I've got a question about...

[Fibbles]

AMD. I have this:

Abit IC7 Max3
Pentium 4 3.0
1024 Mushkin LVL1 3500
Seagate 160gb HDD
WD 120gb HDD Backup
Plextor 708a 8x DVDRW
Sony CXR 300(?) DVDROM/CDRW
SB Audigy 2
Radeon 9800XT

Would it be worh it to switch over to an AMD Socket 939 board (Asus A8V) with a 3500 now? Or should I really hold myself and wait for AMD to bring out PCI-X, and then wait for the kinks to be ironed out? Intel is no longer appealing, so I won't be staying on their tran.

If I did, I'd need new EVO and Twinplex mounting screens. Ugh, I hate getting a pretty big sum of money with no need to worry about paying it back. I suppose I could save it for a Syntax 27" LCD TV (only $1350) and then buy that metal TV stand I want for it.

[fillip]

personally i'd wait until, as you say, the PCI express hits the AMD boards and any kinks are sorted.

[Edd]

With that system I would wait.

I'm upgrading to S754 w/A64 3000+, but that's coming from a 1700+ so the performance leap should be fairly significant. From a 3Ghz P4 ... not so much obviously.

[Fibbles]

Only a 3500 cause I talked myself out of an FX53 and a pair of 74gb WD Raptors.

[Psykotik]

I managed t avoid the 74Gb Raptors, but had to settle with a dual 36Gb set instead!

I'm seriously thinking about getting either a high end P4 (3 Gig Malay 30 capper) or an FX53 coupled with a X800XT after the Doom 3 announcement, but must restrain myself as I know that PCI Express, BTX etc are coming shortly.

[Starbuck3733T]

Stay on your current system. it'll be fine for doom3 and a lot of other things :)

[Fibbles]

Stay on your current system. it'll be fine for doom3 and a lot of other things :)Oh, I know that ;) , but the urge to get those Raptors is really overwhelimg right now. I also am forcing myself to skip out on an NEC dual layer dvdrw drive. I always use the "I'll put my current one in the other computer I'm building", and while I am building one, it is never going to get finished because I am so lazy.

Also, I'd like something external/internal that can store massive amounts of data, something with 20 - 30 gigs per disk, like a tape drive. An Iomega Rev drive seems like a good candidate, but it's pretty expensive @ $300 with $50 per disk. It does hold 35 gigs native and about 90 gigs compressed. Anyone have anything to reccomend? I'd like to be able save everything categorically ^_^ .

BTW... Far Cry and WarHammer 40k: Dawn of War have been the only 2 games that have forced me to play @ 1024 x 768 with AA and AF on low settings or off. I still have pauses in Far Cry, and when there's a lot going on or water is in the picture, my computer will crawl :(. Warrhammer has the nicest graphics I've ever seen in an RTS. You can zoom from the regular isometric perspective right down to a generals view of the battlefield in front of you. That tends to murder my system. Everything is also in 3D, so if one of your units are thrown at a group, the group will get knocked around. Shrapnel flies and hits your units, your own mortar and bombs can damage everyone, and it often devolves into total chaos, but it's still fun. Doom three will probably need to be run at a lower res, but I must have everything on the highest it will go. ^_^

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

I've ran doom 3 at decent settings on my system... :h34r:


When i say decent i mean it looked amazing lol! Theres no need to buy an expensive dual layer DVD burner when you can buy an 8x speed single speed one and flash the firmware. I can do that with my NEC drive but i'm not going to bother until i need too. ^_^

For the storage can you not get an external HDD enclosure and some drives to use with it?

[Fibbles]

I've ran doom 3 at decent settings on my system... :h34r:


When i say decent i mean it looked amazing lol! Theres no need to buy an expensive dual layer DVD burner when you can buy an 8x speed single speed one and flash the firmware. I can do that with my NEC drive but i'm not going to bother until i need too. ^_^

For the storage can you not get an external HDD enclosure and some drives to use with it?
Expensive? A dual layer is $80 and I don't want it for speed, I want it for the ability to save 9 gigs of data over the 4.7 and not need to flip the disk.

I have an external hard drive enclosure with an 80gb WD in it, but I want to archive data, and I have lots of it. I need to be able to store large files on some sort of disk type thing and it must be reliable. It's not for anything illegal either :p If it was something external it would be much better, as I could carry it around with me and use it on multiple computers.