I used to build custom PC’s for people but I haven’t done it in awhile so I have completely lost track of everything.
I’ve started to research again cause with HL2, Halo and Doom III I want a new bad ass rig to run em in all their graphical splendor.
So far it looks to me like I’m going to go with an Abit motherboard again. The IC7-G sounds sweet and RDRAM sounds like it’s kicking ass.
I’m looking at the 3Ghz Pentium 4 processor. I have an AMD now but Intel seems to have them pretty well trounced every which way including price, comparatively anyway, which surprised me more than anything.
Anyone have any suggestions or been looking into this as well?
You can’t use the ABIT IC7-G with RDRAM. It is a board that runs on the Intel Springdale 875 chipset, meaning dual channel DDR SDRAM. Other than that, I have seen a lot of good things about the Intel 3 GHz chip, but AMD is really close as well. Personally, I’m waiting to see what happens with the Intel Prescott (coming 3rd quarter) and the AMD Athlon-64.
What’s the Prescott? From what I’ve seen the AMD’s are struggling and can’t touch the 3Ghz am I wrong here? When I got the 1.4Ghz T-Bird, many moons ago, it smoked the faster clocked Intel’s but it seems AMD’s architecture can’t hang anymore.
I was waiting for AMD’s 64 bit proc as well but dammit I can’t wait anymore. Not to mention even though it will be 32bit backward compatible I envision issues til they get that all ironed out. When is it supposed to be released?
Are you sure on the SDRAM. I was pretty sure it was RDram but again I could be wrong. What I’ve been reading leads me to believe that SDram is finished.
[EDIT]
The thing that impressed me most about the Intel 3GHZ is the 800Mhz FSB. I’m thinking that will make a huge difference over AMD.
The 9800 256mb looks sweet but I’ve got the 9700 now so I’ll stick with that at first. For MB, CPU and Ram I’m looking at around $500 plus I want a new aluminum case. To save money I’m going to recycle everything else which is a Audigy 2, TDk CD-R, DVD and 2 20Ghz 7200 HD’s. Down the road my next upgrade will definitely be the 9800 though.
The Athlon XP 2800+ and the nForce2 are a very powerful combination. If you can get a hold of them together, you’ll have a system that can take on today’s Pentium 4 2.8GHz systems and win.
Now I am coming from a purely financial standpoint you can get HIGH end power (If your a gamer the 9800 is the big kick) cheap. Now if money is no object then buy whatever pleases you.
Nforce2 is an amazing chipset Duel Lan, On Board Dolby, AGP8 all the goodies so you save on having to buy Sound and Nic cards etc etc.
Yes the new Intel’s are faster and HT helps alot.
I dont know squat about AMD 3000 line but until 3.0GHZHT came out this was the Combo too beat.
I’ll have to look into that. Unfortunately money is of concern otherwise I’d just buy an AlienWare of Falcon and not lose any sleep over this. I want the best balance for money and power that I can get. Right now the Intel 3Ghz are up there but not too bad. It just seems like until AMD comes out with their next line with a new process they can’t keep up anymore but I could be wrong. Thanks for the suggestion.
After their big game against Pile of Electronics State.
Anyway, my board uses RDRAM and I was under the impression that I made a mistake as it was nigh-impossible to find when I wanted to upgrade, plus it was hella expensive. But I’m totally out of the loop with such things and not terribly knowledgable about it to begin with. I’ll be very happy if it turns out I made the right choice.
the o’sorro factor: You can’t use the ABIT IC7-G with RDRAM. It is a board that runs on the Intel Springdale 875 chipset, meaning dual channel DDR SDRAM. Other than that, I have seen a lot of good things about the Intel 3 GHz chip, but AMD is really close as well. Personally, I’m waiting to see what happens with the Intel Prescott (coming 3rd quarter) and the AMD Athlon-64.
Wow. I don’t have a fucking clue what any of this means.
That Prescott sounds sweet! 90nm process wtf? How the hell did they figure that out? Damn, I’m out of it completely. I’m getting impatient though. I’ve already put this off for a year waiting for the Clawhammer or whatever they’ve decided to name it.
Waiting is a never ending prospect. Consider Moore’s Law…
“Moore’s Law states that the transistor density on integrated circuits doubles every couple of years. This exponential growth and ever-shrinking transistor size result in increased performance and decreased cost.”
Buy what you need/want when you need/want it (or it’s available) and upgrade when advances/cash flow permit it.
Hells, I just bought a new PC myself knowing that I could more than double the current maximum processor potential in a few months. Not to mention the savings I probably would have experienced as the current systems drop in price to make way for the next generation.
There are five types of buyers in this world; Innovators, Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Excessive Traditionalists.
For those of us who have the time, money and energy to be the first… The rest of us thank you. If I ever win a lottery I’ll join you. Until then I’ll have to remain an Early Majority (for the most part).
Besides, let the Innovators work out the kinks.
Anyway, back to my original point. I’m always amused hearing people tell me that that they’re going to wait for the ‘next big thing’ they read about.
I’m not too concerned about being outdone by technology a few months after I assemble my new PC. I’ve been into PC gaming for years so it’s something that I know will happen and is inevitable no matter what I do. Even if money was no object and I got the absolute state of the art it would be 2nd tier in 6 months.
When I’m putting together a new system I take a look at the best software coming down the pike and in this case it is HL2. The HL2 and Doom III engines will be licensed out for a couple of years by other game developers while Valve and Id come up with the next best thing. If I build a system that can easily handle those engines and then the enhanced versions that will come I know I’ll be good for at least 2 years which is fine by me.
As far as the buyer classes go I’d fit in with the early majority as well for the most part but sometimes, when finances allow it, I’m probably an early adopter. In the case of DVD I was definitely an early adopter because I was the first one of my friends, families and co-workers that picked up on it. I told them all after a week with my player and the 5 DVD’s that were available at the time that VHS was history but noone really believed me. After that first week I sold, gave away or tosed all of my VHS tapes and players. They said there wouldn’t be something as good as VHS for a long time to come. Heh, now all those people have DVD players. It’s fun to be able to latch on to a brand new technology but financially that doesn’t happen very often for me. I’d love to have a Digital VHS player now actually so maybe I was wrong on that a bit.
Anyway, as far as PC components go they have advanced so much fater than ever before it’s insane.
After doing research, it seems Alienware, although pricey, is great…as long as you actually GET the correct parts (ie, you ordered and paid for a GEForce 2 & got a GEForce1) and it never breaks on you, because people are screaming about how bad their cust support is these days. SWEET looking cases, though.
The first Thermaltake looks pretty sweet but I’ll pass on the fishtank model. wink I wanted to mod my own but there are some nice looking aluminum Lian Li cases at Comp USA which have the window installed already then I can do some minor modding to add my own style. They did not have the gauges that that Thermaltake did though and it was the same price. I’ll have to look closer at that one and compare. They also had cases with a liquid cooling system installed but the thought of running liquid inside my case with my expensive electronic components just doesn’t sit well.
Intel talked about hyper threading before in the pre-3Ghz CPU’s but apparently it didn’t work very well. Why does it work better now?