New Computer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter drrouter
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drrouter

Need a recommendation....


I have a system I bought last year, and I'm coming back from Iraq with
a little extra $$.....so I'm not sure if I should get a new one, or
wait for a bit until technology improves...this is what I have;


Gigabyte Motherboard
P4/3.4Gigz Prescott
1024mb DDR400 memory
Fujitsu 160G SATA HD
ATI Radeon 9800 AGP Video Card
Sony Dual Layer DVD/CD RW


I was looking at a high end Dual Core AMD system, with a PCI-Express
video card...


is it worth the 2k investment, or should I keep my current system?
 
Need a recommendation....


I have a system I bought last year, and I'm coming back from Iraq with
a little extra $$.....so I'm not sure if I should get a new one, or
wait for a bit until technology improves...this is what I have;


Gigabyte Motherboard
P4/3.4Gigz Prescott
1024mb DDR400 memory
Fujitsu 160G SATA HD
ATI Radeon 9800 AGP Video Card
Sony Dual Layer DVD/CD RW


I was looking at a high end Dual Core AMD system, with a PCI-Express
video card...


is it worth the 2k investment, or should I keep my current system?
Click to expand...


Depends a lot on whether you need more performance, and if
so, for what. Given the Radeon 9800 you might be a gamer,
so a more modern gaming card would be of benefit. Since AGP
is a dead-end that alone would suggest a PCI Express
platform as the next necessary step, but overall, if you're
not playing modern games alot it's a large investment for
only a modest performance gain... the 2K might better be put
in the bank for 12 months THEN used on a new system.
 
Need a recommendation....


I have a system I bought last year, and I'm coming back from Iraq with
a little extra $$.....so I'm not sure if I should get a new one, or
wait for a bit until technology improves...this is what I have;


Gigabyte Motherboard
P4/3.4Gigz Prescott
1024mb DDR400 memory
Fujitsu 160G SATA HD
ATI Radeon 9800 AGP Video Card
Sony Dual Layer DVD/CD RW


I was looking at a high end Dual Core AMD system, with a PCI-Express
video card...


is it worth the 2k investment, or should I keep my current system?
Click to expand...

Simple answer: does the system do, right at this moment, what you
need/want it to do? If so, buying a new system would be blowing money on
something you don't need despite a powerful desire for a newer toy and a
wad of money burning a hole in your pocket.

When you get to the point where your system prevents you from performing
the desired tasks you will be able to buy a better system than the new
system you describe for the same money or buy the same new system for
less money. The technology changes and the bang-for-the-buck goes up so
quickly so that waiting even a few months can make a _huge_ difference.

Philosophy: You will never be able to keep up with the pace of change
unless you are willing to buy a new system virtually every week or at
least upgrade some component that frequently. There will always be some
uber-component coming out tomorrow that is just a little bit better than
what was on the market yesterday and that, according to the advertising
department, makes everything that went before completely obsolete. That
treadmill never stops spinning.
 
Need a recommendation....


I have a system I bought last year, and I'm coming back from Iraq with
a little extra $$.....so I'm not sure if I should get a new one, or
wait for a bit until technology improves...this is what I have;


Gigabyte Motherboard
P4/3.4Gigz Prescott
1024mb DDR400 memory
Fujitsu 160G SATA HD
ATI Radeon 9800 AGP Video Card
Sony Dual Layer DVD/CD RW


I was looking at a high end Dual Core AMD system, with a PCI-Express
video card...


is it worth the 2k investment, or should I keep my current system?
Click to expand...

Lemme just say I wish I had your OLD system.

As always, there is better technology available today than yesterday. You
need to decide whether you need it or not. Unless you are playing the kind
of online games that test your system as well as your skill, I'd say
probably not yet.

And do you need the entire $2k worth? It looks to me that you need a
processor, motherboard, video card, and another gig of RAM, closer to $1K
than 2.
 
... the 2K might better be put
in the bank for 12 months THEN used on a new system.
Click to expand...

I suppose I should break out the ole crystal ball and
predict what will happen in that 12 month interim-

- AMD socket AM2 will have been released

- First wave of buggy boards for AM2 will have been revised
so you're not a beta tester, plus a few bios patches.

- Faster speeds of AM2 format CPU will have been released
so there's not a market-entry price premium for them anymore

- Everyone's had some time to debug their PCI Express
add-on cards so we're not still stuck buying PCI Express
boards with very little to plug into express slots besides
video cards.

- Windows Vista and reports of best supported video cards,
and video card driver debugging for it.


-
 
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