Good luck with the new machine nvidia. I gave up on PC gaming a few years ago and my next gaming machine will probably be a Nintendo Wii with the kids. That said...
PC hardware is INSANELY cheap right now. I keep getting emails from Tiger Direct for Barebones deals that are just unbelievable. Minitower versions of everything that is in the iMac minus the HD for $200. Add in $50 and you have a ridiculously fast machine. It is amazing right now to see that the hardware has become so cheap. People are adding in 4 gigs for RAM for like $10 a gig and it is a name brand. That is amazing.
Some of these parts have NEVER been cheaper. A good quad-core processor now costs $200, an even faster (per core) dual-core is just over half that. $150 will buy a Radeon 4870, enough graphics power for 95% of gamers. Eight gigs of DDR2 is now $70 or less.
Some of these parts have NEVER been cheaper. A good quad-core processor now costs $200, an even faster (per core) dual-core is just over half that. $150 will buy a Radeon 4870, enough graphics power for 95% of gamers. Eight gigs of DDR2 is now $70 or less.
That's why if you self-assemble or go beige-box, despite inflation, whatever, you are getting some pretty damn good bang for buck. I am starting to feel I made the right choices, with AMD and ATI.
I've got a 3ghz (I know it's all not clockspeed but anyways) dualcore, overclocked from 2.7ghz. "Athlon" but actually it's a Phenom with two cores disabled.
Quadcores, yes, definitely dropped a lot in price. RAM is dirt, dirt, unbelieavably cheap. 4GB to 8GB in a blink of an eye. You know what's stopping people loading up their PCs with more RAM? I really think it's the cost and hassle and distaste of installing Vista, even though 64bit Vista should be pretty decent. I had a copy of XP, I didn't feel like ponying up over USD $100 in my country for Vista 64bit original.
And the Radeon 4870 ~ Like I said, ATI hit a home run with their RV770 chip, so prices and production of the 4890, 4870, 4850 and 4830 is delivering great value.
To be fair to Nvidia they're also delivering some impressive stuff because they are desperately(?) trying to keep pace with ATI so they're slashing prices too. They came out with a $250 card, GTX275 to compete with the 4890. Just a few months or weeks ago you'd have to get the $350 GTX285 for the GTX275/ATI 4890 level of performance.
For those with a bit of spare cash, the recession, if you still have your job and time for playing games, is not that bad...
That's why if you self-assemble or go beige-box, despite inflation, whatever, you are getting some pretty damn good bang for buck. I am starting to feel I made the right choices, with AMD and ATI.
I've got a 3ghz (I know it's all not clockspeed but anyways) dualcore, overclocked from 2.7ghz. "Athlon" but actually it's a Phenom with two cores disabled.
Quadcores, yes, definitely dropped a lot in price. RAM is dirt, dirt, unbelieavably cheap. 4GB to 8GB in a blink of an eye. You know what's stopping people loading up their PCs with more RAM? I really think it's the cost and hassle and distaste of installing Vista, even though 64bit Vista should be pretty decent. I had a copy of XP, I didn't feel like ponying up over USD $100 in my country for Vista 64bit original.
And the Radeon 4870 ~ Like I said, ATI hit a home run with their RV770 chip, so prices and production of the 4890, 4870, 4850 and 4830 is delivering great value.
To be fair to Nvidia they're also delivering some impressive stuff because they are desperately(?) trying to keep pace with ATI so they're slashing prices too. They came out with a $250 card, GTX275 to compete with the 4890. Just a few months or weeks ago you'd have to get the $350 GTX285 for the GTX275/ATI 4890 level of performance.
For those with a bit of spare cash, the recession, if you still have your job and time for playing games, is not that bad...
I think you made an excellent choice on your PC rig, having looked at current options, i think you've got the most bang for the buck.
That's why if you self-assemble or go beige-box, despite inflation, whatever, you are getting some pretty damn good bang for buck. I am starting to feel I made the right choices, with AMD and ATI.
I've got a 3ghz (I know it's all not clockspeed but anyways) dualcore, overclocked from 2.7ghz. "Athlon" but actually it's a Phenom with two cores disabled.
