future of hardware question RE: buying a new comp.

John Warner

i notice that there's no hardware forum anymore. i guess that's for the best.

i've saved up some cash and i'm seriously considering buying a top of the line comp. nothing too hardcore. i'm going to put a geforce 7800 in it, and a decent processor (i'm considering an amd 3800 dual core) but not hardcore to the point of an AMD 64 4800 or somethin.

anyway, the question is simple. what's on the horizon? do you guys know of any new hardware/software comming out soon that i should wait for? a new line of video cards perhaps? and what about operating systems? do they even have an operating system that can support a 64 bit processor? is one comming out soon? any news from longhorn? if there is an os that does this, is it going through the usual 'i can't find a driver for shit and this os crashes on me 6 times a day' thing?

sory for the noobish questions, but i've been out of the whole hardware game for quite some time..

one last thing- i've been having a hard time finding any straight answers as to weither or not it's even remotely worth it to get a top of the line sound card, or if a audigy 2 is good enough..

PaK

I would suggest yu go pci express, and I would suggest you don't buy the 64-bit windows until there is a 64-bit adobe photoshop and a 64-bit 3d app that u want (if there are, and I'm unaware, then i guess now is the time)

U could always buy my comoputer, as i'm selling it (i just got a laptop)

-R

Keg

definitly go dual core. windows 64-bit is available now. and linux 64-bit has been available for awhile. quite a few 3d graphics programs are coming out with 64-bit versions. at least lightwave and xsi that I know of. not sure about maya and max.

Creative's new lineup of cards are supposed to improve performance overall in games because they take more load off the cpu or something.

sonic

[ QUOTE ]
I would suggest yu go pci express, and I would suggest you don't buy the 64-bit windows until there is a 64-bit adobe photoshop and a 64-bit 3d app that u want (if there are, and I'm unaware, then i guess now is the time)

[/ QUOTE ]

good advice, 64 bit windows has basically no advantages as of now, but it's definitely the future. right now on my comp i have a 64 bit athlon 3000+ (stock 1.8ghz) running at about an fx-55 (2.6ghz), and it was only 146 dollars. make sure you get the venice core if you get that speed region

Rwolf

The next gen "Windows" is suppost to be comming out next year, so you might want to hold out getting Windows XP 64 bit for now.

Again go with these guys said for a 64 bit mobo w/ PCI-E. AGP slot is pretty much on it's way out for the remainder of this year. (might be around for 1 more year)

As for audio, Audigy 2 will suffice for a long time. (although built in audio these days are pretty decint) Creative has a next gen Sound card, but it will be pricey, and you'll need a hard core sound system to notice any diffrence I hear.

Rick Stirling

What do you want the computer to do? Is it a games machine, an art machine, a multimedia machine?

JonMurphy

If you want an idea of where to be aiming, here's a link to a news article duscussing the potential hardware requirements for Vista

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/09/07/vista_hardware_reqs/

John Warner

hey guys, thanks for the info. yah, no worries, i'm going to definately go dual core with pci e, all that type of stuff, i know what it's all about.. so i've done my research hehe. the question was weither or not there's aything new comming out soon.

if i buy a geforce 7800, and in 3 weeks they release an 8200, i'll be a little choaked. it's that type of stuff i'm talkin about.

rick- basicaly everything not so much multimedia.. i have no desire to start encoding videos and ripping dvds, but definately games and art

JonMurphy- that's qutie helpful. thanks man.

by the sounds of things, i might as well buy hardware now and just wait for the OS switch over.

we'll see. grr.. 2,300 canadian is a lot of money... haha i've been planning on getting a comp, but now that i look at the pile of cash, it seems somehow criminal lol. ah well, i guess it's worth it.

Faucet

I think it's a pretty safe time to upgrade.

Well I think NVidia may be releasing a cut down 7800 soon. They were going to release a 7800 Ultra, but they decided against it as it'd probably hurt 7800 sales. I'm betting it'll be out around Christmas or early next year... unless ATI isn't going to be releasing anything soon.

BTW, an AMD X2 3800 and a 7800 is pretty hardcore in my eyes. :P

-Derick

Joshua Stubbles

I just spent about $500 a few months back as well, looks like I'll have to upgrade yet again. I picked up a new mobo and a Athlon64 3500+. I'm running a AGP 6800GT as well. Damn tech seems to be upgrading faster these days than it used to

Delaney King

For high end games and graphics I would go an Amstrad cpc 464- perhaps save up and grab a joystick too or a light pen.

mmmm, tape drive.

KDR_11k

Amstrad? No way man, no way! The PDP-1 is THE gaming machine!

Personally I'd say the 7800 and the Athlon X2 are a waste of money, lower specs won't make much of a difference in actual use but then it's your money.

Joshua Stubbles

For 'this' generation of games, I think you're right, KDR. But your statement doesn't work for next-gen games. More and more games are going to become multithreaded, and of course more graphically demanding. Having a dual core CPU and an extremely capable GPU (7800) is going to help performance considerably.

KDR_11k

Vassago: In my experience games don't get that much more CPU-demanding quickly. The 7800 will be outdated long before any CPU you can buy today is. And I don't know exactly how much better the 7800 is than a 6800 but it doesn't seem to offer any new features.

drakino

The 7800 series is pretty newand isn't likely to be replaced soon. NVidia and ATI have both been starting at the top of the line and then working down a bit before leapfrogging the current generation.

ATI is slated to release their competitor to the 7800 in October.

Beyondthat, nothing really big in the short term. Intel released their plans for next year, and most of it was lower power using processors. Dual core will be important for them as well. But none of it is going to be such a breakthrough over what you get with an Athlon X2 today.

AMD is moving to a new processor socket sometime kinda soon though. Meaning that any system you buy today will likely be limited to a 5000+ or whatever they call a chip above the 4800+. No real big deal though, since both AMD and Intel have been releasing new CPU sockets every 9-12 months. I never bother looking at my CPU/Motherboard as an upgradable situation beyond replacing both.

The only potentially big change I could see would be what Apple does with Intel chips mid next year. From what is already occuring in the programing community, it looks clear that people will be able to run Windows programs inside OS X on an Intel Mac by simply double clicking an EXE. (For those interested, look up DarWine). But at this point, it's far enough off to really not affect a new computer currently.

ElysiumGX

In a few years, all technology will be wired straight into our brains, and we'll be able to communicate to each life unit through wireless receptors in our foreheads. Gaming will only be limited by our imagination, and assets can be produced just by thinking about them. So I wouldn't waste money on these silly computation machines and their ridiculous hardware release cycles.