Originally posted by: zettler
So, if the AMD 1700 is a good CPU that will work for us during the next 12 months - great.
KT400 or a nForce MB that should keep this rebuilt PC current for the next CPU purchase when the prices come down next year????
The constants are: Case, Power Supply, CD drives, LAN card, Sound Card (?), Floppy Drive, Fans, and USB 2.0.
CPU Price MB Price Total Future Need Cost
1700 $51 KT266 $50 $101 CPU + MB Highest
1700 51 kt333 75 126 CPU + MB Highest
1700 51 KT400 100 151 CPU Low
1700 51 nForce 110 161 CPU Lowest
2100 96 kt333 75 171 CPU + MB Highest
2100 96 kt400 100 196 CPU Low
2100 96 nForce 110 206 CPU Lowest
primary consideration ... best value NOW AND SERVE ... for the anticipated future advances and availability.
Sniped and edited out some stuff.
Ok first of all, a 1700 XP should be fine for a year or more. I used a 1.2 tbird for over a year (actually it might have been closer to 2 now that I think about it) up until a few months ago. And I'm crazy about games. The only reason I upgraded was that my computer died.
KT400 or nforce (I think you mean nforce 2 actually) will be fine. It should be able to upgrade for quite a while. Of course AMD is going to release the hammer type processors and that probably wont work in your computer. However they might keep increasing speed on the XP processors for a while as well. (Kinda like intel pentium and xeon are both released).
The constants are fine. Even if you can't get USB2 in a motherboard you want, its not a huge deal, you can get USB 2 cards for around $20 if you need too.
Personally I would be looking pretty hard at the nforce 2 stuff. Heck, if it only had to do for a year, you could even use the onboard graphics if you really want to save money. Yeah its geforce 4 MX type, but if it was only a year that might be ok. The main gripe bout geforce 4 MX style chip is that it doesn't support a lot of new technology like vertex shaders and stuff, but unfortunately games have been a LONG time in coming out that support that to any other than a token extent. And it does do a fair job (framerate wise) on most stuff. The major thing I would be concerned about would be doom 3 coming up in the area of games. I'm that that game will still support the older cards (older as in geforce 3 and 4 and 4mx etc) but the question is, what graphics would you lose in stepping down? I don't know.
I'm still on a geforce 2 GTS that I got for $50 a year or so ago, and I've been happy with it. Sure I can't do much AA, or use some of the more advanced features, but I still enjoy everything. Granted I play at 1024 resolution in most games rather than 1600, but I can live with that. I just dont want to pop down hundreds on a graphics card that will be obsolete. I might consider getting a geforce 4 when the FX comes out and drives the prices down, or I might just wait more until something like doom 3 comes out. Then get the top of line or whatever the "4200 cheap top end graphics" card is when that happens.
Other than that, its up to you on how big of a consideration you give to price. I would lean towards spending a bit extra in the motherboard, since its easy to upgrade RAM and pop in a new CPU. So if I had to choose say between a 1700 CPU with KT400 or nforce2, and a 2100 CPU with a KT266 motherboard, I'd definately go with the more advanced motherboard and upgrade the CPU at a later date if nessasary. Heck, the modern games benifit more from a decent graphics card upgrade than a CPU upgrade in many cases.
Anyway just some of my thoughts whatever they are worth.
