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  • (January 12, 2023, 01:18:11 AM)

Author Topic: I'm thinking about getting new hardware  (Read 3212 times)

Anonymous

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« on: July 14, 2004, 11:24:11 AM »
I've always been a fan of ATI cards. Back when Matrox was a huge name, I bought one of their cards and I was dissapointed. I've been supporting ATI ever since, but never really gave anyone else a chance. I guess I like to support Canadian companies when they can be competitive. And I'm happy with their products.

Anyway, I was reading this page on the lastest ATI card and after whipping away all the drool from my keyboard and screen, I headed over here to share my findings with fellow geeks.

I'm due to upgrade my PC soon. It's not terribly out of date. It has an AMD XP1800 processor and an ATI Radeon 9000 Video Card. Still, I wouldn't mind upgrading. I'm starting feel the effects of not being up to speed when I look at the latest games. I hate paying for a game and not be able to boost everything to the maximum. Unfortunatly, I'm short on cash now. I have to replace my 10GB Hard drive. That's right, only 10GB. I'm ashamed. It sucks when you have to uninstall stuff in order to install new stuff.

Anyway, I would love ot get my hands on the card above, but that's relaly overkill, and over budget. I've decided I was going to stick with a 32-bit AMD processor and off course, get an ATI video card. Can you please suggest a system configuration with these two components in mind? I'm not sure just how much I'll spend, but I would appreciate a few scenarios to accomodate for different budgets. More specifically, I'm interested in suggestions for mother boards, and brand preference on various drives and RAM.
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Scuzzy

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2004, 11:31:25 AM »
Well IMO I would stick with ATI for a video card and AMD as a processor. But I guess It all depends on your budget...If you have enough I recommend OCZ Technologies RAM its really good shit I have twin 256 mb or it in my computer right now and thay work fine. But If you have the cash for that I would go with like the ATI 9800 pro. OCZ can be quite expensive.

www.newegg.com has OCZ and a huge selection of everything else
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hackess

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2004, 11:54:06 AM »
I'd go to www.crucial.com for memory. Best prices around and great products.

As for the video card, I'd definitely recommend ATI. I have a 9600 AIW.
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The_FOO

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2004, 11:54:41 AM »
The 9800Pro is probably you best bet for a video card these days.

And the 2800+ for your CPU.

Take you pick of a jillion Nforce2 boards depends on what features, etc you want.
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Anonymous

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2004, 11:57:22 AM »
I like a board as little built in as possible and plenty of slots. I'm also trying to think about wha I may need in the future. For example, firewire. Do I want that? I don't know.
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hackess

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #5 on: July 14, 2004, 11:58:55 AM »
Harddrives: Seagate or Western Digital
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Scuzzy

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2004, 11:59:54 AM »
Firewire Will be helpfull in the future but if you have something that is firewire supportive then most likely will also support USB 2.0 or 1.1 so USB is a must but Firewire is just for looks
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Anonymous

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2004, 12:17:33 PM »
Quote from: catwritr
Harddrives: Seagate or Western Digital


Those were on my list. I've often used fujitsu drives in the past and never had problems. Overall, they were the best bang for the buck back then. I just notice that non of the sites I check out carried them. Are they done? I know they sell complete PCs now, but their website doesn't have components.
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The_FOO

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2004, 12:46:22 PM »
FW is good if you have a digital video camera. Otherwise USB 2.0 is just as fast.

Also, PCI slots aren't all that useful these days. Most people only need one or two. unless you plan on adding lots of RAID or sound cards.
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Anonymous

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2004, 01:00:44 PM »
That's true Foo. I would need slots for Sound, NIC (altough they are often built in), perhaps one RAID controller. That's about it. Unless I go SCSI then I'll porbably need a few, but that increases the price tag of some components.


Isn't there a new graphic controller coming out to replace AGP? I think I read that somewhere. Maybe I should wait for that.
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The_FOO

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #10 on: July 14, 2004, 01:12:27 PM »
SCSI is mostly useless for home use.  Get some nice fast SATA drives with Tagged Command Queuing instead.

PCIe (express) it'll actually replace both PCI and AGP. Don't expect to see it on any main stream boards for a good six months or so.

Then you actually have to find PCIe cards to use on the board...

So I'd pass for now since first gen stuff is going to suck for the most part anyway.
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Scuzzy

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2004, 10:49:37 AM »
Nvidia's GeForce 6800 uses PCIe I think but you might only find the slot on some higher class boards
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Anonymous

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I'm thinking about getting new hardware
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2004, 11:34:34 AM »
I found this board which will do all I need and is ultra cheap. But I'm not familiar with that brand. Anyone know that brand?
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