Quadcores, yes, definitely dropped a lot in price. RAM is dirt, dirt, unbelieavably cheap. 4GB to 8GB in a blink of an eye. You know what's stopping people loading up their PCs with more RAM? I really think it's the cost and hassle and distaste of installing Vista, even though 64bit Vista should be pretty decent. I had a copy of XP, I didn't feel like ponying up over USD $100 in my country for Vista 64bit original.
And the Radeon 4870 ~ Like I said, ATI hit a home run with their RV770 chip, so prices and production of the 4890, 4870, 4850 and 4830 is delivering great value.
To be fair to Nvidia they're also delivering some impressive stuff because they are desperately(?) trying to keep pace with ATI so they're slashing prices too. They came out with a $250 card, GTX275 to compete with the 4890. Just a few months or weeks ago you'd have to get the $350 GTX285 for the GTX275/ATI 4890 level of performance.
For those with a bit of spare cash, the recession, if you still have your job and time for playing games, is not that bad...
People like to claim the PC stuff will just give up the ghost but I simply think that isn't true. I mentioned the PC I gave to my son in another thread. It was originally purchased when a friend and I were thinking of opening a PC gaming cafe. This was back when AMD was a "questionable" purchase due to claims of reliability. It started life as a Duron 1.3 mhz, MSI motherboard with 266 mhz ram?
Anyway it is still alive and kicking today with a gig of ram, 2 ghz processor and absolutely no problems despite being all cheap stuff. No weird lock-ups, no problems at all. It was purchased to see if those brands would give us problems in the several months up to purchasing for the cafe. We never did the cafe but it has run just great.
People like to claim the PC stuff will just give up the ghost but I simply think that isn't true. I mentioned the PC I gave to my son in another thread. It was originally purchased when a friend and I were thinking of opening a PC gaming cafe. This was back when AMD was a "questionable" purchase due to claims of reliability. It started life as a Duron 1.3 mhz, MSI motherboard with 266 mhz ram?
Anyway it is still alive and kicking today with a gig of ram, 2 ghz processor and absolutely no problems despite being all cheap stuff. No weird lock-ups, no problems at all. It was purchased to see if those brands would give us problems in the several months up to purchasing for the cafe. We never did the cafe but it has run just great.
There are a bunch of factors that affect a computer's lifespan. It should be possible to build a machine that would last a very long time, but the opposite is also true. Heat, dust, power surges,...
I think you made an excellent choice on your PC rig, having looked at current options, i think you've got the most bang for the buck.
It was especially when the Sapphire 4830 dropped from the usual 4830s at $120-150 to just over $100 that I pulled the trigger. Luckily the GPU overclocks almost 20% and it has a better custom heatsink fan which I didn't know about...
As for reliability branded components have always lasted me at least one year. Though I always run CPU, GPU and sometimes RAM/mobo overclocked so 2-3 year stability is not a real goal of mine
Quote:
Originally Posted by trumptman
People like to claim the PC stuff will just give up the ghost but I simply think that isn't true. I mentioned the PC I gave to my son in another thread. It was originally purchased when a friend and I were thinking of opening a PC gaming cafe. This was back when AMD was a "questionable" purchase due to claims of reliability. It started life as a Duron 1.3 mhz, MSI motherboard with 266 mhz ram?
Anyway it is still alive and kicking today with a gig of ram, 2 ghz processor and absolutely no problems despite being all cheap stuff. No weird lock-ups, no problems at all. It was purchased to see if those brands would give us problems in the several months up to purchasing for the cafe. We never did the cafe but it has run just great.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FuturePastNow
There are a bunch of factors that affect a computer's lifespan. It should be possible to build a machine that would last a very long time, but the opposite is also true. Heat, dust, power surges,...
Also after a few months I would blow everything with compressed air... Definitely I would never run this without an APC battery/surge protector thingy... So we shall see how long this lasts!
