Time to upgrade ?

[fdoyon]

Hi everyone,

I just checked out the 10th anniversary sale and all those deals got me thinking about whether I should upgrade or not...

I currently have :

Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton)
Asus A7N8X-Deluxe NF2
1GB DDR400 (not even dual a channel kit)
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
Seagate 80GB IDE
...all in a cheap Enermax case with some no-name 350w power supply.
and a 19' ViewSonic E90 CRT monitor.

I was thinking about upgrading to :

Ahtlon X2 3800+
DFI LANParty NF4 Ultra
2GB OCZ EL Platinum DDR400
XFX 7900GT
Seagate 250GB SATA2
Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme Music
Antec P180 aluminum case
AeroCool Zerodba Extreme silent 500w
Viewsonic VX2025WM 20IN LCD Monitor

I play a lot of games (spending way too much time on Oblivion). I was wondering if it would be worth it to wait until socket AM2 comes out or even wait for Vista and DirectX 10. Would this setup be obsolete in 6 months ?

My current setup has served me really well for the past 2-3 years, but now it takes forever to boot and I can't stand turning off some of the best graphic features in Oblivion.

So, what do you think ? Is it worth it to upgrade or not ?

 

[PCcashCow]

I would say that's an upgrade worth doing. But incase you missed the reports, Vista is looking at 2Q07 release date now. If your gamming with slow drives, non-dual-c-ram. and an e-machine grade video card, that upgrade would accel your gamming a few times over. Try to bump your video some more, or maybe a raid setup on the sata2 platform. Whats your budget? As for socket AM2, its not too far off, but you can always part out what you got in the classifieds, alot of people will be looking for that mid-to-high-end parts when they socket AM2 drives the prices down.


Ps. LCD's have not cought up to a CRT, so read up on that, you dont want to commit to something thats going to hinder your gamming.

 

[rodney_ws]

Looking over your future/possible build it looks like you covered everything... faster processor, more RAM, faster drives, better video card, and beefier power supply... yes, that'll run Oblivion just fine.

Just curious... what resolution and settings are you looking for on that game? It's a beast!

I have an X2-4400 OC'd to 2.6, a 7800 GTX 256 MB OC'd, 2 GB of RAM, a WD Raptor 74 GB and an X-Fi... I play at 1024 X 768 with 4XAA and Bloom... if you want 4XAA and HDR you'll need an ATI card. Most benchmarks seem to favor the ATI cards... especially in the outside areas... just some food for thought!

 

[smedlin]

Like cashcow hinted at, your budget it really important here.

Wait for am2? Perhaps.

From my understanding, the "first" am2 will not offer any significant speed increase compared to current chips. However, I'd be willing to bet the farm the cost of it will be outrageous. Also, it will require a new motherboard with new drivers. These "new" item will be untried and true, verse the socket 939 stuff.

Course, it's possible the current 939 stuff will decrease in price when the am2 comes out.

Also, don't forget about conroe. That's due out in just a few weeks.

I would not wait until vista and DX10 is actually released. That's probably a year away.

That computer will not be obsolete in six months. If nothing else, in a year or so, you can pick up another 2G of ram and whatever new gpu is on the market.

 

[1Tanker]

I'd say that if it NOW is taking forever to boot, maybe an OS re-install

is in order. I'm sure that Seagate drive isn't the fastest either, but if your

boot time is increasing, it might not be the hardware. At the very least,

some good housekeeping, and clean-up, with a defrag may wake things

up a litttle.

 

[gambit6259]

I wouldn't wait, especially if you are playing Oblivion you could use the jump in horsepower to better enjoy the game. It looks like you picked out a decent setup to go with, build, play, and enjoy!

 

[bluntside]

Change the XFX to a EVGA KO and your system will kick ass :twisted: