ozanzac 0 Posted February 27, 2005 Hi all! I'm currently looking to buy or build a new rig, with the main focus being upgradeability when higher speed processors come down to reasonable prices. To do that, I know I'll need to choose my motherboard wisely. At the moment, I'm not all that convinced that the 64-bit processors and motherboards on offer from AMD today, will be well suited to the needs of tomorrow when 64-bit applications becomes the mainstream. I have the view that once more 64 bit software comes out, that there'll be much better 64-bit hardware on offer to handle it.....When would one expect 64 bit applications to become main stream? Because if the wait will be any greater than two years, I'll stick with 32 bit technology till at least then. Secondly, comes the subject of PCI-express video cards. Whilst I like the fact that they've got greater bandwidth than there AGP counterparts, and PCI-E seems to be the future regarding video cards. However, one of my mates got a new PC with a PCI-express video card, and can't run HALO because of it. While it is all nice and dandy to have a fast video card, it's not reassuring to see that in some instances, they're not backwards compatible with some pre PCI-E games. What I'd like to hear, is if any of you in here who read this and have PCI-E cards, have had trouble, particularly with OFP, and how the response that developers have made to rectify such/any backwards compatibility issues. (Patches, tips, instructions for configuring systems, driver advice e.t.c.) And thirdly, comes DDR 2 memory....My concern here is if DDR-2 will turn into another RAMBUS RAM debacle, where the technology is bypassed, and leaves existing users high and dry in regard to cost effective upgrades......I'm very weary of this because I am one of those users who was left high and dry ...... Having said all that, I’m certainly not an expert, and if anyone has opinions, or is in the know of what to expect for the near future, please, feel free to voice yourself or point me in the right direction of related articles, because in the end, it will all shape my decision of how I'll end up building my system! (Which won’t be until the middle or end of march, depending on what the expected cost will be)  I've taken quite a liking to an Intel 925 board, but don't really know much about what AMD have on offer. Edit:Posted in this forum because the OFP community specs thread is also resident here....otherwise, feel free to move to OT. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ozanzac 0 Posted February 28, 2005 No response hey? Never mind....I think I've decided what motherboard I'll choose. The Abit AA8-XE LGA 775 i925XE. Not far from top of the line, but 'top of the line' seems to mean an excessive amount of LED's intent for a see through case, that quite frankly, would end up annoying the $#!+ out of me (one way or another), and the removal of printer ports, which I need, seeing as I don't have any problems with my current printer. Next up, is the processor....anything in the 3.0 - 3.4 GHz range would suit me just fine......as I'll probably end up upgrading the processor once the LGA 775 socket series of processors reaches clock speeds somewhere near it's potential (whilist also being reasonably priced). I considered a Celeron D as a stop-gap for now.....but figured that in the medium term of the motherboards life, I'd be far better off with a low spec (in LGA 775 terms) Pentium 4 chip. Now......Graphics cards.....Radeon or GeForce?...... I'm trying to budget this, so basically, 128 bit, 256 meg, PCI-E is my criteria.....and I have no friggen clue. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lucretius 0 Posted February 28, 2005 Don't bother with intel... Considering AMD's 64 bit chips knock the stuffing out of anything Intel offer in 32 bit and offer the best future upgrade path. AMD Athlon 64 3200 = Å129.00 http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=304047&cks=PRL EPoX EP-9NPA+ Ultra Mainboard for S939 nForce4 Ultra,4xSATA2,GbLAN,PCI-E,ATX = Å99.50 http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=307396&cks=PRL Gainward GeForce 6600GT = Å144.00 http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=302678&cks=PRL TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB Dual Pack Kit w/two matched PC3200 DDR DIMMs = Å92.50 http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=118498&cks=PRL Total Cost = Å465 That would be a full system upgrade leaving you with a fairly high end system Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lucretius 0 Posted February 28, 2005 If you want Operation Flashpoint performance... than the Athlon 64 is the best choice of processor due to the built in memory controller. This negates the northbridge... this improving responsivness and overall speed in memory bandwidth intensive games... such as flashpoint Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ozanzac 0 Posted March 1, 2005 Thanks for the suggestions Lucretius. Highly appreciated. Â None the less, I'll research the AMD board option a little more, see how much the package would cost me in Aussie dollars, and get back here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mr_Tea 0 Posted March 1, 2005 I suggest to use a Serial ATA HD. I bought one yesterday and I´m surprised of the high data transfer rate. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ozanzac 0 Posted March 2, 2005 Yeah.... I was planning to do so anyway....believe me...if my motherboard has a feature, I wanna be sure I'm using it! For the hard drive, I was thinking of something along the lines of a: 120-160 GB Maxtor DiamondMax 9+ SATA Calypso Quiet. (SATA-150, 7200 rpm, 8MB cache) I'm the kind of guy who struggles to half fill my current 80 gB hard drive.....(which I'll also be slotting in!) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites