Originally posted by: nitromullet
Sure it's valid... You can sell your AGP stuff to help fund the purchase of a PCIe rig. That's what I did, and that's what the guy who sold the OP his 7800GS did... Creativitiy can work in more ways that slapping watercooling on an overpriced AGP card in a losing attempt to make it keep up with current hardware.
The OP has
Intel P4 3400MHz
Asus P4P800 Deluxe
You can still get pretty decent money for a P4 3.4 and a P4P800 Dlx
exact combo sold on ebay for $330
That is probably a bit higher than what I would expect, but even at $250ish plus the money spent on the 7800GS and Tidewater would be a really good start on a 7900GT and a Socket 939 motherboard and processor. Of course, I still don't know what the OP paid for his 7800GT, but the low end on ebay is around $250. I think I might have seen one for $235. If you look at that, plus the cost of the Tidewater, and the money you could sell the current gear for, you have about $600 to work with, which is plenty for a $300 7900GT, $100 mobo, and a $200 Athlon64 cpu. This rig would be faster
and more upgradeable than the OP's current set up.
Sorry to the OP, I'm not knocking what you're doing. I just get a bit touchy when someone writes me off as stupid when they themselves simply haven't looked into all the options.
Okay, need to clarify a few things.
1) The eBayer who sold the 7800GS didn't use the card. It was a brand new card and arrived in a sealed retail box.
2) I don't want a s939 system. When I build a system, I want the basic parts to last a good while. I originally built a P4 2.4C, P4P800 Deluxe, 1GB of RAM, and a 9600 Pro. That was in July 2003. Today, its a P4 3.4E, P4P800 Deluxe, 2GB of RAM, and a 7800GS. If I sold this setup and bought a s939 system, I would effectively be screwing myself over in the long run. Socket 939's fastest CPU is an FX-60, a screaming fast CPU to be sure, but also 1000+ USD. And, its the end of the line for a s939 mobo. A few short months after AM2 debut, the FX-60 will be eclipsed by the equally expensive FX-62, as well as a full complement of A64X2 chips which will deliver more performance than their s939 counterparts at an equal or lower price point. As I said, I like to keep core parts for a while, at least a year. I could buy a s939 and A64 4000 or X2 4400 now, then sell it only 3 or 4 months after I bought it for the much faster AM2 chips. Not worth the hassle.
3) A 200 dollar A64 wouldn't be much worth the time either. For single core chips, it'd have to be a 3700 or 4000 and for dual core it'd have to be one of the 1MB L2 cache X2s, likely a 4400. Only one that comes close to 200 is the 3700, which is only a single core CPU and I definitely want a dual core.
4) 100 dollar mobo? Uh, no. The s939 mobo I want, the Asus A8N-SLI Premium, is a bit more than 100.
7900GT? Hell no! I don't buy midrange. I buy high end. I like to play my games at max settings, with AA, at my 2005FPWs native res. The 7900GT can't do that in a lot of titles out right now, and certainly won't be able to do it on future titles.
5) The Tidewater's univeral design will allow it to be used all almost all V/GPUs, so its a part that will carry over the the G80 or R580+ parts when they arrive.
6) I have a co-worker who is interested in buying my current system at the end of July. Since he's a good friend and has helped me on numerous occasion, I'll be practically giving this setup away, minus the HDDs, DVD-ROMs, and Tidewater.
7) Relating to point 6, I'd also need a new case and PSU, further adding to the cost.
Lastly, I fully intend to do a complete overhaul in August, after the AM2 platform has debuted and stabilized a little. New case, PSU, vidcard, sound card, the works. Since I want to use water cooling on the CPU and video card in that system as well, I need to get a little experience with watercooling now. I live in the valley of the sun, the summer heat makes most OCs impossible. Unless you want a 400 USD electric bill 9 months out of the year.
And my final point, its fun to play with new hardware, regardless of what it is.
Editted for easier reading.
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