+10 to dirty hardware

JuniperG

Baseband Member
Messages
38
I thought it relevant (kinda always relevant) to get a glimpse into someone elses thoughts about this.

Given the fact that computer hardware companies are always striving to beat each other and new stuff comes out almost every month. Is there a current hardware architecture that will, without a doubt, be around for awhile. For a hope to keep your top-of-the-line PC....Top-of-the-line.

What are some upgrading options out now that make it a good item or good time to buy? When is a good time to purchase or build a PC, and what makes that sucker worth anything longer than 3 months?
 
it's the unfortunate fact that whenever anyone buys hardware it's out-of-date the second they've got the package through the mail!

technology moves so fast...

if yu buy the absolute top-of-the-line stuff then you do have a kick as computer, and it'll still be current for a little while, but there isn't really any failsafe stuff out there at the moment that won't go out of date...

but a few tips...

RAM, always try to buy the newest type of RAM, the slots on RAM tend not to change so much, yes the speeds do, but of the top of my head I can only think of 5 different types of RAM slots since computers were first invented.
(32 pin simm, 72 pin simm 68 pin dim (SD), RMBus (RIMM) and 84 pin DDR).

Unfortunatly the same canot be said for processors, there are tens of different slot types that have emerged, it used to be reasonably simple, back in the days of socket 7, when all the companies made chips to the same socket, however now different manufacturers make their own socket (or slot) types, and they tend to update them faster as well... -this is a bugger cause you have to get a new mainboard as well as a new chip all the time!

PCI-X the PCI-express buss is now fairly common, and it probably will be for a good long while yet as well. there have only been a few different card slots, (ISA, PCI, AGP PCI-X) PCI-X has the faster speed of all of them.. and whilst I don't doubt that people are trying to better the speeds, it's still the fastest, (think how long PCI has been around, -and it is still possible to get ISA supported mainboards, that pretty much the original standard connector from the earliest PCs.
 
Good info, :cool:
Ram is pretty easy to adjust fire to, it generally seems to be the farty processors that everyone trys to keep up with, cause generally, all other components are structured towards one.

I know PCI-E will be around for a little while longer but I hear talk of a 24X dual slot PCI-E . Has anyone else heard about this? instead of the slot containing a 16x path, it now contains 2 12x paths
______________________ ____
______________________ ____

Looks something like this but they are very close together.
So an SLI Board would contain 4 12x paths, sounds nuts to me if it has any truth to it.
 
Heres my thoughts on it. I truely believe that if you build a nice computer, talkin about spending around $1100, it will run fine for 2-4 years without having to really update anything besides maybe adding some memory.

I used a Dell 4400 for almost 3 years and it ran fine for all 3 of those years. Sure when it came to games and such I did have to use some lower graphics settings for games that came out near the end of the 3 years but thy were still playable.

As for processors, you can survive on 2.0 ghz at least for the next year or so, without any problems. Hell my laptop is still running on a 2 ghz, and I have no complaints with it when it comes to the processor. I do believe how ever when Vista comes out to comfortably run it you will probably need at least a 2.5.
 
I agree tremendously with the 2.0Ghz. I bought a Dell in 2001 (Nicest one they had at the time) with a 2ghz and I still use that thing for tons of stuff. Had to change the video card out of course. With a NVIDIA2, I had to run solitaire with the graphics on LOW...LOL. :eek:

But mainly I am wandering how long my system will last me now. After Vista, After NVIDIA 490,000,000 Series cards, and so on. Guess there is no real time-line set but it is safe to say, My system sure rocks at the moment.
 
Well currently what are you specs? The main thing I think when it comes to Vista is going to be memory and graphics, at least from what i've heard.
 
well what I like to do is I buy the kind of hardware I need. No one needs 2x 7800GT for gaming, when one 6800GT can run any game without any problems, and almost every game on high settings. So I never buy the newest stuff, unless it's quite cheap. (like the core 2 duo cpus)

This way u will almost always have a computer capable of playing the newest games without having to spend alot of money at once. Sure u will need to upgrade more often, but I have found that this method is good for me.
 
Yes I highly agree with you. I am currently going to be gettin two graphics cards only for the fact that I dont want to have to upgrade my graphics for a while after my build my new machine.
 
I might have to try that once, I always save up and buy some astronomical system that contacts alien planets, runs programs 80 millions times faster than light, irons my clothes and makes coffee.
Like now, I have the top brand of everything (Bought with Deployment money) and I do not know what to do with it.
Play games...woohoo, did that on my old one. The games look better and definatley run alot better, but...not really necessary I guess. :cool:
 
My current system is:

Silverstone Temjin TJ07
Intel Core 2 Extreme (2.93Ghz)
Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe Mobo
4GB Corsair 6400Pro, 800Mhz
(2x) XFX 7950gx2, XXX, 570Mhz, 1GB in SLI
Sound Blaster, FATAL1TY Edition
(2x) Western Digital, 10k RPM, 16MB Cache (Raid0)
(2x) Seagate 750GB, 7200 RPM, 16MB Cache (Seperate Partition RAID5)
Sony BluRay Drive
Plextor 18X DVD-R/RW Drive
PC Power and Cooling, 1KW, Qaud-SLI
Windows XP Professional w' SP2
Sony Bravia, 46" LCD TV (Not a monitor)

I spent a butt-load and then some, but it rocks and I am happy with it, just hope I stay happy with it for a very long time. ;)
 
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