I am not upgrading for the next 2 years!

[Gomce]

Yep, I will be keeping my Athlon TBird 1.4ghz and kt266A mobo and Gainward gf3 (original powerpack, can run@ 280/600) for the next 2 years without upgrading.

My next upgrade will be Athlon on 3000mhz *real not PR* and 1 gig of
DDR 200mhz (400effective) twinbanked *by then* and a graphic card with 1000 Mhz core and 2000mhz RAM

This whole Gf4 thing is just a charade, and AMD pulling out processors with speed difference of 66Mhz is ridiculous.

 

[CraigRT]

Im going to have my Athlon 1333@1500 for the next 6 months anyways, I only have a GeForce2 GTS, and SDRAM, but it still works kick ass... My next upgrade will prob. just be a KT266A mobo in the spring/summer unless there is something else i like as much by then, and 512 of DDR, followed by a GeForce3. Everything else is pretty OK.

 

[Bovinicus]

You should be very happy with your system for the next 2 years. By that time there will be a much larger selection of titles that will take advantage of your GF3. =)

 

[FlippyBoy]

i wish i could afford that system! but as much as i love computers, not having a car is really starting to bite. enjoy it!

 

[rickn]

I hear ya. It is all the hype of the internet, all the message boards with people bragging about their new hardware. I know for myself, before I was on the internet regularly, I didn't give a rats a$$ about most videocards and kept them for a couple years.

 

[AMDPwred]

I'll probaby upgrade at the end of this year.

 

[astroview]

Hah, P3 750 (orig a P2 400, upgraded with a slocket), 512 MB PC100 SDRAM, 70 GB of HD Space, POS 19 in monitor, Voodoo 5500, 10x burner all running under Windows XP Pro.

Not top of the line, and I'm not going to upgrade for a long time too. Sure I like looking at all the newest hardware reviews, but then again I'm cheap as heck. Why upgrade when I don't play games and the most advanced thing I do is multitask and run 15 progs at once?

 

[gdawson6]

I have a tbird running @1.64 ghz that ill probably have for the next 2 years.....the only thing i plan to upgrade is my 4x4x32 cd burner and my geforce 2 gts 64mb ddr.

 

[J Heartless Slick]

What applications are you running on your system?

 

[LukFilm]

<< I hear ya. It is all the hype of the internet, all the message boards with people bragging about their new hardware. I know for myself, before I was on the internet regularly, I didn't give a rats a$$ about most videocards and kept them for a couple years. >>



Soooooooooooooooo true

 

[Bovinicus]

I will be keeping my GF2 GTS for a little while longer. When the prices are real low, I will probably go GF3.

 

[JellyBaby]

<< next 2 years without upgrading >>

Ah, a dissenter in the ranks. Call in the Black Choppers.

Actually, it's not so much the hardware side being fluffy, it's the software side. Taking only games, apart from the hard drive being a bottleneck in some titles, your TBird and GF3 handles everything quite well. Why upgrade unless you receive some benefit?

 

[Rickten]

I have no intentions of upgraded until something breaks. duron 600, voodoo3 2000 (hell yeah only paid 85 bucks when I first got this card and its served me well), 20 gig hard drive, 256mb PC133, kt133 chipset on my abit kt7, 19 POS monitor, toshiba 6x (I perfer dvd drives that don't sound like jet engines).
Until something breaks or I can't do the things I do with my computer which are surf the net and watch dvd's and divx I have no reason to upgrade.

 

[rockhard]

I couldnt agree with you more Gomce
I recently borrowed my friends GF3 to compare it to a GF2 Ti200. With the games i play and whats around now i bought the GF2 Ti200 as it was so much cheaper and did what i needed with games
I wont upgrade till i can get a triple in performance over the GF2 Ti as my next aim is 1600x1200x32 with 4x FSAA which even the upcoming GF4 i reckon wont be capable of sustained 60 fps i require.
Im thnking another year at least before theres a card capable of that IMO.
The moths in my wallet can whistle for their supper

 

[zzzz]

I just upgraded tp athlon Xp1600 on Kg7 with 1 gb ddr. Look for me to upgrade next week.

 

[Elledan]

What's this 'upgrading' you're talking about?

I'll probably get myself a nice shiny Clawhammer based system once it comes down enough in price.

 

[Gomce]

What applications are you running on your system?

I mostly watch digital TV (I have DVB card and watch TV on it and use it like a modem :> *from 3am to 6am I get speeds of 40-60kb/s and with country where people only have 56k dialups this is premium*)

I play games occasionaly, I am not some passionate gamer, I use cheats ... I play them becase I want to admire the graphics and the degree of technology advancment, and I always like to check what's all the bragging about

I websurf a lot, and I have around 20 IE windows and 10-15 Opera windows opened all the time, Download Accelerator, Du meter etc...

I make webpages as a hoby, mostly in notepad and in macromedia dreamwaver, little less photoshop editing...

Listen to mp3s in winamp and watch a lot of Divx movies :>

that's mostly it, I don't do professional work.


