Upgrade path for an old rig. Please advise...

[scarabei]

I plan on building a new system, but with all the new developments soon to be unveiled in the PC world (i.e. Conroe, AM2, etc.) I don't know if it is prudent to shell out the cash at this very time. Here is my current rig (it is old):

AMD XP 2400+
Asus A7S333
1 Gig RAM
Geforce FX5200 (Radeon 9800 PRO died early January)
74 GB WD Raptor HDD
250 GB Samsung SATA HDD

After my Radeon 9800 died early January, I was pretty busy and didn't have time for gaming. However, now that I got some time, I wonder if I should get AGP Geforce 6800GS to get me through until the end of the year, when I can buy a cutting edge system or just shell out the cash for FX-60 with ATI x1900xtx and hope that it will stand up to future games.

My old rig with 9800Pro played both Fear and Quake 4 quite well at 1024x768 at mid settings, so I hope that I will still be able to play some of the newer titles with a 6800GS.

Getting a new rig now IS tempting, but considering that even the current best rigs have hard time running Oblivion, I feel worried about my new machine being able to handle next year's PC titles.

Please advise on my dilema...

 

[smedlin]

If you want to play now, then buy now.

Vista won't be out for almost a year..no need to wait for DX10 cards.

 

[trunks512]

well if you want just save up the rest of the money and maybe spend for a A64 3000+ overclock it and get maybe a 1800GTO and over clock that aswell
you should be decent until vista comes out

 

[jaguarskx]

If you want to play now, then buy now.

Vista won't be out for almost a year..no need to wait for DX10 cards.

Agreed.

But if you can manage to hold out until May 23rd Socket AM2 will be available. You will not see any improvement over socket 939 initially. However, you will also have an upgrade path to AMD next generation CPU, the K8L.

On the otherhand, if you have no intention of upgrading for another 3 year or so then you might as well build a PC now.

The next generation of video cards will probably be released in September/October. Maybe later since there are rumors that Windows Vista has been pushed back to Q2 2007 now.

 

[Anoobis]

You could just see about picking up another 9800 Pro off of eBay. If you like the way it worked before, why waste a bunch of money now. You could probably get one for about $50.00. Then wait for this whole AM2/Conroe/Vista thing to clear up.

 

[jaguarskx]

You could just see about picking up another 9800 Pro off of eBay. If you like the way it worked before, why waste a bunch of money now. You could probably get one for about $50.00. Then wait for this whole AM2/Conroe/Vista thing to clear up.

I would sell my 9800Pro, but I need it until I upgrade to Conroe or AM2 (if Conroe turns out to be a dud).

 

[Jaffee]

I don't think AM2 will be worth the upgrade, not for a while. intel went for DDR2 support a few months back, and who cared? *chirp chirp*

nVidia and ATI won't let Microsoft hold their release dates back. They're going to release when they'll make the most money, and recent history shows that they feel that a summer release is their best bet. I would anticipate a late summer/early fall release. Just in time for Christmas shopping.

 

[scarabei]

I have to agree with Jaffee. Looking at the benchmarks the AM2 doesn't look like it is worth the upgrade. Transition to DDR2 is not going to make much difference. The only reason I see to go AM2 is to open an upgrade path to AMD's next generation CPUs (thanks jaguarskx).

On a different note, isn't Conroe supposed to be available mid-July 06?

Seems like these are just tumultuous times for PC hardware. With newer games at high settings (even at modest 1280x1024) exceeding the resources of the fastest machines availible now things are not looking too good. Sometimes this whole PC performance rat race makes me want to shell out $500 for an Xbox 360, but then I cannot bring myself down to the console level. I held out from console world thus far, not gonna swap over in my mid twenties :lol:

 

[Anoobis]

You could just see about picking up another 9800 Pro off of eBay. If you like the way it worked before, why waste a bunch of money now. You could probably get one for about $50.00. Then wait for this whole AM2/Conroe/Vista thing to clear up.

I would sell my 9800Pro, but I need it until I upgrade to Conroe or AM2 (if Conroe turns out to be a dud).

:?:

 

[Primitivus]

I agree with your thoughts on your first post. A 6800GS will keep you happy AT LEAST until Vista comes out if you want to wait that long. But I also think it's quite likely that next gen cards will be out long before that so you'll have more upgrade options even sooner. Nevertheless, the 6800GS is probably not worth the money if you're going to build a new rig so soon. How about sth a bit cheaper like an X800GT?

 

[1Tanker]

I would go for the 6800GS, it'll smoke that 9800 pro. Theres the chance you

can unlock it to 16/6, or as most people are at least getting 12/6. I don't

think it's worth the extra moola to jump up to the 7800GS. Throw a decent

HSF on it, O/C and your golden 'til your next upgrade.