I am thinking of going over to the dark side.
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My last several home PCs have had AMD processors because at the time I bought/built them the AMD option seemed to me to offer the best bang/per buck. In addition there might have been a little bit of supporting the underdog involved too. I am considering building a new one which, and I know I've said this before, will probably be the last entirely new system I'll get. Looking at the performance/price figures I cannot see any alternative to an Intel CPU this time. Since I am an impoverished Senior Citizen I'm going to have to save very hard for several months, in any case, and live on bread and pullit while doing so. The question is whether to save until I have the whole cost or save a little, buy some part(s), save a little etc. Over the last few weeks I have been tracking the prices of the various components
- Case
- PSU
- Motherboard
- Processor
- Memory
- SSD
- HD
- Graphics Card
and some seem to be stable whilst others seem to be falling. So, if you were unfortunate enough to have to buy in instalments, in which order would you buy the components and why?
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
If you can effectively upgrade your existing machine piece by piece... MB/Processor/Memory first - replace existing but keep everything else It would save time to buy the case and PSU at this point, but if financial concerns outweigh convenience then this can wait. HD next - as this can be added simply added to the mix with or without removing the old disk(s) the rest of the components are a luxury if you don't intend to tinker much when you move to the new case, get a cheapo and install the components - ensuring you get a suitable CPU with it Graphics card - what's wrong with the one you have? If you gaming (or need dual monitor or HDMI output or something, then sure, splash out, but in my book this could go last on the pile SSD - gain a luxury, and constantly decreasing prices mean put it off as long as you can Better option if you are strapped for cash, is to save into a term deposit account specifically for the purpose - at maturity the prices will almost certainly have come down, and the forced saving means it won't have been spent - and it is SOOOOOO nice to be able to go to your local online store and just order all the bits, then spend a few hours putting it all together, and suffering that moment of terror the first time you turn it on and there's a pause before any lights come on!
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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:eek:
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
Eeek, indeed. But it has such potential. Like shale oil. A siren's song. Didn't you know that CPUs are a gateway drug?
_____________________________ Give a man a mug, he drinks for a day. Teach a man to mug...
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If you can effectively upgrade your existing machine piece by piece... MB/Processor/Memory first - replace existing but keep everything else It would save time to buy the case and PSU at this point, but if financial concerns outweigh convenience then this can wait. HD next - as this can be added simply added to the mix with or without removing the old disk(s) the rest of the components are a luxury if you don't intend to tinker much when you move to the new case, get a cheapo and install the components - ensuring you get a suitable CPU with it Graphics card - what's wrong with the one you have? If you gaming (or need dual monitor or HDMI output or something, then sure, splash out, but in my book this could go last on the pile SSD - gain a luxury, and constantly decreasing prices mean put it off as long as you can Better option if you are strapped for cash, is to save into a term deposit account specifically for the purpose - at maturity the prices will almost certainly have come down, and the forced saving means it won't have been spent - and it is SOOOOOO nice to be able to go to your local online store and just order all the bits, then spend a few hours putting it all together, and suffering that moment of terror the first time you turn it on and there's a pause before any lights come on!
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Unfortunately I need to keep my existing wreck and in any event the one to be replaced is so old that there is no possibility of a gradual upgrade. All of my cash gets transferred to interest bearing accounts as soon as it arrives in my current account, so that is already taken care of. All good ideas though.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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Consider a plug? Maybe that will get that PC Monkey off your back. http://www.plugcomputer.org/[^] 'Course it's going to be very linux-y.
_____________________________ Give a man a mug, he drinks for a day. Teach a man to mug...
I'm more interested in these: http://www.fit-pc.com/web/[^]
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My last several home PCs have had AMD processors because at the time I bought/built them the AMD option seemed to me to offer the best bang/per buck. In addition there might have been a little bit of supporting the underdog involved too. I am considering building a new one which, and I know I've said this before, will probably be the last entirely new system I'll get. Looking at the performance/price figures I cannot see any alternative to an Intel CPU this time. Since I am an impoverished Senior Citizen I'm going to have to save very hard for several months, in any case, and live on bread and pullit while doing so. The question is whether to save until I have the whole cost or save a little, buy some part(s), save a little etc. Over the last few weeks I have been tracking the prices of the various components
- Case
- PSU
- Motherboard
- Processor
- Memory
- SSD
- HD
- Graphics Card
and some seem to be stable whilst others seem to be falling. So, if you were unfortunate enough to have to buy in instalments, in which order would you buy the components and why?
