PC Dilemna....
When your windows install finally say goodbye, it is a good time for an upgrade... usually. Installing hardware later on, never quite works as well as you would think, especially if the change is significant. Some hardware pieces cause more problems than others. Windows just does not take well, the removal and change of hardware. Performance tends to decline despite the new faster toys. So, many times it is best to do it when you are going to have a fresh install.
To upgrade or not... that is the question.
I currently have a SCSI320 harddrive. It is past its 5 year warranty and making funny noises. Yeah I know somebody is going to go wtf. Once upon a time SCSI was pretty bleeding edge for harddrives, they had the highest capacities and the highest speeds. Being a gamer, this is important. SCSI also had an advantage in that you could string along a whole succession of harddrives, making upgrades easier and allowing you to keep using old hardware. No more. I had hopes of converting, maybe, to Serial SCSI but the spec seems doomed. It is three years late and Adaptec seems to be quite ill. SATA is coming along nicely, making SCSI much less appealing than it might have been in the past, and it is a heck of a lot cheaper. Only problem is, my motherboard does not have a SATA interface. I am not about to buy up some fossilized EIDE harddrives.
So this probably means I need a new motherboard. A new motherboard will mean a new CPU and new RAM (likely but not necessarily). AMD seems to be the way to go now. AMD recently overtook Intel in volume in some markets. This is good. The board I am eyeing is an ASUS A8N32-Deluxe.
Oh... just as I am stuck with a mobo with no SATA, it also only has AGP x4. The standard has changed and now its all heading to PCIEx16. So... a new graphic card. *sigh* There is nothing wrong with the card I got, it is 'current' but it is AGP.
The sound card is getting old (SB Audigy2). The thing with sound cards, is there rarely is anything wrong or dated about the hardware (usually). The problem comes with the drivers. Creative Labs often conveniently stops issuing updated drivers for its older cards. This leads to them not being 'compatible' with advancing DirectX/OpenGL standards. This naturally encourages people to buy new ones, in a market dominated by Creative. Most motherboards come with a sound chip built in, but they too suffer from lack of driver support and tend to suck in general. I think my soundcard has crossed this driver threshhold. Bas***ds!!
DVD-Roms... I have two (Plextor) in my system. I like having two. It is best if they are identical. Silly me, in a rush a few years back, only updated 1 of the two. The older one has had problems for some time. It is not reliable. It needs replaced. But.. I can't get a second of the newer ones because, they are no longer made. Ah progress. I can probably get by with what I got, but I won't like it. Plextor makes an SATA version. On the upside, DVD-ROMS are pretty cheap these days, even the top tier ones.
bleh... I want a new laptop too. It really is out of date. Pentium2 600mhz... nuff said.
Why all this fuss? Some people spends 100s evens 1000s of dollars on their cars Buying rims, paint jobs, stereos, hydraulics, whatnot. My PC is my sports car. I build my own. My last major PC upgrade was 3 years ago.
*pulls out paper*
Dear Santa,...
To upgrade or not... that is the question.
I currently have a SCSI320 harddrive. It is past its 5 year warranty and making funny noises. Yeah I know somebody is going to go wtf. Once upon a time SCSI was pretty bleeding edge for harddrives, they had the highest capacities and the highest speeds. Being a gamer, this is important. SCSI also had an advantage in that you could string along a whole succession of harddrives, making upgrades easier and allowing you to keep using old hardware. No more. I had hopes of converting, maybe, to Serial SCSI but the spec seems doomed. It is three years late and Adaptec seems to be quite ill. SATA is coming along nicely, making SCSI much less appealing than it might have been in the past, and it is a heck of a lot cheaper. Only problem is, my motherboard does not have a SATA interface. I am not about to buy up some fossilized EIDE harddrives.
So this probably means I need a new motherboard. A new motherboard will mean a new CPU and new RAM (likely but not necessarily). AMD seems to be the way to go now. AMD recently overtook Intel in volume in some markets. This is good. The board I am eyeing is an ASUS A8N32-Deluxe.
Oh... just as I am stuck with a mobo with no SATA, it also only has AGP x4. The standard has changed and now its all heading to PCIEx16. So... a new graphic card. *sigh* There is nothing wrong with the card I got, it is 'current' but it is AGP.
The sound card is getting old (SB Audigy2). The thing with sound cards, is there rarely is anything wrong or dated about the hardware (usually). The problem comes with the drivers. Creative Labs often conveniently stops issuing updated drivers for its older cards. This leads to them not being 'compatible' with advancing DirectX/OpenGL standards. This naturally encourages people to buy new ones, in a market dominated by Creative. Most motherboards come with a sound chip built in, but they too suffer from lack of driver support and tend to suck in general. I think my soundcard has crossed this driver threshhold. Bas***ds!!
DVD-Roms... I have two (Plextor) in my system. I like having two. It is best if they are identical. Silly me, in a rush a few years back, only updated 1 of the two. The older one has had problems for some time. It is not reliable. It needs replaced. But.. I can't get a second of the newer ones because, they are no longer made. Ah progress. I can probably get by with what I got, but I won't like it. Plextor makes an SATA version. On the upside, DVD-ROMS are pretty cheap these days, even the top tier ones.
bleh... I want a new laptop too. It really is out of date. Pentium2 600mhz... nuff said.
Why all this fuss? Some people spends 100s evens 1000s of dollars on their cars Buying rims, paint jobs, stereos, hydraulics, whatnot. My PC is my sports car. I build my own. My last major PC upgrade was 3 years ago.
*pulls out paper*
Dear Santa,...
posted by Mahkno at 5:12 PM
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