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duuuude, what should i do

sheik124

sheik124

Emutalk Member
ok, so a while a go i looked at this overheating HP and thought, i need a new pc
back then, PCI Express was still "rumorish" along with DDR2, and AMD Athlon FX 51 was "the best"
now, a couple months later, socket 939 is just around the corner, PCI Express is leaking all over the web, and DDR2 is appearing to be like the miracle worker of ram
my planned config was macho and beefy and all, then i realized, a month after i buy it, its going to become obsolete and UNUPGRADEABLE!! which is exactly what i dread since it always happens when i get a PC. should i wait a while and buy a PC with all those new technologies then, so that a couple years later i won't have a large brown slot with 8X written all over it that i cannot do anything to improve sitting on my mobo, as well as an obsolete cpu socket (amd said it themselves, with FX53 S940 dies and S939 comes out)
not to mention the promised "1337ness" of PCI-E16x and DDR2
someone help me here
 
aprentice

aprentice

Moderator
sheik124 said:
ok, so a while a go i looked at this overheating HP and thought, i need a new pc
back then, PCI Express was still "rumorish" along with DDR2, and AMD Athlon FX 51 was "the best"
now, a couple months later, socket 939 is just around the corner, PCI Express is leaking all over the web, and DDR2 is appearing to be like the miracle worker of ram
my planned config was macho and beefy and all, then i realized, a month after i buy it, its going to become obsolete and UNUPGRADEABLE!! which is exactly what i dread since it always happens when i get a PC. should i wait a while and buy a PC with all those new technologies then, so that a couple years later i won't have a large brown slot with 8X written all over it that i cannot do anything to improve sitting on my mobo, as well as an obsolete cpu socket (amd said it themselves, with FX53 S940 dies and S939 comes out)
not to mention the promised "1337ness" of PCI-E16x and DDR2
someone help me here
Click to expand...

The classic case of my pc will never be top of the line syndrome :p
I have the same problem, eventually your gonna have to decide to get a newer pc or you're never gonna end up upgrading since new technology comes out every month. If DDR2 is more than a year away, i'd go with the second from the best amd 64bit system. I've had a chance to upgrade my 600mhz but i decided to get an lcd monitor instead, don't regret it one bit.
 
Gigahurtz

Gigahurtz

Feel the speed
Another thing to consider is when a new technology first comes out, it's going to be very expensive and perhaps crappy. For instance, I was one of the first people to buy a CD burner (2x) at $300 and now its a POS and I never use it anymore.
 
GogoTheMimic

GogoTheMimic

Pimpin' Red Mage
I think 64 bit processing is a waste right now. Sure for a small group of people it's great, but for a broad group, it's pointless. Windows doesn't support it so you'll have to go Linux which means you can't play most of your games on it, bleh, I dont' know. I'll probably jump on the bandwagon when I can actually use the damned thing. Sorry if this is a bit incoherent but I'm freaking tired, goodnight.
 
james.miller

james.miller

HELL YES. IT'S ME!
there is already a beta version of windows xp-64 that available free for download and it is already faster than the 32-bit version.
 
J

jollyrancher

New member
(amd said it themselves, with FX53 S940 dies and S939 comes out)
not to mention the promised "1337ness" of PCI-E16x and DDR2
someone help me here
Click to expand...

You went way over my head here... but your current system just seems like a case where you have a good CPU, but the graphics card is holding it back. If you were willing to spend say $100-150, you could get a gf3 or gf4 ti4200 and a fan/heatsink. I once had an overheating PC and it kept locking up and driving me crazy, but it's not too dificult to install a new fan/heatsink... just make sure to use a little thermal paste and screw it down tight so the heatsink is making good contact with the chip.
 
aprentice

aprentice

Moderator
Gigahurtz said:
Another thing to consider is when a new technology first comes out, it's going to be very expensive and perhaps crappy. For instance, I was one of the first people to buy a CD burner (2x) at $300 and now its a POS and I never use it anymore.
Click to expand...

yep, thats why i said second from the best amd system.

I got cdrw technology when it just came out, it costed me $550 for a phillips 1x cdrw! :p
 
GogoTheMimic

GogoTheMimic

Pimpin' Red Mage
james.miller said:
there is already a beta version of windows xp-64 that available free for download and it is already faster than the 32-bit version.
Click to expand...

