Upgrade Advice

[bosshoss]

Hi guys. I just have a quick ? and ask some of ya'lls opinions. I have about $1200 to toy around with for a possible PC overhaul. Here's my current specs:
AMD 2400+
ASUS a7n8x-x
768mb ddr400
BBA 9600xt

Now what I was thinking of buying is this:
ASUS k8n-e deluxe
AMD 64 3200+
1gb Kingston Hpyer-x ddr400
6800 gt
2 SATA seagate 160gb 7200's for RAID 0
(I do A LOT of DVD encoding, is RAID a bad Idea for this because of possible DATA corruption)

But I am having some buyer anxiety as to my purchase. I have heard that LongHorn is going to be a 128bit OS which would make my 64 obsolete a lot sooner than i had hoped. I do go to college so I have to factor in that I might be doing some CPU intensive work a little later on. Should I maybe just upgrade to a 3200xp and maybe the vid card (I am a HEAVY gamer) or should I go with the whole new system. And I am a die hard ATI fan, but the 6800gt has really made me feel bad about backstabbing my brand, good choice for card yes or no? any opinions would be welcomed.

 

[peteroy]

Don't go with Athlon XP, that's more obselete than anything.

You can go with Athlon 64, don't worry about Longhorn, that will be out in 2006 or 2007 and today there no 64bit applications and games so don't worry about 64bit and more over don't worry about 128bit.

Yes, the 6800 nvidia card is very good choice, I would say pay more on the cpu and mobo, take whatever card is cheaper, 6800 or X800.

===========================
<A HREF="http://www.clancas.net" target="_new">clan CHAOS</A>

 

[TheRod]

Here is my recommendation :

- Keep your DDR400 memory, you don't need new memory. And AMD64 on Socket754 are single-channel. So you can reuse your 768Megs of your actual DDR400. I doubt you will notice any improvment with Kingston Hyper-X memory.

- RAID-0 will not give you any data corruption problem! RAID-0 will only split your read/write through both HDD. The problem with RAID-0, is that if one of your drive dies, you will lost ALL your data. I strongly recommend you a third HDD in normal mode, to back up your important or do a regular backup of your stuff on a DVD-RAM or CD-RW.

- The best motherboard for AMD64 Socket754 is the MSI K8N Neo Platinum (not the Neo2, it's a S939 MB). The K8N Neo comes with a lot of stuff, and it gets very good rating in all reviews. ASUS is not the best price/performance MoBo maker.

And with the money you will keep by not buying new DDR400, you might be able to get a faster GPU, bigger HDD and/or faster or dual-layer DVD burner!

Don't worry about 128bit issue, it will take a very long time before 128bit will become mainstream and essential for home users!

--
A7N8X / <font color=green><b>AMD Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290

 

[DonnieDarko]

Don't go with Athlon XP, that's more obselete than anything.

I like how you can say an athlon XP is obsolete but you recommend a P4 anytime you can.
Tell me what is the difference? Because as far as benchmarks go athlon xps still bench around the same as P4s.
Just another example of FANBOYISM!

Watch out for the <b><font color=red>bloody</font color=red></b> Fanboys!

AMD64 2800+ :: MSI Neo-Fis2r :: 512mb Kingmax ddr400 :: Sapphire 9800pro 128mb :: 10K WD Raptor

Addicted, finally.

 

[HardWareBoss]

Vid card. You can OC X800Pro to X800XT. You go from 12 pipes to 16.

 

[peteroy]

Donnie your reply doesn't even worth my response but I responded anyway.

===========================
<A HREF="http://www.clancas.net" target="_new">clan CHAOS</A>

 

[P4Man]

> I have heard that LongHorn is going to be a 128bit OS
>which would make my 64 obsolete a lot sooner than i had
>oped

Ahem.. I don't think so. To max out memory addressing of a 64 bit computer using RAM, you'd need a pile of 400 Km of 1 GB Dimms, roughly the same height the international space station ISS orbits. Not likely to happen before 2007 (or 2027 for that matter) even if memory density somehow increases ten thousand fold by that time. Its not without reason no CPU I know off implements the full 64 bit physical addressing (opteron does 40, Xeon 36), let alone any motherboard would even come close of being able to use that.

A 128 bit machine, btw, could address a pile of 1GB Dimms as high as 16 million <b>lightyears</b>, roughly the size of the known universe. Lonhorn might be resource hungry, but not anything like that

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[Cybercraig]

128 bit? That would really take some doing! You'll be lucky to see the full implementation of 64 bit by 2006. I don't think any desktop user could benefit from 128 bit anyway. You'll never see a lack of addresses in 64 bit.

Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.4ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[phial]

Donnie your reply doesn't even worth my response but I responded anyway.

your an known idiot. athlonxp's may not be the fastest chips available right now, but the performance you get for the price makes them some of best deals you can get

-------
<A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">please dont click here! </A>
Brand name whores are stupid!

 

[DonnieDarko]

thanks phial, saved me the time in making a responce.

Watch out for the <b><font color=red>bloody</font color=red></b> Fanboys!

AMD64 2800+ :: MSI Neo-Fis2r :: 512mb Kingmax ddr400 :: Sapphire 9800pro 128mb :: 10K WD Raptor

Addicted, finally.

 

[phial]

its a dirty job, but someone needs to do it [/responsible voice]


:lol:

-------
<A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">please dont click here! </A>
Brand name whores are stupid!

 

[Cybercraig]

Yes, the 6800 nvidia card is very good choice, I would say pay more on the cpu and mobo, take whatever card is cheaper, 6800 or X800.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



Pete, I think you've got it backwards! The new generation of games is going to require a really good Vidcard and a fairly fast CPU. The money should be spent on the "really good side". JMHO


Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.4ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[endyen]

And to think I was going to tell the Petertoy that it was great of him not to be pushing Intel. This is after all, the smartest post I've ever seen from him.

 

[endyen]

If you were more cash strapped, I would suggest getting a mobile chip, such as the xp-m2500+ and setting it to 11.5 X 200. This would keep you till the socket 939 became more mainstream, and the chips for it became less overpriced.
Since you have the money, do the upgrade. Personal preference is also the Asus board. They did thier homework first, while MSI rushed the board out, and have paid the price in minor (bios fixable mostly) flaws.
High priced ram for socket 754 is really a waste. Buying new ram will net about .oo1%. Stick with the ram you have, unless it's 3 sticks, or just wont boot.
FYI, the ondie mem controller is so low latency, that reducing latencies any further is questionable at this point. The ODMC likes fewer slots of memory, so avoid use of the third slot, when possible.
As far as the graphics goes, at aint about brand loyalty, it's about performance. The Ati cards may catch up somewhat with drivers, but if you want high perf, you have to go 6800(or gt or ultra)

 

[bosshoss]

Thx for all the advice. I think I might be able to squeak out a 3500+ s939 and mobo. One thing I did forget to mention is that I work at a major electronics retailer and so I get everything but mobo's and cpu's at a pretty good deal. I can get a 6800gt for $290 and a x800pro for $300. I can also get an x800xt for $390 so the graphics card isnt gonna be that expensive for me. So would the 3500 setup carry me further into the future than the s754 setup? I just want to buy the best possible stuff for my money that will take me further for a longer period of time b4 I have to upgrade again

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by BossHoss on 08/20/04 08:06 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[endyen]

If you put the price difference in the bank, you will have the $ to do whatever you want, next time you upgrade.
By the time you want to upgrade either system, there will be so much new tech, you will need a whole new system.