Computer hardware is looking interesting again

[Helevitia]

I am close to upgrading but so many things are changing, I am going to wait a few months. Let's see...

BTX motherboards - sometime in mid to late 2004

PCI-Express - mid 2004

Radeon 9800XT - very soon I love the new features and video in!

SATA - Already here but not to many great drives to choose from yet

DVD-RW - Getting cheaper and anything under $300 seems like a bargain

Athlon 64 FX-51 - I really like this chip but it's soooo expensive. I hope the nforce3 boards are good. Maybe VIA is doing better too?

Man, that would be a kickass system! hmm, how about cost?

- BTX mobo - ~$200
- Athlon 64 FX-53 or 55 - ~$400 or so when the BTX mobo's come out?
- Radeon 9800XT - ~$400
- SATA - 2 80GB sata drives for RAID, ~$240 for both?
- DVD-RW - ~$150-200

So, approx. $1500. That's like old school prices.

What do all of you think?

Dave

[J1NG]

I think that estimate yoy've made Dave is a little on the low side.

J1NG

[ayoub_ibrahim]

Originally posted by J1NG
I think that estimate yoy've made Dave is a little on the low side.

J1NG

maybe he's being optimistic on the future!

[SpiralDragon]

i am going to wait it out till the second iteration of the p5 shows up.... thats wehn i think most of the consolidation will be put in action

[GNEP]

You also forgot a BTX case... add another $100 there

[Admiral]

What about DDR II ?

[J1NG]

I don't think DDRII will be a problem in this case. Dave did say he wanted to use an Athon64, which is stuck with normal DDR isn't it?

J1NG

[bsdgeek]

Yeah DDR1, but also it has to be registered/buffered.

[Admiral]

Originally posted by J1NG
I don't think DDRII will be a problem in this case. Dave did say he wanted to use an Athon64, which is stuck with normal DDR isn't it?

J1NG

I was thinking past the current models, at a 64FX with dual channel DDR II support, but I guess that's something for 2005 ?

[rylan]

Yeah, DDRII is pretty much a joke anyway. Its just a higher clocked DDR but registered so the latency sucks (3, 4 or 5 due to registering). I'd rather 433MHz ddr.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

BTX... maybe AMD is not even going to adopt it.

And Prescott is going to be sampled early next year right?

By then Socket 939 (939? damn it all these socket numbers) Athlon 64 will be out. and maybe that will have unbuffered DDR2, or at least i hope. And is this new A64 going to have 0.09?

[Jon P. Inghram]

How about HW inforced DRM? Microsofts "Trusted Computing" stuff?

[UtwigMU]

IMO it's going to be like 1997-1999

ATX, Pentium II (SLOT1), DIMM, AGP jump

[MultimediaMan]

BTX is a solution in search of a problem. We have more ATX cases than we can shake a stick at.

I think a smarter way to handle it would be to rearrange the ATX standard a little bit. Like the BTX hardware arrangement on an ATX-style layout.

Trusted Computing is not going to make it any further than the Clipper Chip did. If it does go...rest assured there will be a burgeoning market hacking systems to remove those unwanted "features". It will die.

[J1NG]

Re: Computer hardware is looking interesting again

This is how I see things and prices,

BTX Intel motherboards - sometime in mid to late 2004
BTX AMD motherboards - sometime in 2005 - 2006
BTX AMD motherboards using non-AMD chipsets - sometime in late 2004 to mid 2005

PCI-Express - mid 2004

Radeon 9800XT - late 2003 to mid 2004

Athlon 64 FX-51 - late 2003 to late 2004

- BTX Intel mobo - ~$200 (2004/2005)
- BTX AMD mobo - ~$300 (2005/2006)
- Athlon 64 FX-53 or 55 - ~$400 or so when the BTX mobo's come out? (2004)
- Radeon 9800XT - ~$400
- SATA - 2 80GB sata drives for RAID, ~$240 for both?
- DVD-RW - ~$150-200

So, approx. $1750. And that's when I think everything is out. So it's a long wait. Go cheap now and buy expensive later?

J1NG