Which current / upcoming mainstream tech has longest roadmap?

[v8envy]

Hey kids,

A strange question on an enthusiast forum -- but which current or upcoming standards are likely to still be viable 1-2 years from now?

I keep buying mainstream hardware with the intent to upgrade a year or two down the road and it just seems to never happen. P3/500 --> trash. AMD1800+ -> trash. Socket 939 3200+ -> trash. It's always a memory standard change or the video card slot format which makes a complete, end to end system replacement make more economic sense than an upgrade.

So, with DDR3 on the horizon do y'all think there's anything without a bleeding edge premium I could get now through January of 2008 with a prayer of being useful and economically viable to upgrade through 2010?

On a somewhat related note, I've inherited a vintage 2004 Koolance water cooling case with a modern hardware capable 600 watt PSU. Are any of the modern boards and CPUs using the same kind of cpu cooler mounting as socket A athlons?

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: v8envy
Hey kids,

A strange question on an enthusiast forum -- but which current or upcoming standards are likely to still be viable 1-2 years from now?

I keep buying mainstream hardware with the intent to upgrade a year or two down the road and it just seems to never happen. P3/500 --> trash. AMD1800+ -> trash. Socket 939 3200+ -> trash. It's always a memory standard change or the video card slot format which makes a complete, end to end system replacement make more economic sense than an upgrade.

So, with DDR3 on the horizon do y'all think there's anything without a bleeding edge premium I could get now through January of 2008 with a prayer of being useful and economically viable to upgrade through 2010?

On a somewhat related note, I've inherited a vintage 2004 Koolance water cooling case with a modern hardware capable 600 watt PSU. Are any of the modern boards and CPUs using the same kind of cpu cooler mounting as socket A athlons?

Well the 3200+ is still not a bad CPU, you should have a pcie slot in the mobo so why not toss in a 3850 and be done?

To tell you the truth this will never happen, you can try to make adjustments but it just will not happen. What I recommend is:

q6600
4gb ram
Mobo with pcie2.0
3850 gpu or 8800GT ; I would purchase the 3850 and purchase a next generation card sometime next year.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

With technology changing as fast as it is, the best you can hope for is 1 upgrade per platform before it's time to upgrade platforms.

Since the platform upgrade for Intels 775 socket is already on the roadmap, AMD's AM2+ probably has the longest life of current available platforms but unforetunately the CPU's available for that platform underperform against the Intel 775 cpus by quite a bit.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: Zstream
What I recommend is:

q6600

I think the Q6600 is already slated to be replaced by 45nm Penryn equivalents in the first quarter of '08.

Q9300 $266
Q9450 $316
Q9550 $530

 

[21stHermit]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: Zstream
What I recommend is:

q6600

I think the Q6600 is already slated to be replaced by 45nm Penryn equivalents in the first quarter of '08.

Q9300 $266
Q9450 $316
Q9550 $530

The OP was referring to platforms, not process nodes. All of the Q9xxx will still work on the s775 platform.

Intel's next platform is s1366 due in late-2008.

 

[21stHermit]

Originally posted by: v8envy
A strange question on an enthusiast forum -- but which current or upcoming standards are likely to still be viable 1-2 years from now?

I used to think like that and I always failed. Whatever upgrade path I was on was always obsolete in 2 years.

I started in 1992 going from a 386 to a 486, IIRC I paid Gateway $1700 for that box. However I was creating maps in CorelDraw. A map screen print preview took 80 sec on the 386, 4 sec on the 486. Never have I seen a 20X improvement in an upgrade since.

In June I bought a $200 Compaq which would run circles that 486.

So given todays Price/Performance, quit worrying that your new PC will be obsolete in 2-years. Rather, worry more about the landfill overflowing with old Pentiums.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I just upgrade two s939 single core machines to dual core X2's and upgraded the GPU's, and upped the ram to 2gbs on the cheap (less than $200 per machine). These should last for several more years as good all purpose machines and even play newer games at reasonable settings for the next couple of years.

