upgrade advice

[kiwi_2005]

I just couldn't stop laughing at your PC list which seem like 50 miles long. I mean im sure we need to know your Directx components:rotfl: Oh well you always read "Please show us your PC specs"

Laffertytig certainly did that.

Anyway a good sys setup thats pretty affordable

AMD 3400
2 gigs ddr2 ram
7800GTX 256ram
160gig hdd
Alienware case (lookalike)
Price $1400
Throw on your windows OS, monitor/kb, mouse

[The Avon Lady]

Hardware purchase moratorium here until Vista is out.

[JSLTIGER]

Originally Posted by The Avon Lady

Hardware purchase moratorium here until Vista is out.

Agreed...waiting for Core 2 Quad and DX10 graphics.

[sonar732]

I'm not planning on getting Vista for a couple years as this will allow both Microsoft and hardware manufacturers to get everything squarred away. MS has an incandid ability to have problems during the first year of a new OS release.

So, with that in mind, my suggestion is to get rid of your XP Home and upgrade to XP Pro. What are you planning on doing with the old computer? If you are going to keep it, network it with your new one. If not, wipe the OS from the hard drive and slave it as a data backup.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by JSLTIGER

Agreed...waiting for Core 2 Quad and DX10 graphics.

Be sure to invest in an air conditioner and expect to tripple your power bill to run both machine and aircon. A decent system now days only draws in 150 Watts total power. Just a DX10 video card alone they are talking 250 watts, and I bet that quad core will be over 200 Watts as well. Add everything else in there and you will need 550 Watts to 600 Watt PSU running near its capacity just to power the damn thing.

Can we say 'Space Heater'? You won't be cold in your room during winter time, that is for sure. Expect highs in house in the 80's and 90's without even turning on the house heat.

-S

PS. The point? You're nuts if you plan to purchase these things! :p I will pass this generation personally and wait for some better power management!!!

[SUBMAN1]

Incase anyone cares what real power draw is for a typical system, this chart is getting close to a year old, but it should give you an idea.

PSU companies will always tell you that you need more power, but they aren't being truthful as you can see. Amps on the +12 is probably all you should care about since most PSU's have enough wattage to power almost anything:





Now do you see why I think a vid card that draws 250 Watt is stupid???

[tycho102]

That's a KT400 chipset, socket-A. You've got to swap that whole thing out. You can keep the memory if it's PC3200. Hard drives, keyboard, mouse, monitor. You're using the onboard sound, so you might seriously consider getting a cheap hardware card.

Pricewatch will give you some good options. You can get a AMD64 2ghz for $54. A decent 16x PCIx mainboard will run $100 or less. Video card depends on whether you want Nvidia or Ati, but $150 will give you something a little more powerful than your 9600.

If you move up to the AM2 socket, you'll have to put DDR2 in there, but you will have far more upgrade options in the future.

[scandium]

Originally Posted by tycho102

That's a KT400 chipset, socket-A. You've got to swap that whole thing out. You can keep the memory if it's PC3200. Hard drives, keyboard, mouse, monitor. You're using the onboard sound, so you might seriously consider getting a cheap hardware card.

Pricewatch will give you some good options. You can get a AMD64 2ghz for $54. A decent 16x PCIx mainboard will run $100 or less. Video card depends on whether you want Nvidia or Ati, but $150 will give you something a little more powerful than your 9600.

If you move up to the AM2 socket, you'll have to put DDR2 in there, but you will have far more upgrade options in the future.

I have to disagree on the soundcard issue. At one time onboard sound was junk and it was a given that you needed a real sound card if you wanted anything other than hisses, pops, and problems. But times have changed, onboard sound has largely gotten better (particularly on even the mainstream brand name boards with NVidia or ATI chipsets which, even on the lower end, are geared to gamers... Intel based boards are another story, ditto VIA) and the onboard 7.1 sound on my current rig I find just find - though its not hooked up to anything flashy, just a midrange Logitech 5.1 speaker setup.

Basically unless you're an audio purist or simply have to have the best of everything and the dedicated sound processor for the extra few frames it'll give you in games, then a separate sound card is a total waste of money that would be better spent on either the video card (best bang for the buck for gaming) or cpu (2nd best bang for the buck b/c of the longevity issue... ie, your rig may see a video card upgrade in its lifetime but a cpu upgrade almost always involves at least a new motherboard).

Also, as to AM2 and DDR2 that comes down to how much you have to spnd and whether or not you're upgrading over the interim or long term... clock for clock S939 provides far more bang for the buck right now when you factor in the ability to use the existing 1 GB of ddr rather than having to shell out for the still pricey ddr2... me i'd buy a PCIe S939 board and the fastest CPU I could afford knowing that it'll be the only CPU the board will see & that i want to get as much milage out of it as possible. Though for practical purposes this is not a drawback, since how many times have you ever upgraded just a cpu? Me I've had a 286 (my first PC), a 386, various 486s, two K6s, a first generation Pentium, a celeron 2, etc, etc... and every cpu (at least 7 or 8 over the years) has been bought with a new motherboard due to socket issues, bios issues, voltage issues, compatability issues, or new features.