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
They're all going to be obsolete by the time they arrive at your house, even if you buy them all at once, so order isn't too important. The only critical purchase is the motherboard/CPU/RAM combination; these I would buy as a matched set. If necessary, buy only the minimum RAM you need, as the risk of a significant change in the near future is fairly small. The rest are commodities, and rely on interfaces that don't change rapidly. If I was doing it this way, I'd start with a case and PSU, then assemble them as soon as they arrive. Next I'd grab the HD(s) and install them. With a little cheating by grounding (earthing) one pin on the main PSU connector you may be able to verify that the HDs spin up and all the case fans work. The following purchase would be the MB/CPU/RAM combination, as they can only be tested together, and some do get shipped DOA. It's best to find that out immediately, as some retailers have limits on how long you can claim a replacement. This only works, of course, if the MB has some onboard video capability, as you generally can't fire up a system with no video with any meaningful results. If you plan to get a really first-class video card, but can't afford the whole group at once, grab a cheap one at the local store for testing purposes. As a final step, I'd get the SSD and consider expanding the RAM, just to round things out nicely. Have fun with it, Henry! I absolutely love the new one I recently built - in installments - and can't foresee any need to upgrade again in my lifetime. Unrealistic, of course, as Microsoft will most certainly release a version of Windows that requires 1TB of hard drive space to install, and 64GB of RAM to load, but I'll wait until then to worry about it.
Will Rogers never met me.
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My last several home PCs have had AMD processors because at the time I bought/built them the AMD option seemed to me to offer the best bang/per buck. In addition there might have been a little bit of supporting the underdog involved too. I am considering building a new one which, and I know I've said this before, will probably be the last entirely new system I'll get. Looking at the performance/price figures I cannot see any alternative to an Intel CPU this time. Since I am an impoverished Senior Citizen I'm going to have to save very hard for several months, in any case, and live on bread and pullit while doing so. The question is whether to save until I have the whole cost or save a little, buy some part(s), save a little etc. Over the last few weeks I have been tracking the prices of the various components
- Case
- PSU
- Motherboard
- Processor
- Memory
- SSD
- HD
- Graphics Card
and some seem to be stable whilst others seem to be falling. So, if you were unfortunate enough to have to buy in instalments, in which order would you buy the components and why?
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
Hi Henry, So, what can you re-use from your current system ... case ? power-supply ? Personally, I'd delay on the SSD until cost-per-gig comes down a bit more. And, what are your real needs for graphic performance: if you are a gamer, or you need to drive a high-end monitor with HD video, I'd guess you'd want more than a 'vanilla' video-card. best, Bill
"Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning." C.S. Lewis
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I'm more interested in these: http://www.fit-pc.com/web/[^]
Nice. More robust. Pricier though. And it'll do windows. I'm pretty sure the plug won't.
_____________________________ Give a man a mug, he drinks for a day. Teach a man to mug...
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Hi Henry, So, what can you re-use from your current system ... case ? power-supply ? Personally, I'd delay on the SSD until cost-per-gig comes down a bit more. And, what are your real needs for graphic performance: if you are a gamer, or you need to drive a high-end monitor with HD video, I'd guess you'd want more than a 'vanilla' video-card. best, Bill
"Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning." C.S. Lewis
Unfortunately, my current rig holds what, if I were a commercial organization, would be, mission critical apps and data. It, and its component parts are so old that I won't risk disturbing them by cannibalizing it to start a new system. I have backups of everything but the risk is too great to warrant the attempt. In any event their age and the fact that most of them would be incompatible with the new system (AMD vs Intel for example) preclude this method.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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My last several home PCs have had AMD processors because at the time I bought/built them the AMD option seemed to me to offer the best bang/per buck. In addition there might have been a little bit of supporting the underdog involved too. I am considering building a new one which, and I know I've said this before, will probably be the last entirely new system I'll get. Looking at the performance/price figures I cannot see any alternative to an Intel CPU this time. Since I am an impoverished Senior Citizen I'm going to have to save very hard for several months, in any case, and live on bread and pullit while doing so. The question is whether to save until I have the whole cost or save a little, buy some part(s), save a little etc. Over the last few weeks I have been tracking the prices of the various components
- Case
- PSU
- Motherboard
- Processor
- Memory
- SSD
- HD
- Graphics Card
and some seem to be stable whilst others seem to be falling. So, if you were unfortunate enough to have to buy in instalments, in which order would you buy the components and why?
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
This reminds me of Johnny Cash's song about building his own car[^] from components he smuggled out in his lunchbox!
