beer tommorow.

So, upgrade your motherboard and processor. If you want, memory, too. Otherwise, spend the remainder on a 9700 Pro. NewEgg has one for $220, so you'll be on or close to budget.

[CPFitz14]

Not too mention that you could sell a matched pair of P///'s for a good amount of cash. They're older, but people snatch them up like there's no tomorrow. Either ebay, or the classifieds when you get enough posts.


-CPFitz-

[disk11]

I would be buying new memory and keeping the box in my sig to run other stuff. I know Curcial stuff is pretty good, but probably not for the 200+ fsb I'd want out of the Barton:)

For the video card, I'm starting to worry about it, even with the large heatsink on it that covers the core and memory and my good case cooling (2 80s in, 2 80s out). It used to run @262/515, but now I'm 215/495 due to artifacts in Max Payne 1 with generally meduim quality settings, 800*600, and 16 bit color. Not too cool:(. I would defintaly like an 8 pipeline ATI card, but the cheaper ones are few and far between.

Time to look and line up a summer job:)

[Aslan]

Yep, agreed with t_biggs. With computers, the waiting game is essentially forever and obsolescence is always around the corner. However....(I know, I know ;) ) at this time, a new product cycle has essentially come with the Athlon 64, and as mentioned, new cheaper A64's will come out (and have already come out with the 754 pin A64 3000+ around $215 right now).

A Barton system will serve you very well right now, and won't become totally obsolete for quite a while to come, but the A64 system will have a longer lifespan. Whether you want to wait or not is up to you, but don't wait forever. ;)

[stompah]

Buy now, regret later. Thats my motto!

[BalliN]

Originally posted by stompah
Buy now, regret later. Thats my motto!

agreed.........when the new products do come out I'm sure they will cost more then your $400 budget........:D

Might as well get something now that oc's well and will be good for a year or so till prices come down on the new stuff

my .02

Peace,

BalliN

[disk11]

I've choosen to go the AMD route. Here's what I'm looking at now:

Abit NF7
1x 512 MB Corsiar XMS 512
Athlon 2500
ATI 9700 pro

1. I need a decent Heatsink reccomendation or a way to get fan clips for my SK-7 (I threw them away:bang head :bang head )

2. Is the NF7 ok or is the NF7-S worthy of its extra $20? I don't forsee me getting a SATA drive unless Raptors get cheaper and my old SB live value gets the job done for me sound wise.

3. Should the Corsair stick overclock fine to around 230 fsb?

[Vulcan]

I was debating upgrading also... it doesnt matter when you upgrade, there is always some overhyped new technology out the next month.

[Aslan]

You can always email Thermalright and ask them where you can get new fan clips, and you'll either be able to get them really cheaply, or even free from Thermalright themselves.

As for the NF7-S, the only true benefits compared to the NF7 are SATA and Soundstorm. If you don't really need either, then the NF7 is fine; the OC potential is the same with both.

It's somewhat of a crapshoot concerning whether the Corsair will hit 230 fsb or not. It is potentially capable of course, and many have done it easily, but both the motherboard and CPU (as well as the memory) can be limiting factors. However, Corsair is very hight quality memory, and I doubt you'll have any problems with it, even if you don't reach 230fsb.

[BalliN]

I'm not sure about the clips but if you choose to get a new hsf I think you'd be good to go with another thermalright such as the slk 900, slk 947, or the new :drool: sp 97

Other then that looks like good choices to me


Best of luck,

BalliN

[disk11]

Newegg has NF7-S v2s in. Would garenteeing a rev2 be better than a crap shoot with the NF7? I am having future thoughts of getting a Raptor.

[BalliN]

I'd go with the s juss because you never know what you might want to do or use 6mo from now. Might as well fork out the extra 30 bucks for more features that give you more opions in the future.

Well thats what I did :D

Anyways.......either way I'm sure you can find a v2.0 board in either flavor the choice is really up to you

Peace,

BalliN

[disk11]

Newegg is the only place I've promise you will get a v2 NF7-x, but that list inclues ZipZoomFly, ExcaliburPC, and Mwave in my desire to only use good resellers.

[Aslan]

ExcaliberPC does guarantee that you will get a v2.0 NF7 or NF7-S, (unlike Newegg, who only guarantee the NF7-S) and their NF7 is slightly cheaper than at Newegg. I doubt that you would get a v1.x NF7 if you did decide to purchase from Newegg, but it is something to keep in mind.

[MRip]

Any major reseller will have only v2.0. The other versions are really old. You would have to be VERY unluky to get anything other than 2.0 from just about anywhere.

[disk11]

Thanks MRip, that is very reassuing.

Now, is it true the 2100 T-bred B's are unlocked still?

[Mr.Radar]

NOTE: I've only read the first few posts.

I'm in the same boat as you disk11, my current comp is driving me crazy with crapiness, and I have your same budget. Heres what I got, for what price:

OfficeMax : 50
Kingston ValueRam PC2700 : 50

Sidewinder Computers.com : 47.95
Thermalright SLK947-U (Option: Panaflo 92x25mm High Speed 56 CFM/35dBA Fan (+8.95)) : 41.90
Shipping : 6.05

Newegg.com : 174.99
AMD AthlonXP 2500+ "Barton" 333MHz FSB : 85.00
ABit "NF7-S V2" Socket A Motherboard : 89.99

Directron.com : 115.63
Sony 1.44MB 3.5" Interal Floppy Drive, MPF920, Beige, OEM (Option: Mounting Screws (+1.00)) : 10.99
Thermaltake A1357 80mm Smart Case Fan, Low Noise, w/Speed Controller & Fan Grill, Retail box : 2x9.99 = 18.99
Fortron 350W FSP350-60BN P4 ATX Quiet Computer Power Supply w/ Noise Killer OEM : 38.00
Super-Flower SF-701 Series ATX Mid-Tower Case w/ Front USB, Audio & 350W PS, Color: Silver or Beige (PSU Option: No PSU (+-5.00)) : 27.00
Shipping : 20.65

SVC.com : 4.99
Artic Silver 5 : 4.99

TOTAL : 393.56

I can't give you any benchies as I'm still waiting for parts to arrive. My goals for this system were to be fast enough to last until I can afford the 64-bit stuff in few years and be decently quiet (my current one is ~45 dBA right now and it's driving me crazy (I'm a quiet freak)). I'm not expecting a great OC from that RAM (maybe up to 2800+ speeds), but when DDR2 comes out, I'll pick up some good RAM on the cheap to replace it. I'm going to be using the drives (DVD burner, CD-RW, 3 HDs) out of my current comp and my GFx card (ATI Rage128 Pro AiW). When my birthday comes around (July) I'll be getting a 9600 Pro AiW or 9600XT + Cheap vid-capture card and a nice M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sound card. Hope this gives you some ideas!

EDIT: *Off-Topic* I got my Panaflo yesterday, and I plugged it into my current comp to see just how loud it is: man oh man it moves an AMAZING amount of air with NO SOUND, it's incredible!