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**lecter** · 22 September 2002, 19:19

The logical thing would be to wait....but me, I like to get the latest technological wonders as soon as possible. So if I were you, I would just get it now.

**DGhost** · 22 September 2002, 20:35

Serial ATA is gonna take a while to properly implemented... given 6 months to a year it could possibly be worth investing...

DDR2 is a dream for the time being.... Intel might implement something for it within the next year, but using it with any AMD processor is not going to be an option for at least the next year. probably more like 2. either way it will need at least a motherboar that supports it, and for AMD it will require a new processor.

X86-64 is not gonna be supported by software for a while. and in addition, the software that truely will take advantage of it is not going to be desktop level for quite a while. other parts of the changes of the hammer architecture will provide better performance enhancements than X86-64.

honestly, most standards that are due out won't really make any difference. yeah, it will be nice to have them but it won't make much of a difference for a while. or you will wind up waiting for a while for them. either way.

latest and greatest is not the best way to buy technology. it is past the point of deminishing returns and you usually just wind up throwing money at technology that provides little to no tangable benefit over the previous generation.

**BuddMan** · 22 September 2002, 20:45

Well, another side of this is that if I wait, prices of what is out right now will drop, which would be a big advantage to me. I've decided to wait at least a month anyway. I'll probably wait for the NV30 to be released so I can get a 9700 cheaper. There's just a lot of ways I can go right now....

**DGhost** · 22 September 2002, 22:27

exactly. 1800+ retail boxes should be down to like $80-$90 within a month or two.

buying a product based on a new standard is bad mojo.

take a look at all the hype surrounding doom. it promises to usher in a new era of gameplay. it will be the new standard for games for a long time to come. not only are people buying Radeon 9700's for it, people were buying Geforce 3's, 4's and the Radeon 8500's just because it was the fastest card for doom at the time it was out. yet another year is supposed to pass before it is released, a year that is going to usher in another round of new products, each with new standards, new features, faster performance. and in the end anything that is purchased now is going to pale in comparison to what will be on the market then.

there are always new standards, and always newer products that will implement them better, and with even more features.

the best way to buy products is based on what you need, and what benefits it offers over what you currently have. personally, because the current high-end platforms do not offer any tangable benefits over what i have now (current systems are a dual 1ghz p3 and a 1.33 tbird, and outside of bragging rights the performance gain isn't enough to justify the cost of a new system and new memory), the next generation of platforms are looking mighty good to me. it will be a good opportunity to switch to DDR memory and some other technologies, as my upgrades are long overdue.

anyways...

**Admiral** · 23 September 2002, 09:37

Faster ATI 9700 Coming

September 20th, 2002 - by Andrew Charnley - 5 comments

Word came in from an anon emailer that has relations with some ATI folk that ATI will introduce a faster version of its 9700 chipset sometime around January.

Because TMSC has switched wafers to .13 micron ATI will be able to ramp up the clocks and use faster memory to cut short NVIDIA's NV30 right at launch. The emailer said ATI folk sounded 'optimistic' about this new version being as fast as NV30.

ATI already have the R300 core rolling so will be little design overhead where-as NVIDIA are busy trying to be in time for the Christmas rush.

from nvmaX
Could be just rummors.

**Mikko** · 23 September 2002, 09:52

If I had such a big amount of money, I would buy new things immediately. If you decide to wait, it is always a chance that you could spend the money to something else and after couple of months you probably have to start saving some money again!

**BuddMan** · 23 September 2002, 10:05

Well, I know whatever I buy, in a few months something better will come out to replace it. Things move fast in the computer industry. My point isn't to get the latest greatest though. It's to build a comp that can last at least 2 or 3 years without having to do any major upgrading. That's why I am wondering if I should wait for some of the new standards that are about to come out.

**thop** · 23 September 2002, 10:10

waiting for serial ATA is not worth it. there is no speed benefit at all, just the cables look a bit more slick. if you want to wait then wait for serial ATA II which will feature scsi-like things like command queueing.

**cjolley** · 23 September 2002, 10:14

Originally posted by BuddMan
Well, I know whatever I buy, in a few months something better will come out to replace it. Things move fast in the computer industry. My point isn't to get the latest greatest though. It's to build a comp that can last at least 2 or 3 years without having to do any major upgrading. That's why I am wondering if I should wait for some of the new standards that are about to come out.

I've been wondering that every six months for twenty years

chuck

**Gurm** · 23 September 2002, 10:14

Ok, there's REALLY no point in waiting for certain things.

I've said before that the first round of SATA controllers will be useless at best.

Additionally, waiting for DX9.1 is silly - there are only a couple games out there that fully utilize DX8, nevermind DX9... and current-gen cards are all DX9 compliant anyway. My Radeon8500 has DX9 drivers that work great, and the 9700 supports the features in hardware.

- Gurm

**BuddMan** · 23 September 2002, 10:22

Well, everything has been debated except x86-64. Any thoughts on that?

**Admiral** · 23 September 2002, 10:39

Originally posted by DGhost

X86-64 is not gonna be supported by software for a while. and in addition, the software that truely will take advantage of it is not going to be desktop level for quite a while. other parts of the changes of the hammer architecture will provide better performance enhancements than X86-64.

Seems it has, a little.

Let's see, if I had that money now I'd get:

Athlon XP 2600+ or wait for the Barton core, it should come by
the end of the year.
Thermalright SLK800 cooler
MSI 745 Ultra (SIS 745) or wait for the SIS 746 board from MSI (AGP x8 for the Radeon 9700 Pro)
Some DDR333 memory from Corsair or Mushkin
Audigy or wait for Audigy 2 (mid, late october ?)
Radeon 9700 Pro from ATI, Gigabyte or Hercules
one of them 8mb buffer WD hdd
Plextor or TEAC 40x burner
SONY fdd

**DGhost** · 23 September 2002, 10:46

like i said in my first forum post... X86-64 is a feature that is not really gonna make a difference in desktop computers. the memory addressing features will be nice, but its gonna be a long while before desktop computers ship with over 4gb of ram, and by then the discussion will be moot because either X86-64 will be the standard or it won't.

server side it will make a difference. scientific computing and workstation apps it will be good.

but X86-64 does not have any benefits to bring to the table for desktops.

personally, the hammer is a different enough chip that it would be worth upgrading to for me. but not for X86-64. for things like Hypertransport and the integrated memory controller. things like that.

**BuddMan** · 23 September 2002, 15:27

I see, well I was hoping for some more comments on it, but I guess that's what basically it comes down to. Well, I shall consort with my collegues and will let you guys know what will happen. Thanks for the help.

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New Standards Are Arriving...Should I Wait?

New Standards Are Arriving...Should I Wait?

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