White_Wolf
Baseband Member
- Messages
- 92
Yesterday I got the opportunity to get to the bank and deposit my Christmas money. I don't have a car or a job (and won't be getting either).
Anyhow, my dream computer, that perfect combination of CPU, MoBo, RAM, PSU, is no longer the price it was when I originally put it in my Newegg cart. And so I was heart broken, and a little outraged.
So now it's back to the drawing board. I have to reevaluate which brand and model to buy, and I have to start configuring future plans into all of this. This has lead to being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
It's gotten to the point where I question the validity of everything. Like, will I ever do a SLI/crossfire? Will I ever buy an AM3 socket CPU? Will I ever buy a computer case?
I'm not out to buy the perfect computer, or anything super powerful. I am simply fed up with the one I have; it's about 9 years old, and wasn't even close to top of the line back then.
I want to build a strong computer with awesome upgrade potential. And I want to do it for approximately $220
I have a floppy drive, CD Burner, an old 30 GB hard drive, keyboard, mouse, crt monitor, printer, modem, headphones, microphone. And a horrible old computer case that might actually work with a new ATX motherboard. So all that stuff can be put aside. What I need are just the essentials.
Out of all the essentials, I think it's the PSU and MoBo that's most important. The CPU, RAM, and video card, can only be changed and upgraded based on the PSU and MoBo.
The subject of PSU's seems to be more complicated than the whole some of the computer itself. Unless you spend an outrageous amount of money, your going to get half the promised wattage (and god only knows how much wattage you needed to begin with), it's going to be a fire hazard, probably destroy everything in your computer the moment you have a little power spike, cause damage to your computer over time because of its "electrical noise", and may cause your computer to not run. So, spend as much on the PSU as the whole computer or take your chances with a ticking time bomb. I'm not liking that, but I have no way of knowing how much power I "really" need and how much power I will need in the future. I've tried to study PSU's, and as if all the rails, modular, power correction factor, voltage versus amperage on any given rail at any given time, wasn't enough to make me blow my brains out, I can't even go by those things because it seems too many companies just invent fake statistics out of thin air and magically can't be held accountable for what used to be called false advertizing.
Then comes the motherboard. I'd love to stick a Sempron in their now and upgrade to a Phenom next year. After all, many mother boards make this claim, but than specify they can't handle a processor that consumes as much wattage as a phenom. And thus their advertized statement is only true if AMD magically begins making super low power consumption phenoms.
Also, wouldn't it be great to stick a gig of the cheapest DDR2 800 in there, and upgrade to the fastest, most over clockable DDR2 1066, in the future. Well many mother boards claim you can. But only if you have an AM2+ socket processor (such as the wacky 3 core, and that 4 core phenom whose power consumption is over the limit for the motherboard).
And what about those motherboards that allow you to put 32 gigs or 64 gigs of DDR2 RAM in their 4 slots? Awesome! But when the heck are we going to see 8 or 16 gigabyte sticks of ram? And if it doesn't exist now, than how the heck do the motherboard manufacturers know it can handle such memory? I guess they consult their psychic hotline, gaze into the crystal ball to know it will work in the future.
Same with those few motherboards that claim AM3 socket ready. That's right, AMD hasn't released a AM3 CPU yet, but when they do, this thing will run it, our crystal ball said so.
And when the AM3's hit the market, will they cost $200 or $2000
And since the bragging point of the AM3 socket is "will allow you to run DDR3 RAM" will that work on a hybrid motherboard able to run AM2/AM2+/AM3, or just the AM3 only mobos?
Side port memory, with hybrid crossfire… I don't even have the patience to examine what the heck this actually means. I suspect it translates to "by spending extra money on this mobo, buying 2 mid priced video cards for a total of $230, you can have the power of one well made video card that costs $200".
Then comes the difficulty of to overclock or not. Should I invest in a PSU and MoBo that's primed for overclocking, to get a good performance out of cheap parts? Or is overclocking just a way of marketing premium quality parts that can be over driven to result in an unstable 15% over all system performance boost at the risk of destroying all those expensive premium priced parts?
To be honest, I really don't even know if I should bother building a computer.
