New Hardware

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SoWat

Guest
Oooh, new forum ;)

OK, I want to upgrade my pentium 600 to something with a little more zing.

Basically I want to keep my luverly 19" monitor, case, and maybe a couple of hard drives.

I've lost track of what's hot and what's not, so suggestions please.

Budget is around a grand (though will go higher if a particularly tasty item beckons).
 
L

~Lazarus~

Guest
I got a Compaq Presario AMD Duron 900 mhz, 128mb ram, CDRW, cordless mouse, 30gb hdd, 32mb gfx for £567 and that included the 15" monitor and optimouse.

Only thing wrong is the modem, crappy HSP
 
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Wazzerphuk

Guest
ABit KT7a mobo
High end Athlon/TBird
GF 2/3
Lots of RAM (very cheap right now)
HDs are pretty damn cheap right now, a 40gig Deskstar won't set you back much more than 100.

Personally, I like buyins from www.overclockers.co.uk. They've always been very quick and effecient for me, but some people have problems with them.
 
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old.mid_gen

Guest
best bet at the moment is Athlon T-bird 1.4GHz, on an iWill or Abit mobo, unless you want to splash out on the DDR option.

Keep an eye on the Pentium 4 though, prices are dropping, and it's a quick chip.

One thing you should definitely buy...at LEAST 512Mb ram, it's soooo cheap at the moment, you'd be silly not too :D
 
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Will

Guest
If buying bits, get either a high end Athalon with 266 FSB, or, if you like OCing, get a 1GHz Athalon AXIA - very overclockable.
If you can wait on the gfx card, wait for the ATi Radoen 8500 and 7500 to be released in September - a price war should start then between them and nVidia, and the only winner will be us, the humble consumer.
Lots of RAM - I just ordered 512MB of CAS2 Crucial RAM - £26.99+VAT for a 256MB DIMM.
 
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SoWat

Guest
Re Athlon V Pentium

Is the Athlon really that much quicker? I mean in practical everyday use. I was looking at the new 2GHz Pentium 4 (maybe because it did say 2GHz), but I wouldn't want to get it only to find it's no better than an Athlon that's 500MHz slower (and cheaper).

Memory is very cheap at the moment, so I'll probably get 1Gb of that (can you still have RAM disks under Win2K?).

The Graphic card is a bit more difficult. I feel ripped off by the cards I've bought up til now (voodoo3 and GeForce1). The reviews state that they'll work great when optimised game software appears for them, and when this software appears, the bloody things struggle to run it. I also have a strange reluctance to pay more for a graphic card than I do for cpu and memory combined.

Anyone got one of those dual Athlon boards?


Oh, I've never tried ebay. Not sure if I like these online auctions, though I must admit I've never tried any them.
 
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Will

Guest
The Athalon does run quicker for the clock speed stated - so a 1.4GHz Athalon would destroy a 1.4 GHz P4. Check the benchmarks on Tom's Hardware Guide for details.
RAM disks - don't know, but I assume so.
GFX cards - this is asking for Perplex to set in and claim that it is shit, but I like my Radeon 32MB DDR. Runs all the games I want fine. The Kyro 2 gives very good performance for the money you pay, but it is in the budget sector of the market. GF3 is too pricey for what it does, imo.
 
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Ch3tan

Guest
The only person I knew with a Radeon is Luap, and he chucked that in for a GF3.
 
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Embattle

Guest
W2K Pro can handle a max of 2GB but you should try and use this rule of thumb. For every 256k cache get 256mb ram max otherwise it can cause the computer to be slower.
 
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old.8_Ball

Guest
You'll always get ripped off buying a GFX nowadays.

I read somewhere that John Carmack said Id are benchmarking Doom 3 with all bells and whistles at 30fps on a Gforce3.....which kinda makes it obsolete

And by the time Doom 3 does hit the streets Nvidia will be knocking out v4 or v5 of the Gforce. Hell, they may even have a whole new card up their sleeves..

Always a catch 22 with GFX cards, hardware pushes software, Id pushes hardware, hardware pushes software....
 
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Embattle

Guest
Rumours have it that a public test might appear before the end of this year for D3 ;)
 
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Perplex

Guest
Athlon is complete fucking turd. If you have the roubles wait until the end of the year, and get yourself a nice P4 2.4ghz. WITH DDR ram

Oh yeah...P4s are now 0.13 micron....AMD are still stuck in the 0.18 micron age...with their dated cpu core. Time to make a new generation cpu lads
 
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Embattle

Guest
Nice speech, doesn't mean shit though since AMD are currently wiping the floor with Intel atm.

AMD may be using an older core but still slower clocked TBs are beating faster P4s in real world tests atm.
 
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Perplex

Guest
LOL. And how mcuh further you think they can push that dated core? It's never going to reach the extents the new P4s are churning, and goingto churn out. The P4 core in it's 0.13 incarnation will top out at about 4ghz....the athlon core will never go above 2ghz...and even so, it'll cause enough heat to melt the polar ice-caps
 
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Embattle

Guest
Hmm no need to get upset over the fact they're so slow and need such high speeds just to achieve the same performance as lower clocked TBs ;) AMD will continue on pushing up their processor speeds with the A4 release, but tbh why do they need to since they're still kicking Intels arse.

TBH you sound like a fucking Intel worker who realises that they currently have a product thats out gunned by the very old technology that you continue to slag off. Think about it though Per, the more you slag it off the worse it makes Intel look.

I don't favour one make over another, I just realise that Intel are still taking a good kicking and from what I can see its not about to stop. The fact is they're still too expensive, even with this drop, and don't perform as well atm in the real world.
 
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Perplex

Guest
I just realise that every mission critical server in the world uses Intel or a RISC processor. Nobody has been stupid enough to stick an AMD into their bread-&-butter servers
 
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Embattle

Guest
Typical Perplex, totally changes the subject but if i must follow then I will. AMD has never aimmed their processors at such an area but fear not the athlon MP is going to be AMDs first push into this area and it'll be tough but I'm sure they can grab some of the market.
 
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SoWat

Guest
I must admit that I do lean towards getting an Intel processor, as I've always had one (right back to my 386sx16). Yeah, ok, that's no great reason but I'm not an overclocker. I just want a decent speed with stability. Rightly or wrongly, I have always had the impression that the Athlons are overclocked (at the factory).

I've also been reading that you should get an AMD approved power supply if you use an Athlon. What's that all about then? Does it draw more power than a Pentium (and if so, why)?

The current favourite is the P4 2GHz. I could wait until the 2.4GHz model appears but I've been down that, neverending, waiting game before.
 
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Embattle

Guest
I used to be an Intel lover but now I don't tend to have a favorite, as I've said Intel have just dropped the ball too much and contiue to fumble ;)
 
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Will

Guest
The AMD power supply seems to be an issue with certain chipsets (KT133 anyone?) losing power with too many USB devices plugged in.
Ever read the Intel and AMD roadmaps Perp? And Intel really have dropped the ball, though when optimised software for the P4 comes out they might pick it up again. I'll wait and see.
 
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Embattle

Guest
The only problem is that developers rarely optimise code for processors, only really have to look at MMX etc.

Other slight problem is the fact by the time they do P5 will be out :)
 
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GDW

Guest
erm...... guys @ £105 squid 4 a 1.4ghz Athlon , I think AMD have it wrapped in performance per pound. Unless u do a lot of intensive video editing or CAD work whats the point in shelving out £400+ on a pentium
/me legs it..........:firedevil
 
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