am I being stupid?

ninthebin · Jun 21, 2003

right, when it comes to me making up my mind, im a tad fickle...you see from the sig, I am in dire need of a new pc - in which at this moment in time I can afford - although...the one I get wont be particulary all that great, even though were talking around XP2500 which is still good, I am wondering whether I am just being stupid and should save my money until Prescott/Athlon64 era and get a nice! new system then...

so whats it to be?

"put up until you can afford the dogs dangalies"

-or-

"buy now you fool! how can you even cope with that system"

dan

Mico · Jun 21, 2003

There is always going to be something new outdating what you have. Like PCI express. Your brand new video card will be 'useless' on it (It won't be useless to you, but it won't run on newer systems). Think about how soon the product will be available, how much you want to spend, and how much better the performance/reliability would be compared with the price. You may find that it is right around the corner, but instead of costing $100-150 it costs more in the range of $400 for a slower processor.

OC Noob · Jun 21, 2003

When are the A64 and Prescott due out?

If its just a couple of months then its definitly doable...if its more like six months then fug-ged-aboud-it.

ninthebin · Jun 21, 2003

its not a case of waiting for better stuff in terms of technology...its a case do I buy a fairly decent system now, or a really good system later - and im stuck between the two and I dont want me petit need for higher fps to cloud my easily persuedable judgement

InThrees · Jun 21, 2003

Buy a reasonably good system now, a kick *** system later, and use the reasonably good one for experimenting with different OSs, lan gaming, and file serving.

You can get a kick *** system core RIGHT NOW for less than $250, including memory. That's cpu, board, and mem. A few compromises would bring you down to maybe $150 - $200 range.

BaldHeadedDork · Jun 21, 2003

What do you want your new system to do that your current rig can't?

BHD

ninthebin · Jun 21, 2003

play games?

yes, yes I know I can play UT2003 on say CTF-Maul with 4 a side bots at around 20-30 fps...but it tends to stay at the bottom range of that alot more, and I just cant cope anymore...

plus im beginning to notice my 933s limitations in things like oh say C&C generals map editor, which is quite CPU happy and constantly jumps especially when laying down textures.

other things such as just any other game when high action picks up the cpu tends to not like it - I will be sticking with this vid card for a bit as I really only have money for the cpu mobo and mem (and im going to be needing a new psu

)

cursor · Jun 21, 2003

BaldHeadedDork said:
What do you want your new system to do that your current rig can't?

BHD

I am with BHD here, if you're not being limited by your current system, then wait until the next gen comes out. The longer you put it off, the more time you have to save your $$ and get what you really want. It it is killing you now, though scrape by with the new "core" mentioned earlier and wait.

Don't get sucked into the "HAVE TO UPGRADE BECAUSE.... WELL JUST BECAUSE" cycle. It's tempting... but it's an addiction, for sure.

Look at my sig. I'm getting dated, too, but I'm holding out because I know there's not much I'd do with a Radeon 9700 that my 8500 won't do and my 1.6a is still chugging along nicely.

Remember that there is some nice value in the AMD segment right now. Look for your best OCing chip rather than the best "PR" one, of course.

cheers! :beer:

amdperson · Jun 21, 2003

it all depends on you. Are you willing to wait untill the new amd chips come out and see what the specs will be. I think if you wait you will probably get a better deal on the chips coz the athons could be cheaper by then.

ninthebin · Jun 21, 2003

thats why im asking you, I cant trust my silly young mind to make any decisions like this

its just really what would you do considering the scenario im facing

amdperson · Jun 21, 2003

i suppose i would wait, but thats just my oppinion.

ptwearnhardtfan · Jun 21, 2003

I would do the upgrade now. You'll get significant improvement for now, and when the new stuff comes out, let 'em get all the bugs worked out and the prices to come down before you jump into the new stuff.

Jeff Bolton · Jun 21, 2003

agreed with earnhardt. i'd say pick up an xp1700+ on the cheap and an abit nf7-s and some decent ddr, keep the current hard drive and video card, and overclock the hell out of it. it won't cost you too much money (especially for the chip) and you can easily say you have an awesome system until the next generation of stuff gets all the bugs worked out. example: i have a motherboard that has onboard SATA but i'm not going to get any SATA drives until they're cheaper and faster. the same will be with pci express, etc.

moral of my rant: just go ahead and upgrade your system with new motherboard/cpu/ram and it'll be so fast compared to what you have now that the wait till the new stuff won't feel so long.

BaldHeadedDork · Jun 22, 2003

I asked what you want to do is to find out if your shortcomings would be helped by the 64 bit bus. There might be a good reason to wait for an Athlon 64 if you were into heavy DV or photo editing. But for games the answer is clearly no.