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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They're all going to be obsolete by the time they arrive at your house, even if you buy them all at once, so order isn't too important. The only critical purchase is the motherboard/CPU/RAM combination; these I would buy as a matched set. If necessary, buy only the minimum RAM you need, as the risk of a significant change in the near future is fairly small. The rest are commodities, and rely on interfaces that don't change rapidly. If I was doing it this way, I'd start with a case and PSU, then assemble them as soon as they arrive. Next I'd grab the HD(s) and install them. With a little cheating by grounding (earthing) one pin on the main PSU connector you may be able to verify that the HDs spin up and all the case fans work. The following purchase would be the MB/CPU/RAM combination, as they can only be tested together, and some do get shipped DOA. It's best to find that out immediately, as some retailers have limits on how long you can claim a replacement. This only works, of course, if the MB has some onboard video capability, as you generally can't fire up a system with no video with any meaningful results. If you plan to get a really first-class video card, but can't afford the whole group at once, grab a cheap one at the local store for testing purposes. As a final step, I'd get the SSD and consider expanding the RAM, just to round things out nicely. Have fun with it, Henry! I absolutely love the new one I recently built - in installments - and can't foresee any need to upgrade again in my lifetime. Unrealistic, of course, as Microsoft will most certainly release a version of Windows that requires 1TB of hard drive space to install, and 64GB of RAM to load, but I'll wait until then to worry about it.
Will Rogers never met me.
Roger Wright wrote:
They're all going to be obsolete by the time they arrive at your house, even if you buy them all at once
This is true. It is the prospect of some items falling in price during the purchase period which prompted my asking for opinions.
Roger Wright wrote:
can't foresee any need to upgrade again in my lifetime
That too is my aim. Equally unrealistic though it is. Therefore I want to have the most modern items that I can get. A Z68 Motherboard for example rather than a P or H67 one, is one mental argument I am having. Since I propose that any SSD would be the boot disk It would come before a mechanical HD (although I do have a spare HD that could serve temporarily as a data disk. It is only 160GB though, so would just about do until I could afford a new one.) The point being that it is not the actual cost of the components that is a problem, just the inability to fund them in the short term without raiding capital.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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This reminds me of Johnny Cash's song about building his own car[^] from components he smuggled out in his lunchbox!
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
One bit at a time. (or something like that, anyway)
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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My last several home PCs have had AMD processors because at the time I bought/built them the AMD option seemed to me to offer the best bang/per buck. In addition there might have been a little bit of supporting the underdog involved too. I am considering building a new one which, and I know I've said this before, will probably be the last entirely new system I'll get. Looking at the performance/price figures I cannot see any alternative to an Intel CPU this time. Since I am an impoverished Senior Citizen I'm going to have to save very hard for several months, in any case, and live on bread and pullit while doing so. The question is whether to save until I have the whole cost or save a little, buy some part(s), save a little etc. Over the last few weeks I have been tracking the prices of the various components
- Case
- PSU
- Motherboard
- Processor
- Memory
- SSD
- HD
- Graphics Card
and some seem to be stable whilst others seem to be falling. So, if you were unfortunate enough to have to buy in instalments, in which order would you buy the components and why?
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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That's how my current system started and if you want to base a system on current tech -1 (none of those seem to have USB3) I would genuinely recommend it as cost effective. As I would like mine to be my last new one it has to be up to date specs.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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My last several home PCs have had AMD processors because at the time I bought/built them the AMD option seemed to me to offer the best bang/per buck. In addition there might have been a little bit of supporting the underdog involved too. I am considering building a new one which, and I know I've said this before, will probably be the last entirely new system I'll get. Looking at the performance/price figures I cannot see any alternative to an Intel CPU this time. Since I am an impoverished Senior Citizen I'm going to have to save very hard for several months, in any case, and live on bread and pullit while doing so. The question is whether to save until I have the whole cost or save a little, buy some part(s), save a little etc. Over the last few weeks I have been tracking the prices of the various components
- Case
- PSU
- Motherboard
- Processor
- Memory
- SSD
- HD
- Graphics Card
and some seem to be stable whilst others seem to be falling. So, if you were unfortunate enough to have to buy in instalments, in which order would you buy the components and why?
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
Henry Minute wrote:
So, if you were unfortunate enough to have to buy in instalments, in which order would you buy the components and why?
a 6 month CD, a 5 month CD, ... cash out all the CDs and buy the computer. Seriously though, case and PSU first since they won't change. Disk drives next since change rates are minimal there, GPU either next or last depending on when you're going to finish your system. 28nm GPUs are expected some time between 2011Q4 and 2012Q1; and should roughly double the performance of current 40nm parts.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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Henry Minute wrote:
So, if you were unfortunate enough to have to buy in instalments, in which order would you buy the components and why?
a 6 month CD, a 5 month CD, ... cash out all the CDs and buy the computer. Seriously though, case and PSU first since they won't change. Disk drives next since change rates are minimal there, GPU either next or last depending on when you're going to finish your system. 28nm GPUs are expected some time between 2011Q4 and 2012Q1; and should roughly double the performance of current 40nm parts.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
Good point about the GPU. The motherboard that I'm considering has reasonable inbuilt graphics, so a GPU could wait for the newer cards.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.