Printable View
I tend to agree. At some point you have to make the jump, and when you do, it is certain that there will be better/faster/cheaper hardware released that puts you setup to shame. But if you do buy on the high side, a yearly video card upgrade should keep you in the game for up to 3 years.Quote:
Originally posted by EverlastingGod
I think a lot of you confuse not being top of the line with being outdated...
A computer is not out of date until it can no longer do the job for which it was purchased. If new technology is your only reason for purchasing something then don't ever buy a house or a car - you won't be able to keep up.
Exactly. If you compare Sharky's August 2002 High End Gaming machine to the August 2003 Value Gaming PC, the two are very simmilar. If there's any difference, the 9600 Pro of the 2003 machine will run newer games (HL2) better than the GF4Ti of the 2002 machine. Buying the equlivinelt of last year's top end parts will give you a rather capable Gaming experience. An XP 2500+ isn't out of date. A year before that, you had the XP 1900+ as a high end CPU. I wouldn't even consider that out of date.Quote:
Originally posted by EverlastingGod
I think a lot of you confuse not being top of the line with being outdated...
An AMD XP 1900+
Via KT266A mobo
512MB PC-2100 DDR
would make a playable gaming system if paired with a GF4Ti or Radeon 9600 Pro.
Ditto.Quote:
Originally posted by ImaNihilist
I agree with everything else, and it's pretty accurate. Except that statement. I have NEVER known a PC that lasted more than 6 months since I had one of my first Pentium 75MHz machines. That seems to be the typical product cycle. Every 6 months we have a piece of *new* technology, and every 12-18 months a complete overhaul.
If anything he has it backwards. My parents' 486/33 lasted 5 years and absolutely had to be replaced - it nearly choked to death on the win3.1 - win95 upgrade and couldn't run Office 97. My mother has a p133 laptop that is 6 years old and has no plans to replace it anytime soon. Their K6-2-380 desktop is also going on 5 years with no replacement in sight.
Yeah that makes more sense... GF4 Ti's are what? maybe 1 3/4 years old (early 2002)?Quote:
Originally posted by XP18004life
Well maybe my dates are wrong, sorry. When I built my rig though, the GF3 was the fastest on the market, and I hadn't heard of the Ti4200, otherwise I'd have one :)
Actually, I think it was at the end of my senior year in high school, and now I'm a soph in college.
...
I've always thought three years for a complete system is a good cycle (assuming you stay about three notches below top of the line).
Very true on the "it only needs to be able to do what you need it to do" thing. Just replaced the 'rents old desktop and laptop- their desktop had been a Gateway P2 266, and was clearly dying...replaced that with a gateway P4 2.4B, which should last them quite a while. It's got a Ti4200 in it, but more for the fact that it was the cheapest card gateway was offering with DVI than anything else. Also just replaced my dad's old 266 laptop. In both cases, they were dying, AND too slow for photoshop elements, which my dad took up between the time he got the rigs and the now.
I am still happy with my old rig.
You need to stop "wanting"
Cuz want results in unhappiness (Buddhist concept).
What's the point of blowing money on stuff that's gonna be outdated?
As long it does whatever you want it to do, then it's ok.
Ohhhh, my Qauke3 runs at 200fps instead of 300fps :rolleyes:
Heh... go ahead, flame me.
I know a lot of people on this forum wants to have the best performing rigs.
And that's what manufacturers are aiming for. Makeing money off you people.
They never intented on making money off normal users who do word processing.
IF they replied on that, they'd be bankrupt.
While most of this is nothing new, things like changing from ATX and BTX and 32-bit to 64-bit processors are not regular occurrences. AGP --> PCI Xpress is also less of a every year kind of deal. But the rest - just in terms of everything getting faster, that's no surprise and it happens all the time. It's just that there seems to be a lot of standards changing at the moment. (Even ones that don't change often like form factor).
My Cyrix 486DX-33MHz, 1mb Trident ISA Video, 8MB ram, 100MB HDD still runs today. I replaced the hard drive with a 512MB one 4 years ago. Im using Win95 now with Office 97. Its still good, its slow but does the job done;) I still play Willy Bimish, Police Quest, Tie Figher...and some old HGames my friend gave me;)Quote:
Originally posted by russ_watters
Ditto.
If anything he has it backwards. My parents' 486/33 lasted 5 years and absolutely had to be replaced - it nearly choked to death on the win3.1 - win95 upgrade and couldn't run Office 97. My mother has a p133 laptop that is 6 years old and has no plans to replace it anytime soon. Their K6-2-380 desktop is also going on 5 years with no replacement in sight.
I upgrade when I need the extra power. I just bought a new computer I need one at my house to do late work. I could spend $700 for it, but for $300 more there is a lot of advantage. I would guess it will play games for 4 more years, at least at 640*480
I saw that tigerdirect salesman guy on tv last night saying that all 32bit cpus are a thing of the past now. my new machine isnt even finished yet and its allready obsolete. :mad:
yeah, and so are cars that use tires :)Quote:
Originally posted by warbird281
I saw that tigerdirect salesman guy on tv last night saying that all 32bit cpus are a thing of the past now. my new machine isnt even finished yet and its allready obsolete. :mad:
bummer, my car isnt even payed off yet either. guess its time to find me a cheap flying delorean. :pQuote:
Originally posted by raider1v1
yeah, and so are cars that use tires :)
Those TV salesmen make me so angry. SO ANGRY. I mean, going to like Apple.com and reading fake benches pisses me off a little, but when I hear and SEE people talking on the TV just making blantant lies to sell consumers crappy **** it makes me so damn angry. I want to reach into the TV and punch them in the face. If I ever ever to see one of those people in a resturant, or out in public I would just run up and hit them.Quote:
Originally posted by warbird281
I saw that tigerdirect salesman guy on tv last night saying that all 32bit cpus are a thing of the past now. my new machine isnt even finished yet and its allready obsolete. :mad:
... and you get a MASSIVE 300w 'generic' power supply! And this thing even has a WHOPPING 128mb, thats right 128mb, *speaks quickly* ati radeon 9200se.