Edit: That said I hope I can go at least a full year with my current components (aside from upgrades etc)... Again with part prices dropping I may treat myself to an upgrade of this or that every few months... Trying to resist such temptations though LOL
On a side note one of the things that turned me away from Nvidia cards was how big and long they are. Anything above a 9800GT (until recently with the GTS 250) is quite a big, long card compared to the ATI 4800 series. Reports indicate the 4890 runs with pure copper heatsinkfan with 3 heatpipes and runs 60degC on load which is impressive, if these reports pan out...
As for reliability branded components have always lasted me at least one year. Though I always run CPU, GPU and sometimes RAM/mobo overclocked so 2-3 year stability is not a real goal of mine
I prefer silent systems, and my needs aren't particularly great, so I always run stuff at stock speeds. And I need them to last, with minor upgrades. Right now I have a five year old desktop PC, which I'm finally replacing because I've finally found games that (with upgraded graphics) it is too slow for and videos it cannot play (1080p).
I fully expect whatever computer I build to last at least five years as my desktop PC and to still be usable, in some capacity, a decade from now. Now that they use high-quality solid capacitors, there's no excuse for a motherboard to fail unless it is abused.
I prefer silent systems, and my needs aren't particularly great, so I always run stuff at stock speeds. And I need them to last, with minor upgrades. Right now I have a five year old desktop PC, which I'm finally replacing because I've finally found games that (with upgraded graphics) it is too slow for and videos it cannot play (1080p).
I fully expect whatever computer I build to last at least five years as my desktop PC and to still be usable, in some capacity, a decade from now. Now that they use high-quality solid capacitors, there's no excuse for a motherboard to fail unless it is abused.
Right now only my CPU and GPU is overclocked, mobo and RAM at stock speeds and voltages. So if anything goes, I think it would be the CPU or GPU. But I ran my previous 8500GT, Core2Duo 2ghz and Gigabyte mobo OC'ed for at least over a year. And before that an Athlon OC'ed as well.
It's the GPU that really matters in gaming nowadays.
Fair enough, if you've got Crossfire 4870s, a Core i7 would be sweet. But for the extra cash, would it be worth it? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe we'll have to wait for better-optimised games...
I guess though a nice AMD Phenom II X3, paired with an ATI 4870... There's some "enthusiast on a budget" options there for the next level up from my current rig.
Comments
Good luck with the new machine nvidia. I gave up on PC gaming a few years ago and my next gaming machine will probably be a Nintendo Wii with the kids. That said...
PC hardware is INSANELY cheap right now. I keep getting emails from Tiger Direct for Barebones deals that are just unbelievable. Minitower versions of everything that is in the iMac minus the HD for $200. Add in $50 and you have a ridiculously fast machine. It is amazing right now to see that the hardware has become so cheap. People are adding in 4 gigs for RAM for like $10 a gig and it is a name brand. That is amazing.
Some of these parts have NEVER been cheaper. A good quad-core processor now costs $200, an even faster (per core) dual-core is just over half that. $150 will buy a Radeon 4870, enough graphics power for 95% of gamers. Eight gigs of DDR2 is now $70 or less.
Some of these parts have NEVER been cheaper. A good quad-core processor now costs $200, an even faster (per core) dual-core is just over half that. $150 will buy a Radeon 4870, enough graphics power for 95% of gamers. Eight gigs of DDR2 is now $70 or less.
That's why if you self-assemble or go beige-box, despite inflation, whatever, you are getting some pretty damn good bang for buck. I am starting to feel I made the right choices, with AMD and ATI.
I've got a 3ghz (I know it's all not clockspeed but anyways) dualcore, overclocked from 2.7ghz. "Athlon" but actually it's a Phenom with two cores disabled.
Quadcores, yes, definitely dropped a lot in price. RAM is dirt, dirt, unbelieavably cheap. 4GB to 8GB in a blink of an eye. You know what's stopping people loading up their PCs with more RAM? I really think it's the cost and hassle and distaste of installing Vista, even though 64bit Vista should be pretty decent. I had a copy of XP, I didn't feel like ponying up over USD $100 in my country for Vista 64bit original.
And the Radeon 4870 ~ Like I said, ATI hit a home run with their RV770 chip, so prices and production of the 4890, 4870, 4850 and 4830 is delivering great value.
