Let me preface this with a note that I've not actually got any money so this is all so much pie in the sky.
But, for the sake of argument, let's pretend I had £1000 to build a new system at the end of May... if that was the case, and you were me, what would you invest in?
Currently...
My profile has my current system specification. There's very little that I can carry forward. The hard drives are still serviceable, though small by today's standards. The DVD-RW drive is perfectly good and chosen for ability to read a variety of formats for ripping purposes (mainly music, using EAC). The graphics card was once hot stuff and is probably the thing that keeps this system going well past her end of life. The monitor is just fine, but unfortunately not DVI (though I have DVI-to-VGA adapters so I'm not fretting).
Assumptions...
I start from the assumption that I have all the software licenses I need and I object to paying for them as part of a pre-bundled system. However, that doesn't necessarily mean I'd outright reject a pre-bundled system as, these days, I'm getting tired of the nuts and bolts of building a system by parts.
That said, I've no intention to update to Vista so even if a system came with Vista pre-installed I'll be stripping it off to put ol' WinXP SP2 back on. No, Linux is not an option I'll seriously consider. I work in Windows, play games in Windows, write code for Windows. Nothing against Linux, just not an option that will sway me either way.
I'll probably also assume that I'm keeping my current (CRT) monitor and that I'm mainly looking to replace the base unit. Again, I'd love a new monitor but that'll throw another £200 at the price and I'd rather spend that on more power (unless I've £200 kicking about after pricing everything else up).
I've also got a clear idea of what keyboard and mouse combination I use, what speakers I need, and so on. Just limiting this to the base system, no peripherals, unless that has a fundamental impact (e.g. deliberately buying an external soundcard so I can use it both with my laptop and desktop at different times).
The Big Questions...
It seems to me that any such investigation starts from the point of view of making a few primary choices. A few years back I knew enough to make the choices but as my ability to buy new hardware decreased, so did my time spent keeping up with it. As that ability has tended to zero, so has my knowledge...
Still, it seems that the big questions remain:
That triplet, to my mind, then governs the entirety of the purchasing process from bounding what motherboard is required, then to what PSU is needed, what case they can fit in, how many fans you need and of what type and so on.
Have I missed any key questions for the current market?
Traditionally, I've gone AMD, nVidia and internal. Happy to rethink that if there's fair reason to do so.
So, can you help?
Not looking (necessarily) for you guys to go out and price me up components, though feel free if you fancy doing that. Really just looking for some thoughts on the current market, where the real choices lie, what tradeoffs can be had and whether, by waiting two weeks I could have saved a load of money/effort by waiting for "just that one extra technology".
Any thoughts?
But, for the sake of argument, let's pretend I had £1000 to build a new system at the end of May... if that was the case, and you were me, what would you invest in?
Currently...
My profile has my current system specification. There's very little that I can carry forward. The hard drives are still serviceable, though small by today's standards. The DVD-RW drive is perfectly good and chosen for ability to read a variety of formats for ripping purposes (mainly music, using EAC). The graphics card was once hot stuff and is probably the thing that keeps this system going well past her end of life. The monitor is just fine, but unfortunately not DVI (though I have DVI-to-VGA adapters so I'm not fretting).
Assumptions...
I start from the assumption that I have all the software licenses I need and I object to paying for them as part of a pre-bundled system. However, that doesn't necessarily mean I'd outright reject a pre-bundled system as, these days, I'm getting tired of the nuts and bolts of building a system by parts.
That said, I've no intention to update to Vista so even if a system came with Vista pre-installed I'll be stripping it off to put ol' WinXP SP2 back on. No, Linux is not an option I'll seriously consider. I work in Windows, play games in Windows, write code for Windows. Nothing against Linux, just not an option that will sway me either way.
I'll probably also assume that I'm keeping my current (CRT) monitor and that I'm mainly looking to replace the base unit. Again, I'd love a new monitor but that'll throw another £200 at the price and I'd rather spend that on more power (unless I've £200 kicking about after pricing everything else up).
I've also got a clear idea of what keyboard and mouse combination I use, what speakers I need, and so on. Just limiting this to the base system, no peripherals, unless that has a fundamental impact (e.g. deliberately buying an external soundcard so I can use it both with my laptop and desktop at different times).
The Big Questions...
It seems to me that any such investigation starts from the point of view of making a few primary choices. A few years back I knew enough to make the choices but as my ability to buy new hardware decreased, so did my time spent keeping up with it. As that ability has tended to zero, so has my knowledge...
Still, it seems that the big questions remain:
- Processor -- Intel or AMD?
- Graphics -- nVidia or ATI?
- Sound -- onboard, internal or external?
That triplet, to my mind, then governs the entirety of the purchasing process from bounding what motherboard is required, then to what PSU is needed, what case they can fit in, how many fans you need and of what type and so on.
Have I missed any key questions for the current market?
Traditionally, I've gone AMD, nVidia and internal. Happy to rethink that if there's fair reason to do so.
So, can you help?
Not looking (necessarily) for you guys to go out and price me up components, though feel free if you fancy doing that. Really just looking for some thoughts on the current market, where the real choices lie, what tradeoffs can be had and whether, by waiting two weeks I could have saved a load of money/effort by waiting for "just that one extra technology".
Any thoughts?
