The most confusing time to upgrade

eightball103 · 23 May 2006 at 22:49

Im sure im not alone in saying this. it has to be the most unstable time to upgrade for anyone.

On one hand we have the tried and tested 939 AMD tech, the LGA 775 series of pentiums from intel.

AM2 just hit and the next week will be critical to decising the upgrade route for a lot of people based on the reviews and benchmarking of these chips against their 939 cousins.

On the fringes we have people saying to wait for the 65nm technology but that in it self might bring new problems. also its too damn long to wait

What does the forum think is the best course of action for people who need new systems? go 939 and risk being phased out quickly? jump on AM2 and risk an unbeneficial expense? Is pentium D and alternative route for gamers and overclockers? lets leave out debates about 65nm tech... as its not here so its not an option.

Lets hammer out a guide perhaps? as a forum, to guide people who are going for new systems. give advantages and dissadvantages of each, who it would be best suited for... that sort of thing.

-aj

A2Z · 23 May 2006 at 22:52

wait for conroe

end of.

Biggles 266 · 23 May 2006 at 23:18

Wait for K8L. End of.

The bottom line is money, as always. If you have Socket A or Socket 478 system for instance, you have DDR RAM. If you have a lot of it, or it is good stuff, then you might not want to stick it in the closet and buy more. Same applies for those of us with AGP graphics cards. That could easily be 300-400 quid worth of hardware that doesn't actually need replacing.

In a situation like that, the cheapest upgrade solution would be Socket 939 and an X2. Lots of power, and a far cheaper upgrade.

If you are already on DDR2 and PCI-E, then it's not such a big deal to upgrade to AM2 or Core2. But since that kind of system is already likely to be rather fast, I'm not sure that upgrading will truly be worth it. I'm rather pragmatic that way, I'm not rich and can think of better things to spend a few hundred quid on than a computer that is 10% faster than my last one.

Gashman · 23 May 2006 at 23:26

im sooo happy, im not the only one who thinks like that, i agree with biggles. theres not much point upgrading your system for an extra 10% performance if even that, and that might not be entirely accurate, all the raving reviews of conroe have blinded people of what there actually going to be getting, a small performance increase over the systems most people on this forum already. lots of you have 3Ghz opterons with 7900GTXs and X1900XTXs, it would be pointless to me to upgrade a system like that for a while yet and the only logical reason i could think people would want to do it is to say 'hey look how fast my rig did superpi 1M' or 'look how many 3D marks i get with this conroe :eek:

' another 7600GT and im sorted, since nothing i play really taxes my system that much, i don't play FEAR cause its rubbish, obserdly badly coded engine, i don't play oblivion cause i dislike RPGs and the case with oblivion is no matter what power you have behind you it never seems to run properly, same with FEAR

eightball103 · 23 May 2006 at 23:39

Point match and game. people with current systems need not upgrade, as you say a 10%approx increase really isnt worth hundreds of £££.

What id like to know is what about people buying into completely new systems, from the ground up. take me for example. im running an old sckt 478 pentium 4 2.4Ghz with agp and ddr, now im not keeping anything and selling the whole lot on. so im left in the market for a new system (or an upgrade so to speak). my existential quandry is do i buy into a 939 and lever the fact that it will be down in price some over the next week. or do i pay the extra and go AM2?

It seems (with what little review material there is at time of writing) that AM2 will not bring me much over the 939 apart from saving a few watts and having the benefit of ddr2. but some reviews are saying that the ddr2 isnt beating the original ddr at the moment, but no one can decide wether the bottleneck is on the cpu or the ram?

If its a case that jsut ddr2 needs tighter timings then AM2 is surely the way foward as we will see tighter timings pretty soon no doubt.
For a new system builder, it would probably be best in that case to buy cheap as chips ddr2 moduals and make do until the Über ddr2 comes.

Am i ontrack here? please correct me if im not.

Mr Jones · 24 May 2006 at 00:05

In similar situation as eightball.
I'll actually wait 2to3 months and see how things pan out for AM2 and Conroe. For "future proof" sake :/

So now, i'll have to settle for 640x480 low settings Oblivion gaming on my 19" flat CRT...

eightball103 · 24 May 2006 at 00:18

Ok so thats the plan, ill get my system now and you wait to see how things pan out

we can do a comparison review some months later see how the tech has worked out. then one of us will travel back in time and warn the other. thus solving the problem!

Genius... even if i do say so myself

FirePhoenixCtk · 24 May 2006 at 01:44

A2Z said:
wait for conroe

end of.

i agree with this guy

poltergeist666 · 24 May 2006 at 07:29

Just about to build a ninja system, and have got as far as buying the big Tagan PSU, but havn't got the minerals to decide on any of the other components - what with DX10, Conroe, AM2 .......

I think the Tagan will sit in it's presentation suitcase, until things settle down.

