Good idea or not ?

[Me__2001]

i've been thinking of getting a new system for a while but due to having to pay car insurance i've had to keep putting it off as i can't afford to pay for both , now AMD have dropped their prices and my insurance has dropped to a more sensible amount i can afford to get a reasonable system that i'm hoping will last a couple of years without changing much

it will be used for video/audio encoding, the odd game, office work, internet browsing, any CAD drawings i need for uni and of course crunching

so far i've decided on the following

A8N-SLI SE
Athlon 64 X2 4400
2GB of Corsair XMS DDR400
BFG 7600GS (i'n not much of a gamer and this seems to be capable of what i'll need it for)
Samsung 160GB SATA HD
Liteon DVD-RW
Antec Sonata II w/450W PSU
XP Pro SP2

thats about £700 delivered from OCUK

i'm gonna steal the following from my old system as well

200GB SATA slave, DVD-ROM and TV card plus i'll use all of my old peripherals

do you guys reckon its worth getting a 939 based system or waiting a few more months and getting an AM2 system ?

 

[muckshifter]

It's a silly game, init.

Just get it ...

 

[Me__2001]

Mucks you're right it is silly and after looking at all the AM2 stuff i've decided i haven't really got a clue

so i'm gonna stick with what i know

 

[bodhi]

What is the AM2 stuff? Are they about to change everything now im almost caught up? The swines.

 

[Me__2001]

AM2 is to replace socket 939, its basically the same but with the memory controller in the CPU and DDR2 compatible

 

[floppybootstomp]

Be aware that AMD have now stopped manufacturing Socket 939 CPU's. This probably means that within a few months Socket 939 CPU's will have gone the way of Socket A CPU's.

This rather blocks any way to upgrade or replace the CPU/Motherboard.

My next upgrade will be to AM2 and I'll probably do that with the release of MS Vista.

To tell the truth, I'm getting a bit cheesed with AMD, they changing socket type as often as Intel now. And their prices are just the same, if not more expensive than the new Conroe range of Intel CPU's.

 

[Me__2001]

thats exactly what i was worried about flopps i'm just hoping it'll last as long as my current system has

i've spent the last hour or so reading up on the new AM2 platform and from what i can find the improvements over the old aren't anything to worry about in most cases

 

[muckshifter]

ME, do as you like ... but the "Old Girl" can run Vista, what can be harder than that? ... so this 939 I have should p1ss it, no?

Anyway, I'm always a year or so behind what everybody wants, I get by ok.



Buy the Time MrFBS gets his new PC we'll all be upgrading to Quad-Core ...

 

[Me__2001]

i think i'll go for it then, should have it all in the next couple of weeks

 

[michael 118]

i think i'll go for it then, should have it all in the next couple of weeks

Good choice

You can never keep ahead of pc technology unless your rich, but its knowing the new bits you do need and knowing the new bits you dont need .

 

[floppybootstomp]

Buy the Time MrFBS gets his new PC we'll all be upgrading to Quad-Core ...

Aye, you're probably right.

My current 'bestest' system is two years old now. I have to say it must be the best system I've ever owned, I've been really pleased with it.

DFI Lan Party Ultra II B/XP3200 @ 2.4Ghz/1Gb Standard Crucial RAM (2 x 512Mb in dual memory mode)/2 x WD 35Gb Raptors in RAID 0/Samsung 160Gb IDE drive for storage/Leadtek Nvidia 6800GT 256Mb grafix/ is a brief summary of it.

I figured as long as it can handle all games, why upgrade? It's fast, it's reliable, I like it.

I'll agree the AM2 series doesn't offer much advantage over sckt 939 series. In fact, buying a 939 system right now is probably a wise thing as whilst the CPU's stay in stock, they're reasonably priced.

I have been tempted myself, but why? I'm happy with what I have.

In fact, I was actually thinking of upgrading what I have. The only thing that cheeses me off about current system is 70Gb main drive isn't big enough to store many games, I need bigger.

So I figured if I upgraded thus:

2 x WD 74Gb Raptors in RAID 0 (144Gb Total main disk space) - £212.00

Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS3 - £135.00

Now that little upgrade costs about £350.00. And I can use the parts the upgrade frees up to upgrade another machine. It will probably leave some bits to sell in fact, once the upgrade has worked it's way down the line.

And any game that comes along that my machine can't handle, I can get an AGP 7800GS for between £170.00 and £250.00. They come in different flavours depending on how much memory, core speed and how many pipelines. The best one costs £252.00.

