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New desktop spec


fool

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Hi,

 

Getting to the point where I want to replace my desktop box. Currently an Athlon XP1800 with a Radeon 8600 video card (I think) and 1Gb of RAM.

 

I will assemble myself and current thinking is something like:

Asus maximus extreme MB

E8400 cpu

Radeon 3850 512MB gpu

2GB DDR2 (or3)

750GB HD

+case

+cooling hardware

 

Wonder if this will give me a machine likely to last as long as my XP has, circa 6 years. I'm interested in video processing MPEG2 to HD DVD and some up to date but non intensive gaming. Have not made the vista leap yet but will be thinking about it.

 

Interested to hear what others might think about the spec and likley availability in BKK.

 

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As money isn't an issue to you why don't you buy two or three (smaller) HD instead of one (big).

That way you may backup important data from one disk to the other. Also video editing may get a little faster when the source is on one disk and you save the result to another disk.

You might even use two disks to create an Raid0 array and a third for backups / data.

 

As far as I can see the ASUS Maximus extreme uses DDR3 RAM while the ASUS Formula uses DDR2 RAM. Everything faster than DDR2 800Mhz is still kind of expensive. 2GB should do.

 

Does it make sense to convert Mepg2 to High Definition? Depends on the resolution of the Mpeg2 I guess. As far as my experience goes (not much) it doesn't make sense to increase the resolution during conversion. If you're undecided between HD DVD and Blue Ray I think Blue Ray is gonna be dominant in the future.

 

When you still have a valid XP license why change to Vista (and pay again)? XP will be supported until 2014 so it fit's you 6 year plan.

 

You're talking about a considerable amount of cash. I'd rather downsize to about half the amount and use the other half to buy new 3 years from now.

 

PS: I assume your username only applies when you interact with ladies.

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Thanks, useful pointers.

 

Right now I have 3 hard drives and was really thinking one might be better heat and noise wise but I guess with SATA the flexibility of two or more drives starts to sound a bit more interesting. Also thinking that DDR2 might be sufficient, not sure I can justify the extra for DDR3. Looks to me like the E8400 is the sweet spot processor at the moment.

 

Pricing stuff today at Zeer, not necessarily the cheapest, came to about 40K. I am pretty much set on the cpu, 2GB RAM and at least 500GB storage either 1 or 2 drives. What might be better alternatives for the motherboard and graphics card without sacrificing too much power or facilities I wonder? Should I still be looking at X38 chipsets or settle for something a tad earlier perhaps?

 

Er, how much of a fool I am is open to interpretation depending on who you speak to and how much booze I've had at any given moment. Though right enough when it comes to the lasses I'm hopelessly incurable :)

 

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