To buy or not to buy, that is the question...

[CuZ]

Okay, so Ive had this cash in the bank I was originally going to use for my Crysis rig upgrade, then my FC2 upgrade... but never got round to it.

As such Im currently stuck with a PC nearly as old as Hervs
(AMD4000, GTX7800EE, Audigy2 base model, 1GB RAM)

Question is, for someone that is not into overclocking, is now a decent time to buy or are there any new HW releases imminent? (note I dont ask "right" only decent )

Next Question:
What should I buy...?
Im totally out of touch with the current HW scene, got about 1.5K to blow, will need OEM Fista OS but not a monitor...

Thoughts suggestions and general spam all welcome

[Godz]

1.5k jesus just go over to alienware and buy one of their bitches

[CuZ]

Dont be bloody silly, they charge 2K for the badge...
I can build cheaper to the same specs myself

[IceT-Bag]

I could build you one for £1500, I'll throw in 12 months worth fluffing and hugs with a 24hr manned telephone so you can get fluffed/hugged when you want!

If your going to upgrade, you want to future proof your rig for as long as possible. I can run Crysis, Crysis Warhead, STALKER SoC/CS, Farcry 2 on MAX settings (dx9c on WinXP) at a resolution of 1024x768 @ 85Mhz with the this spec

My 3DMark06 results can be seen here.

By todays standards its an average spec PC, if I were to upgrade again (which I may lol) I would go for an Intel Quad Core CPU, a Gigabyte Mobo, and X-FI sound card and 4GB of the fastest ram for my mobo (2gb if WinXP / 4GB if Vista - no point having 3GB with XP - you'd hardly use it) and an ATI 4870 card.

I would also get both Win XP and Vista and dual boot it so I can have the best of both worlds (dx9 / dx10.1 and its bugs).

[CuZ]

LMAO at the fluffing, I get that for free from you as it is...

I have a retail version of XP (Upgrade), do they check if its been uninstalled on the old rig before letting you validate it on a second? - Probably gonna retain the basics of the old rig for low end beta testing of OE.

Last upgrade in Aug 05, I went for the best money could buy at the time in the GPU and 2nd best for the CPU (wasnt paying 2x the price just to unlock the multipliers with the FX version of the same chip.

Was planning on getting:

OEM Vista Ultimate 64 bit @around £120+ vat

Decent Quad Core

4GB ram - I like Crucial but that has caused me mobo pain in the past

Unsure about GPU; always been an NVIDIA fanboy but the 4870 looks better bang for buck. Not sure whether to go multi GPU etiher, not many games seem to support it well.

With the mobo, I had no end of issues with getting my DFI one right, but it has performed really well since. Noticed on a Dell I just bought for work that it has no PCI and NO ATA slots, only SATA... While I currently have 2*75GB SATA Raptors in RAID 0 for games, my OS and Storage are on 2x160GB ATAs so not sure whether to transfer their stuff to a new bigger SATA or to get a mobo with ATA support.

Is it really worth getting the XFI? What do you get over the audigy I have?

What sort of PSU does a high end system need these days? The one I got last time was an Enermax Coolmaster 600W - would I be pushing it to try and reuse it?

Anyone any experience with SATA Optical drives?

[Sky]

arsus or gigglebit MB, intel chipset with crossfire (some of the cheaper GB boards have an overheating prob on the NB)
intel quad Q9XXX
atleast DDR2 1066
ATI 4870 X2 (or two)
HDD with 32mb cache
sata DVDRW is fine

xp pro oem with SP3 is still available till january
or get vista 32 ultimate (64 still has PB issues)
get the cpu last and use your remaining budget on it

[GrumpyOG]

If you have a retail xp you shouldn't have a problem transferring the license to the new machine and 600W will run a 4870 if you have enough connectors but I don't know about the x2

[soTis]

Okay, so Ive had this cash in the bank I was originally going to use for my Crysis rig upgrade

You mean Obsidian Edge 2 rig upgrade, right?

[IceT-Bag]

I'd go for 800W - even if you dont use it - you can still show off to your mates that you a 800W PSU

[umbongo(uk)]

get a 2 gigawatt psu just incase you want to run a small village in kenya

just make sure its a modular one if u upgrade .best thing i did .gets rid of all the cables i dont need but can use if i need them later also they usually come with every cable necersary and one for fans

anus n giglebott have the nicest upper n midrange boards at this time (bah @msi dodgy nb basterds )
rams cheap
the q6600 still a good cpu and lowering in price with every cpu release

if your after gaming 4870 or nvidia evivelant again i see stuff on the horizon remember its end of term manufacturing wise, as xmas is upon us so theyll be gearing up for next years release,s after finishing this years qouta
mystic meg prediction
higher gaming power ,lower wattage use /or someway to idle wile usual computing.
nvid will add dx10.1 and better decoding and get the pysx stuff working more in games,
ati not much rekon they,ll just watch nvid to try and counter price wise


ps ::what u mean u have to buy xp pro