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The most confusing time to upgrade

eightball103

eightball103

eightball103

Associate
Joined
6 Feb 2003
Posts
74
Location
Maidenhead
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 :P

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
 
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.
 
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 :D
 
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 :p

Im buying something this weekend.
 
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 :P

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?
 
sure, my setup is as follows (not necciceraly from OCuk):

AM2 3800 x2 : 212.91
MSI AM2 K9 Platinum : 88:43
1Gb 2x512mb corsair twinx xms2 ddr2 pc5400 : 698.89
256mb leadtek 7600gt : 117.49
Gigabyte aurora3d : 78.01
Seasonic 430W : 41.00

Shipping : 10.00

total : 619.47


Case is mearly a preference, you can go for cheaper cases and psu combo's that wll bring this right under 600
 
Have read the conroe benchies and also read the accusations of foul play. While i give intel the benefit of the doubt, im not swayed by benchmarking that was done 6 months before a product release. i do think something is fishy with their AMD setup.

While intel may be getting back on the rails to be a serius contender with amd again. the point is that the AMD chipset is here. AM2 is their new form factor and that any subsequent cpu's will be released on the AM2 format.

I will stick to my spec posted previusly (minus the ludicruis typo) and if intels conroe runs rings around me in july then so be it.
Point of fact, i NEED a new computer as of next week and seeing as AMD are in with their new tech first. im going for it.

Also im going from a 2.4 oldskool p4 to a new 64bit amd 3800 dual core... in my eyes that will be damn fast anyway :P
 
looked at their benchies too, but still not overly keen to waiting. im going AM2.
AMD brought it out this early for a reason, becuase they knew they would lag several months behind intel so they put their foot out to try and hook the amd loyals into buying into am2 rather than conroe. however that said, they have good reason to push am2, it is their new formfactor and as said before, their new stuff will be socket am2.

Im not amd or intel loyal, just want to lay that out right here. ive swapped between the two more than enough times. I certainly dont want this to turn into an amd vs intel thread. Both have good chips comming, intel sooner, but amd in with the am2 format first.

bottom line is, i cant wait, and i cant afford conroe when it comes out so ill will go the amd route and i recomend to anyone in the same possition who needs a new system now that AM2 is a future proof design with potential to compete with conroe. alternativly if you have an ok system now, then you can make do, wait for conroe bcuase no doubt it will kick amd's current offerings in the nuts.
 
Vista isnt really doing it for me... played with the beata's and i have to say that it is BLOATED. ill be sticking with xp 64bit when i get my new system. maybe play with osx for a bit of fun.
 
Had a complete change of direction when it came to the order...

Now going for a:
pentium d930
Asus 7600GT NV
Asus P5WD2 Premium i955X
Gigabyte Aurora 3d (silver)
Seasonic 430W
Crucial twinx2 (2x512) 533

This spec should allow me to upgrade in bits, getting a decent conroe board when they get to the tried and tested stage, then a conroe itself when they get a lot cheaper with the AMD/Intel war that is looming. :p

Also, DDR2 is the new standard and im waiting for the faster speeds to be come standard and thus cheaper :)

oh yea and *bump*
 
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