Questions on PCI Express

[tilindel]

I'll first start by saying that I'm not very smart when it comes to computer hardware, so please keep any explanations in language that's as plain as possible.

I'm going to be purchasing a new computer in the next month or so, and I was wondering what to expect with the new PCI Express video cards and Intel P4 5xx series. While I use my system mostly for games, I'm not all that competitive due to lack of time, and I don't run high powered games like these first person shooters and things like that. Mainly I run games like Warcraft III and Final Fantasy XI, and the Total War series. I guess my main question is whether my old favourites will run on the new hardware. I've heard problems that people have had when upgrading OSs (like problems when changing to XP), and I was wondering whether or not I will likely run into problems when playing these games on my new system. Also, are they really worth the extra money, or would the standard P4 or AMD/Radeon 9800 Pro work just as well for future games and multimedia. I'd like this computer to last me a few years at least and don't want to buy something that will be unable to keep up in a year's time.

Thanks.

 

[darkswordsman17]

As of now, they are not worth the extra money. They offer no noticeable improvement in performance, and will cost significantly more.

You should not have any problems with the newer hardware playing those games.

PCI Express graphics aren't quite out yet, really won't be for some time. Unless you're buying from say Dell or another manufacturer like them.

How soon will you need to upgrade? If you can wait until fall, do it. The new things that just came out (socket 939 and 775, PCI-Express, DDR2, etc.) will be more mature, cheaper and more readily available as well as having far more things to choose from.

If you go with a pretty powerful Athlon 64 or Pentium 4 (3.0 and up I'd say), and one of the newer AGP graphics cards (X800 Pro) with a nice amount of memory (1GB), you shouldn't need to upgrade for a couple of years.

 

[tilindel]

I'm looking at buying from Dell. Despite what computer enthusiasts say about them, I've used Dell for quite awhile and haven't been disappointed at all. The new Dimension 8400 is the one I'm looking at, with a few customizations. All told, it'll run me about $2k Canadian, which is fine by me, I've been saving for quite awhile. And I'll have to purchase it this summer, the fall isn't a good time with tutition payments and the school year starting up again. The system as I have it right now is P4 530 3.00 GHz, 512 RAM and a 128mb x16 Radeon X300SE. I don't want to get too crazy with the memory and video card, as that will run me another $500 that I can't afford.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Hey, I'll give it to ya straight. That graphics card in my opinion sucks. Get at least the X600 or non se X300. When dealing with ATi graphics cards, se equals castrated. Also, be forewarned, the X300 and X600 are just the PCI express versions of the 9200 and 9600 (both might actually be based of off the 9600), which means you're getting a mid-range card from last generation. Just something to keep in mind. You will of course be able to upgrade later, so you could probably hold out for a while.

Yeah, 512 will definitely hold you over. You could always upgrade it later when DDR2 gets cheaper.

Looks good otherwise. Also, remember since you have that nice new onboard sound, don't buy a soundcard.

 

[tilindel]

Thanks for all your help. So a 9800 Pro would be a better option right now? Also, since you brought up sound, do you mean I should ditch the Audigy 2 I was planning on in favour of the integrated audio?

 

[Tostada]

Yeah, a 9800 Pro is a good 256-bit card. Dell is fine, it just sucks that they don't let you take the monitor off that system, and it sucks that your only video card options seem to be a really bad one or a $490 upgrade to an X800.