Computer Building 101

[nonstop]

Is it true that we should just consider those prices slashed in half?

It's a speculation at this point. Porks being a little aggressive with his prophecy imo however they will certainly drop.

There is absolutely no doubt that the AM2 platform is clearly the fastest setup you can currently buy, even if it is only a few percent faster than last generation's Socket 939. However, things will change rapidly toward the end of next month when Intel introduces Core 2 Duo (Conroe). Prices will drop across the board and AM2 will be an ever better buy in just a few weeks. There is also the concern that Conroe supply may be constrained for months, which is currently just speculation, but still a real concern.

There's only a slight problem, Non. Unlike many of us, you have money. I'll put the recommendation under "budget"

+ you can flash the bios on most x1800xt's to an x1800xtx which will get you a 300.00 card at 200.00.

Av, you can get the x1800 or the 7600gt at the same or very close to your recommended 6800gs and they are quite a bit faster.
6800gs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130002
7600gt: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127217
x1800xt: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102008
x1800gto: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 814102013R

[BeerNut]

.... The Conroe cores aren't out yet until 7/27 this month....

If you should get a conrow core, make sure to apply plenty of thermal "conrow magic" paste to prevent the cpu from overheating:

[Porkinator]

current new egg price
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200
358.99
down from 386.00
the 4400 will probably never see the light of day as it uses 2x1mb L2 cachewhich they are phasing out.

[pewterdragn]

I fully agree with Pork here. The prices are about to get really interesting.

Speaking of Conroe... does anyone remember the heat issues the first Core Duo's had?? I'm staying away from Intel's bleeding edge for awhile while they work out the kinks...

M2 looks great... proven technology tweaked to give better performance/efficencies....

BTW: AMD also announced a "budget" dual core X2 3600 for those of you interested... I think the 3800 & higher will come down so wait about a month.


my 2 cents

[nonstop]

I fully agree with Pork here. The prices are about to get really interesting.

Speaking of Conroe... does anyone remember the heat issues the first Core Duo's had?? I'm staying away from Intel's bleeding edge for awhile while they work out the kinks...

Completely different architecture with conroe. 65nm process for these chips and the initial reports show tons less energy being drawn which is good for IT managers looking to reduce energy costs and for overclockers looking to keep heat down!

So far amd2 has no advantage performance wise over the current amd models but it's what the smaller die process will bring in 2007-2008 that will be interesting. For the remainder of 06 it looks like amd will be getting it's hind end kicked.

[pewterdragn]

Completely different architecture with conroe. 65nm process for these chips and the initial reports show tons less energy being drawn which is good for IT managers looking to reduce energy costs and for overclockers looking to keep heat down!

No IT managers should widely deploy a new chip... especially in production. It'll be in labs for months.

[quote='nonstop']So far amd2 has no advantage performance wise over the current amd models but it's what the smaller die process will bring in 2007-2008 that will be interesting. For the remainder of 06 it looks like amd will be getting it's hind end kicked.[/quote]

Enter AMD+Dell... welcome to price wars! Good for us!

[nonstop]

No IT managers should widely deploy a new chip... especially in production. It'll be in labs for months.

Enter AMD+Dell... welcome to price wars! Good for us!

Agreed you grumpy dragon. AMD is kicking Intels butt right now as their latest chips are cooler and draw less power. Intel has to play catch up and that's why I mentioned the smaller die/power move.

Price wars are very good. I'm also ready for something new as I have had the 939 platform for a long time now and am ready to see some speedy next steps in the market.

Do dragons get disagreeable when they haven't eaten?

[-Jeta-]

Are we STILL talking about hardware ... havnt we had like 99999999999 posts about this shit

Can someone wake me when we start talking about fun stuff again!

[Naix]

Thanks for the interest guys, i would have replied sooner, but i have been busy with friends and stuff for the past few days.

As much as i hate waiting, to tell the truth, this project wont come together for a few months as i get the necessary funding and look for some good deals without sacrificing preformance. But what the hell do i know, im just a noob at this

Anyways, i'll consider each and every piece of advice, because im not too informed on all of this. Non has been helping me out alot, and i trust you guys, so go ahead and recommend!

But! it sounds like me waiting a little bit will yield savings from all the price wars at the end of the month.

So your saying i should stick with AMD and maybe get a dual core when the prices drop? is it worth it?

[Porkinator]

Naix
If it is going to be two months then I would adopt a wait and see policy. I would keep an eye on the video card prices and new models as when they come out they drop the prices on the ones
that are hot now. Another thing to take in consideration is that Windows Vista will be out early next year so if you are going to want to run that you need to see what specs it requires.
Right now most (if any) video cards are not ready for Directx 10
that will come with Vista.
I would be looking at a minimum of 4 gb of Ram which sounds expensive but DDR2 prices are starting to drop as AMD has adopted it and most memory makers are going to put the majority of thier production into DDR2.
You will see the speed of ddr2 increase also and hopefully the latency will come down now as that is the big problem with DDR2 at this time.
I would keep a colse eye on AMD as they are not going to sit on thier butts for too long to counter Intels new offerings.
Save as much as you can and when you are ready post again
for feedback.

[nonstop]

Seems like the intentn of this thread got lost as jeta can't even see why we have this thread at this point so let me try again because I think jeta may actually be someone who can help.

So Naix may build his first computer and as you may recall when you built your first one, it's good to have folks to bounce things off of.

I was trying to remember who is hardware savvy here? I know Doc and Pwt are. Any other victims that can lend an ear or help when he goes through his gaming rite of passage?

[Cüßèli]

Good luck w your project Naix

i just purchased a 3.4GHz Northwood CPU for $146... upgrading from 2.8GHz. That should last me for UT2007 Whoo hooo!

Now which AT1 card that supports AGP 8x is the best pick? Any AT1 fans wanna help an AT1 numero uno brother? TY!

current card is x800pro 256MB 525MHz/525MHz.

[Naix]

Another thing to take in consideration is that Windows Vista will be out early next year so if you are going to want to run that you need to see what specs it requires.

Ok, can you explain this a little to me? Are you saying that vista wont run on some older computers, or ones that arent very "up to date"?

I plan on getting a decent system, so should i worry about this? when do they release the specs usually?

Thanks

[Naix]

Good luck w your project Naix

i just purchased a 3.4GHz Northwood CPU for $146... upgrading from 2.8GHz. That should last me for UT2007 Whoo hooo!

Now which AT1 card that supports AGP 8x is the best pick? Any AT1 fans wanna help an AT1 numero uno brother? TY!

current card is x800pro 256MB 525MHz/525MHz.

Thanks Cub!

[law.of.averages]

Can someone wake me when we start talking about fun stuff again!

sure...uh....what's fun?