Go or hold-off?

Monstermunch · 26 Feb 2006 at 01:36

Roduga said:
Basically, next year I will be concentrating on other activities so this is my last upgrade for a while (I hope). As the first game on my list is out at the end of March, I think I shall 'go'. Even if AM2 works, I'm not sure it would be a big enough jump to wait for.

Guess I'll have to ponder on a spec then...

How much have you got to spend, let us know and i'm sure we'll be able to point you in the right direction.

I've been looking and pondering for over a month already and it has seriously helped me narrow doen my choices of hardware. I'll be ready to go in 2-4 weeks myself

Explicit · 26 Feb 2006 at 01:37

Monstermunch said:
No, look you've got me all wrong. I'm all for it and may go down that route next year, it's just that so many people are waiting for AM2, but there will be something else after that and so on. IMO if you need a new rig you need one, there is NO good time to buy.

As far as the DDR2 ram goes, I think you'll find that the timings are pretty rubbish compared to something like the Mushkin Redline DDR.

When AM2 arrives there WILL be teething problems that need ironing out from the motherboard perspective. All new tech IMO has teething problems and I would always advise people to wait and see, if only for a month to make sure no-one else has serious problems. Rushing out and buying the brand new tech as soon as it arrives on the shelf will be costly and troublesome.

I respect your opinion, but I cannot share it

Roduga has made his mind up, so this friendly debate can bite the dust

Roduga · 26 Feb 2006 at 11:07

Monstermunch said:
How much have you got to spend, let us know and i'm sure we'll be able to point you in the right direction.

I've been looking and pondering for over a month already and it has seriously helped me narrow doen my choices of hardware. I'll be ready to go in 2-4 weeks myself

A little over £1400, of course I'd like to have a little bit left over...

Thankfully, all I need is the box.

Paul11 · 26 Feb 2006 at 12:29

there will ALWAYS be something new coming out "SOON...."

forget the whole waiting , idea.

either you need to upgrade or you don't

imo, just spend your budget wisely and get some good value for money instead of buying in to the cutting edge..

Boah · 26 Feb 2006 at 12:48

A little over £1400, of course I'd like to have a little bit left over...

That should leave you quite a bit of room with getting what you want and a system that should last you for a while. You might want to consider an Opteron 165 or 170 and clock it, a matching motherboard (Asus or DFI, perhaps), 2GB of memory and an X1900XT. Add any missing components such as case, hard disks etc and you should be more or less set.

aaron_00 · 26 Feb 2006 at 13:15

IMHO, Its best to wait untill ~June 06 for the latest tech from AMD and Intel. For games it seems to be GFX cards that effect the gaming speed the most.

If you want the best of both worlds (If you current has PCI express) Get a Nvidia 7800 xxx now and change the rest of the in ~June.

Paul11 · 26 Feb 2006 at 13:17

aaron_00 said:
IMHO, Its best to wait untill ~June 06 for the latest tech from AMD and Intel.

and when june comes they will tell you about something new coming out in october, so might as well wait til then....

and so on and so on...

Monstermunch · 26 Feb 2006 at 14:10

Roduga said:
A little over £1400, of course I'd like to have a little bit left over...

Thankfully, all I need is the box.

Hows about something like this:

CP-153-AM AMD Opteron UP 175 Dual Core San Diego 2.2GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-153-AM)
£334.95 £334.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£79.95 £79.95
GX-046-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3055) (GX-046-CO)
£324.95 £324.95
HD-070-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-070-WD)
£79.95 £79.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£27.95 £27.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.50 £14.50
CA-012-TT Thermaltake VA3000BNA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower - Black (CA-012-TT)
£67.95 £67.95
CA-025-EN Enermax Liberty 500W ELT500AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-025-EN)
£63.95 £63.95
MY-057-OC OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2 (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K) (MY-057-OC)
£134.95 £134.95
Subtotal £1,129.10
VAT £197.60
Total £1,326.70

With that ram, cpu, mobo & cooler you'll be able to seriously clock that opty, probably to around 3ghz

aaron_00 · 26 Feb 2006 at 14:33

and when june comes they will tell you about something new coming out in october, so might as well wait til then....