My main rig thats just over a year old has an E6400 on a P965 chipset, my mobo mfg just released a bios to support yorkfield and wolfdale cpu's so that will be the end of the upgrade path for this mobo. I will probably upgrade this one with a Q9XXX after nepthlam and the new socket platform has been released and the Q9's are cheap.

But I have a different upgrade philosophy than most, I strive to maintain a second tier machine and squeeze the most life out it.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: v8envy
Hey kids,

A strange question on an enthusiast forum -- but which current or upcoming standards are likely to still be viable 1-2 years from now?

I keep buying mainstream hardware with the intent to upgrade a year or two down the road and it just seems to never happen. P3/500 --> trash. AMD1800+ -> trash. Socket 939 3200+ -> trash. It's always a memory standard change or the video card slot format which makes a complete, end to end system replacement make more economic sense than an upgrade.

So, with DDR3 on the horizon do y'all think there's anything without a bleeding edge premium I could get now through January of 2008 with a prayer of being useful and economically viable to upgrade through 2010?

On a somewhat related note, I've inherited a vintage 2004 Koolance water cooling case with a modern hardware capable 600 watt PSU. Are any of the modern boards and CPUs using the same kind of cpu cooler mounting as socket A athlons?

You seem to be under the mistaken beleif that you motherboard does not matter to the performance of your computer. It does.

There is no such thing as a motherboard that will not be obsolete 2 years down the road...
Yes, you could put a faster cpu and add a little ram and video card but that wouldnt give you as much because the video card will be using an older slot model and be limited on bandwidth and cost more, the cpu will be limited on bandwidth and features, and the ram will be slower then what is needed for a cpu of that caliber.

Basically future proofing and trying to upgrade computers is a pipe dream.

Just make your peace with the fact that you have to replace the whole shebang because it costs less and gives you more then trying to "upgrade" on the same mobo.

 

[boomhower]

If you go with either Intel or AMD you are going to be doing a system change before 2010 if you want to stay semi-current. Intel is changing sockets next fall so even if you wait for Penryn you are still going to be SOL by the end of the year no less 2010. I am not sure how long AMD is sticking with AM2 but don't think it will be much longer that '08.

I have two suggestions for you:
1. Upgrade what you have. Drop in a dual core opteron, add some RAM if needed.
2. This is what I would do. Get a IP35 for ~$80, a E2140 for ~$70, and 2Gigs of Ram for ~$50. It is a very cheap upgrade and will last you until next fall.

With the change to Nehalem you should, I said should be set for three or so years. It will be a new socket for Intel, which they tend to keep for a while, a new memory standard, and a new GPU standard. That should keep you from needing to do a full overhaul for a while.

 

[taltamir]

AMD already released AM2+, says it will soon release AM3. And has F1 sockets aswell for the high end, which might be used to replace AM2 if they decide not to go with AM3... no matter what the socket will change.

 

[GundamF91]

What's the new GPU standard? PCI-e 2.0?

 

[nyker96]

I sympathize with OP's problem here. I also feel at times it's just not worth it to upgrade an older machine and just sell the parts and build new. Case in point - had a 754 machine died on me, then I bought a m.b. for 50 bucks, it still did not work, so replaced the cpu with more money ended up working but spent like 100 on it. I think it's probably better to put that money into a brand new build. I think the older stuff cost just as much as the newst gen. I think the only machine that can be continuously upgraded was socket A for me. I doubt they will make another like it any more.

 

[v8envy]

Thanks for the opinions all. Was just checking to make sure there wasn't a "if you had only done X you'd have been fine."

2. This is what I would do. Get a IP35 for ~$80, a E2140 for ~$70, and 2Gigs of Ram for ~$50. It is a very cheap upgrade and will last you until next fall.

This is precisely my plan, and why upgrading the old creaky socket 939 is not viable. Had AMD offered an upgrade path for the 939 (say a socket 939 x2 6000+ for ~$170) I'd have taken it even if it underperformed the c2d solution by 20-30% at the same cost -- fewer microsoft OS licensing issues to work through, less potential for DOA or poorly overclocking components, etc etc.

