To Upgrade, build or wait?

Mr Jones · 22 May 2006 at 22:57

I'll have £1500 to spend on building/upgrading my PC over the summer.
I'm currently running on a
-Some MSI MoBo (HT, AGP support)
-P4HT 2.8GHz
-1GB PC3200 400Hz
-ATi 9600 128mb
-Viewsonic G90f+ Flat CRT 19".
(Edited)

I'm thinking, should I build this system (within the next 2 months)

Abit AT8-32X ATI RD580 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard 117.44.
AMD Opteron UP 170 Dual Core San Diego 2.0GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-148-AM) £249.95
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS) £119.95
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-113-SP) 299.95
Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD) £92.95
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB ST3250624AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-058-SE) £57.95
Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY) £26.95
Antec Phantom 500W Hybrid Fan Silent ATX2.0 PSU (CA-036-AN) £84.95
Antec Super LANBOY Aluminum Super Mini Tower Case - No PSU (CA-012-AN) £29.95
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC) £5.95
NEC ND3550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Silver) - OEM (CD-037-NE) £20.50

£1,300ish - not inc. Delivery from Overclockers.co.uk

I'm stuck on to build the above or to simply upgrade to a 7800GS and wait for Conroe/Vista to roll out before jumping in a years time?

I'm into heavy gaming, F.E.A.R, Dreamfall:TLJ, PoP:T2T, (Especially)OBlivion :cool:

, HL2 ETC - I also do a lot of multitasking, loads of background programs running. So better off upgrading to 7800GS and wait or start building the system above and wait another 3 years?

Suggessions appreciated.

Edit: I'm a student, £1500 is from (intensive) summer jobbing. Also, I have system at 1280x1024 on normal but game at 1024x768 (max, usually).

BigDom · 22 May 2006 at 23:03

Nice spec, if your not going about 19" monitor (1280x1024 native.. and to be honest 1600x1200 will probably be fine ) that spec should last you for a good time. DX10 games will only become a factor towards the end of 2007 and even then only if you actually fancy playing the games.

The current games won't magically suddenly fail to work and chances are DX10 compatable games will still have DX9 support anyway.

Mr Jones · 22 May 2006 at 23:17

Thanks for the input BigDom.
I like to be "future-proof" yet I want "Quality-gaming" now.

This is such a dilemma. Any more suggessions?

BigDom · 22 May 2006 at 23:21

Dr Jones said:
Thanks for the input BigDom.
I like to be "future-proof" yet I want "Quality-gaming" now.

This is such a dilemma. Any more suggessions?

Not really, whilst DX10 and Vista are due early next year really I'd consider it pretty future proof, in so much as I personally can't see it really starting to need an upgrade ( and it'll be a Graphics Card/OS upgrade only ) for AT LEAST 18 months. Not only that but the GC and OS won't appear till basically next year anyway so that spec is as future proof as possble really.

Mr Jones · 22 May 2006 at 23:26

BigDom said:
Not really, whilst DX10 and Vista are due early next year really I'd consider it pretty future proof, in so much as I personally can't see it really starting to need an upgrade ( and it'll be a Graphics Card/OS upgrade only ) for AT LEAST 18 months. Not only that but the GC and OS won't appear till basically next year anyway so that spec is as future proof as possble really.

Hmm... I'm so thinking of intel's Conroe.
Damn Conroe review and hype - I would have jumped into building if it weren't for Canroe. Oh and if I do get the build, Windows x64 or keep at the current x86 version till Vista? I heard the x64 is better for 2GB RAM users and of course, AMD64.

Zefan · 22 May 2006 at 23:27

You'll want to edit out that competitor in the OP.

Indy500 · 22 May 2006 at 23:28

I'd recommend the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe crossfire board.

Mr Jones · 22 May 2006 at 23:34

Zefan said:
You'll want to edit out that competitor in the OP.

Edited. Opps.

sr4470 said:
I'd recommend the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe crossfire board.

In what way is it better to the Abit's?
From what I've, Abit's better at/for OC-ing...

BigDom · 22 May 2006 at 23:36

Dr Jones said:
Hmm... I'm so thinking of intel's Conroe.
Damn Conroe review and hype - I would have jumped into building if it weren't for Canroe. Oh and if I do get the build, Windows x64 or keep at the current x86 version till Vista? I heard the x64 is better for 2GB RAM users and of course, AMD64.

I use 2gig in normal XP no problem.

Conroe.. Mmm looks tempting although likely to be expensive and the benchmarks I've seen are ALL on Vaporchill systems so can be thrown in the bin really... is Conroe going to be quicker than AM2? Almost certainly... is it going to be miles quicker.. nah VERY much doubt it.. Is it going to make your ystem more future proof? Maybe but not by much.. first thing your going to want to upgrade in either is the graphics to a DX10 system eventually.

Indy500 · 22 May 2006 at 23:37

Dr Jones said:
Edited. Opps.

In what way is it better to the Abit's?
From what I've, Abit's better at/for OC-ing...

I've used both brands, and I've found Asus to do better on the overclocking front.

Mr Jones · 22 May 2006 at 23:44

sr4470 said:
I've used both brands, and I've found Asus to do better on the overclocking front.

Hmm... I've just been reading on their specs.
The Abit have an Onboard 5.1 Soundcard, does the Asus do? I need one, coz my current Creative Aud 2 will become my little brother's. Apart from that, I'll consider Asus before buying. Thanks.

BigDom, you're right about the high price but if I upgrade my GPU only, I'll still have at least £1300 + more from further job to buy it...

Thus I'm thinking.

BigDom · 22 May 2006 at 23:51

Dr Jones said:
Hmm... I've just been reading on their specs.
The Abit have an Onboard 5.1 Soundcard, does the Asus do? I need one, coz my current Creative Aud 2 will become my little brother's. Apart from that, I'll consider Asus before buying. Thanks.

BigDom, you're right about the high price but if I upgrade my GPU only, I'll still have at least £1300 + more from further job to buy it... Thus I'm thinking.

The Asus comes with the HD Audio which is arguably the best audio on any motherboard. Not sure if the Abit has the same Audio ( I get the impression it's an optional feature of the ATI chipsets ).

Mr Jones · 23 May 2006 at 00:01

BigDom said:
The Asus comes with the HD Audio which is arguably the best audio on any motherboard. Not sure if the Abit has the same Audio ( I get the impression it's an optional feature of the ATI chipsets ).

From what my mate's got, it's a 7.1 Doby Digital Realtek, so it's good.
HD Audio?? Hmm... Overclockers should put it in the spec list - I didn't know, nor can I find it google.

Asus sounds cool by the min. Looks like the list gonna change...
I'm definitely swinging more to building now, after thinking about Conroe and how long Vista and DX10 cards are away.

BigDom · 23 May 2006 at 00:14

Dr Jones said:
From what my mate's got, it's a 7.1 Doby Digital Realtek, so it's good.
HD Audio?? Hmm... Overclockers should put it in the spec list - I didn't know, nor can I find it google.

Asus sounds cool by the min. Looks like the list gonna change...
I'm definitely swinging more to building now, after thinking about Conroe and how long Vista and DX10 cards are away.

whilst it's not flagged as HD I've just checked a review and indeed it does have 8 channel HD audio.

Mr Jones · 23 May 2006 at 00:20

BigDom said:
whilst it's not flagged as HD I've just checked a review and indeed it does have 8 channel HD audio.

Thanks for all the input. I'll have a few more days of considering before I start confirming items and set on buying. Thanks again.