Is it worth it?

[DaGaffer]

OK. I'm aware that my PC is now getting a bit long in the tooth. It's 3 years old, was a good spec when I built it, but, under normal circumstances I'd have replaced it by now (I was away for a year though). Thing is though, the only issue I currently have is lack of hard disk space, which is easily remedied.

So, my question is, should I be replacing my PC now? Here's the spec:

Shuttle XPC SN85G4V3
Athlon 64 3200+ 2.21 GHz
2GB RAM
Radeon X800
160GB HD
Windows XP prof

With this PC I can't really upgrade RAM, its AGP-based so not set up for graphics card upgrades etc, but in day to day use I have no performance issues. In the past I played a lot games on it (mainly BF2), but apart from COD4 before Christmas (which ran fine), not many PC games have floated my boat lately, but I'm aware that if a PC game comes along that is good, I'm now technically a fair way behind the curve.

So, should I upgrade now? I could certainly do with more HD space. I'd like to play more games, but I wouldn't spend a grand just to play Crysis. If I do upgrade, I'm still pretty keen on a small form factor but other than that, something that would see me through 24-36 months would be cool.

 

[Kryten]

Bugger, that's a hard one. I'm in a similar position - not looking to upgrade as my current kit is AOK, but I keep looking at Alan Wake and the likes and thinking "I hope this will run it...". But other than that, quality of games isn't exactly tickling my fancy either.

But, I think there's a bit more to consider in your case. I'm guessing you'll be looking to sell you're existing kit to help cover the costs - or maybe money isn't entirely an issue and you'll merely relegate it to another use.
Either way, every day you spend thinking about it, value is knocked off what you have. Although in all honesty, you benefit from having a shuttle based system, and even slightly lower spec models are still in good demand - HTPCs, media centres, second computers, something for the kids etc -there's a good call for them. So perhaps it's worth looking into selling whilst the market is still good for it.

I'm not entirely up on the Shuttle side of things, but I'd imagine to upgrade you'd need a new chassis to cope with another power supply and the likes, so a complete build from scratch will be most likely. Are you looking to replace with another Shuttle style system?

 

[DaGaffer]

Yeah, I do like Shuttles and I've just specced a new one for my ex (media rather than game based). I'll probably rip the graphics card out of mine and turn into a NAS, but it may be worth flogging it and just buying a backup drive. But you're generally right, I'm at that "ooh, should I, shouldn't I?" point.

 

[Yaka]

So, should I upgrade now? I could certainly do with more HD space. I'd like to play more games, but I wouldn't spend a grand just to play Crysis. If I do upgrade, I'm still pretty keen on a small form factor but other than that, something that would see me through 24-36 months would be cool.

exactly the same spot as me, in fact ive got a almost similar spec

shuttle 75G2
intel 3.4ghx HT
2GB ram
7800GT agp ( installed a shitty at 1050 fanless gfx card now)
XP pro
2x300gb hdd
2x sata 500gb hdds out side
of the case

im tempted to upgrade coz i wana play etqw,crysis and finish the orange box games. but any upgrades for me are hampred by the fact it has to be silent as possble for me ive gonne off sff pcs great for what they are ive had em since the shuttle SS51g came out in 2001 owned 5 in total over the years. but i miss having a tower and slowly upgrade bits like mabbe just the mobo and cpu etc just to keep performace level steady rather than fork out £300 odd for a dinky standalone pc



behold the shuttle xpc tower my setup bw/game newsage dayz .

 

[ECA]

It's pretty cheap to get a spangly pc at the mo, the 8800GT and 9600GT ( 512mb ) cards are both very good price/performance, ram is cheap as poo from a monkey thats been fed a lot of bananas, the main price is going to be cpu+mobo+psu+case.

HDDs are damn cheap and so are disc drives .

 

[Ch3tan]

Gaffer, I upgraded my ageing PC a year and half ago. I haven't really used it for anything more than Steam games, and the only reason I did upgrade it was because I wanted more from hl2, css etc. I doubt I will change anything for another year or longer. I am very dissapointed with the majoirty of PC games these days, and most things run fine anyway.

Like you said, if all you need is HD space, and what you have runs your games fine, then why bother?

If a game comes along that you really like and makes you upgrade later on, then spending £50 on a harddrive now is not really such a bad thing is it?

 

[dysfunction]

I agree with Chet.
I'm in the same position. My PC is an Athlon 64 4200.
I would really love a new PC now but can't really justify it.
In fact I keep looking at the new PC's nearly everyday and they keep tempting me to buy!

Just get a new HD. You can always use it in the new PC you buy in a years time for extra storage.

I think I will wait another year before buying as every game I really want to play is possible at the moment....which is mainly CSS really.

 

[throdgrain]

I tend to see it the other way. You pc is pretty old spec dagaffer, and the Intel cpus are CHEAP and far better than the Athlon ones, ram is also CHEAP and much faster than the old stuff. At the moment the 8800 series cards are great performers and guess what, yeah they're pretty CHEAP as well

God knows about a shuttle, but whatever floats yer boat mate

 

[DaGaffer]

I tend to see it the other way. You pc is pretty old spec dagaffer, and the Intel cpus are CHEAP and far better than the Athlon ones, ram is also CHEAP and much faster than the old stuff. At the moment the 8800 series cards are great performers and guess what, yeah they're pretty CHEAP as well

God knows about a shuttle, but whatever floats yer boat mate

Yeah, I know all this stuff is cheap, but add it all together and its still hundreds of quid, and I'm not entirely sure I'll see an appreciable benefit at this stage, and as I suspected, quite a few people have the same dilemma. If there were one or two really kickass games out that had a bit of playability to them but needed high specs, I'd feel different; but the only PC games worth playing in the last six months have been COD4 and the Orange Box and they both run fine.

