New PC

[mousiness]

Hey, I'm looking to build a new PC, and here are the parts of it and below are my current specs, should i wait until 2007 when direct x 10 is out or build in june? (all prices in cdn $) im looking for a pc from $2000 to $2100. And ofcourse i have heard of AM2 and Conroe.

(Building in summer)
AMD Athlon FX-55
Abit KN8 SLI Motherboard
Ultra X2 Connect 600W PSU
2x Corsair XMS2 512mb sticks
Ultra Silver Aluminus Case
BFG GeForce 6800GT OC
Lite-On dvd-rw
Zalman Blue Orb Cooling
2x 12" fans
Audigy Soundblaster 2 ZS
Some wireless mouse and keyboard package
Logitech Z500e speakers

(Current Specs)
Intel Pentium 4 650 3.4ghz HT
Ultra X2 500W PSU
2x crucial value ram 512mb sticks
Intel 915G motherboard
BFG GeForce 6600GT
Regular run-of-the-mill cooling

[PUTALE]

the first question is how do you feel about your current system? Do you think that your current system does eveyrthing you ask for with satisfaction?

If you do, I wouild strongly suggest wait till 2007 for couple of reasons. Summer we'll see AM2 being released, which is great. however, despite the great upgrade from amd to ddr2, benchmarks have shown that am2 really has not made that much performance gain over current socket 939. So by going to am2, you do get a better system than your current setup but if you are happy with current system, wait is a better choice. In addition, intel's next gen of cpu, conroe, promise a great performer than current am2. now, I think that the benchmarks will probably show that conroe outperforms am2 by quite a margin and yet it probably consumes less or equal powr than am2. Given to these facts, it would probably be wiser to go with conroe. now there's a probelm if you upgrade to conroe when it first comes out, the price. Generally intel's cpu are not as expensive as amd yet intel tends to charge more on the chipset. So if you upgrade at the beginning when conroe's out, you probably are expecting to pay quite a lot of money, so wait a bit till the price stabalized. Also,by the time that conroe is stabilized, we may seen new amd cpu, so by then, you maybe able to decide to buy conroe or the new amd (dependo n the performance then),.

Finally, as you have mentioned, dx10 gfx. It seems like having a dx10 may helps with Vista and possibly the future games. So, if you can wait, wiat for these stuff is out and then buy it, it will probably be better deal .

BTW, if you are thinkign of waiting, you can actually spend a few bucks upgrading your ram to 2gig and/or gfx to better one to take the advantages of the performance in newer games.

[Bio-Hazard]

Lets not forget that by early to mid year next year (2007) the new AMD AM2's (K8L) will be rolling out and should offer more performance than the current AMD and hopefully closer to the performance of the Intels. It's a never ending battle of weather to wait or do it now, only you can know for sure. There's always something new coming out that offers better performance or features, if you always waited, you'd ed up having a 10 year old system.

AMD's K8L 65nm core due H1 07

"Roadmap AMD's next-generation AMD64 core, codenamed 'K8L', has begun appearing on the company's roadmap under that name, kicking off with a H1 2007 appearance, according to documentation leaked on the web. So has upcoming CPUs' support for 800MHz DDR 2 SDRAM."

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/04/04/amd_k8l_roadmap/

AMD's K8L to double FPU units in 2007

"AMD is not going to rest comfortably waiting for Intel to take back the performance crown. Instead, reports of a K8L model are being touted, and one in particular that, apart from other variants that are still unreported, will have double the number of floating point units, making the FPU perform at least 1.5x as well as it does today."

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2006Jan/bch20060224034964.htm

AMD quad-cores get a code-name: K8L

"Intel has scheduled to launch its quad-core processor, codenamed Kentsfield, in the first quarter of 2007, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers. At about the same time, rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will debut its K8L series, a quad-core upgrade of its K8 architecture, said the sources."

http://www.pctokyo.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=96&Itemid=15

K8L due out in H1 2007, may work with Socket AM2 (http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/9719)

"China's HKEPC (translate here (http://babelfish.altavista.com/)) has some AMD roadmaps (http://www.hkepc.com/hwdb/am2-4800-1.htm) that seem to confirm that the upcoming K8L core will ship in the first half of 2007. K8L is the successor to the K8 architecture that powers current AMD64 processors, and is rumored (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29890) to offer 50% greater floating point performance."

http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/9719

[mousiness]

I agree with you guys but with what the last post said, waiting too long is stupid, but so far my system is only 1 year old and waiting 1 more year couldn't hurt, its just that this pc was supposed to be a quick replacement for a failing p4 in my old system.