If I upgrade to an equivalent AM2 or Sckt 939 system, apart from buying the processor; memory and motherboard I'll still have to buy a PCI-e grafix card. And I'd still only have a 70Gb main hard drive.

Having more main hard disk space, yet keeping the Raptors in a RAID 0, actually means more to me now than upgrading to latest technology.

So, perversely, that's what I may do.

And, like Mucks, I always seem to be a year behind, or at least six months. My current system, when I built it, was probably the most up to date system I'd ever had. And then about 4 months later AMD Athlon 64's came along, lol

So, wotchoo lot think? I'd apreciate your views

 

[muckshifter]

So, wotchoo lot think? I'd apreciate your views

Hey! this an't your thread?

But as ME seems to be finished we'll let you off ...


Flopps, the only reason I got a 939 system was 'cos me brother got the bits cheap ... and I needed cheering up at the time.

I haven't tried Oblivion on the Old Girl, she's quite happy running Linux, but I do know that I would have had to upgrade the graphic card, as I had to on this 939 anyway. Ain't played another game since.

We are being led by "the market hype" as to what we "need" and some of us really do not need anything more than we already have ... I know I'm boring to have to say it again, but Vista will run on your present system and just as good as XP ... if you "need" Vista that is. I just took the opportunity when MS offered us a free sample, just had to see it working ... and as I have said, it went on the Old Girl and not my 939.

I have no real need to go X2 either, but if the price is dropping that much, I may just get one ... what the hell, it'll look good on my CV.

 

[Me__2001]

flopps it makes sense to me if your only having problems with HD space and the extra RAM would definately help things out

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for the input Mucks

I do actually have one AMD 64 system, I have an AMD 64 3200 (2Ghz) in an Asrock Dual Sata 2 board. This is the board with an Ali chipset and AGP and PCI-e slots. I have an AGP ATI 9800 Pro 128Mb card in there so I guess it don't really count as a sckt 939 system does it?

Ya know, one thing I've learnt over the years I've been messin' with this stuff, and been learnt by sheer user experience - the Motherboard is probably the most important component in the whole system. It's price will reflect how well your system runs.


So, don't skimp in this area.

Which, after all, is what you've always said, innit?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Oh, and thanks for your comment ME, and, er, sorry if I hijacked your thread, kind of a 'stream of conciousness' thingie

 

[Me__2001]

Oh, and thanks for your comment ME, and, er, sorry if I hijacked your thread, kind of a 'stream of conciousness' thingie

thats ok flopps, i was thinking along the same lines as you originally but i've decided that my CPU just isn't up to it anymore and i'm gonna have to do it at some point so why not do it while its cheapish

good point about the MB, i think i'll change that to the premium version

 

[muckshifter]

Thanks for the input Mucks

Ya know, one thing I've learnt over the years I've been messin' with this stuff, and been learnt by sheer user experience - the Motherboard is probably the most important component in the whole system. It's price will reflect how well your system runs.


So, don't skimp in this area.

Which, after all, is what you've always said, innit?

Oh yes,

I buy the best I can, and 'skimp' on the other bits ... I always put the best full featured MB in any system I have built, saved a lot of 'customers' a lot of money knowing all I had to do to make it a "games pc" was put in a new graphics card.

This thing here only now needs, well don't 'need', but you know what I mean ... I would like an X2 just to be able to Crunch two jobs at once ...


Just one more time ... everything connects to the MB, skimp on that, and you may as well throw your money out the windows ... pun intended.

 

[V_R]

I guess i am in similer position to Flops here....

Our pc's are much the same, only he got a better motherboard and a higher overclock than me!

You HD upgrade makes good sense by the sound of it Flops....

That RAM is almost the same as the new stuff i got a while back, its good stuff too. I noticed a nice little boost when playing games with the extra memory. You got dual channel on you mb too, which i aint so i guess that'll help....

I think i'll wait until the autumn to go AM2 and then do a fresh build....

 

[crazylegs]

Yeah to reflect on you guys my system i built about 2 years ago and was one of the first AMD Athlon 64 systems and it still runs most things i throw at it....Probably gonna upgrade in about another year we'll see whats about at the time and if it warrants it i'll maybe throw some more money at the wall..

3 years is about right to me....Like mr Muck's has already said we keep allowing ourselves to believe the hype.....I would possibly go AM2 or whatever is about at the time, like flopp's has said AMD are now starting to take the **** a bit when it comes to price structure....

 

[PotGuy]

I wouldn't go for AM2 at the moment given a choice, simply because the new nvidia 5** chipset runs hot and draws a shedload of power, and tends to break a lot, whereas the old nforce 4 is tried and tested and much better.