The age old upgrade question
I'm getting itchy to upgrade my system. My finances only allow me to really do a major upgrade every couple of years or so. As you can see by my specs below, my last system upgrade was a while ago. I intend to give the system I'm using now (minus my 9700 pro) to my in-laws because their setup is just pathetic.
My usual method is to buy the 2nd latest chip out after waiting for the price drop when the latest and greatest hits the scene. I'm an AMD fan, so the p4 isn't going to be an option for now.
The AMD 64's are coming out in a month.
If I buy the 2nd best (the 3200+) when the 64's come out, I'm buying a chip and motherboard at the end of their cycle which means they should be discounted, but they're pretty much obsolete on purchase as far as upgrading.
I could wait for the 64's, but then I'm gonna wait for the fanfare to die a little, the price to drop a little, and for accessories to come out, etc (does the 64 bit require 64 bit memory, or is the DDR memory out now good?)
To really take advantage of the 64 bits, I'd need WinXP 64, 64 bit drivers and such which will take some time for all that to happen, which bumps me to around Jan 2004ish.
Also while I'm waiting, PCI-express will probably take over, so I can buy my new drives, etc. in that format.
So finally the question: Wait for the 64 bit and built new system then, or buy 3200+ after price drop and use that for a couple of years, then go 64 bit, PCI-E, etc.. for my next box when it's common place?
My usual method is to buy the 2nd latest chip out after waiting for the price drop when the latest and greatest hits the scene. I'm an AMD fan, so the p4 isn't going to be an option for now.
The AMD 64's are coming out in a month.
If I buy the 2nd best (the 3200+) when the 64's come out, I'm buying a chip and motherboard at the end of their cycle which means they should be discounted, but they're pretty much obsolete on purchase as far as upgrading.
I could wait for the 64's, but then I'm gonna wait for the fanfare to die a little, the price to drop a little, and for accessories to come out, etc (does the 64 bit require 64 bit memory, or is the DDR memory out now good?)
To really take advantage of the 64 bits, I'd need WinXP 64, 64 bit drivers and such which will take some time for all that to happen, which bumps me to around Jan 2004ish.
Also while I'm waiting, PCI-express will probably take over, so I can buy my new drives, etc. in that format.
So finally the question: Wait for the 64 bit and built new system then, or buy 3200+ after price drop and use that for a couple of years, then go 64 bit, PCI-E, etc.. for my next box when it's common place?
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Comments
Its MUCH cheaper...
If i were in your situation. I wouldnt get the a64 chip when it first comes out. I just like to wait until there has been a lot of reviews and such. And revisions on the boards etc. But since you say that you only get a chance to upgrade every year or so. Then yeah, i would go ahead and wait. And see what happens
But again i say, right now if i wanted a new system. 2500+, abit nf7-s 2.0 and some nice corsair or twinmos pc3200 ram.
Another reason is I really support AMD and the work they do. I want to support the company by purchasing the Athlon64 once it comes out in its 939 pin version (January 2004ish). In that way, AMD can make more than 50 cents on a processor sale. That shouldn't require any new type of DDR memory or anything, though the 940 pin version might.
The socket A is not near the end of its life cycle either. VIA recently released 2 new chipsets (KT-400A andKT- 600) with a few more in the shadows. Not everyone will be able to afford the A-64 for some time. If you have any doubts look at the current Operton prices as a general guide. Also, if you go with another socket A now you will have the time to wait for not only the A-64 and its supporting mobos and chipsets to mature but a lot of other things like HD's and periferals to mature too. The waiting game so rarely works with electronics! You just need to be savy enough to know when to jump in and what level will give you the best bang for YOUR hard earned bucks.
BTW
If your bucks aren't hard earned then disregard all the advice you get in this thread!
If you prefer your computing smooth and sorted buy now the current technology that also happens to be mostly revision 2 and is excellent. With rock bottom prices too you really can't go wrong and then do the same thing again in 18 months when the 64 is established.
I like many have just just build
NF7-S
Barton 2500+
9800np
512x2 TwinMos 3200
2xWD1200 ATA HDDs
2xSerillel v2 ATA-SATA adaptors
Only new kid on the block is the SATA which is causing me some grief. Drive(s) jumpered to master as instructed in the manual for the Serillel adaptors and the onboard raid controller can't see the drive(s) but oddly boot XP from CD and it can see the drive(s) and copies files onto the drive but at first restart the SATA is not bootable so loops back to boot from the CD again. With no jumpers on the drive(s) the raid controller can see the drives but XP detects a problem and refuses to continue. Installed windows on IDE1 with f6 to load raid drivers as before and then switched hardware back over to the SATA and the system boots just fine. How weird is that? No idea how to get the raid array and windows loaded without using native SATA drives which I don't have. Main board is Abit and the adaptors are Abit and both of these are revision 2 so I am half suprised I am having problems.
Only half suprised... well yes it's new see and that's my point.
Ed^
That sounds like sound advice. At about $210 for the MB and CPU, I can just replace them when the 64 is mainstream. That won't count as a REAL upgrade.
Wow, you really can justify anything if you want to enough!