[Chakka]

Waiting can be a pain. I was going to get a new 7800gt for xmas but started seeing that the new and revised 7900gt was going to come out in March or April. So I decided to wait.

Well, I got 3 games during xmas and then between xmas and end of March I bought 4 more games that I wanted to play cause I wanted to turn up the eye candy on those games instead of using my old trusty 6600gts.

So now I was reading about the new 8000 series of nvidia cards and I guess I could wait another 6 months until they come out....by then I might have 15 games to play...so I looked at the 7900gt and its a fabulous card for my 19inch digital monitor and guess what...I just finished my 1st game of 7...and it was great!

So IMO it depends upon what you need to do what you want to do....

[Bio-Hazard]

I agree with you guys but with what the last post said, waiting too long is stupid, but so far my system is only 1 year old and waiting 1 more year couldn't hurt, its just that this pc was supposed to be a quick replacement for a failing p4 in my old system.I only post the options......... If it was me, I'd upgrade now, mainly because I don't buy first generation of any sort of product, I wait till the bugs are worked out. So by the time they've got the bugs worked out of the AM2 and intels, it'll be time for my next upgrade. That's why I say it's a personal sort of thing, no one can really tell you what's best for you, only you can know that, all other people can do is give you options on what's out there and what's coming up................;)

[werty316]

There are some who are saying that upgrading now would be a waste of cash since DX10 cards are on the way. I would wait for the new video cards get released and then the older gen cards will be dropped in price.

Also I would get a better video card for gaming. If you want to play at high resolutions with all the bling on a 6800GT isn't gonna cut it. The 7900GT/7800GT is a good deal. I would get the 7600GT over the 6800GT; why not save the $ and get a 4000+ and overclock it to FX55 speed since the 4000+ is only 200MHz slower and costs costs less; or better yet get a slow cpu and OC it like the Opteron 144 or 146 unless you are not into OC'ing.

A64 4000+ - $442.71CAD
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=14850&vpn=ADA4000BNBOX&manufacture=AMD

A64 FX55 - $1,065.91CAD
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=15302&vpn=ADAFX55BNBOX&manufacture=AMD

[Scott]

I am telling all my friends that can hold of to wait and see what Vista brings. I will be playing with it soon on new hardware and will give you my thoughts. It is only 8 months for the end-user to wait.

[Chakka]

I only post the options......... If it was me, I'd upgrade now, mainly because I don't buy first generation of any sort of product, I wait till the bugs are worked out. So by the time they've got the bugs worked out of the AM2 and intels, it'll be time for my next upgrade. That's why I say it's a personal sort of thing, no one can really tell you what's best for you, only you can know that, all other people can do is give you options on what's out there and what's coming up................;)

My daughter's rig (second build from my old parts) comes with it a winchester cpu. It was one of the first gen 90nm AMD chips and I can tell you I had problems. Im with sbrem from that experience cause the venice chip proved to be far better than the winni chip.

Thats why I jumped on the 7900gt. Its a 2nd gen of the 7800gt and it really does run sweet (Ive got all the eye candy turned on, not breakin a sweat). So for me, I did it now cause its great value for my 19in monitor. Just my 2 cents for buying what you need and seconding sbrems 2nd gen theory....

[PUTALE]

from my experience with Vista, it really does need quite powerful system, much resource demand than current XP will ever be or probably any upgrade in the Windows (heck I can still run a p3 600 with XP without much trouble). I think if you can wait, do wait till Vista is out and also wait for the hardware to catch up a little, specially in the graphic area, as the rumor has it not only that Vista needs DX10, it also would be needing some HD in the gfx to show off the HD conents (as well as monitor). In addition, I think giving the time for conroe and next gen of amd cpu (and I am not taking about am2) to mature as well as chipsets.