Ooh, I knew they were working on one but I didn't know it was availible to download. Groovy.
 
Clements

Clements

Active member
Moderator
Since the cost of newly released components is almost exponential compared to components that have been around longer (Athlon64 FX-51 £600, AthlonXP 3200+ £150, yet Athlon64 is not 4 times faster), I wouldn't bother getting the top model since it's too expensive and a waste of money. This is when you use your head and try to get value for money.

When the Athlon64 is popular and cheap, then do a motherboard/CPU upgrade.
 
khanmeister

khanmeister

Banned
Clements said:
Since the cost of newly released components is almost exponential compared to components that have been around longer (Athlon64 FX-51 £600, AthlonXP 3200+ £150, yet Athlon64 is not 4 times faster), I wouldn't bother getting the top model since it's too expensive and a waste of money. This is when you use your head and try to get value for money.

When the Athlon64 is popular and cheap, then do a motherboard/CPU upgrade.
Click to expand...


I'd have to agree with Clements here, It's not how fast your computer is, it's how fast it is for the money you spent. I don't personally know anyone who should spend more than $600 on a PC. Why would you? for ~$600 you can get an athlon with plenty of ddr ram, a decent gfx card, and enough hard drive for most uses. So you could get more fps in ut2k4, who cares? It plays perfectly on the mid range spec athlon/geforce combo already!

Unless you are developing doom 3, or a real time lighting equivelant like tenbrae or something, what is the point?
 
J

jollyrancher

New member
for ~$600 you can get an athlon with plenty of ddr ram, a decent gfx card, and enough hard drive for most uses.
Click to expand...

The thing is that he already has an AMD Athlon XP 1600+, which should be powerful enough for just about any game, so I never see the need to upgrade until the thing isn't powerful enough for your current uses.
 
mesman00

mesman00

What's that...?
aprentice said:
yep, thats why i said second from the best amd system.

I got cdrw technology when it just came out, it costed me $550 for a phillips 1x cdrw! :p
Click to expand...

my first burner was cd-r only, and i remember it costing something around 300. the lastest one i bought was 30 bux for a samsung CD-RW 48x16x48. This timw i'm waiting to buy a dvd burner.
 
OP
sheik124

sheik124

Emutalk Member
jollyrancher said:
The thing is that he already has an AMD Athlon XP 1600+, which should be powerful enough for just about any game, so I never see the need to upgrade until the thing isn't powerful enough for your current uses.
Click to expand...
the pc itself is fine, but i feel like the RAM and horrible cooling solution (its open with a fan blowing in it cus its lockin up) are bottlenecks, also, i really dun like the idea of Athlon 64 3200+/3400+, tis only single channel ddr. i am very finicky about the PCs i get because my past 3 PCS (this one, AMD Athlon 900, and P-MMX 200) have been waaaay out of their time (this one my dad bought last year) and my dad always gets em, i never have a say, when i bought this i could've gotten a P4 2.something with a faster burner and an actual video card for the same price. thats why this time i am buying the pc. i also thought that if Athlon 64 did go S939 and PCI-E (which a chipset supporting S939+PCI-E has not been announced yet) i'd sell the parts which i'd be replacing (vid card, cpu, mobo) on ebay since its very easy to gyp people (my sister's idiot friend bought a P4 2.0 and some ancient SIS mobo for 130) and get the new ones, even at a low level so that i won't be stuck w/an unupgradeable pc a couple years from now
 
J

jollyrancher

New member
i never have a say, when i bought this i could've gotten a P4 2.something with a faster burner and an actual video card for the same price.
Click to expand...

You're going to have to change the saying below your sig to "Intel rules!"
 
Moose Jr.

Moose Jr.

Raging Moose
jollyrancher said:
You're going to have to change the saying below your sig to "Intel rules!"
Click to expand...
Plus the fact that he wouldn't have to have a noisy fan blowing into his case. Intel's chips come with automatic speed throttling, so even if your CPU gets overheated they won't conk out like AMD chips* (which is what his chip seems to have done).

*This used to be the case a while ago, but I'm checking right now if they've mended their ways. I'll edit with info.

EDIT: Okay, here we go. It appears that AMD has added throttling with their 64-bit line. I may actually buy AMD next time around, if for that feature alone. It's foolish to stake the life of a CPU on the quality of a fan.
 