To be fair to Nvidia they're also delivering some impressive stuff because they are desperately(?) trying to keep pace with ATI so they're slashing prices too. They came out with a $250 card, GTX275 to compete with the 4890. Just a few months or weeks ago you'd have to get the $350 GTX285 for the GTX275/ATI 4890 level of performance.
For those with a bit of spare cash, the recession, if you still have your job and time for playing games, is not that bad...
That's why if you self-assemble or go beige-box, despite inflation, whatever, you are getting some pretty damn good bang for buck. I am starting to feel I made the right choices, with AMD and ATI.
I've got a 3ghz (I know it's all not clockspeed but anyways) dualcore, overclocked from 2.7ghz. "Athlon" but actually it's a Phenom with two cores disabled.
Quadcores, yes, definitely dropped a lot in price. RAM is dirt, dirt, unbelieavably cheap. 4GB to 8GB in a blink of an eye. You know what's stopping people loading up their PCs with more RAM? I really think it's the cost and hassle and distaste of installing Vista, even though 64bit Vista should be pretty decent. I had a copy of XP, I didn't feel like ponying up over USD $100 in my country for Vista 64bit original.
And the Radeon 4870 ~ Like I said, ATI hit a home run with their RV770 chip, so prices and production of the 4890, 4870, 4850 and 4830 is delivering great value.
To be fair to Nvidia they're also delivering some impressive stuff because they are desperately(?) trying to keep pace with ATI so they're slashing prices too. They came out with a $250 card, GTX275 to compete with the 4890. Just a few months or weeks ago you'd have to get the $350 GTX285 for the GTX275/ATI 4890 level of performance.
For those with a bit of spare cash, the recession, if you still have your job and time for playing games, is not that bad...
I think you made an excellent choice on your PC rig, having looked at current options, i think you've got the most bang for the buck.
That's why if you self-assemble or go beige-box, despite inflation, whatever, you are getting some pretty damn good bang for buck. I am starting to feel I made the right choices, with AMD and ATI.
I've got a 3ghz (I know it's all not clockspeed but anyways) dualcore, overclocked from 2.7ghz. "Athlon" but actually it's a Phenom with two cores disabled.
Quadcores, yes, definitely dropped a lot in price. RAM is dirt, dirt, unbelieavably cheap. 4GB to 8GB in a blink of an eye. You know what's stopping people loading up their PCs with more RAM? I really think it's the cost and hassle and distaste of installing Vista, even though 64bit Vista should be pretty decent. I had a copy of XP, I didn't feel like ponying up over USD $100 in my country for Vista 64bit original.
And the Radeon 4870 ~ Like I said, ATI hit a home run with their RV770 chip, so prices and production of the 4890, 4870, 4850 and 4830 is delivering great value.
To be fair to Nvidia they're also delivering some impressive stuff because they are desperately(?) trying to keep pace with ATI so they're slashing prices too. They came out with a $250 card, GTX275 to compete with the 4890. Just a few months or weeks ago you'd have to get the $350 GTX285 for the GTX275/ATI 4890 level of performance.
For those with a bit of spare cash, the recession, if you still have your job and time for playing games, is not that bad...
People like to claim the PC stuff will just give up the ghost but I simply think that isn't true. I mentioned the PC I gave to my son in another thread. It was originally purchased when a friend and I were thinking of opening a PC gaming cafe. This was back when AMD was a "questionable" purchase due to claims of reliability. It started life as a Duron 1.3 mhz, MSI motherboard with 266 mhz ram?
Anyway it is still alive and kicking today with a gig of ram, 2 ghz processor and absolutely no problems despite being all cheap stuff. No weird lock-ups, no problems at all. It was purchased to see if those brands would give us problems in the several months up to purchasing for the cafe. We never did the cafe but it has run just great.
People like to claim the PC stuff will just give up the ghost but I simply think that isn't true. I mentioned the PC I gave to my son in another thread. It was originally purchased when a friend and I were thinking of opening a PC gaming cafe. This was back when AMD was a "questionable" purchase due to claims of reliability. It started life as a Duron 1.3 mhz, MSI motherboard with 266 mhz ram?
