Upgrading Computers
The following post is very tech heavy. Fair warning!
So, I’ve got my tax refund. Considering I used my profit sharing bonus to help pay off my student loans, I think I’m going to play with my refund. Most of you know I’ve in desperate need of a new comp. My current specs are:
AMD Athlon 3000+ (1.80 Gigs)
Chaintech VNF4 Ultra Motherboard
ATI Radeon X850
Corsair XMS DDR1 400 Dual Channel Ram (2 Gigs)
Western Digital 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 16mb cache
So yeah, basically teh suxor. The processor is really the biggest issue, and the mobo is a cheap budget one. The vid card overclocks great, but it’s still two generations behind the times. Basically, Crysis and Supreme Commander are big “Hell nos” and even Sins of a Solar Empire becomes downright unplayable if the armies are too big, even at the lowest settings.
So I’m going to fix this issue. You can see how here. Please feel free to post any comments or suggestions if you know of better buys, or know if I should avoid a particular part.
I’ve always been a loyal AMD system builder, although they’re beginning to try my patience. If I was going quad core, I would definitely go Intel, but if you go dual core, AMD is still the better buy hands down. Intel has the best processors, and AMD has the best bang for your buck (as far as Dual Cores). On the quad core side of things, Intel is kicking AMD’s ass no questions asked.
All of my research indicates that going quad core is just not worth it unless you’re either seriously multitasking while AutoCADing while programming in Maya while editing in Photoshop while video editing while listening to music. If you do these things, then quad core is mighty useful. But if all you do is game and surf the web (and not usually at the same time) then dual core will do ya, aye it will.
I almost went with an AM2+ slot instead of the AM2 in order to take advantage of DDR3 ram when it drops in price (right now its prohibitively expensive), since DDR2 ram will run in it just fine. However, I may never buy AMD again.
I’ve also always been a fiercely loyal ATI supporter. I bought an nVidia Geforce Mx back before I knew any better, and I just have never bought from them again. ATI always has better prices, and sometimes even better cards, but for the most part, you could always get more for your money from ATI, just not always the best. This recently changed with the nVidia Geforce 8800GT. The 8800GT is basically the best card you can get for the money. It’s an absolutely phenomenal card, especially in the $250 – $270 range. So I plan on buying 1 now, and buying a motherboard that will support SLI, and in the future buying another 1 and running 2 of these bad boys in SLI.
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Yet SLI is an nVidia only thing (ATI’s version is called Crossfire). ATI and AMD merged a few months ago, which is all fine and dandy. But the newest AMD chipset, AM2+, will only support Crossfire, not SLI. This is fucking stupid. You’ll support 1 nVidia card, but if you want a dual vid card solution, fuck you and buy 2 Radeons! This is why mergers scare me, because this kind of shit hurts the consumer. I’m assuming this will backfire into AMD/ATI’s face pretty soon, as people wise up to it. As a system builder, I want choice, and I do NOT like my computer parts being cherry picked for me! If I wanted that, I’d just buy a damn Apple.
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