Upgrade now or wait for Hammer?

[mangled]

Currently I have an Athlon 1600 on an Epox 8KHA+ w/ 512mb 2100 DDR and a Geforce 4 ti4600.

Everything is fine, games run fine, but of course, I want more! (I play mostly FPS'ers)

I'm not interested in overclocking either.

So, should I go for a 2100 or 2200 or wait it out for the Hammer? Will I need a new motherboard for the Hammer anyway? I assume so.

If you had the money to get a 2100 or 2200, would you do it, or wait? From what I understand it could be at least 6 months for the Hammer. Will there be anything between the 2200 and Hammer?

Thanks for the help.

 

[SupermanCK]

doh....wait 😀

 

[Rainsford]

Wait, Hammer will be a big jump since it is new technology and not just a speed jump.

 

[Duvie]

With your current system and other parts I would wait....

Maybe wait for a barton at least...The hammer will be awhile before av\erage joes will get them, and be prepared to pay a bit more then you are use to as an amd cpu buyer!!!!

I can only say amd themselves say an average 20% boost over xp chips...I don't think this is the end all champion coming out...

 

[ctk1981]

Id say go ahead and upgrade now. This may seem silly, but it has partly to do with what Duvie has stated.

1). Right now, motherboards and processors are fairly cheap for the XP/KT333 stuff thats out right now. There have been plenty of reviews out, most of the kinks have been worked out with most motherboard manufacturers. You should know what to expect with what your getting if you upgrade now.

2). If you wait....expect to pay out the bunghole to now play with the big boys. Your talking brand new motherboards, brand new processors, brand new technology etc etc. Who knows what problems may lie in whats ahead. Maybe the Hammer will be a flop or maybe the chipsets that will accompany them will have problems.


Id upgrade now to hold you over. I just upgraded to a 1900+ stepping processor and Epox 8K3A+ board. This should hold me over until the Hammer stuff is well ironed out. By the time Im ready to upgrade again, there should be plenty of reviews out for the boards/chips. Hopefully the cost will have come down some since the initial release. More importantly, hopefully all the new hardware its going to support will have come down in price somewhat also. Serial ATA drives, 400Mhz DDR, 8X AGP cards, etc. Just a thought!!

 

[mangled]

ctkelly, those were my thoughts as well.

Hammer is at least 6 months maybe longer....I want to be blazing between now and then. Maybe I won't be able to afford a new motherboard and processor - who knows what that will run me at launch. And if I wait until pricing comes down that'll be a few more months...and I'd still be with the 1600.

So I guess the question is now...do I get a 2100 or 2200 now? Or will there be something fairly soon beyond the 2200? I don't want to get a 2200 now if a 2300 at 2ghz is in the plan sometime soon....I'd wait for that and then get the 2200 when the price drops.

Anyone heard of the release plan between now and Christmas?

 

[DukeChestnut]

ok mangled... this may sound strange coming from someone who has:

-p4 2.4
-athlon mp dualie 1800+
-athlon xp 1800+
-athlon xp 1600+

... but i can hardly notice a difference in day-to-day computer usage between these systems (except multimedia apps on dualie). gaming, the p4 slightly edges the xp 1800+. hardly worth an upgrade IMO. the reason i have all this sheite is cuz i'm a nut.

 

[Duvie]

2300+ wont be 2ghz it will be 1.866ghz....either or would be fine if you want it...

 

[ctk1981]

Im not sure what I would recommend to go with. DukeChestnut is right, there may not be a very big/noticable difference between the speeds. I upgraded simply because I had one of the first/early batch XP 1700+. Ive almost fried it once and it doesnt overclock very well (before and after the frying incident).


I went ahead with the Epox because I had heard of there great O/C features and nice stability. The Abit board I have has a half goofed up bios..it works, but I cant upgrade it to any of the new bios. Says Unknown Flash. No big deal, just kinda annoying really.

As far as the processor size....Id go with whatever you can afford now. I went with the stepping 1900+ because many were reporting them overclocking to 2100+ speeds. They basically have the 2000+ core on the stepping 1900, its just underclocked. I'll be the judge of how good it does as soon as I rotate everything out and push it to the limits. Im now running 768MB of DDR from mushkin, high performance stuff. Hopefully it holds up to the flogging along with everything else!

You have come to crossroads...which path do you chose? Muhaha...okay whatever. I still say upgrade to hold you over for now, then make the big jump when all the good stuff comes out. Thats what I plan on doing anyways!