The above quoted build + 2.6 or better ghz OC + 8800GT + linux is my game plan for the next year or so. The AMD graphics hardware is pretty good bang for the buck, but their linux support consists of one guy puttering around with drivers on his lunch break. Not for me, thanks.

As others pointed out, it's just so cheap to upgrade once per year it's just not worth the stress trying to plan. I'd love to save some landfill space, but alas it's not to be.

 

[aka1nas]

Trying to keep a clear upgrade path like that is only really possible when you are buying into a platform early in it's lifecycle. Like many of us, you are probably waiting for the platform in question to mature and prices to drop. Unfortunately, mature is just a nicer way of saying almost dead.

 

[taltamir]

a 8800GT on a linux machine? are you telling me you plan on gaming on it or something?

 

[Denithor]

To save on landfill space, either resell the old system to someone who just needs basic computing (3200+ is ideal for web browsing/homework/etc) or donate it to Goodwill. If they can't resell it, they salvage the parts that are good for reuse and recycle the remainder (see here for details). I have gotten rid of a lot of non-functional parts that way, just save them up until I have a good box full and then drop it off.

Staples also has a recycling program (link) but they charge $10 per large item. Still, better than tossing stuff into the landfills.

 

[v8envy]

Originally posted by: taltamir
a 8800GT on a linux machine? are you telling me you plan on gaming on it or something?

Absolutely. I had been happily gaming on Linux for many years until I got my X1800XT. Running windows games using Cedega is painless. A few of the latest and greatest or most obscure titles won't work, and I need to reboot to Windows for those. But for the most part it's a smoother, virus, spyware & starforce free gaming experience -- so long as you use nv hardware.

Even if that weren't the case, suppose I use the same machine for work using Linux during the day, and turn it into a Wintendo after 5pm rolls around. It'll be far more convenient for me to have the same video hardware supported by both OSes, even if I don't use all the capabilities on each. To say nothing of having 90% of my games run without rebooting being a giant win.

Some of the spiffier 3d window managers for Linux make great use of 3d hardware. ATI cards (mostly) no longer crash the whole box trying to do that, but the performance is horrific.

The other problem with ATI vs NV hardware for Linux is ATI has never supported any hardware video playback acceleration -- not even mpeg2. So if I view recorded or live TV from my DVR while working I pretty much need a whole another CPU core if I use ATI gear. There are also known driver bugs with TV out which have been around for multiple years.

So in conclusion, I do want 8800GT or better video hardware. And I want it to be supported on Linux. Which means nvidia is the only choice for me -- nv actively spends resources on Linux driver development. AMD may be doing that too, who knows. But after a year of using their garbage on Linux I'd like to say those resources are wasted if they are.

 

[taltamir]

I presume you have to use a no CD crack for every single game you want to play right? since copy protection will not work with linux (which is a GOOD thing mind you...)

 

[v8envy]

Originally posted by: taltamir
I presume you have to use a no CD crack for every single game you want to play right? since copy protection will not work with linux (which is a GOOD thing mind you...)

Wow, this has really strayed from my original topic. The short answer is no, I don't have to use nocd cracks on all games. Cedega is not open source in part because it includes copy protection support. It's in there. Some of the newest or most oddball titles may use incompatible and risky copy protection schemes. But if it works with daemon tools on windows it's a pretty good bet it'll work just fine with Cedega.

Various other flavors of Wine would require cracked games and other backflips and handstands (like possibly using DLLs from your windows install). If a game is listed as supported on Cedega's site, then the install & play is as simple as running it on Windows -- stuff in the CD, click on the installer, sit back and enjoy.

 

[taltamir]

holy firecrackers thats awesome... So you actually got a fully game compatible linux? I am now really tempted to install it... the only reason I aint using linux right now is cause i am a gamer.

How does it perform compared to windows in game? lower FPS? higher? (i am guessing higher...)