Time for the annual PC-rebuild

[Variable]

Well folks its that time again. Someone asked me to build them a 'puter and it made me realize just how out of date mine is and how cheap all the new doohickeys are. But I'm running into two dilemmas...<br><br>For the past 4 years, I've been an Athlon man. I liked em. They were cheaper. But now, the new Pentium line is cheaper AND it has a faster FSB. So I'm wondering if anyone has a convincing argument for staying with the Athlon series. Right now I've got an Athlon XP 2100+. It runs, give or take, 1.76 Ghz and a 166mhz FSB..I'm looking at a fancy schmancy P4 3.0 Ghz w/ 800 mhz FSB. The Athlon that ranks with that is DOUBLE the price.<br><br>Next is the video card. I've had GeForce for a good long time now. NVidia had been leading the market on vid cards. Now I keep hearing good things about Radeon and how NVidia is getting slack/may disappear in a few years/explodes when you eat a peanut butter sandwich near your comp. So I'm either getting a tasty Radeon 9800 Pro 256, or a GeForce 5 5900.<br><br>I need your thoughts on this. I keep reading reviews and at best I'm still indecisive. At worst I think about buying one of each and building two comps. Then my wife walks in and goes "What are you doing" and I say "Nothing, nothing.." and cancel all the orders.<br><br> <p><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.ryanaaron.com/dtm/images/ava ... riable.gif" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--><br><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center">The world will not end in a blinding flash of light or virulent pestilence. It will end with me choking the life out of it with my bare hands.</div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub141.ezboard.com/bxmenclan.sho ... e</A>&nbsp; <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://wwp.icq.com/scripts/online.dll?i ... 0179&img=5" BORDER=0> at: 1/21/04 3:17 pm<br></i>

[XMEN Gambit]

ROFL.<br><br>Get the CPU that is at the best price/performance point for you, whichever brand it is. The last Intel CPU I had was a Celeron 450, and it's been running overclocked at 500 for years. The chip before that was an AMD 250/300 or so, and it's still running too. I support AMD as the underdog, and buy AMD whenever I can find a good excuse to do so, but sometimes it just doesn't make sense. <br>But something that can figure strongly into your CPU decision at the price/features level is the motherboard! Intel mobos are typically more pricey, but evaluate those features (ram, devices, speeds, on-board controllers, etc) just as carefully as the CPU performance.<br><br>More on the video card later; I want to consult an article in a magazine I just got... <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br>XMEN member<br>Card-carrying DTM<br>OKL Fish-napper<br><br>Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.<br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> The Tao of Programming</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i></i>

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

The other thing with price / performance ratio is that the best ratio usually happens with a CPU that is a few steps down from the top of the line models from each company. For a while there, the best buy was a P4 3.06 GHz... even with the newer, faster P4's on the market. For a long time before that, it was an Athlon XP 2800+.<br><br>But the thing to really read up on is the motherboard. The CPU choices, being as close as they are in price/performance, means you have to look at who has the better price/performance ratio in their motherboards.<br><br><br><br>For myself, I am feeling the urge to get a new computer going in the coming months. I probably won't do anything until I am settled in at my new job in California. But at this point, I am leaning towards either a P4, or possibly checking out one of the Athlon 64s. Besides money, I think the thing with me is that I am waiting for the motherboards that will support DDRII memory. That's supposed to come out sometime this year. (I keep hearing "in the coming months", but I'm taking that to mean late summer / early autumn.)<br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[XMEN Gambit]

Ok, the article in <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>computer games magazine</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> says that the GF FX 5700 beats the Radeon 9600 XT, but barely. Their benchmarks were Halo, 3dmark 2003 ( <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :( --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":("><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> ) and Unreal Tournament 2003.<br><br>In most cases, I'd pick the ATI cards over the nVidia equivalent at this point. (Just a few years ago that would have sounded <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>insane</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->!) However, the GF FXs won't do badly at all and probably save a little cash. <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br>XMEN member<br>Card-carrying DTM<br>OKL Fish-napper<br><br>Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.<br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> The Tao of Programming</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i></i>