[Kougar]

Well, my 2 pesos would be to hold back. If you're sure it's the CPU failing, I'd just replace it with one off ebay... Just shop carefully if you do!

I say this, because you might not notice much of a difference between a 3.4ghz P4 with HyperThreading and a single core FX-55 processor in terms of "smoothness" even if the FX55 has more crunchpower by far... and the FX-55 is still over $800 in price! There are better and cheaper processors out now than that, such as the X2 4800+ which is dual core, and only 200mhz slower than an FX55. Yet it is still ~$200 cheaper than the FX55...

Things like the Soundblaster Audigy you could buy now, and simply plug into the new system down the road. And as for getting a 100watt bigger power supply... the one you currently have should be sufficient I'd imagine.

[mousiness]

what you said about the amd 4000+

Also I would get a better video card for gaming. If you want to play at high resolutions with all the bling on a 6800GT isn't gonna cut it. The 7900GT/7800GT is a good deal. I would get the 7600GT over the 6800GT; why not save the $ and get a 4000+ and overclock it to FX55 speed since the 4000+ is only 200MHz slower and costs costs less; or better yet get a slow cpu and OC it like the Opteron 144 or 146 unless you are not into OC'ing.

Well what the package is is a barebone kit, and i know the 4000+ is the equivelant of an fx-55 (almost anyways) but this barebone has an amaizing deal that why im thinking of an fx-55

[werty316]

Where? Tigerdirect? Is it this barebones kit?

$1,315.99CAD
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1828893&CatId=1916

Don't buy from them unless you want to play alot for shipping. That barebones is pretty good but if you got a 4000+ with all the same hardware it would be cheaper. I like that Ultra case; its a sweet case.

A64 4000+ CPU - $462.99CAD
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1366622&CatId=1949

Abit KN8 SLi - $135.99CAD
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1621492&CatId=0

Ultra 1GB memory - $74.99CAD
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1071020&Sku=ULT31664

Ultra Case - $114.99CAD
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1215772&CatId=0

Grand total of: $788.96CAD as of this post since some products have rebates. You save $527.03CAD which you can put to a good video card like 7800GT or 7900GT. The FX-55 and 4000+ are the same chips just their clock speeds are different.

FX55 - 2.6GHz
4000+ - 2.4GHz

FX is not really worth it even in a barebone kit form Tigerdirect.

I would also suggest ordering form somewhere else like NCIX.com. I have ordered form them and they are great. Much better than Tigerdirect and they have better prices and better shipping.

[Bio-Hazard]

If it'a a better deal or close to the same as buying the parts by themselves, I'd opt for the FX, mainly because the chip is multi unlocked up and down for a bit more fun with overclocking.............;) There a lot more you can do with a CPU when it's totally unlocked...............;)

[werty316]

I am surprised you are going with the barebones kit sbrehm; I would figiure you would go with the cheaper deal by buy the parts seperately. I don't think paying an extra $500 for a unlocked muliplier and extra 200MHz is justified; just increase the HTT to OC as usual.

[Bio-Hazard]

I don't think paying an extra $500 for a unlocked muliplier is justified; just increase the HTT to OC as usual.
But he didn't say what he was going to be pating for the bareBones, unless I missed it somewhere, but he did say it was a amaizing deal........;)

[werty316]

You must have missed my post here:
http://www.bjorn3d.com/forum/showpost.php?p=28186&postcount=13

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1828893&CatId=1916

This barebones has all the hardware he mentioned except for the memory and PSU.

[Bio-Hazard]

I sort of misunderstood your post..........sorry. In that case the 4000 would be a much better deal...............;)
I'm posting on 3 forums right now and I'm not fully reading some stuff..........

[mousiness]

exactly the barebone kit is the same just i have extra parts lying around my dads work like the mobo psu and memory , yeah youre right that combo would be cheaper, if i build ill take your advice, thanks much. I was gonna go for a pentium d 940 combo but for the time being intels performance is certainly not close to the performance of AMD.