Your opinions please.

[caz67]

Hi All.

My friend Steve, wants me to give my opinion, on this new Rig, he is planning to buy.

His current config:

P4 3.06B 533FSB
Asus P4T533-C
512M PC1066 RDRAM
Leadtek Geforce Ti4800SE 128MG VIVO
80GB WD 7200 8mg
Sony CRX175E CDR/W
Pioneer 16xDVD ROM
SoundBlaster Live 5.1
Aopen A600 case
Antec 480W PSU.
Panasonic 1.44 Floppy
Logitech Z640 5.1

I told him to keep his current Rig.

The system, will be a gaming system mainly, with a little bit of photoshop.

The new Rig:

P4 3.2 or 3.4C 800fsb
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe or Abit IC7Max 3. He reckons, that he wants to overclock.
1024 Corsair TwinX3200LL 4x256.
Koolance Exos water cooling. I must admit, i dont know a great deal about watercooling??
WD 250 GB 7200 Sata or
WD Raptor 74GB.

He wants to keep his 80GB WD as well.

Asus Radeon 9800XT 256mg DVI/VIVO
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS
Antec Lanboy case. I am assuming it needs to be modded for the watercooling???
LG GSA 4040B 4x DVD/RW.
Creative S750 Megaworks 7.1 system.

Looking at getting Mitsubishi or Benq 17' LCD monitor.

I told him IMO, that the system, he has is good enough, for at least a year or two. Its only really a gaming PC.
I advised him not to waste his money, and save it for a good upgrade in 12mths.

What do you guys reckon???

 

[Atlantean]

I reckon that the system he as now is fine. He can wait till the summer and upgrade his video card now if that is the main concern. Same with the processor, ram and everything else... everything will be better and faster by then... not by much but it will be.

 

[nageov3t]

I'd wait till the next generation of ATI cards comes out... once that happens, he can either blow the bank on a next-gen card, or pick up a Radeon 9800 for a lot less than he'd pay for it right now.

 

[Budmantom]

He should get a 9800 pro and wait it out a couple more months.

Tom

 

[EXman]

waste of time and $ IMO

 

[AMCRambler]

He sounds like one of those people that has to have the latest and the greatest. He's going to pay for it though, that stuff isn't cheap. A Koolance case goes for $200 then he has to buy the waterblock/waterblocks which will easily be $100, maybe more. The processor is like $300, or $420 for the 3.4ghz and the memory is another $230. With all the other crap thrown in he's looking at $1500-$2000. Thats a lot of money for not much performance gain. The 3ghz can't possibly be slow for him. I doubt he's doing anything that even stresses those components. IMO his money would be better spent upgrading his video card, picking up another hard drive and maybe bumping up his ram.

 

[Cerb]

Get the sound card, wait on video.
Maybe get a PCI SATA controller for a Raptor.
Personally, I'd have to go with a Lite-On burner.
For speakers, I say Logitech Z-5300.
If he really wants a new video card, get a 9800 Pro, not XT.

His current PC is better than most of the gamers here have.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: EXman
waste of time and $ IMO

quite
that system overall is faster than mine, and i have no reason at all to upgrade cause it runs perfectly

XP2500+
1GB Hyper-X 3500
9700 Pro 128MB
NForce2

runs like a champ.

 

[TMTCC]

I also vote for your friend keeping his old rig and getting a new video card.

 

[MrSnatcher]

Agreed, A waste of money.

 

[GrumpyMan]

I have a system similar to his. Upgrade? For what? Just tell him to upgrade the video and maybe the sound card.

 

[caz67]

Thanks for the advice everyone..!!

I have to agree with you all.

The 850e chipset, was the premier Intel chipset.. I told him, that its still very fast.

I agree with him getting a new video card.. The 9800pro, is the obvious choice...

I reckon, that he should get the Audigy 2ZS, non platinum.. He would never use the decoder etc.

Steve wants to get rid of the RDRAM..!! LOL

The guy has more money than sense..His folks are loaded..

He literally only surfs the Net, and plays games..

I even advised him to overclock the cpu..

The vid card, is still pretty good IMO...

Thanks heaps for your help again.

 

[Corporate Thug]

maybe add another HDD to your current system but otherwise i would not upgrade

 

[suklee]

His rig is fine as is.

Only thing I see a real need to upgrade is the video card. 9800 Pro would be the way to go if he can't hold out...