That means the choice is between Northwood C/Barton today or Prescott/Athlon 64 (running in emulation) sometime in 2004. I'd upgrade now. An overclocked Northwood C or Barton running at over three gig is overkill for any game on the market or the drawing board. The systems next year will be even faster but that will only increase the level of wasted performance.

The kicker is price. The new technology coming next year (like DDR2, PCI-X, SATA2.0 and the 0.09u processors) is going to command a top price. By contrast you can get some incredible deals on the current generation equipment.

BHD

ninthebin · Jun 22, 2003

right I have been looking at some stuff to buy.

AMD AthlonXP 2500+ £61.90
Corsair 512MB XMS3200 £96.12
Abit NF7-S revision 2.0 £83.43
Coolermaster Aero 7+ £34.08
Antec TrueBlue 480W £87.66
Arctic Silver III £4.64

Total: £367.83

now thats what I have so far...the coolermaster aero 7+ I am not so sure on, im about to go read alot of reviews on not only that but other cooling, probably check out the general cooling section to see whos had experience with them and how they found them.

any critics please voice your opinions - sure there are cheaper methods to do this, but I feel like splashing out a tad, and this is only an upgrade not a full system build (although close to it)

probably as I spend most of the money I have on other things that will all change anyway

Dan

Jeff Bolton · Jun 22, 2003

that mobo/cpu/ram combo is probably one of the best that you can get right now, especially for a cheap system. pump the fsb up to 200 out of the box and watch her fly!

edit: for the cooling, i'd say go with something a little more hardcore like the thermalright slk900u or slk800u even, or an alpha heatsink of some kind. i've never heard of coolermaster heatsinks being incredible for overclocking (doesn't mean they aren't, i've just never heard of them in the same rung as thermalright and alpha). that being said, overclocking the barton to 2.2ghz like i have mine (11x200) produces a lot of heat so you're gonna want the best cooling you can get, which is worth the extra money in my opinion.

ninthebin · Jun 22, 2003

lol, I am pretty much buying your system - the SLK900 was certainly an option, I am gonna do all the reading on it on wednesday - ill keep you posted to what I choose

that 11x200 was what I am planning, how do your temps hold with the 900 up there?

Jeff Bolton · Jun 22, 2003

well my room has a window a/c unit that we can't afford to have running 24/7 so when its blowing on the hsf, the temps are pretty good (load in the mid to upper 40's) and idle in the upper 30's to low 40's. when the a/c is off, the chip heats the room up fast. load goes up into the low to mid 50's and idles mid 40's. my room has very good insulation so it doesn't circulate either. i guess what i'm getting at is that the temps are alright when it isn't hot outside. i have an alright fan. it was awesome for my p4 but the p4 didn't have near the thermal output of the amd. i would like to upgrade to a vantec tornado so i don't have to worry about it getting too hot when the a/c isn't on, but i like my ear drums too

overall, i can tell you that the slk900u is an amazing heatsink, but the heat here in virginia, and the way the air in my room is circulated (or lack thereof) offset the balance a bit. once things start to cool off i expect to see much better temps. if you have central a/c or cooler temps in liverpool your cpu temps should be fine.

either way, i don't think you'll find better cooling with a good fan from any other heatsink short of watercooling.

jeff

mateo · Jun 22, 2003

I find myself to (well, most of the time), be compulsively patient. Its served me well, because I can look back and see the buys I contemplated and the errors resulting from that (cpuFX, aah). The key is to find the right vergence and jump right in, unless other needs push you ahead of schedule. Id rather wait for one time to score a very sweet system rather than be relegated to a constant stream of "sub-par" (I guess) systems. The difference is much more noticeable and satisfying that way IMHO.

nil_esh · Jun 23, 2003

I don't know if I'd wait for 64-bit computing, but I wouldn't upgrade unless I had a good reason to. I am working on a PIII 650 at work, and when I come home to my faster machines, I don't really feel the difference (though I am not a PC gamer). I like to stay a few generations behind with upgrades. Things are so cheap these days, you can afford to have more than one PC without spending a lot. I like my ~$30 Durons, and low cost Asus motherboards that are either refurb or a few generations old (I got 2 A7V266's and a refurb A7V333r).

As for the parts you listed. I agree that the SLK's are nice. I have an SLK-800 and I like it; easy install, quiet cooling with an 80mm fan. Though I don't know anything about that Coolmaster you listed. I would shop for a good deal on PC2100, instead of the PC3200, but that is just me...

am I being stupid?

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