I decided to hold back on upgrading because I think I've accomplished a well balanced system, IMHO it is really hard to do that, make all the components work without larger issues, have a decent speed, have estethics and mostly I like to keep my system silent. And now it is silent, it works with closed case
with temps from 42 to 52 C max, using Zalman's CNPS 3100 gold and 2 extra 80mm fans on the case.

Also, check out what a generic 250W psu holds


-TBird 1.4 Ghz not overclocked (I cant overclock it on my motherboard)
-Gigabyte Ga-7vtxe kt266A mobo (very stable but almost zero overclocking *it crashes when I overclock so I've stopped*)
-256 mb Samsung ddr ram (sandra reports the chip as Micron) *cas 2, 2T , no interleaving*
-HDD Maxtor 20gb ata133 (hdtach 2.61 score of : 42000average read under winXP, and sandra's score is 26200)
-HDD IBM 75x Gxp which I decided not to use and keep it just in case because it is little slower than the maxtor, and I dont use more than 20GB, I do a lot of backing up on CD's
- Gainward GF3 GoldenSample (Can hit 280/590 stable but I drive it at clock speed, I dont want it to die on me and I dont want to use extra cooling because of the noise issue
-DVD Hitachi 12x40
-CDR LiteOn 12x10x32 (I don't need anything faster, this is great for me, I use noname mediums and I record audio at 12x and they work in every diskmen afterwards
-Monitor 17" Ctx pr705f 1152x864 32bit at 85Hz (I run it mostly on this res)
-SB Live 1024 value
-Teac 2.1 powermax speakers (for the rear channel I use some speakers from my 20 yearold Shneider radiogramaphone
-DVB card, SkyStar 1, for watching Digital satellite free channels (~100 channels, I watch mostly the music ones, MTV and Viva *I live in Macedonia*)
-56 PC tel PCI modem
-Realtek ethernet card to connect to my sister's PC
-Printer Oki...8wlite
-wireless chikony keyboard on which I've installed a wire to a DC adaptor because it was eating batteries every 2 weeks or so
-MS Intelli optical mouse

All my components work on generic 250W psu, no problems at all, everything is virtually silent :>

 

[vash]

In the world of computers, there two people:

1. This person cannot live without the fastest framerate, with all visuals on, at high resolutions, in ANY game. This person buys computer parts based off X benchmark being their "rating" against everything else in the world. This person upgrades about once a year (sometimes 2). But when upgrading is concerned, they are usually able to salvage a good deal of their parts and put in only the new ones. This person typically upgrades every 9-12 months.

2. This peron will ONLY upgrade when their entire system is kaput, OR when replacing a single part in the system is going to cost almost as much as a new system. This person usually upgrades in 20+ months.

It sounds like you, Gomce, fits into #2.

I fit into #1 -- I play the latest games and demand that the games not only look great, but play incredibly smoothly as well. Sure, your system is fine now, will be fine for a while, but when next-gen games hit, it won't be enough (and neither will mine for that matter). Heck, even on my box right now, Medal of Honor is a real pig and will drop my fps to below 60 for a good portion of the game (forget about multiplayer, unless I turn a lot of options off).

On a typical year, I will usually replace either the CPU/mobo/RAM OR the video card. This year, it looks like it'll be the video card that will go (even though its a ti500, Doom3 will definitely push the card beyond all that it has).

I say enjoy your computer, for as long as you intend to keep it. My systems are great for the times I use them, when I upgrade, I give my parts to my family, so they can enjoy. Almost every computer for my dad, brother and sister are "hand me downs". They don't complain -- they get free and fast stuff. The only costs comes out of me, but they all pay me back one way or another.

vash

 

[Nefrodite]

bah its easier to upgrade parts as needed. need more ram? buy it when it becomes dirt cheap need a cdrw? buy it when you need it.. bah

 

[flexy]

well..upgrading makes sense then if there'a a whole combination of newer technologies available...


eg. new processors with a smaller die, higher FSB, faster clockrates

PLUS

the matching motherboard for it, which supports the new CPUs, FSB, faster RAMs, faster AGP (eg. 8x)

PLUS

the matching gfx cards

It doesnt make sense to keep single components and upgrade only the CPU, or the gfx card, then the overall benefit of an upgrade is not really worth it. (Assuming you have a halfway decent system already)

 

[Dreadogg]

<< I play games occasionaly, I am not some passionate gamer, I use cheats .. >>



Well I hope its not online games like CS !

 

[terminalterror]

I have a P3 700 with a TNT2 (yes, they still exist) and I can happily run the MoH:AA multiplayer demo at 1024 768 on medium, but I suppose I am totally used to roughly 15 fps, which would look horrible if I was used to anything better

I am hoping to ugrade my Gfx card when prices go down from GeForce 4 and R300

 

[Spyro]

Good for you, have fun!

As for me, I need a serious overhaul.

 

[Colt45]

<< I have a P3 700 with a TNT2 (yes, they still exist) >>



haha i have a TNT1 (it still exists too

my TNT 0\/\/|\|z GF3, GF4, etc.

i dont game much, and if i do its usually NES emulation, which isnt exactly heavy on the graphics, so the tnt is sufficent for my needs (until i find a good rpg that needs a faster card)

 

[Siddhartha]

I upgrade when something breaks or when I want to do something different, faster, or better.