Tis frustrating times for anyone due a new build. Tick Tock ........

Agent WD40 · 24 May 2006 at 07:51

wait for the future.

End of.

Guys - PC parts are always going to be out dating each other. But in all honesty, wait three months and see what the market has then. Thats the time for new chips and new technology...

Agent.

Silver21uk · 24 May 2006 at 08:41

Well i just upgraded to x2 4200 overclocked to 4800. Not going to bother for quite some time. Many reason i.e Games like crysis will perform better. But its only one game, i play countless games now that scream at max settings and res and will be playing them for quite some time to come.

Lets face it, HL2 aint going anywhere nor is COD2 or WOW so is it all really needed right now.

Save the cash me boy, get some hookers in, beer and waste it that way

Mr Jones · 24 May 2006 at 08:42

eightball103 said:
Ok so thats the plan, ill get my system now and you wait to see how things pan out we can do a comparison review some months later see how the tech has worked out. then one of us will travel back in time and warn the other. thus solving the problem!

Genius... even if i do say so myself

GENIUS! I'll do the waiting game then. Now we need someone to build something that can tear the space time continuum (say a Ninja HSF with 4 Delta Coolers at top rpm?) for us to time travel...

Agent DW40 said:
wait for the future.

End of.

Guys - PC parts are always going to be out dating each other. But in all honesty, wait three months and see what the market has then. Thats the time for new chips and new technology...

I agree but usually, there's like a 6 to 12 months period before something "major" comes out. This time, it's AM2, Canroe followed by DX10.

But I've figured out now.
There wouldn't be really any "decent" DX10 cards out till like Q2 2007 (that's if Vista is NOT going to be delayed, again). So that's just a simple GPU upgrade.

I'll wait 3 months (eventho I've got not a flippin' clue when Canroe will be out). Hopefully more "Mid-High" gaming comparision will have been done, before I jump into building. (look on the bright side, more time to save "more" money...)

PikeyPriest · 24 May 2006 at 09:51

Im going thinking of going conroe, but i am doing a complete upgrade aswell (p4 2.2, 512 rdram, G4ti4600). I`m going to wait for conroe and then deciede whether to get that (depending on the CPU, MB and DDR2 prices) or s939.

I`m not thinking of AM2 at the moment as there isnt much if any advantage of 939.

poltergeist666 · 24 May 2006 at 10:21

PikeyPriest said:
I`m not thinking of AM2 at the moment as there isnt much if any advantage of 939.

I was considering 939/AM2 - probably make more sense to go the AM2 route if starting afresh, if the prices are on par with one another. I know DDR2 is more expensive, so that needs to be taken into consideration also I guess.

Anyway, saw sense, and going to wait a while. (i.e Conroe)

eightball103 · 24 May 2006 at 10:31

but really what will conroe bring us? im always a here and now guy to be honest. you have to look at what is avalible now, becuase there is ALWAYS something to wait for (conroe).

Plus aint no way im going to be able to build a brand new system for £600/700 when conroe is released

Im buying something this weekend.

Mr Jones · 24 May 2006 at 10:40

eightball103 said:
but really what will conroe bring us? im always a here and now guy to be honest. you have to look at what is avalible now, becuase there is ALWAYS something to wait for (conroe).

Yes, there's always something to wait for, but Conroe is apparently, around the corner...

I'm sure, with £600/700 you should be able to build a Conroe system - that's if you've already got stuff like Powersupply, Soundcard, HDD, Case, Mouse, Keyboard ETC. With £600/700, I'm sure you can get a decent Conroe + decent GPU and a Mobo. If not, stretch abit more to like £800 and I'm sure you can get it.

eightball103 · 24 May 2006 at 10:48

see the problem is i have nothing, bupkis, zip. just sold my old system off as a whole bundle... im left with keyboard, mouse and a monitor

So far ive worked up a good AM2 spec for just over 600 that has case, psu, mobo, ram, gcard, cpu.

When you say "just around the corner" like months around? or weeks?

Nels · 24 May 2006 at 10:48

Eightball, I'm in the same position as you. I thought conroe was out of my price range and I think you've just confirmed that. What spec have you decided on as I too only have £600. I have a spec in mind which I've put together from reading posts on this forum but have put been off ordering it as I've been waiting for a thread like this to help me make my mind up.

cheers

Nels

Mr Jones · 24 May 2006 at 10:54

eightball103 said:
When you say "just around the corner" like months around? or weeks?

AFAIK, July'06.
E6300 (1.86GHz), $210
E6400 (2.13GHz), $240
E6600 (2.4GHz), $315
E6700 (2.67GHz), $529

So... you willing to wait?
If not, I suppose AM2 will do.

Stelly · 24 May 2006 at 10:55

I would also say wait... and yes I think that everyone is in a state of limbo...

but I think Conroe will rock

Stelly