Operation- MoFoCI (Upgrading Computer)

[RussianVodka]

It has come to my attention that during Fall of this year, the Xbox160 and PS3 are going to be released to the public.

To counter the hostile threat, I am commencing Operation: MoFoCI (Mobolization for Console Invasion)

At this time, my rig\'s forces stand as so:



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CPU

CPU Type - Intel Pentium 4, 2400 MHz
 L1 Trace Cache  - 12K Instructions  
 L1 Data Cache   - 8 KB  
 L2 Cache   -  512 KB (On-Die, ECC, ATC, Full-Speed)  



Mother Board

Motherboard Name  -  Asus P4S533-X  
Bus Type - Intel NetBurst  
Bus Width -  64-bit  
Real Clock  - 100 MHz (QDR)  
Effective Clock -  400 MHz  
Bandwidth -  3200 MB/s  

Bus Type   SiS MuTIOL  
Bus Width   16-bit  

RAM Total  -  511 MB   (2 - 256MB  chips)
RAM Curently Used - 208MB (That\'s with standard programs runing in back ground)

Swap Space Total - 1249 MB  (ROM memory that is converted to backup RAM)
Swap Space Used - 282 MB (I think Swap Space is used for idle programs?)

Physical Address Extention: Suported - Yes; Activated - No (don\'t know what it is)




Video Adapter

Video Adapter -  MSI RX9800XT (Radeon9800pro with XT core)
Bus Type   AGP 4x  
Memory Size   128 MB  
GPU Clock   378 MHz (oveclocks to 396)  
Pixel Pipelines   8  
TMU Per Pipeline   1  
Vertex Shaders   4 (v2.0)  
Pixel Shaders   1 (v2.0)  
DirectX Hardware Support   DirectX v9.0  
Pixel Fillrate   3024 MPixel/s  
Texel Fillrate   3024 MTexel/s  



PSU
400wat



Case
Case from my original P2;   1998
Plastic front.
Metalic Sides and back  (aluminum?)
No holes, fans.
Usual temp - warm.
When CPU and RAM have high load - hot.
When CPU and Ram overloaded - VERY HOT.




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Fist and foremost I want to replace the case, which has been bothering me for some time now.
Right now I\'m looking at buying this case: http://www.amamax.com/si75atxmigac.html
With the assesories I want (minus the assesories I already have), the cost will be in the high 50\'s/low 60\'s.

Also I want to replace the ram, my other comp has a 512MB stick in there... So what I\'m planing to do is replace my two 256MB sticks with it, and then add another 1GB stick; that would make me have 1.5GB of RAM.
The 1GB RAM stick will cost about $57.
http://www.buyaib.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=717


This is prety much all I\'m thinking about upgrading at the moment.

Any sujestions?

How are you prepering for the console invasion?

[RussianVodka]

Ah crap! Just found out my Mother Board only suports up to 1024 RAM.... I guess I\'ll search for one of those too...

[RussianVodka]

Anyone?

[Talamir]

I dunno...burn the local gamestop??

Ehh, I\'m gettin a new comp anyways, so we\'ll see...

[Nada]

Originally posted by RussianVodka
It has come to my attention that during Fall of this year, the Xbox160 and PS3 are going to be released to the public.

From what I\'ve heard the PS3 is coming out in Spring 2006 and Sony has not even confirmed if that would be in Japan only or in other countries too.

As for upgrading, it has come to my attention that Pentium M \"Dothan\" processors work really well for desktops (powerful yet silent) and Asus has come up with an adapter for existing P4 mobos (albeit compatible only with a select few). And then there\'s the dual cores coming out. Tough choice though I myself am not planning to upgrade right now.

[derwoodly]

Personally when I think about upgrading, I start with the Motherboard.  These days I think ordering the whole computer at once is a better deal.  I few months back I bought a LCD screen, thinking that I could always upgrade and save the cost of a monitor the next time I buy.  I looked online at Dell and ordering a computer without a monitor saves me $20 dollars.  I payed $350 for mine.  I think I am done with frankenstiening my computers together.

[Xordan]

My PC is already good enough to fend off the console invasion


Some advice about a new case. Buy for upgradability in the future.

I\'d reccommend:

http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase/kandalf/kandalfmenu.htm

or

http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase/shark/sharkmenu.htm

I\'ve got the second one. It\'s huge so you\'ve got load of room to work in, and it has great ventillation. The first one will cost more, but it\'s a bit bigger than the first one, and supports lots of different formats of motherboard.

Also, don\'t bother getting a new mobo unless you\'re going to get a processor upgrade as well. Just get the max amount of ram your current mobo supports until you\'re ready to upgrade your whole system.

[RussianVodka]

If I get a new mobo+processor, I want a dual core AMD. But those things are WAY too expensive.

So I guess I\'ll just buy the case for now. See if the cooling will give me any improvement.

P.S. That case you showed me looks prety damn awsome... How much did you shell out on that monster?

[RussianVodka]

Oh, forgot to mention. I run a dual boot of Linux/Windows. I\'ve heard somewhere taht AMD processors aren\'t good with Linux.

Is this true?

[John_Thazer]

Originally posted by RussianVodka
Oh, forgot to mention. I run a dual boot of Linux/Windows. I\'ve heard somewhere taht AMD processors aren\'t good with Linux.

Is this true?

Don\'t see any problems here? I ran Suse, Yoper and now finally found Ubuntu. So my advise, scrap the mobo, scrap Pentium and get AMD...

[RussianVodka]

You think once Intel and AMD start pumping out the dual core mobos the prices of processors will drop alot?

[John_Thazer]

Originally posted by RussianVodka
You think once Intel and AMD start pumping out the dual core mobos the prices of processors will drop alot?

Depends how good those mobos would be.

[Xordan]

I paid ?80 for it. Which is about $140 I\'d guess.