Orion
05-16-2005, 11:43 AM
I have recently come into posession of about $300 for computer upgrades, with possible expansion to $500. I am looking to figure out the best upgrades for me...usually this isnt a problem, since my roommate Saphalline and I are constantly updating ourselves on parts specs and drooling over the latest hardware. This time, however, we are a bit stumped...I may have reached that terrifying place for a techno-geek--I may not have much performance enhancing stuff to upgrade!
Here's my current specs:
My Desktop setup:
Mobo: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
CPU: Athlon64 3000+
Memory: 1 GB (2x512) Corsair Value Select DDR400
Power supply: THERMALTAKE Silent PurePower TT-420AD
Vid Card: LeadTek PX6600GT TDH Extreme (only one of theses)
Case: Antec. Unfortunately, I can't remember the model number, but it's one of the standard 50 dollar steel antecs from about two years ago. window, fan on side, and usb up front...many fans...
HEatsink: Thermalright SK-7
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120 GB SATA150 drive
DVD Burner: Pioneer A06
CD Burner: Lite-On LTR-52246s
Floppy: LS-120
All Fan slots are full. two front, two back, (two in PS), one on side over vid card, and one on heatsink.
Have the Logitech MX-700 Pro Wireless Keyboard/Mouse combo
Have Altec Lansing ACS54 4.1 speakers
Have a Lexmark X73 Printer/scanner combo
Running dual monitors (One Gateway VX900 19" monitor, one HP1740 17" LCD Display)
Have Saitek Cyborg 3D Gold USB Joystick
All my computers are routed through a DLink DI-614+ (the one hardware decision I almost regretted-I bought matched "+" wireless from Dlink because of the 22 Mbps transfer mode, but then found out when I installed my linux that not only did Texas Instruments, which built the Chipset for the AirPlus networking cards, not release a Linux driver, they refused to even release the specs so that Linux open source developers could make their own driver...) router connected to my Charter 3 Mbps download internet connection...
Just a note-I have always built my systems with overclock ability, and have always run overclocked. this is the first setup I have encountered where I haven't really wanted to. perhaps I will eventually, but that at least explains my mid-high end parts (such as the 3000+)...they provided (and still do, for the most part) the most performance per dollar with overclocking taken into account.
Also, the desktop system I use in a 70-20-10 percent spread of Gaming, web development (graphics), and text type stuff, respectively.
In my Mobile setup, I have:
Asus S5NE Laptop. has 40 GB drive, 4200 RPM. Maxed the memory, at 768 MB DDR Micro-SODIMM RAM. Wireless is an IntelPRO 2100BG.
I have a 20 GB laptop hard drive in a USB 2.0 enclosure, I use that for mobile transfers and backups.
With that as my setup, here's my thoughts on upgrading:
Video card
Currently, I consider SLI to be an Obvious upgrade except for a few facts. first, I like my Dual Monitor for now. SLI breaks that. My LCD is great at my static stuff (Text, still graphics, etc.) and I love my CRT for games... Also, everything I have thrown at my current card runs better than fine, including Doom3, HalfLife2, (both with settings at max) and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (with settings at max AND Pixel Shader 3.0 turned on). My train of thought is that by the time something comes out where I will notice the difference when I upgrade, the price will have come down-most likely there will be another core revision which will drop the prices. So if I upgrade now, I will pay more for something I won't see till I could have paid less. On top of that, I do play older games occaisionally, and those don't take advantage of SLI. so for now, I am thinking of holding off on SLI.
memory
I don't know that I really need to upgrade this memory, and here's why. I am currently at a rather poorly (timings-wise) 2.5-3-3-7, 1T, 200MHz. I have run a battery of tests and comparision of settings, and here's what I've found. upgrading for timeing: I compared this memory running at DDR333 3-3-3-7, vs DDR333 2-2-3-5 and found very little performance increase...less than 5%. As far as Upgrading for Speed, going from DDR333 2.5-3-3-7 to DDR400 2.5-3-3-7 netted me again, about 5%. an upgrade to something like Kingston HyperX, or Corsair XMS would cost around $200. It doesn't really seem worth it to me, especially for just 5-10% increase...I discussed this with Saphalline, and he explained how the on-chip memory controller works...we determined that's why the rather surprisingly minor increase in performance.
