Upgrading in 2004

Not to sound abrasive... but it'd be nice to know what you plan on doing with this machine? Heavy gaming, general stuff, or what?

Big upgrade next year? Get a faster CPU next year.

You don't want to be the fool that got caught in the middle with transitional technology. If you want the new stuff that's comming out in 2004, wait until 2005 to buy it.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

I agree. That is why I won't upgrade in 2004 or early 2005. I sure would like to know which of these components I now have would be useful and which need to be chucked.

I will be using this PC to design the next generation of stealth fighters and nuclear bombers, find cure for cancer & heart decease and surf the web.... 

All of them seeing as I can't imagine any reason why you would even need to upgrade in 2004. By the time your computer is so crappy and slow you NEED to upgrade, processors will come out on Socket T format, will be best paired off with DDR II RAM, and use the PCI Express bus to communicate with your graphics card and add-in cards. Oh, you might be able to keep the hard disk  

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A> :cool:

For some people the answer might be: NONE!

Wow! OK, to begin with, you pitch all your PCI cards in favor of PCI-Express. Then you pitch your video card, AGP no longer supported. You pitch your RAM because the new stuff is DDRII. You pitch your IDE drives because everything is SATA. You pitch your case because you're moving to BTX. Any you might need to pitch your power supply. Also, if you're using a parallel port printer or PS/2 keyboard/mouse, you might have to pitch those.

When we made the switch from ISA to PCI, ISA slots remained for YEARS. Don't count on PCI sticking around so long. When we switched video from PCI to AGP, PCI slots were still present. ATX goes back to the early 90's in one form or another, I even had an ATX 486!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

hey whats BTX

tell me something about it

any comparison b/w ATX and BTX

is it a smaller form factor

Information on form factors and specifications can be found at <A HREF="http://www.formfactors.org" target="_new">formfactors.org</A>.

To summarize, the BTX form factor is supposed to be more flexible in the board layout with scalable board dimensions including low profile options, allow for better system cooling, and have improved mechanical properties and structural support for heavy weight heatsinks.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A> :cool:

Intel list a lot of differences/advantages to BTX, but basically it's ATX upside-down so your CPU is at the bottom of the case where it's cooler.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

Not in any of the setups I've see it's not. <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1876" target="_new">This article</A> from <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com" target="_new">anandtech.com</A> takes you through the different BTX formats.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A> :cool:

Assuming you still access your tower from the left side of the case, the board would be upside-down. I'm not buying a new desk!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

Well as you said before.. about the 8x agp. It's still not even in use. So are they going to go straight to PCI express without even using the 8x agp?
DDR2 will probably be just like DDR1.. a good 2% gain. All these new advances are petty to me.
I still can't tell a difference between my stock CPU compared to the new stock cpus. In fact i sometimes wonder if mines better.

As the 64 bit thing.. who gives? We wont be using 64 bit applications for awhile.. and to have that 64 bit tag on my cpu i could care less becuase by the time 64 bit is standard that cpu is too damn slow for it.

All this new technology is nice to dream about.. but it moves too fast to actually put it in use.. it's all paper launches and paper benchmarks.

[-peep-].. M$ might as well just make a yearly OS.. it's not like these OS's are changing. They are just putting more security hacks.. and spyware in 'em.

Next time i upgrade i should probably invest in some 3d graphic design classes so i can put my next new system in use. I know for damn sure that the video game designers have ran out of idea's and they sure as hell can't keep up with technology. Heh.. if you play MMORPG's than you'll notice that there are about 30 PC titles that are EXACT clones of eachother.

Heh.. next thing you know we are going to all go backwards into analog. They want to replace the VHS.. I say F it.. make a new VCR.. redesign the technology.. how can discrete information be better than a continuous string?

And on the topic of desk's.. why aren't there awesome computer desk mod's yet? Is this a company i should start in? Chair and Desk modding.. Surround sound speakers.. fridges.. Lights.. a lazy susan.. your computer chair is a effin lazy boy just in a smaller scale for the desk. Comes with a nice cupholder and straw.
^^
I'm done.   thanks for your time.

p4 2.8 533fsb
intel mobo
1gb rdram pc 800
radeon9800 pro
120gb seagate s-ata