Poll: Has there been a change to the priorities of the performance enthusiast?

What underline factor do you keep in mind when you spec/build a machine?

  • Performance?

    Votes: 137 68.2%

  • Noise Levels?

    Votes: 76 37.8%

  • Footprint (size)?

    Votes: 9 4.5%

  • Cost?

    Votes: 79 39.3%
  • Total voters
    201
Perfomance and stability without breaking the bank I'd say is my top priority. Although recently I've become increasingly irritated by how noisy my rig is and am now looking at silencing it somehow.
 
Noise is definately an issue - apart from my graphics card (to be replaced with a much quieter card) I should have an almost silent machine - heavily heat-sinked A64 3000 cpu in an Antec Sonata case :) Even the dvd player plays at about 2x rather than 16x or whatever to keep it quiet :) Plus I get 40-60fps on most of the games I play anyways so worrying about great performance doesn't really come into consideration now when getting a new *modern* compy.

I want to be able to watch dvds / .avi's etc late at night without having to turn sound up to compensate for fan noise. Next pc I put together will hopefully be built with highest performance I can get but with ultra quietness being the main limiting factor (within a budget of course).
 
In the past performance was important. But its becoming not so for me. I remember when overclocking used to make a huge difference to how the pc felt.

But now windows is snappy if i'm overclocked or not. Now I can run a webserver, 2 database servers,listen to mp3's, fold, prime, an IDE, a web browser with 10 tabs open, firewall, anti-virus, voice chat and write this and I don't have to make a cuppa waiting for stuff to happen anymore.

Now my e-penis is fast enough (until more bloat comes along) I want it to be quieter so instead of getting a new mobo/cpu my next upgrade will be to water.

Not smaller though.. nothing quite like a big black silent tower that can kick start the pets evolution.
 
I would have to say cost. I can't afford the top-end stuff but wouldn't buy it anyway - I like good value for money :) I basically have a budget in mind and then try and spec the best performing PC (for my needs) within that. I think my priorities have also changed in that I no longer spec machines with only gaming in mind. I like a good all-rounder.
 
personally i just find the highest performance part i can afford at the time and buy it, doesnt matter if its say something like an x800 to x850 upgrade, id still buy it because i like performance :D

not really fussed on noise, my speakers cover that up, cost i dont really care about either (yea id ratehr it was cheaper) the one thing i cant see my buying is a £600 cpu though ;) £400 per part is enough for my liking
 
price is always an issue, as theres a limit to how much you can afford
but most people would go for performance over nose (to a resonable level) and size isn't realy a burning issue for performance PCs.
 
For me it is as it has always been, cost.
I wont pay £200+ for a cpu.
I wont pay £150+ for a graphics card.
I wont pay £100+ for a motherboard.
and so on and so forth, ive just bought this years "upgrade" which is a 3000+ 939 (from a 3000+ 754 cause im going to overclock a little bit) a new sli nforce 4 motherboard, and a 6600 256meg graphics card, cause it was cheap and as long as it runs joint ops, i dont care.
total cost including before 12 saterday delivery is £320.
Other people are free to spend their money as they please, but i cant see the point in it myself.
 
I go for best price/performance. Price is definetly the most important, but i put performance as my choice because its really what you are paying for at the end of the day.
 
Obviously I'd like cheap performance thats quiet in quite a small case but you have to give up on one of these options.

I voted noise because my rig (specs chosen for power &price) is annoyingly quite loud (and too big) so that is all. :)
 
There's a lot more focus on noise than there was 2 years ago by the looks of it.

Another contributing factor is the push for the PC in the living room. The rigs that existed 2 years ago would never have been welcome as part of an entertainment system. Now its an option for us 'in the know', give it another 18 months and they might be a norm.

Who can say :)
 
The issue of noise is more of a consideration now but the poll doesn't quite reflect the value that people give to each element I imagine. Speaking personally I do consider the noise but it comes as a distant third to performance and price however due to the fact that it is a checkbox I selected it anyway but didn't choose the footprint option as I didn't even consider that for my PC. If it was weighted 1,2,3,4 in order of importance that might have helped to gauge a little more accurately. Still it is interesting to see that peoples values do change about what characteristics are important to decide their purchase.
 
well to be honnest

i look for performance, but only within the budget i've set myself so in a way i'd need to vote performance/cost at the same time

then noise, then footprint.. space isnt really and issue, i mean come on... you dont save THAT much space with a shuttle over a normal tower...

having said that they are rather appealing :D
 
You do notice a big space difference with a TFT over a CRT, but there are cost implications.

Its always gonna be about compromise - I was just curious as to where people make it.
 
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