To build now or wait

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alsotav

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Jun 18, 2004
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18,510
I want to build a new PC because my 1.2Ghz thunderbird just laughs at me when I try to play fry cry on decent settings. I was all set to buy a P4 3.2C with an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard and 1Gb of DDR 400 Corsair XMS ram. But now that PCI-Express is coming out I was wondering if I should build now or wait a few months.
 
Well for either cpu I would hope not to upgrade anything for a couple of years. the thing is if a buy a p4 now, in the future i could only upgrade to 3.4 Ghz because anything above that will no longer use the 478 socket. Also if BTX takes off I wouldn't even be able to reuse my current case.
 
The consensus seems to be buy now. I have decided to wait until either doom3 or hl2 actually go gold before buying anything, because those games are basically why I want to upgrade now.

I was all set to by the P4 but everyone here has got me thinking about an a64. Is there a significant performance gain between the 3200 and the 3400? I could use some recommendations on motherboard and cpu selections. My intention is to be able to have a good gaming system spending roughly $700-$800 on memory, cpu, and motherboard. I also want an X800 XT if that makes a difference.
 
>The consensus seems to be buy now.

Oh, don't be too confident. The "wait until hell freezes over" mob is just not awake yet, but they will soon start posting why you should wait for price drops, faster DDR2, improved PCI-E cards, more mature boards, 90nm chips from AMD, etc.. they will come, I promise.

>I was all set to by the P4 but everyone here has got me
>thinking about an a64

You should. If gaming is your thing, there really is no reason to go for a P4 now. And if gaming is not your thing, there is still precious little reason.

> Is there a significant performance gain between the 3200
>and the 3400?

Do you consider ~5% significant ? Do you consider $120 extra significant ?

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =
 
Where the hell are the p4 fans. I'm AMD nearly all the way i hate not seeing the other side of things. This is stupid.

If you wait you'll have a higher dollar machine doing not really anything different. Basically do you want to enjoy video games now or then?

<A HREF="http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=277124623" target="_new">http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=277124623</A>
46,510 , movin on up. 48k new goal. Maybe not.. :/
 
Lol, i'm not really an avid P4 fan, i use whatever works the best in my price range at the time. I have an XP1900 machine witha 9800p and a P4 2.6c@3.1 machine with an X800 Pro. I like both of them. If your looking for cheaper, the P4's are a little cheaper now, at least the C's, and as far as performance, most of the time they are within 5%~10% of eachother. So, a 3.0c is fairly close to a A64 3000, i don't think you would really notice any diff unless 7 or 8 fps makes a big diff to you(if your runnin 30 fps then it might, but a 9800p with a cheapo p4 2.0a can run HL2 at max settings around 40 fps average). Go with whatever suits your wallet, just remember to be careful when picking out ram for an A64, they are picky, make sure you read the toms article so you get a good combo.

P4 2.6c@3.1, OCZ DDR533, Abit IC7-Max3
(my vid is shameful, a 3D Prophet that can't run games, lol)<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Captain_insano on 06/19/04 03:32 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
What graphics card are you using currently? Just make sure you're not upgrading the wrong thing.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7454540" target="_new">Yay, I Finally broke the 12k barrier!!</A>
 
There isn't much of a future for P4 at the moment. The only rational decision is A64. There's no way to run Windows 64 on a P4.

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Now, let's eat!
 
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