Since when did the number of available chipsets for motheboards suddenly explode like a litter of rabbits?
I’m looking at my upgrade path for the tiny, blue demon that sits under my desk. I used to upgrade every year, but I’ve waited for a while since there hasn’t been a terribly compelling reason to do so…until now. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep abreast of all the hardware trends, and now that I’m trying to get back into them, I’m finding myself somewhat bewildered.
The first thing that I did was to decide on the Intel route. The Core2Duo processors are really fast, economical, and their ability to be overclocked is unparalleled. The 6850, running at 3 GHz is a safe bet. Once I did that, I began to look at my motherboard (mobo) options. There are no less than four viable chipset options right now, each with their pros and cons. Do I want future insurance for a transition to DDR3 memory? Do I want a nVidia chipset that increases the performance of a potential SLI upgrade in the future? Do I want a feature-poor, but rock solid Intel chipset that provides a firm foundation for my computing needs? Do I stick with Asus, who has always given me great quality, or do I take a chance on a DFI board loaded with features and aglow with awesome reviews? Do I need extra PCI slots? Is the on-board audio finally up to the standards of my existing Soundblaster X-Fi? Do I really need two gigabit LAN ports? I mean, come on. Some of these questions are getting to be a bit…ludicrous.
I’ve also decided that I’ll stick with nVidia, despite my complaints about their driver implementations. For now, the performance difference between the existing ATI cards and the current crop of nVidia cards is just too steep to really justify going with ATI. I’m waiting on the rumored 8950 card that’s due in early November, which combines two GPU’s on one card. I’ll also stick with Corsair memory. Four GB should be enough to tide me over. I built a system with budget RAM one time–and I will never, ever, ever do it again. You can’t go wrong with a Raptor 10,000 rpm HDD for a boot drive, and it’s been my experience that a DVD-RW is a DVD-RW. It doesn’t matter what the brand is (aside from Plextor, perhaps), since they’re all made in the same fab in Taiwan.
Shove it all in an Antec 900 with a 600 W power supply and I’m golden.
The total cost, as configured with the required Windows Vista bloatware, and assuming the video card will be at the $600 price point, is just under $1800. So now I just have to wait for the video card to come out!
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You will be surprised at the difference in DVD hardware. They may be made in the same fab in china but again, maybe not. Memorex and several others suck the big weenie as far as I am concerned. I have had the best results with Plextor, and our old standby, Lite-On. (Sony was being made by Lite-On in recent times) I will stay with the Plextor or Lite-On drives and have much less problems than with the others in the pack.. Blitz
I agree that the speed most disc drives read/write are nearly indistinguishable. The amount of noise different the drives produce varies greatly. Price doesn’t seem to correlate to noise either. My office PC was a $300 eMachines with drives so quiet I have to strain my ear to hear them start. And I notice many high-price (hand built and name brand) rigs with drives that sounds as if they use lawn mower engines. I never craved a silent disc drive until I used one. I regret that noise isn’t the benchmark the marketing folks use to sell the drives. In the past I’ve had trouble finding those statistics. Today you might search the “silent PC” hobbyist sites.
The quality of the discs has more influence on the quality of the disc you produce. I’ve seen cheap brands skip in newer, name-brand DVD players. Switched the disc brand and all was well. Creative-types have come to the same conclusion. I had a list of quality media brands, but I seem to have misplaced it.