Anyone Not Running Super Fast Systems??
- Thread starter Ice Rich
- Start date
Current machine is a P4 Northwood 2.6GHZ running at 3.0GHz. 6800nu (unlocked and clocked) and 1GB RAM. I'm only just looking into upgrading - probably after Xmas. I won't be going for anything high-end tho - that's just boring. I'll be hitting the low-to-midrange stuff - tons of choice and great deals to be had. I've literally come up with 10 different systems that would all rock and cost peanuts 
im running more or less everything overclocked (see sig.) i do physics and use 3D studio max 8 quite a lot as well, plus encode, watch movies on 32" HDTV and play a fair few games, none of this oblivion crap i must admit 
but i don't use conroe or a 8800, so does that count?
and play a fair few games, none of this oblivion crap i must admit but i don't use conroe or a 8800, so does that count?
I have a 4 year old PC, although my hard drive just corrupted. But apart from that the old dear is doing well - xp2700, 1GB DDR 333, 9700pro. I think I'll be upgrading in the summer to a beast! Which will then last me another 2 years hopefully. I don't want to go 4 years again. Although I did upgrade my current PC it was originally an xp2200 with 512MB.
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Caporegime
- Joined
- 21 Nov 2005
- Posts
- 41,459
- Location
- Cornwall
AMD XP2800+
1GB PC2700
XFX 7800GS
I've had the CPU for nearly four years and up until March of this year I only had 512MB of memory and a 9800 Pro. Bought another 512MB for £23 and the 7800 for £90 from the B-Grade section and that's the only money I've spent on it in four years. I'm currently playing Fear XP at 1680x1050 with a mix of medium and high settings. I don't plan on upgrading again until DX10 games become the norm.
1GB PC2700
XFX 7800GS
I've had the CPU for nearly four years and up until March of this year I only had 512MB of memory and a 9800 Pro. Bought another 512MB for £23 and the 7800 for £90 from the B-Grade section and that's the only money I've spent on it in four years. I'm currently playing Fear XP at 1680x1050 with a mix of medium and high settings. I don't plan on upgrading again until DX10 games become the norm.
Soldato
- Joined
- 29 May 2005
- Posts
- 5,622
- Location
- West London
P-M 2.26Ghz Laptop
SD 3700+ Desktop
Macbook 1.83ghz
Sempron 2.0Ghz Server
P4 2.8Ghz Laptop
More than enough for what I do, TeX, Stata, PDF Creation and the usual cliché uses. As for gaming, prefer consoles. Can't wait for Wii. Not a fan of games that look amazing yet have no lasting factor, I never pick a game based on visuals. Thus I do not have any reason to go out and by 8800GTXs or C2D..maybe 3 years ago when I didn't hesitate to splash out on top hardware, but don't have time or the "drive" to play PC games anymore...
SD 3700+ Desktop
Macbook 1.83ghz
Sempron 2.0Ghz Server
P4 2.8Ghz Laptop
More than enough for what I do, TeX, Stata, PDF Creation and the usual cliché uses. As for gaming, prefer consoles. Can't wait for Wii. Not a fan of games that look amazing yet have no lasting factor, I never pick a game based on visuals. Thus I do not have any reason to go out and by 8800GTXs or C2D..maybe 3 years ago when I didn't hesitate to splash out on top hardware, but don't have time or the "drive" to play PC games anymore...
P4 2.8b, 768MB RAM, Radeon 9700 Pro.... not really too worried about the latest and greatest games at the moment, plays all my favourites nicely (Civ3/4, Rome Total War, Eve Online, Football Manager) and does everything I need it to do in windows without bother.
I think I'll do a massive upgrade at some stage, but everytime I think about pricing something up, I realise that if I upgraded it wouldn't enhance my life in any way and I'd rather blow the money on a fantastic holiday or something similar these days.
I think I'll do a massive upgrade at some stage, but everytime I think about pricing something up, I realise that if I upgraded it wouldn't enhance my life in any way and I'd rather blow the money on a fantastic holiday or something similar these days.
Associate
- Joined
- 24 Feb 2004
- Posts
- 1,083
- Location
- Leeds/Cyprus
Nice audio setup! Where did you buy that converter though? I googled around but couldn't find one for sale anywhere!BigToe said:
manveruppd said:
Thanks! I actually got a really nice deal on eBay - was just £60! (used of course) Couldn't believe my luck! There are a few different makes on eBay at the moment, sometimes some real bargains pop up. It was only recently that I saw the excellent Music Fidelity X-DAC go for around £100 so it's worth keeping an eye out. I've noticed a load of new Beresford DACs on at the moment with a buy-it-now of £90. No idea how good they are though. Bear in mind that even the cheapest will be a lot better than a decent mainstream sound card.
Hmm, this guy likes his Beresford DAC anyway - http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/1/290370.html
Didn't realise they had a headphone amp built in too! Looks like they could be excellent companions to PC sound systems. If you get one, let me know how it is!
Soldato
- Joined
- 26 Apr 2004
- Posts
- 9,786
- Location
- Milton Keynes
I have the machine in title, which is pretty damned nippy.