monitor
I am quite happy with my 19" CRT, as I really dont' have enough room for larger...and the color response on this is rather good. That leaves the LCD. I am considering upgrading my LCD Display, because my wife wants one, and I can use this as an exuse to get myself a better one. I am still undecided as to the long term usefulness of the dual monitors. I have grown somewhat used to it, but I don't know that I really need it...and I definately know that I dont' want to have to use an LCD as my primary gaming display.
dvd drive
I have a single layer, but it's a really good one...back before DL came out, the Pioneer A06 was the top of the line, it's only competitor being a Sony, and it's only superior being Plextor. I am not sure that I want to give this rather reliable drive up. I also know that I am not all that happy about the prospect of giving up my CD Drive, since the A06 seems to have troubles recognizing many CD-RW media for burning. On top of those two problems, I consider the fact that I really don't see myself even wanting to use DL until either the media drops a lot in price, or until they come out with DL-RW. So I think this option is a wash.
hard drive (sata)
I considered getting a Raptor. I am running one in a File Server at my job on Campus as Net Admin, and have tested it thoroughly. But I don't think I need it-the main thing that would decrease for me is the load time on games, and I am patient in nature. Load times don't really bother me. Before I would get one of these for my own computer, I would get a SATA 300MB/s with NCQ (SATA-II, or SATA 3Gb/s, whatever you want to call it...). one of the HITACHI Deskstar 160GB SATA II hard drives costs only $90 on newegg-perhaps this would be a good boost for space, not to mention that it would vastly increase my performance for my system drive, thanks to the NCQ. A good contender, I think.
Hard Drive (Laptop)
I am also considering upgradin the hard drive in my laptop. I have the 40 GB in there, and would primarily like to increase the space. the battery life of the Asus S5NE is not stellar, though not that bad for my purposes (about 2-2.5 hours, running on the low setting. Long enough for two classes at college...one and a half on tuesdays) and when I compared the wattage required to run a 5400 RPM drive, I decided that it wouldn't be worth it to me to upgrade my laptop's harddrive speed (which is rather pokey) at the expense of drastically reducing my battery life. Has anyone got any experience upgrading a laptop hard drive to a faster speed, specifically in terms of battery life effect? My laptop is one of those sub-3 lb deals, so battery life is hard to come by. Of course, if I upgraded this, the current 40 Gig would go to my portable HD enclosure, and the 20 Gig would go to Saph...
Case
My current case is a very nice one, not the best, but nice. side fan, window, front USB, solid construction, rolled edges, cd rails, and removable drive bays (the kind that have a latch and the whole box holding the hard drives slides out). no removable motherboard tray, no screwless design, and not aluminum. I might consider spending on upgrading to something like the new Tsunami Dream, or something like a Wavemaster (I think that's what they're called-I'm not as good at Saph at remembering names and numbers...acronyms are tough when you have as many as there are in the computer world...) Are Aluminum cases worth the hype? how sturdy are they? I am sometimes tough on my stuff...
cpu cooler
My SK-7 is a good cooler, I got it so I could run my old Barton 2500 at 3200 speeds...kept me below 100 degrees F. I have seen no temps higher than 50 degrees celcius (full load) on my AMD64 3000+. I don't really know when I will get around to overclocking this proc, since I really don't know when I'm going to run into apps that even use the power I have.
Power Supply
This is a nice, solid PS that I've never had a problem with, but I do want to do SLI eventually, and it only has 18 Amps on the 12 volt line. Asus says that a 6600GT sli setup with similar specs will run on a stable PS with 17 Amps on the 12 Volt line. I don't like running so close to the line like that. I was wondering what your thoughts are on upgrading this now, vs upgrading this when I eventually get my second card? are the PC Power & Cooling power supplies THAT good? or are there lesser known rising stars that have stuff that's a good second, for a lot cheaper? I specifically remember when MSI was never heard of. they came from out of nowhere and suddenly they are a serious contender for top notch hardware. Any thoughts on that? for example: anyone know how Rosewill stacks up?
