Serious buying decision, A64 now or later....

I'm selling my XP2500 system, and I'm not sure what I should get to replace it.

If I buy a new better AXP system, it would have better overclockability than the last, better cooling, a little bit better video card, overall slightly faster for just $85.

If I buy a new A64 system, it would overall be a lot faster, but maybe not worth $300 bucks right now.

At first I was really considering getting a good A64 system to last me a year or so. But now that I see there's price drops happening at the end of the year, new better motherboards coming out, and newer chips, I wonder if I should wait until A64 gets into it's prime. What I mean by in its prime is motherboards with great stability, overclocking, new tech like PCI-E, and all around price drops on A64. I am guessing that this will all be true by the end of this year. But the real question is can a overclocked AXP system keep up til early 2005. All I really care about is gaming, for stuff like Half-life2 and Doom3. Is an XP-M at 2.5ghz and 9800pro ganna be outdated that quickly?

I'm thinking the best thing to do would be just get the AXP system, wait til A64 gets cheap, the upgrade in early 2005. But not if i'm ganna shoot myself later for not getting A64 when I could have.

The A64's socket 754 and 939 really wont be in thier prime's for a long time. Because AMD arent ganna continue using the same socket for years and years like socket A.

socket 754 the 3700+ is sopposidly the last line. The socket 939's just came out but thier like $700 cpu's and with barely any motherboards out.

Ya see, thats exactly wat i'm talking about. I don't wanna hafta spend $300 bucks now on an A64, if an AXP will do. And if I do spend $300 on an A64, i'll spend it later, When A64 sockets will last as long as socket A did. Does this seem logical?

754 should last a lot longer than people give it credit for. The 939 is still a "premium" socket line, and probably will remain to be for a while. Furthermore, for most of us, the difference between 939 and 754 is not noticeable. However, the XP-M at 2.5GHz is admittedly already outdated. Whether it will do the job for you is your call, however the A64 is really on another plane of performance. It's a tough question, and it really comes down down to how much performance you want/need. Personally, I think investing in the already-obsolete AthlonXP is a bad idea, though.

Perfectly put, thats what one half of my brain is saying. All I want is a system that can keep up with games like HL2 and Doom3, im not sure if a AXP based system can??

Agreed with Gautam, why spend another one or two hundred dollars into XP and a mobo when the performance aren't really up to date? A64 setup will only need about hundred or two more than XP setup (250 for CPU 150 for mobo). XP systems aren't going to be handling HL2/DOOM3 at the level most people expect games to play at.

If already have a nforce2 + mobile barton (or alike), wait for PCI-e, better and cheaper 754/939.

Needed a new system now, mobile 3000+/3200+ CG ClawHammer + 250 GB board.

If having money to spend, wait for 1-3 months for motherboard w/ PCI-e + 939 CPU.

Agreed with Gautam, why spend another one or two hundred dollars into XP and a mobo when the performance aren't really up to date? A64 setup will only need about hundred or two more than XP setup (250 for CPU 150 for mobo). XP systems aren't going to be handling HL2/DOOM3 at the level most people expect games to play at.

Click to expand...

Because I am not spending any more money on the XP and mobo. But I would be spending 300 bucks on the A64. So pretty much i'm asking, can AXP-m/nforce2 handle itself for the next 6 months?

There's no reason why the price difference should be greater than about $70. The A64 2800+ is $173, and the Chaintech VNF3-250 is $92.

ap673 said:

So pretty much i'm asking, can AXP-m/nforce2 handle itself for the next 6 months?

Click to expand...

*bump* I'm in the same position as ap673...

There's no reason why the price difference should be greater than about $70. The A64 2800+ is $173, and the Chaintech VNF3-250 is $92.

Click to expand...

If I go A64, im going all the way, a good mobo with a good overclocking cpu. MSI Neo Platinum and Mobile A64 3000 1mb L2cache.($360)

Doom3 is a game designed for a single player experience. The framerate will not be important as the quality of the rendering. In that situation, a video card upgrade would be a better investment.

If you're into multiplayer gaming, then yes, a CPU upgrade will be a better choice. Although, there's nothing wrong with a AthlonXP for gaming purposes.

If you were running a much slower CPU I'd say you would appreciate a bigger difference, but for > $350 I think you'll be underwhelmed by the difference in framerate. Sure, if you turn off all the eye-candy and turn down the resolution you'll notice an appreciable difference, but if you did that with your present system you'd get great framerate as well.

I'm having the same problem also.

The AthlonXP is still holding its ground for the time being. I can probably last about a good 7 months with the system I got now.

Like ap673 said, if I was to go with AMD64 now, I would get the good stuff. Well, with the cash I have now.....I'm going to wait.

a 2.5ghz xp and 9800 pro will be good for YEARS!!!! that system would rock! i would wait and after a while do the upgrade when you can get a FX for a $85 upgrade cost.

Hahaha, FX for $85, theyll have halflife3 out by then.

guys just be happy with what you got. both your systems are already pretty good. in my opinion it's a better idea to wait until the games are released to decide what you need. there's no point in playing the guessing game. just save your money and be happy with your quick systems.

you'll notice a bigger difference adding raid 0 or upping your vid card than changing cpu and mobo.

ap673 said:

Serious buying decision, A64 now or later....

Click to expand...

Simple

Later

Gautam said:

754 should last a lot longer than people give it credit for. The 939 is still a "premium" socket line, and probably will remain to be for a while. Furthermore, for most of us, the difference between 939 and 754 is not noticeable. However, the XP-M at 2.5GHz is admittedly already outdated. Whether it will do the job for you is your call, however the A64 is really on another plane of performance. It's a tough question, and it really comes down down to how much performance you want/need. Personally, I think investing in the already-obsolete AthlonXP is a bad idea, though.

Click to expand...

Everything gets outdated every 6 months or so. Yes it is a waist of money to spend $100 ona new 2500 or 2600 mobile when u can bu ya A64 2800+ for only $60 more, the motherboards range from $60-170.

Basicly to have an A64 system you only ned to spend $100 more or so, which isnt that bad for performance you get.

If already have a nforce2 + mobile barton (or alike), wait for PCI-e, better and cheaper 754/939.

Needed a completely new build overclocking now/yesterday (for whatever reason), mobile 3000+/3200+ CG ClawHammer + 250 GB board.

If having money to spend, wait for 1-3 months for motherboard w/ PCI-e + 939 CPU.

For those who have been waiting already quite a while, PCI-e video card are beginning to come out, PCI-e motherboard should be out soon, .... IMO, a motherboard with PCI-e, either 754/939 (depending on budget) would last until end of 2005 for latest hardware/CPU.

What if you just want to upgrade your platform for the time being, and you still want PCI-e. Do you think that in 1-3 there will be mobos with PCI-e and AGP 8x?