I upgraded earlier this year from:
AMD Athlon 2800+
1GB (2x512MB) Geil Golden Value
Radeon 9800 Pro
The reason I upgraded was double pointed
Because I use such a large screen, low resses look absolutely awful sometimes, and I like things to look good as well, so I always like to run a higher res, not to mention as I paid a fair bit for my machines I like things to look good!
Also, Im quite sensitive to judder, and framerate alterations, so playing on a juddery rig is a nightmare for me and ruins the experience.
On my old system, WoW for instance I liked to run 1600x1200 which is the optimal res for my screen, as its still capable of 85Hz there, but is still high res, the old system lagged behind with higher than bottom settings. Nowadays I can run it at 2048x1536 and still have nearly all the settings at max.
For me its not about epeen, its about running games well, and getting them to look good, and as smooth as I can on what I have. Im also somewhat of a perfectionist, so I always want to get the best I can get out of what I have, up to the stage before where I'd have to put too much effort for it really to be worth it. I even managed to get 2.2Ghz Stable out of my old AMDXP 2800+, and they were notoriously bad clockers, but never pushed it further, as it would have taken days of tweaking, which I believed was above the threshhold of the improvement:time taken ratio. Every now and then (about once every 2 years) I upgrade, because my old system will begin to struggle. I believe that by shopping around for good deals, but not spending the earth, I can get a really good machine that'll last me for over a year, and still be pretty damned powerful, even if not the best - for example my system cost me less than £800 as I remember when I bought it, and it was a powerhouse when I bought it, and still isnt bad, even more so now with the 400Mhz overclock on CPU and 40Mhz on memory. It throws everything I can play on it pretty decently at 1280x1024 or lower maxed to hell, with high fps, or higher res with almost max details and good fps. Sometimes I feel the pang to upgrade, and I probably will in about 9-12 months time, but til then, my current system is powerful enough, and I cant justify an upgrade, so I wont.
Being a student, with other hobbies aside computers, mainly music, I cant justify spending more than the above amounts on the following components:
CPU £220
Memory £160
GFX £250
Mobo £75
The only time I'd go over that is for a really exceptional deal, but aside from that, I consider these the core components, and yet would never happily spend on these, and would only spend less on the others. Theres no way I can justify £600 on a gfx card or cpu alone, the price to performance ratio just isnt there at all, aside from the competetive side of knowing you have the near best.
I upgraded earlier this year from:
AMD Athlon 2800+
1GB (2x512MB) Geil Golden Value
Radeon 9800 Pro
The reason I upgraded was double pointed
- My old NF-7 motherboard broke, and at the time, I had a nightmare sourcing a decent replacement
- I have a 19" Samsung CRT capable of 2048x1536 at 60Hz (56Hz I think it was to be precise)
Because I use such a large screen, low resses look absolutely awful sometimes, and I like things to look good as well, so I always like to run a higher res, not to mention as I paid a fair bit for my machines I like things to look good!
Also, Im quite sensitive to judder, and framerate alterations, so playing on a juddery rig is a nightmare for me and ruins the experience.
On my old system, WoW for instance I liked to run 1600x1200 which is the optimal res for my screen, as its still capable of 85Hz there, but is still high res, the old system lagged behind with higher than bottom settings. Nowadays I can run it at 2048x1536 and still have nearly all the settings at max.
For me its not about epeen, its about running games well, and getting them to look good, and as smooth as I can on what I have. Im also somewhat of a perfectionist, so I always want to get the best I can get out of what I have, up to the stage before where I'd have to put too much effort for it really to be worth it. I even managed to get 2.2Ghz Stable out of my old AMDXP 2800+, and they were notoriously bad clockers, but never pushed it further, as it would have taken days of tweaking, which I believed was above the threshhold of the improvement:time taken ratio. Every now and then (about once every 2 years) I upgrade, because my old system will begin to struggle. I believe that by shopping around for good deals, but not spending the earth, I can get a really good machine that'll last me for over a year, and still be pretty damned powerful, even if not the best - for example my system cost me less than £800 as I remember when I bought it, and it was a powerhouse when I bought it, and still isnt bad, even more so now with the 400Mhz overclock on CPU and 40Mhz on memory. It throws everything I can play on it pretty decently at 1280x1024 or lower maxed to hell, with high fps, or higher res with almost max details and good fps. Sometimes I feel the pang to upgrade, and I probably will in about 9-12 months time, but til then, my current system is powerful enough, and I cant justify an upgrade, so I wont.
Being a student, with other hobbies aside computers, mainly music, I cant justify spending more than the above amounts on the following components:
CPU £220
Memory £160
GFX £250
Mobo £75
The only time I'd go over that is for a really exceptional deal, but aside from that, I consider these the core components, and yet would never happily spend on these, and would only spend less on the others. Theres no way I can justify £600 on a gfx card or cpu alone, the price to performance ratio just isnt there at all, aside from the competetive side of knowing you have the near best.
Last edited:
Associate
- Joined
- 24 Feb 2004
- Posts
- 1,083
- Location
- Leeds/Cyprus
Tempted now, especially for the headphone amp as I have a pair of decent Sennheisers that would sound great on a headphone amp... not sure if my hi-fi setup would benefit all that much from running off SPDIF rather than off the standard speaker output, as it's a pretty low-budget setup - cost me <£250 overall, so adding a £100 DAC just to benefit from digital-out on the PC is probably overkill!BigToe said: