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So I'm upgrading my machine this week, due to several interesting circumstances.
I currently run:
Athlon XP 1800+
MSI 745 Ultra
512MB of Crucial PC2100 + 512MB of Edge DDR400.
Radeon 8500 (Original)
Plextor 4x +R and Lite-On 16x ROM
3Com NIC
Audigy eX (softmodded to Audigy2 eX)
120GB Seagate (Barracuda V silent)
120GB WD Caviar SE (faster but not so silent)
etc.
Now, I'm unloading the guts of my machine, and upgrading.
I'm thinking about the following:
Athlon XP "Barton" 2500+ (~$90)
ASROCK 748 w/SATA, RAID, USB2.0 (~$60)
512MB of Crucial PC2700 + keep the Edge DDR400 (~$75)
160/200GB SATA Seagate to replace the WD
Also maybe upgrade the Plextor 4x +R to either a Pioneer A06/106 or an NEC 2500 (8x, combo). The reason I'd consider the Pioneer is that it's the ONLY current-gen drive which has already been demonstrated to burn dual-layer media.
Last but not least, if I can find a cheap 9500 Pro on eBay I might jump to that and softmod it to a 9700.
Anyway, I'd welcome advice. I have no particular love of the AMD platform. If someone can provide some actual evidence that a P4 board/chip combo in roughly the same price bracket would be better, I'd certainly be willing to consider it. I know that at least for SOME applications, such as video rendering and whatnot, that the HT P4's will outperform an equivalent Athlon handily.
Or, I'd be willing to consider other chipsets. VIA is right out, but nForce isn't outside the realm of possibility if the price is relative commeasurate.
Ok, fire away! I'm not ordering anything until tomorrow at the earliest, so I've got a good 24 hours to ruminate and accept suggestions.
- Gurm
P.S. Can anyone speak to the issue of cases? They've gotten a lot more expensive than they were a couple years ago. Back then I could get a good InWin S500/A500 for $79 and have a pretty decent power supply inside it. Nowadays, I see $100 cases with NO power supplies. What happened? What's a good case nowadays?
I currently run:
Athlon XP 1800+
MSI 745 Ultra
512MB of Crucial PC2100 + 512MB of Edge DDR400.
Radeon 8500 (Original)
Plextor 4x +R and Lite-On 16x ROM
3Com NIC
Audigy eX (softmodded to Audigy2 eX)
120GB Seagate (Barracuda V silent)
120GB WD Caviar SE (faster but not so silent)
etc.
Now, I'm unloading the guts of my machine, and upgrading.
I'm thinking about the following:
Athlon XP "Barton" 2500+ (~$90)
ASROCK 748 w/SATA, RAID, USB2.0 (~$60)
512MB of Crucial PC2700 + keep the Edge DDR400 (~$75)
160/200GB SATA Seagate to replace the WD
Also maybe upgrade the Plextor 4x +R to either a Pioneer A06/106 or an NEC 2500 (8x, combo). The reason I'd consider the Pioneer is that it's the ONLY current-gen drive which has already been demonstrated to burn dual-layer media.
Last but not least, if I can find a cheap 9500 Pro on eBay I might jump to that and softmod it to a 9700.
Anyway, I'd welcome advice. I have no particular love of the AMD platform. If someone can provide some actual evidence that a P4 board/chip combo in roughly the same price bracket would be better, I'd certainly be willing to consider it. I know that at least for SOME applications, such as video rendering and whatnot, that the HT P4's will outperform an equivalent Athlon handily.
Or, I'd be willing to consider other chipsets. VIA is right out, but nForce isn't outside the realm of possibility if the price is relative commeasurate.
Ok, fire away! I'm not ordering anything until tomorrow at the earliest, so I've got a good 24 hours to ruminate and accept suggestions.
- Gurm
P.S. Can anyone speak to the issue of cases? They've gotten a lot more expensive than they were a couple years ago. Back then I could get a good InWin S500/A500 for $79 and have a pretty decent power supply inside it. Nowadays, I see $100 cases with NO power supplies. What happened? What's a good case nowadays?
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