Processor and Mobo I don't want to upgrade. I just got them!
And because I know someone will mention it, I already have the spare parts that I am going to put together for a linux web or file server.
So where do I go from here?
Here's my current specs:
My Desktop setup:
Mobo: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
CPU: Athlon64 3000+
Memory: 1 GB (2x512) Corsair Value Select DDR400
Power supply: THERMALTAKE Silent PurePower TT-420AD
Vid Card: LeadTek PX6600GT TDH Extreme (only one of theses)
Case: Antec. Unfortunately, I can't remember the model number, but it's one of the standard 50 dollar steel antecs from about two years ago. window, fan on side, and usb up front...many fans...
HEatsink: Thermalright SK-7
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120 GB SATA150 drive
DVD Burner: Pioneer A06
CD Burner: Lite-On LTR-52246s
Floppy: LS-120
All Fan slots are full. two front, two back, (two in PS), one on side over vid card, and one on heatsink.
Have the Logitech MX-700 Pro Wireless Keyboard/Mouse combo
Have Altec Lansing ACS54 4.1 speakers
Have a Lexmark X73 Printer/scanner combo
Running dual monitors (One Gateway VX900 19" monitor, one HP1740 17" LCD Display)
Have Saitek Cyborg 3D Gold USB Joystick
All my computers are routed through a DLink DI-614+ (the one hardware decision I almost regretted-I bought matched "+" wireless from Dlink because of the 22 Mbps transfer mode, but then found out when I installed my linux that not only did Texas Instruments, which built the Chipset for the AirPlus networking cards, not release a Linux driver, they refused to even release the specs so that Linux open source developers could make their own driver...) router connected to my Charter 3 Mbps download internet connection...
Just a note-I have always built my systems with overclock ability, and have always run overclocked. this is the first setup I have encountered where I haven't really wanted to. perhaps I will eventually, but that at least explains my mid-high end parts (such as the 3000+)...they provided (and still do, for the most part) the most performance per dollar with overclocking taken into account.
Also, the desktop system I use in a 70-20-10 percent spread of Gaming, web development (graphics), and text type stuff, respectively.
In my Mobile setup, I have:
Asus S5NE Laptop. has 40 GB drive, 4200 RPM. Maxed the memory, at 768 MB DDR Micro-SODIMM RAM. Wireless is an IntelPRO 2100BG.
I have a 20 GB laptop hard drive in a USB 2.0 enclosure, I use that for mobile transfers and backups.
With that as my setup, here's my thoughts on upgrading:
Video card
Currently, I consider SLI to be an Obvious upgrade except for a few facts. first, I like my Dual Monitor for now. SLI breaks that. My LCD is great at my static stuff (Text, still graphics, etc.) and I love my CRT for games... Also, everything I have thrown at my current card runs better than fine, including Doom3, HalfLife2, (both with settings at max) and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (with settings at max AND Pixel Shader 3.0 turned on). My train of thought is that by the time something comes out where I will notice the difference when I upgrade, the price will have come down-most likely there will be another core revision which will drop the prices. So if I upgrade now, I will pay more for something I won't see till I could have paid less. On top of that, I do play older games occaisionally, and those don't take advantage of SLI. so for now, I am thinking of holding off on SLI.
memory
I don't know that I really need to upgrade this memory, and here's why. I am currently at a rather poorly (timings-wise) 2.5-3-3-7, 1T, 200MHz. I have run a battery of tests and comparision of settings, and here's what I've found. upgrading for timeing: I compared this memory running at DDR333 3-3-3-7, vs DDR333 2-2-3-5 and found very little performance increase...less than 5%. As far as Upgrading for Speed, going from DDR333 2.5-3-3-7 to DDR400 2.5-3-3-7 netted me again, about 5%. an upgrade to something like Kingston HyperX, or Corsair XMS would cost around $200. It doesn't really seem worth it to me, especially for just 5-10% increase...I discussed this with Saphalline, and he explained how the on-chip memory controller works...we determined that's why the rather surprisingly minor increase in performance.