Last edited:
OP
sheik124

sheik124

Emutalk Member
Moose Jr. said:
Plus the fact that he wouldn't have to have a noisy fan blowing into his case. Intel's chips come with automatic speed throttling, so even if your CPU gets overheated they won't conk out like AMD chips* (which is what his chip seems to have done).

*This used to be the case a while ago, but I'm checking right now if they've mended their ways. I'll edit with info.

EDIT: Okay, here we go. It appears that AMD has added throttling with their 64-bit line. I may actually buy AMD next time around, if for that feature alone. It's foolish to stake the life of a CPU on the quality of a fan.
Click to expand...
my cpu is NOT what overheats, it never goes over 38 C which is rather good for a CPU from what i've heard. my PSU gets overloaded and other components (not sure which) reset due to the increasing heat.
 
Moose Jr.

Moose Jr.

Raging Moose
Oh well, bad guess. Maybe you should consider a new PSU as a first upgrade? A high quality one will last for years, so you could use it in both your current and future rigs. At the least it would save you the immediate headache of restarts and fan noise. :p From there you could just toss in a better gfx card, as many of the others have suggested, until the whole 64-bit transfer is completed and prices drop. In addition, by then Microsoft and game makers should have the 64-bit kinks worked out of Windows and games, respectively.
 
OP
sheik124

sheik124

Emutalk Member
problem solved, my dad was gonna buy 2 PCs for the skool and told me i had 1200 to get them, and i could get some stuff for me, so i figured out how much it would be to get the skool 2 sub-decent PCs, then with the remainder i got this:

AMD Athlon XP 2500+
512 MB Kingston ValueRAM PC 3200 Dual Channel Kit
CHAINTECH nForce2 Ultra 400 Model "7NIL1-SUMMIT"
Gigabyte GeForceFX 5700 128 MB

this should keep me quiet till PCI-E becomes widespread on S939 mobos (i really don't give a monkey's uncle about DDR2 anymore, i read around and found out that the first 512MB DDR2 533 module is costing 900 bucks, pffff, i am sticking with DDR400, coming from PC133 i won't be able to tell the diff between the 2)
and if i need a new PSU, i'll get one
 
A

Alchy

New member
sheik124 said:
if i need a new PSU, i'll get one
Click to expand...
You will. If you think you've been having problems with your old rig, wait until you try powering a Geforce FX and an Xp2500 with it.

In my experience (I've worked in a PC support role), the vast majority of flaky AMD systems come from people's unwillingness to accept that the PSU is one of the most important features of a PC - if it isn't powerful enough, the spec of your machine is irrelevent because it won't work properly.

As a general observation, AMD users often buy the cheapest, fastest equipment for their cash (it's a logical correlation to the CPU price), and then notice instability. AMD chips aren't unreliable in themselves - but often the hardware surrounding them is. It's nice to have a fast computer, but after a short while reliability becomes far more important than speed.
 
Clements

Clements

Active member
Moderator
sheik124 said:
problem solved, my dad was gonna buy 2 PCs for the skool and told me i had 1200 to get them, and i could get some stuff for me, so i figured out how much it would be to get the skool 2 sub-decent PCs, then with the remainder i got this:

AMD Athlon XP 2500+
512 MB Kingston ValueRAM PC 3200 Dual Channel Kit
CHAINTECH nForce2 Ultra 400 Model "7NIL1-SUMMIT"
Gigabyte GeForceFX 5700 128 MB

this should keep me quiet till PCI-E becomes widespread on S939 mobos (i really don't give a monkey's uncle about DDR2 anymore, i read around and found out that the first 512MB DDR2 533 module is costing 900 bucks, pffff, i am sticking with DDR400, coming from PC133 i won't be able to tell the diff between the 2)
and if i need a new PSU, i'll get one
Click to expand...

Sounds good.

I wouldn't worry about DDR2 just yet. All DDR2 is, is that it allows for the advancement of DDR technology by allowing faster speeds, but isn't in itself faster. For example, DDR-400 is the same speed as DDR2-400, but DDR2 allows for faster speeds that wouldn't be feasible on DDR1. I've probably phrased this wrong, but read more about it here:

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=1977
 
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