I like Shuttles because they're small and quiet, and in my current flat I have my PC desk in one corner of the living room, so I don't want some Ultimate Behemothtm PC that sounds like a Eurofighter taking off when its downloading this week's episode of Lost or whatever.

 

[throdgrain]

Im not sure what an X800 is to be honest (ie what spec it is) but I know when I changed my 7900GTO 512mb for a 8800GTS 512mb CoD improved tremendously, single player most things on full blast , it looked the nuts!

 

[Dukat]

I ended up more or less rebuilding my PC last summer because of the problems I had with a graphics card - long story short I upgraded the PSU, the CPU, the Motherboard, the RAM, the Graphics Card and the Hard drive. Just about the only bit left from the old PC is the DVD drive.

I'm glad I did, but then my originaly spec was pretty unplayable at the time. I used to get <30fps on even the most basic maps on CSS even with a specialised config to turn everything off.

My opinion is that games at the moment are at a standstill, whats coming out thats really worth playing? For me CSS is the main game I'm playing at the moment, I might move to another one for a day or so but its never for very long, COD4 looks nice but is it really something you can play for more than a couple of weeks? Same story for Crysis, and most of the other games out at the moment, and due to come out.

Spore seems to be vapourware at the moment (not sure about the latest date they've given, expect it'll be put back again though!), and that seems like one of the few games on the horizon that might be worth upgrading for, provided EA dont turn it into the sims in space. The new Stalker might be worth a look, but I doubt it will be all that more advanced graphics wise than the original.

If you were to upgrade nowish you're likely to be set for a couple of years, unless something unexpected comes out, which you cant ever really plan for anyway.

If you wait a bit theres always the new Geforce 9 series coming out which might be worth a look? Depends if you can play what you want to play, when you cant, upgrade imo. Nothing worse than shitty framerates with graphics settings turned down.


EDIT: just re-read your original post, do you really think it will cost £1000 to upgrade? I managed to put a pretty high end system together for around £700ish even though I had to replace almost everything.

 

[DaGaffer]

Nah, I'm sure I could do it for less than a grand, unless I decide to get an additonal monitor as well.

 

[Jonty]

Hi DaGaffer

I'd echo those who are advising you to wait. If you don't really stress your current PC (e.g. gaming, HD movies, media encoding, professional editing etc.) then you're unlikely to really feel the benefit of upgrading. Of course everyday tasks will be faster, and it's nice to have something new, but that's rather like buying a sports car and using it just for your daily commute: it's impressive and you gain bragging rights, but you're not really untapping its true potential.

Personally I would just upgrade the hard drive for now - even one terrabyte can be had relatively cheaply - and then upgrade when you're more tempted by the games out there. It's true that component prices are cheap, and Shuttle make some nice and very capable systems, but there's no immediate rush to buy.

Boring, but sensible ^^

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. £600-700 seems to be the sweet spot for building a nice gaming PC, but it depends a lot on the components you buy, and getting the absolute best will always skyrocket the price.
P.P.S. Yaka, your photo is so small, please can you make it bigger so we can all see?

 

[Ch3tan]

P.P.S. Yaka, your photo is so small, please can you make it bigger so we can all see?

Get a bigger screen jonty

 

[Jonty]

Get a bigger screen jonty

hehe, I just bought a 32" HDTV for my laptop and it still doesn't fit

Kind regards

 

[Clown]

That's is only likely to be 1366x768 resolution though, which isn't that big in nerd terms!
Though, why I'm telling you that is beyond me. You're Jonty! You already know!

 

[Jonty]

That's is only likely to be 1366x768 resolution though, which isn't that big in nerd terms! Though, why I'm telling you that is beyond me. You're Jonty! You already know!

hehe, you're spot on Clown, you certainly know your specs

As much as I like high-end kit, to be honest I didn't want to spend a lot and to get a 'Full HD' (1920x1200) panel would cost around 4x as much as I paid. It's also not worth it when I'm sat far away as the text is too small to be readable at high resolutions. Until I can afford a big QuadHD display, I'm happy with what I've got

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. Sharp actually make a 32" 'Full HD' LCD TV, but the benefits are a little dubious.

 

[DaGaffer]

Sony do a 1080p 32" as well.

 

[MYstIC G]

I like Shuttles because they're small and quiet, and in my current flat I have my PC desk in one corner of the living room, so I don't want some Ultimate Behemothtm PC that sounds like a Eurofighter taking off when its downloading this week's episode of Lost or whatever.

In this case, then no. Cos a silent shuttle box with high end kit will cost you.

 

[Yaka]

yikes forgot how big that pic was soz

 

[Jonty]

a silent shuttle box with high end kit will cost you

True, high-end kit generates more heat, and while it's not excessive, a Shuttle's small innards do create problems. In normal conditions it should be quiet, but under load it may get a little noisy (plus quite a few Shuttle systems have case vents or mesh sections to aid cooling, but obviously this makes things sound louder).

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. DaGaffer, I thought Sony's 1080p 32" HDTVs all downsampled 1080p to 1366x768? Anyway, as much as I like the Bravia adverts, I can't stretch to their prices

 

[Bodhi]

Gaff your PC is a beast compared to mine! I'm currently rocking

P4 2.8Ghz - Single core, no HT, nowt.
2Gb RAM
Radeon 2600 XT

and still am in no hurry to upgrade. I've got my PS3 for gaming now, so am more likely to spend the 650 quid on that 1080p 40" Sony Bravia Digital Direct have got. In fact I'm more likely to buy an old SFF PC off ebay of a similar spec and use that as a media PC to go with the Bravia, then turn this into a sort of uber media server.

Although I could be persuaded to build a new PC round that 3870 X2 card....