Should I build another?

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

The parts in my computer are two years old now (almost exactly) and I'm wondering if I should fork out some cash to build a fancy new one. There's nothing wrong with my PC now. It runs fine: I can use Dreamweaver, Photoshop, MySQL Query Browser, and browse the web all at the same time.

I could get a ton of memory, quad core processor, mid range motherboard and GPU for less than 500 smackers.

For you guys who have upgraded recently, have you noticed a big improvement in speed and power?

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

What are you running now?

I upgraded from a single core AMD Athlon and a crappy video card to an AMD Phenom 9850 Quad Core with a GeForce 8600 GTS earlier this year. That upgrade was like night and day. Now, I can't max out the system if I tried - unless I'm rendering a movie or something.

The best thing I like about multiple cores is that if a process wigs out on my system, I still have 75% of my CPU available to correct/terminate the out of control process.

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

A single core to four? That must have been awesome.
Here are the current specs

Dual core AMD X2 3800
GeForce 7600GT 256MB
2 gigs of dual channel memory ($130 EACH when I bought it)

I think it's a fairly good system now. I'm not unhappy with it. I just don't know if there's going to be a noticeable performance difference.

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

Wow, the price sure came down on the memory.

Your PC is a decent build. I would probably keep it for now if it were me. I usually hold out on upgrades as long as possible and then go all out. I used to upgrade a piece at a time, but that got hard to do when the socket types, video card buses, etc. started to change so rapidly.

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

If you think it's an ok system too, I should probably keep it until those infinity core processors come out.

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