I went from about ready to enter my credit card number and buying the parts, to wondering if I should continue chugging along on a low end computer that has a "Windows Millennium" sticker on the front. *cries*
Anyhow, my dream computer, that perfect combination of CPU, MoBo, RAM, PSU, is no longer the price it was when I originally put it in my Newegg cart. And so I was heart broken, and a little outraged.
So now it's back to the drawing board. I have to reevaluate which brand and model to buy, and I have to start configuring future plans into all of this. This has lead to being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
It's gotten to the point where I question the validity of everything. Like, will I ever do a SLI/crossfire? Will I ever buy an AM3 socket CPU? Will I ever buy a computer case?
I'm not out to buy the perfect computer, or anything super powerful. I am simply fed up with the one I have; it's about 9 years old, and wasn't even close to top of the line back then.
I want to build a strong computer with awesome upgrade potential. And I want to do it for approximately $220
I have a floppy drive, CD Burner, an old 30 GB hard drive, keyboard, mouse, crt monitor, printer, modem, headphones, microphone. And a horrible old computer case that might actually work with a new ATX motherboard. So all that stuff can be put aside. What I need are just the essentials.
Out of all the essentials, I think it's the PSU and MoBo that's most important. The CPU, RAM, and video card, can only be changed and upgraded based on the PSU and MoBo.
The subject of PSU's seems to be more complicated than the whole some of the computer itself. Unless you spend an outrageous amount of money, your going to get half the promised wattage (and god only knows how much wattage you needed to begin with), it's going to be a fire hazard, probably destroy everything in your computer the moment you have a little power spike, cause damage to your computer over time because of its "electrical noise", and may cause your computer to not run. So, spend as much on the PSU as the whole computer or take your chances with a ticking time bomb. I'm not liking that, but I have no way of knowing how much power I "really" need and how much power I will need in the future. I've tried to study PSU's, and as if all the rails, modular, power correction factor, voltage versus amperage on any given rail at any given time, wasn't enough to make me blow my brains out, I can't even go by those things because it seems too many companies just invent fake statistics out of thin air and magically can't be held accountable for what used to be called false advertizing.
Then comes the motherboard. I'd love to stick a Sempron in their now and upgrade to a Phenom next year. After all, many mother boards make this claim, but than specify they can't handle a processor that consumes as much wattage as a phenom. And thus their advertized statement is only true if AMD magically begins making super low power consumption phenoms.
Also, wouldn't it be great to stick a gig of the cheapest DDR2 800 in there, and upgrade to the fastest, most over clockable DDR2 1066, in the future. Well many mother boards claim you can. But only if you have an AM2+ socket processor (such as the wacky 3 core, and that 4 core phenom whose power consumption is over the limit for the motherboard).
And what about those motherboards that allow you to put 32 gigs or 64 gigs of DDR2 RAM in their 4 slots? Awesome! But when the heck are we going to see 8 or 16 gigabyte sticks of ram? And if it doesn't exist now, than how the heck do the motherboard manufacturers know it can handle such memory? I guess they consult their psychic hotline, gaze into the crystal ball to know it will work in the future.
Same with those few motherboards that claim AM3 socket ready. That's right, AMD hasn't released a AM3 CPU yet, but when they do, this thing will run it, our crystal ball said so.
And when the AM3's hit the market, will they cost $200 or $2000
And since the bragging point of the AM3 socket is "will allow you to run DDR3 RAM" will that work on a hybrid motherboard able to run AM2/AM2+/AM3, or just the AM3 only mobos?
Side port memory, with hybrid crossfire… I don't even have the patience to examine what the heck this actually means. I suspect it translates to "by spending extra money on this mobo, buying 2 mid priced video cards for a total of $230, you can have the power of one well made video card that costs $200".
Then comes the difficulty of to overclock or not. Should I invest in a PSU and MoBo that's primed for overclocking, to get a good performance out of cheap parts? Or is overclocking just a way of marketing premium quality parts that can be over driven to result in an unstable 15% over all system performance boost at the risk of destroying all those expensive premium priced parts?
To be honest, I really don't even know if I should bother building a computer.
I went from about ready to enter my credit card number and buying the parts, to wondering if I should continue chugging along on a low end computer that has a "Windows Millennium" sticker on the front. *cries*
