New system - what should I expect

[Balin le Savage]

So, my current machine sounds like a diesel engine and the generic 512 RAM I have is usually full. Mostly for tax purposes, I've decided to buy a new machine.

Old:
Athlon 1.4
512 generic RAM
WD 40g Seagate 130g
Geforce 3 (64)

New: (get it this weekend)
FX-55
2g OCZ Platinum EB Dual
74g Raptor
$500 for vid card (still terribly undecided)

So how much of a difference will I notice? I know that's completely subjective, but that's part of the fun of the question. I run a lot of Photoshop and I seem to do a lot of moving MP3s and big files around. I play the occasional game of hockey or Allied Assault.

When my machine is running quiet, or I'm just typing in Wordperfect, I think, 'how much better can this new machine be? Will I really be able to tell that much of a difference other than a second or two better app startup time?
Opinions?

 

[kyparrish]

Are you serious? Is this a joke? You can't imagine a huge difference?

That rig will kick your old rig all over the place

Oh yeah, next week, drop by the Distributed Computing forum

 

[Balin le Savage]

No, seriously, there are some moments when I think that I could probably live with my machine as it is for a little longer. I can't wait to get the new one, I'm just wondering if it will be anti-climatic since I'm not huge into games.

 

[whorush]

yeah man, you can't let those clocks go to waste. thats a serious rig.

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ or team up with other anand techers at the dist. comp. forum.

 

[Balin le Savage]

OK, I'll check it out

 

[whorush]

sweet. you'll never realize these programs are running. they do a good job of staying out of hte way.

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

It's a huge differance, but you sound more like a content creation person, than a gamer.
The AMD chips are best at gaming, or running one app at a time. If you're doing Photoshop and moving MP3 files around at the same time, the Intel setup would have been better. What you're getting is the fastest gaming machine out there, depending on what video card you buy.
Go for an Nvidia 6800 Ultra OC and you'll have one of the fastest gaming macines out there.
Only thing is, if you run more than one app at a time, it can chug.
The Intel machine can run multiple things at the same time because of the hyperthreading (HT) where the CPU is divided. I have both worlds, and my FX53 cleans up the latest games. But I'm also glad I have the P4 3.4c (Northwood) as my other machine. I can have multiple windows up, and switch between them in an instant. If you have problems running more than one app, you may need to switch to an Intel setup, but for gaming, you'll be the king.

 

[whorush]

i dont know man, i've underclocked my barton to 1.7GHz and i can switch between my 10 windwos instantly too.

besides, the FX-55 doesnt just win in gaming, as you make it sound, it wins in almost all of the benchmarks, except for a few apps that are heavily optimized for the P4.

 

[whorush]

oops, double post.

 

[Thermalrock]

ppl always try and make it sound as if a p4ht were a dual cpu system. and even if it were you dont need more than one cpu to have a few windows open...

 

[beyoku]

Originally posted by: Thermalrock
ppl always try and make it sound as if a p4ht were a dual cpu system. and even if it were you dont need more than one cpu to have a few windows open...

exactly, and what tiype of windows are these anyways. Maybe you should swtich to mozilla firefox and do tabbed browsing. BTW you may wanna drop the vid card and get dual hardrives for raid. Or if you go with that type of ssytems you might as well get dual pci-e mobo just to have the option if you ever want to play some next gen games. I have a REAL dualie myself - dual 1700 MP's at 2100ghz and i see NO difference when swtiching apps in windows as far as speed. This is compared to my a64 3200 laptop.

 

[Balin le Savage]

I do plan on buying another 74g for Raid 0 sometime in the future, but since I do play games occasionally (and I'm more likely to buy a card now than later) I'll get a vid card first.

I'm hoping the 2 gigs of ram will help in having a lot of windows open. I use Opera right now, and it's not uncommon for me to have 15 tabs open, musicmatch, photoshop, and a few others.

As for a dual pci-e motherboard...that will have to be for next time (as a business expense, this computer purchase is great for my 2004 taxes, next year it wouldn't have been...so I get AGP :/