Anyway it is still alive and kicking today with a gig of ram, 2 ghz processor and absolutely no problems despite being all cheap stuff. No weird lock-ups, no problems at all. It was purchased to see if those brands would give us problems in the several months up to purchasing for the cafe. We never did the cafe but it has run just great.
There are a bunch of factors that affect a computer's lifespan. It should be possible to build a machine that would last a very long time, but the opposite is also true. Heat, dust, power surges,...
I think you made an excellent choice on your PC rig, having looked at current options, i think you've got the most bang for the buck.
It was especially when the Sapphire 4830 dropped from the usual 4830s at $120-150 to just over $100 that I pulled the trigger. Luckily the GPU overclocks almost 20% and it has a better custom heatsink fan which I didn't know about...
As for reliability branded components have always lasted me at least one year. Though I always run CPU, GPU and sometimes RAM/mobo overclocked so 2-3 year stability is not a real goal of mine
People like to claim the PC stuff will just give up the ghost but I simply think that isn't true. I mentioned the PC I gave to my son in another thread. It was originally purchased when a friend and I were thinking of opening a PC gaming cafe. This was back when AMD was a "questionable" purchase due to claims of reliability. It started life as a Duron 1.3 mhz, MSI motherboard with 266 mhz ram?
Anyway it is still alive and kicking today with a gig of ram, 2 ghz processor and absolutely no problems despite being all cheap stuff. No weird lock-ups, no problems at all. It was purchased to see if those brands would give us problems in the several months up to purchasing for the cafe. We never did the cafe but it has run just great.
There are a bunch of factors that affect a computer's lifespan. It should be possible to build a machine that would last a very long time, but the opposite is also true. Heat, dust, power surges,...
Edit: That said I hope I can go at least a full year with my current components (aside from upgrades etc)... Again with part prices dropping I may treat myself to an upgrade of this or that every few months... Trying to resist such temptations though LOL
On a side note one of the things that turned me away from Nvidia cards was how big and long they are. Anything above a 9800GT (until recently with the GTS 250) is quite a big, long card compared to the ATI 4800 series. Reports indicate the 4890 runs with pure copper heatsinkfan with 3 heatpipes and runs 60degC on load which is impressive, if these reports pan out...
As for reliability branded components have always lasted me at least one year. Though I always run CPU, GPU and sometimes RAM/mobo overclocked so 2-3 year stability is not a real goal of mine
I prefer silent systems, and my needs aren't particularly great, so I always run stuff at stock speeds. And I need them to last, with minor upgrades. Right now I have a five year old desktop PC, which I'm finally replacing because I've finally found games that (with upgraded graphics) it is too slow for and videos it cannot play (1080p).
I fully expect whatever computer I build to last at least five years as my desktop PC and to still be usable, in some capacity, a decade from now. Now that they use high-quality solid capacitors, there's no excuse for a motherboard to fail unless it is abused.
I prefer silent systems, and my needs aren't particularly great, so I always run stuff at stock speeds. And I need them to last, with minor upgrades. Right now I have a five year old desktop PC, which I'm finally replacing because I've finally found games that (with upgraded graphics) it is too slow for and videos it cannot play (1080p).
I fully expect whatever computer I build to last at least five years as my desktop PC and to still be usable, in some capacity, a decade from now. Now that they use high-quality solid capacitors, there's no excuse for a motherboard to fail unless it is abused.
Right now only my CPU and GPU is overclocked, mobo and RAM at stock speeds and voltages. So if anything goes, I think it would be the CPU or GPU. But I ran my previous 8500GT, Core2Duo 2ghz and Gigabyte mobo OC'ed for at least over a year. And before that an Athlon OC'ed as well.
I've got itchy fingers...
http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3533&p=3
http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3533&p=4
http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3533&p=5
It's the GPU that really matters in gaming nowadays.
Fair enough, if you've got Crossfire 4870s, a Core i7 would be sweet. But for the extra cash, would it be worth it? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe we'll have to wait for better-optimised games...
I guess though a nice AMD Phenom II X3, paired with an ATI 4870... There's some "enthusiast on a budget" options there for the next level up from my current rig.