After Xmas PC build... suggestions?

[Phrederick]

Hey all!

Looking at replacing all my machines at the end of the year and I'm just
wondering what I should be looking for in terms of technology. Looks like
three machines will be built.

1) My PC. Uses will be:
- Programming. VB, HTML, ASP...
- Gaming. Quake 3, Unreal Tourney, Vice City
- Basic internet. Email, surfing.
- This is the only PC that would ever see any overclocking, if ever.
- Current PC is AMD TBird 1300, Geforce 2GTS, 512meg DDR, DVD-R writer,
CDRW, 60gig HDD

2) Wifes PC. Uses will be:
- Programming. Access, ASP...
- Able to move large files to from office (CDwriting)
- No real gaming. She likes Pogo, Age of Empires, etc.
- TV tuner (ALWAYS has TV on the desktop someplace)
- Dual monitor
- Current PC is AMD XP 2000+, Matrox G550 dualhead video, 1gig PC133 SDRam,
2x40gig HDD on RAID, 40x CDRW, MS DSS80 USB speakers.

3) Media PC. Uses will be:
- Connected to TV. Secondary display on monitor would be nice.
- MP3, DVD, etc playback
- Some possible gaming... Emulators, driving sims
- PVR, from cable box.
- QUIET! (all three should be quiet PC's)
- Possibly replacing current Win2K3 server for file sharing, faxing,
voicemail, web/ftp hosting (very slim possibility, but if this machine will
be on 24/7, maybe)
- I was looking at using an MSI Mega PC for this, but they don't have an
800mhz bus version and I want something that will be as current as possible.
Also not sure if they even have SATA on these boards.

I want to go Intel for CPU. I've had issues with the AMD hardware (chipsets,
CPUs, mainboards ??? Don't know and don't have these problems on the Intel
PC's I've built). What I'm thinking (and PLEASE let me know where I'm wrong)
was...

- 800Mhz bus CPUs
- Mainboard that supports dual DDR (or is this AMD only territory?)
- ATI 9600 Pro for my PC. Probably keep the G550 for the wifes PC.
- Fastest DDR I can find at a reasonable price
- ~120gig SATA drives with 8mb buffer. Hopefully something that does SATA
natively
- Mount DVD writer in a USB2/Firewire enclosure and share between PC's (USB2
or Firewire???)

Just wondering what is the latest and greatest I can expect in the next
month or so, without being overly expensive.

 

[stacey]

Phrederick wrote:

Just wondering what is the latest and greatest I can expect in the next
month or so, without being overly expensive.

There is no way to know!

 

[Phrederik]

Phrederick wrote:



There is no way to know!

I'm not looking for mind readers! Just that I won't be buying until
December/January, so anything that is bleeding edge now won't really be
then. SATA drives will be more commonplace etc.

 

[kony]

I'm not looking for mind readers! Just that I won't be buying until
December/January, so anything that is bleeding edge now won't really be
then. SATA drives will be more commonplace etc.

The "latest and greatest" is a bit like asking for trouble though.
Why pay a premium price just so you can be the beta-tester, only to
gain a very few % performance gain IF everything works right?

December is only two months away, read the reviews now and pick a few
boards you like, they may be debugged and have a user-support base by
the time you buy it.

Dave

 

[stacey]

The "latest and greatest" is a bit like asking for trouble though.
Why pay a premium price just so you can be the beta-tester, only to
gain a very few % performance gain IF everything works right?

December is only two months away, read the reviews now and pick a few
boards you like, they may be debugged and have a user-support base by
the time you buy it.

Exactly my point. What has come out right now may be proved to be junk by
the time they are going to buy. I always do my research right before I buy
and try to get items that have been out long enough to be proven good or
bad. Glad I didn't buy one of those "vacuum cleaner" Gforce cards!