AMD road map
http://www.amdcompare.com/prodoutlook/
http://www.amdcompare.com/techoutlook/

Intel Road map
http://www.intel.com/technology/computing/ngma/

I think some of the features are worth waiting for. Eg low power Dual cores from intel (Conroe). And DDR2 for AMD. Also Intels new chips are 65nm already.

But each to there own

Boah · 26 Feb 2006 at 15:05

aaron_00 said:
I think some of the features are worth waiting for. Eg low power Dual cores from intel (Conroe). And DDR2 for AMD. Also Intels new chips are 65nm already.

Come June the roadmaps have changed, I'm sure something nice is on the horizon again

65nm in itself is meaningless except power usage (which may or may not be important to you), it's all about features and performance.

Monstermunch said:
CP-153-AM AMD Opteron UP 175 Dual Core San Diego 2.2GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-153-AM)

I know the new AMD heatpipe coolers are good, but would it make sense to add a custom cooler, such as the Ninja, XP-120 or Typhoon?

Roduga · 26 Feb 2006 at 16:45

Why-o-why can't these things be easy.

*shakes fist at sky*

Rincewind · 26 Feb 2006 at 18:03

i'm waiting and saving until a few weeks before UT2007 is released, then getting the best i can afford....so i'll probably have around 10000 to spend in 2009

Monstermunch · 26 Feb 2006 at 18:50

Boah said:
I know the new AMD heatpipe coolers are good, but would it make sense to add a custom cooler, such as the Ninja, XP-120 or Typhoon?

If you re-read my spec, there is an Artic Freezer 64 Pro in there! I think that'll be plenty.

Boah · 26 Feb 2006 at 18:57

Haha, oops

Yes, you're right, that is plenty

Roduga · 26 Feb 2006 at 22:46

and it does look nice.

And now, another n00b question:

What's the deal with the Opteron gear? Their speed is pretty low compared to others, I'm guessing that isn't their 'actual' speed?

Explicit · 26 Feb 2006 at 22:51

Roduga said:
and it does look nice.

And now, another n00b question:

What's the deal with the Opteron gear? Their speed is pretty low compared to others, I'm guessing that isn't their 'actual' speed?

They're server chips, allegedy made with the finest silicone available. They also run at lower volts and generate less heat. The clock speeds are "low" but they are the best overclockers, which is why they're so popular. Don't expect AMD to honour any warranty or give you any support if you're running a server chip in a desktop computer (or so I've heard!).

Monstermunch · 26 Feb 2006 at 22:53

The easiest way to look at it is that an Opteron 175 (2.2ghz) is basically the same as an Athlon 64 4400 X2. Having Dual Core, 2.2ghz and 2mb L2 Cache. However Opty's are basically the cream of the crop, and are hand selected for use in servers and the like because of lower operating temps and voltages. This makes them more stable and much better at overclocking (generally) than a std X2 chip.

Oops.... Explicit beat me to it!

Also, the Opty 175 (2.2ghz) should clock to around 3ghz (approx) on air.

Explicit · 26 Feb 2006 at 22:56

As Nelson from The Simpsons would say: Ha Ha!

Just kidding

Roduga · 26 Feb 2006 at 23:14

Explicit said:
They're server chips, allegedy made with the finest silicone available. They also run at lower volts and generate less heat. The clock speeds are "low" but they are the best overclockers, which is why they're so popular. Don't expect AMD to honour any warranty or give you any support if you're running a server chip in a desktop computer (or so I've heard!).

So, bearing in mind I've had a Unix-consultant existance where all my work is software-related, it sounds like I'm going to need someone to hold my hand whilst I do this.

Explicit · 26 Feb 2006 at 23:24

Roduga said:
So, bearing in mind I've had a Unix-consultant existance where all my work is software-related, it sounds like I'm going to need someone to hold my hand whilst I do this.

lol, that's what we're here for!

Seriously, there's nothing hard about it. Installing the processor onto the mobo is a piece of cake and overclocking is simple once you've read the stickies on various forums. It's all down to buying the right parts that will give you an optimum overclock.