Re: New PC Opinion

From: Chris Cole (ithinkiam_at_gmail.com)
Date: 10/19/04 

Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 10:05:14 +0100

On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 18:35:16 +0300, Imitheos wrote:

> Hello.
>
> I am thinking of buying a new pc and would like to hear your opinions.
>
> I have thought of the following:
>
> M/B : Asus P5AD2 Premium (Some people say that asus boards are the
> worst, but i have read some good reviews about it)
>
> CPU : Intel P4 LGA775 3.0GHz
>
> RAM : 2x512MB DDR2/533MHz Samsung (I can only get Samsung or Kingston
> and i haven't read good things about kingston)
>
> VGA : Gigabyte PCX 5300 Nvidia PCI-Express 128MB
>
> Monitor: LG LCD L1720P DVDI
>
> DVd : Toshiba SD-M1802
>
> Floppy : 1.44MB
>
> Keyb : Logitech Internet Keyboard
>
> Mouse : Logitech MX510
>
> UPS : "APC Personal SurgeArrest CEE7 1050 Joules" or "MGE Pulsar Ellipse
> Premium 500USBS" (The first one is just a surge protector while the
> second is a ups.I am leaning towards the first since i don't need X
> minutes backup time,just protection from overloads, but i don't know if
> the first is capable of cutting the overloads)
>
> What do you think of it ?
>
> Firstly, i was thinking about buying AMD64 since it is faster and
> cheaper than the P4, but P4 mainboards come with PCI-Express,DDR2 which
> have no speed advantage now, but i will keep this pc for 4-5 years or
> maybe more, so i would like to have upgrade options at that time, while
> with AGP&DDR1 i am not sure i will be able to find parts in the future.
>
> Is my choice a good one ?
>
>
That depends. What exactly do you need the machine for?

You mention that you're going for a P4 because it has PCI-E, but will you
really need the extra (extreme high-end) graphics performance? If not
you'll find that going for a faster cpu (ie. AMD64) will improve your
graphics performance more than just using the new technology. Have a look
here (I know it's windoze based, but couldn't find anything on linux):
http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/143/1/

In terms of upgradability in the future 4-5 years in a very long to be
looking ahead and it's unlikely that you'll be able to upgrade much at all
then. Look back five years to see what I mean: P3 ~700MHz 100MHZ FSB or
Athlon 700MHz both with 100MHz FSB. Sure, a current AGP graphics card will
fit, but the cpu is so slow that it throttles it's performance. Having
said that though, AMD have said they are standardising on sockect 939 for
future Athlon64 and FX chips. For how long, who knows?

So, I'd concentrate on getting the fastest machine you can for the money
now and worry about upgrading when you current machine can't do what you
want it to do.
HTH
Chris.

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