To upgrade or not?

Hi, I will be replacing almost every important part in my computer: motherboard, video card, RAM, and CPU.
Is now (within a week or two) a good time to change out these parts? Or is any new technology on the horizon worth waiting for?

My current list of replacements:
Opteron 146
DFI LanParty SLI-DR (worth waiting for "expert"?)
7800 GTX 256 MB (worth waiting for 512?)
Good CPU fan, RAM, and PSU

Looks good. Judging from the VGA, you will likely be using it for games. Be sure to go with 2GB of RAM then.

Is there anything coming out soon (gamer-wise) that is worth waiting for?

Not any time soon.

edma2 said:

Hi, I will be replacing almost every important part in my computer: motherboard, video card, RAM, and CPU.
Is now (within a week or two) a good time to change out these parts? Or is any new technology on the horizon worth waiting for?

My current list of replacements:
Opteron 146
DFI LanParty SLI-DR (worth waiting for "expert"?)
7800 GTX 256 MB (worth waiting for 512?)
Good CPU fan, RAM, and PSU

Click to expand...

heh, I thought you were going to have some crap rig. But you don't so, as long as you have at least 1 GB of ram you're good. Along with the PSU and CPU fan..you know not old. But I reccomend 2 GB, if you don't already like Sjaak said, especially if you play BF2, *RAM HOG*

pretty good setup although if you're looking to save some money, consider the 7800gt. what other parts do you have picked out?

-1cem4n

I doubt the 512MB verison of the GTX would be too much better then the 256MB verison. Comparing the 256MB and 512MB verisons of the 6800GT Ultra, most reviews show that it's not worth paying the extra cost for a few points in benchmarks. It may be more useful for those who have lower actual ram or video encoding and stuff. Any word on when the 512MB verison is expected to come out?

There was this one chart that states that DFI said that the "Expert" verison will OC better then the previous DFI ones, and other extra stuff. I heard it's supposed to come out something in November though.

If your planning NOT to OC, then I'd say get OCZ 2x1GB Value Series ram, it's a good 2GB set for under $200. But it doesn't OC too well, most people I heard from usually get around 230-240fsb or so.

For PSU, I might recommend the OCZ Powerstream 520W, since you have a GTX, you might need something a tad better then the Fortons.

This seems like a resurrection of my old thread... anyway
Yes I plan on taking the Opty 146 all the way to 3.0 ghz...as for the right mobo to perform this task, I originally thought DFI. However, they seem to be controversial as to their stability and hassle.
So now I'm choosing the epox npa9+ ultra for the cheaper price and relatively hassle free operation...thoughts?

And what is a good ram choice in consideration of both OCing and the epox mobo?

Another thing I'm thinking about is watercooling, its a bit more expensive, but it seems a little risky to me having liquid flow around in your rig...how likely is it to suffer a catostrophic failure of the liquid cooling system (and damage your other parts too)?

Still wondering whether I should wait for the x1800XT though, after giving some attention to the benchmarks.

edit: oh, and kevin007, sorry for the confusion, the parts listed are the ones i WANT lol, not what I currently have...

If you've OCed before, then getting used to using a DFI to OC shouldn't provide too much problems. The best things about the DFi is it's OC-friendly BIOS and high vdimm and good vcore.

The Epox tends to run better with lower voltage ram from what I've seen. If your planning to watercool, then I recommend getting the best out of your CPU, which would defintely be the DFI board.

If your waiting for the next X1800, then you can wait for the DFI LanParty "Expert" Edition that's supposed to be released sometime within the next 3 weeks or so. The Expert edition is supposed to OC better then all previous DFI boards and have much less problems.

Watercooling should be pretty safe, I don't think I've heard of anyone that sprung a leak and fried everything. If you install everything correctly and run a few tests overnight, you should be fine.

About the ram, are you planning to get 2GB or 1GB of ram? If your going for 2GB, the Crucial Ballisitx is a great choice to hit 290fsb+ with only about 2.9v usually. For 1GB, get the DFI and get some higher voltage ram, maybe the OCZ Gold VX 2x512MB series.