Where To Spend The Money?

[The_One]

Hi,

I'm doing a new system for office work, gaming, and flight sims and I'm looking at these configurators all these companies such as cyberpower have on their websites. Anyway, I'm trying to come up with a balanced system and I'd like some advice on where to spend the money?

My base processor is the 4200+ but should I pony up for the 4400+?

My base hard drive is a single Sata II 16mb cache, but should I pony up for a 74mb Raptor for drive 1, and use the Sata II for Drive 2 and go back to my base processor?

My base video card is a 7800 GT, but should I pony up for 2 x 7800 GT's a 4400+ Proccessor, and a single Sata II drive?

Whew! Sorry, this came out long winded... My first real post. Anyway, can you help?

 

[corvetteguy]

I would go with the 4400 cause it seems to have best dual-core price/performamce ratio.
go with the sata drive, guessing your looking at western digital sata2 16mb, the raptor won't show you that much performance gain.
Finally, i wouldn't even buy sli although the 7800gt is very good value, because, soon, a card like the x1900xt will come down in price lower than 2 of those cards and majorly outperform them, get one now, then in a year or so, get a better mid-high range card at that time.

 

[kyleawesome]

It really depends on your long range plans....

If your like me you'll spend 1000-1500 a year on new technologies, upgrading components after the new stuff as dropped slightly, or like my buddies who spend 2500-3500 every few years on a "bumpin" system that are worth only 1700 a year later...

If you'll have money down the road go with the 4400+, its a fact, technology has the shortest lifespan of any market...

 

[chuckshissle]

That sounds right, 4400, SLI 7800GT,2Gb or ram should be a good setup to games and other task.

 

[The_One]

It really depends on your long range plans....

If your like me you'll spend 1000-1500 a year on new technologies, upgrading components after the new stuff as dropped slightly, or like my buddies who spend 2500-3500 every few years on a "bumpin" system that are worth only 1700 a year later...

If you'll have money down the road go with the 4400+, its a fact, technology has the shortest lifespan of any market...

Great, I HAVE to fall in love with technology, JUST GREAT! 8O

Corvetteguy, you're right, it's the WD drive. So I should be a 1900xt now instead of 2 7800gt's? and then upgrade cards as available?

I have a question. Do you guys think 4400 or even 4800 processor prices will come down when the AM2's come out? If they do, maybe I'll wait a bit...

 

[linux_0]

I agree

That should make a great system.

Also I think the X1900 is way too expensive. I'd recommend a single 7800GT.

You can always add a 2nd card or upgrade to the 7900GT or X1900 later after prices have dropped

 

[Craigmandu]

Only do a single 7800GT right now for a couple of reasons:

1. You don't know if what you want to play can even make real use of SLI.

2. You don't know how fast the x1900 series will drop in price.

3. It's less expensive, which means you can ensure that you have good Ram, HDD, Mobo etc.... that won't be a hinderance.

As has been said, if you decide, I'm not getting enough game performance from my single 7800GT, then you can always add a second one and put them in SLI if you really wanted.

Going for SLI from the start (unless you KNOW you will need that much), is probably overkill for most games. Remember, playing a game is much different than benchmarking a game, sure the benchmark numbers go up, but the actual game play doesn't gain quite as much benefit. Unless you know the games you plan to play require alot of GPU power.

 

[linux_0]

The X1900 seems to be quite fast, however it is selling for more than twice the price of a 7800GT!

I would expect nVidia to respond with a card that matches or beats the X1900 in 0-30 days - the 7900 or 7950 perhaps?

 

[linux_0]

I think the OP should stick to a single 7800GT for right now.

Wait for the prices to settle a bit and for the new nVidia cards to hit the market.

I have a hunch nVidia will pleasantly surprise and amaze us in 0-30 days

 

[The_One]

Thanks for all the great replies. Good stuff you guys! I think I'll go with a single 7800 GT for now. This is my first ever real performance system, and we'll see how it does on games I play. Then, when new cards come out, and come down in price, I can always upgrade. Upon thinking about it, I don't think the way I'll play, I'll ever stress out a single card. I'm far from frantic, but then again, I may find my alter-ego :twisted: Sound Advice...Thanks Linux_0! Oh, while we're talking, would you recommend MSI or Evga for the 7800 GT? And, uh, what does "pwn" mean?

 

[linux_0]

The eVGA should be pretty good

Good Luck!

Semper Fi Linux on!