monitor
I am quite happy with my 19" CRT, as I really dont' have enough room for larger...and the color response on this is rather good. That leaves the LCD. I am considering upgrading my LCD Display, because my wife wants one, and I can use this as an exuse to get myself a better one. I am still undecided as to the long term usefulness of the dual monitors. I have grown somewhat used to it, but I don't know that I really need it...and I definately know that I dont' want to have to use an LCD as my primary gaming display.
dvd drive
I have a single layer, but it's a really good one...back before DL came out, the Pioneer A06 was the top of the line, it's only competitor being a Sony, and it's only superior being Plextor. I am not sure that I want to give this rather reliable drive up. I also know that I am not all that happy about the prospect of giving up my CD Drive, since the A06 seems to have troubles recognizing many CD-RW media for burning. On top of those two problems, I consider the fact that I really don't see myself even wanting to use DL until either the media drops a lot in price, or until they come out with DL-RW. So I think this option is a wash.
hard drive (sata)
I considered getting a Raptor. I am running one in a File Server at my job on Campus as Net Admin, and have tested it thoroughly. But I don't think I need it-the main thing that would decrease for me is the load time on games, and I am patient in nature. Load times don't really bother me. Before I would get one of these for my own computer, I would get a SATA 300MB/s with NCQ (SATA-II, or SATA 3Gb/s, whatever you want to call it...). one of the HITACHI Deskstar 160GB SATA II hard drives costs only $90 on newegg-perhaps this would be a good boost for space, not to mention that it would vastly increase my performance for my system drive, thanks to the NCQ. A good contender, I think.
Hard Drive (Laptop)
I am also considering upgradin the hard drive in my laptop. I have the 40 GB in there, and would primarily like to increase the space. the battery life of the Asus S5NE is not stellar, though not that bad for my purposes (about 2-2.5 hours, running on the low setting. Long enough for two classes at college...one and a half on tuesdays) and when I compared the wattage required to run a 5400 RPM drive, I decided that it wouldn't be worth it to me to upgrade my laptop's harddrive speed (which is rather pokey) at the expense of drastically reducing my battery life. Has anyone got any experience upgrading a laptop hard drive to a faster speed, specifically in terms of battery life effect? My laptop is one of those sub-3 lb deals, so battery life is hard to come by. Of course, if I upgraded this, the current 40 Gig would go to my portable HD enclosure, and the 20 Gig would go to Saph...
Case
My current case is a very nice one, not the best, but nice. side fan, window, front USB, solid construction, rolled edges, cd rails, and removable drive bays (the kind that have a latch and the whole box holding the hard drives slides out). no removable motherboard tray, no screwless design, and not aluminum. I might consider spending on upgrading to something like the new Tsunami Dream, or something like a Wavemaster (I think that's what they're called-I'm not as good at Saph at remembering names and numbers...acronyms are tough when you have as many as there are in the computer world...) Are Aluminum cases worth the hype? how sturdy are they? I am sometimes tough on my stuff...
cpu cooler
My SK-7 is a good cooler, I got it so I could run my old Barton 2500 at 3200 speeds...kept me below 100 degrees F. I have seen no temps higher than 50 degrees celcius (full load) on my AMD64 3000+. I don't really know when I will get around to overclocking this proc, since I really don't know when I'm going to run into apps that even use the power I have.
Power Supply
This is a nice, solid PS that I've never had a problem with, but I do want to do SLI eventually, and it only has 18 Amps on the 12 volt line. Asus says that a 6600GT sli setup with similar specs will run on a stable PS with 17 Amps on the 12 Volt line. I don't like running so close to the line like that. I was wondering what your thoughts are on upgrading this now, vs upgrading this when I eventually get my second card? are the PC Power & Cooling power supplies THAT good? or are there lesser known rising stars that have stuff that's a good second, for a lot cheaper? I specifically remember when MSI was never heard of. they came from out of nowhere and suddenly they are a serious contender for top notch hardware. Any thoughts on that? for example: anyone know how Rosewill stacks up?
Processor and Mobo I don't want to upgrade. I just got them!
And because I know someone will mention it, I already have the spare parts that I am going to put together for a linux web or file server.
So where do I go from here?