Coppertop Needs a New Computer

[Coppertop]

Alright people, I've narrowed my options down to 5 things:

1) Wait untill PCI express becomes more widespread, don't buy a computer now.

2) Get a PCI express setup (32bit):
(no specs yet)

3) Get a PCI express setup (64bit):
(no specs yet)

4) Get a non PCI express setup (32bit):
-AMD Athalon XP-M 2500+ ($126)* http://www.canadacomputers.com/cpus.html
-ASUS A7N8X-E ($150)http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=25208&CatId=1129
-Western Digital Caviar SE 200gb Drives ($191, 40 rebate. x2 = $383) RAID 0 http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=985129&sku=TSD-200JD
-Corsair TWINX 512mBx2 ($358) http://www.canadacomputers.com/memory.html
BASE TOTAL: $1017

5) Get a non PCI express setup (64bit):
-AMD Athalon 64 3700+ ($684, socket 754)
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1035206&CatId=1177
-ASUS K8V SE Deluxe ($154) http://www.canadacomputers.com/motherboards.html#amd
-Western Digital Caviar SE 200gb Drives ($191, 40 rebate. x2 = $383) RAID 0 http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=985129&sku=TSD-200JD
-Corsair TWINX 512mBx2 ($358) http://www.canadacomputers.com/memory.html
BASE TOTAL: $1579

I'm having difficulty deciding, so I need you people's help. Please keep in mind that I have ~$2200 CDN to spend, and that I do 3D stuff, Photoshop, Flash, and games-o-plenty.

Again, all feedback, thoughts, specs for the PCIe computers, and price corrections are greatly appreciated.

*It's the same price as a 2600+ and it can run upto 3400+ speeds.

[Butters]

I would say get a Mac, but since you do 'games-o-plenty', I wont bother. Although Macs are much better for graphics.

[Maxtr0sity]

I'm not anti-Mac, but I'm not for it either. I say wait, prices for 64bit processors are due to drop within the next 2 months. As for PCIe, unless you're planning to keep this computer for over 5 years, go with PCIe. Most hardware will still be manufactured in AGP format until 2006.

[Coppertop]

Butters: Trust me, the PC can do just as well in the graphics department if you know what you're doing. ;)

Max: Yeah, I was thinking about that. But I really want to change now. My computer is 3½ years old, and the graphics card (currently, a GeForce 4 MX 440) is quite litterally killing my computer. I can't really get a new card very well because my computer is just a bit to old to handle the new ones. It's about time I upgraded anyway.

Note: Dear nVidia,

I hate you and your shoddy merchandise. Suck an exhaust pipe. I've had your cards for a while now, and they only cause me grief. Not to mention the drivers. They screw up my computer all the time. Infact, I downloaded the latest driver today, and while installing it, windows popped up and said that their driver isn't certified to run with windows. I mean, for god sake - it's your win XP specific driver, and it's not even compatable! nVidia, I wish all the worst to you. I hope a pox comes your way. A plague on you and your families.

Get Bent.
:red: Coppertop

[Maxtr0sity]

Me-ow...I haven't had a problem with my nVidia card for over 5 years now. :P

[Butters]

Blah, I got an ATI Radeon with my comp ;)

[ya3]

Get a dual-processor liquid-cooled 2.5GHz 64bit PowerMac G5 with 1GHz FSB, 2gb RAM, PCI Express, and the best UNIX desktop operating system (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1675775,00.asp) ;)

[Butters]

2gb RAM? Why not get 8? :P

Those new 30" Displays look so nice, they cost so much tho, £2,500 each!

[ya3]

ok then, 8gb RAM :D
and how about quadruple 30" HD Cinema Displays? :P

[Coppertop]

heathens! All of you! :P

come on, let's stick to what I put down. I would never buy I mac. EVER. and I won't ever by an nVidia card ever again. so, with that down, what do you people think?

[ya3]

I would never buy I mac. EVER.

Then you may as well find the nearest garage sale, pick up an old 386 and use that until you come to your senses.

[kirupa]

Seems like the mac fankids are out in force today :) I guess their cages weren't padlocked tightly.

Get a PCI Express one - it'll be worth it in the long run. Though you may want to wait for the 2nd generation of PCI-e video cards. A lot of the current ones aren't that much better compared to their AGP counterparts.

Oh - and nVidia's 6800 is great! Make sure you buy from a good graphics card company. Most companies modify nvidia's or ati's reference design with their own add-ons. Your problems may have come from faulty mods from card resellers.

:elderly:

[senocular]

Id just like to chime in and say I too have had problems with the Nvidia drivers.. just crappy things that screw up ... other crappy things. For instance, and this is just one drop in the pond, but my current "spend most of my time on" computer at work has (had) an issue where the cursor would get stuck as the four arrow move cursor when clicking on the title bar of a maximized window. This was a result of a feature that allowed you to move maximized windows from one monitor to the other via dragging. Of course it only seemed to work 1 out of 30 times using it. Those other 29 times didnt move the window and kept the cursor as the move arrows. Whenever that happened I had to go back into the mouse properties and re-apply the cursor settings. Now, needless to say, that "feature" (and many crappy others) is disabled.

[Butters]

ok then, 8gb RAM :D
and how about quadruple 30" HD Cinema Displays? :P
*Drools*

Seriously how cool would that be, if you had £7,500 (ontop of the G5)

I actually went onto the Apple site once, and added everything to a G5 and it came out to over £13,000 :!:

[Coppertop]

kirupa: Heh, I knew there was something I forgot to do this morning. :trout: It's possible I got a bad company, or just a bad card, but when I've had 2 strong experiences with their cards, and numerous minor encounters, it leaves me to believe that this is more than just an unlucky occurance. Most of my problems include my settings not being saved, random crashes on anything 3D, occasional random failures in the card (and I know it is, becuase every time I restart, xp tells me I had a fatal error with the video card) and with the latest driver, these only seem to be happening more and more often. Hell, I have to restart my computer 4 times every morning in order to get it to work. (the first time it freezes up in the bios, the second it freezes up during the initialization of the driver, the third time it freezes up when I try and run a program. The forth time, it loads alright.)

ya3 & butters: £7,500?! for that amount of money (~$20,000 CDN!!!) I could by a dual processor PC, and enough cooling equipment to make it run at least as fast (overclocked). Not to mention the flashing lights, and a gold plated case.

[Butters]

lol yea, those dispalys are so expensive. Macs on the whole are pretty expensive, but I think its worth it in the end :P

The G5 is the most expensive Mac tho, all the others (like the iMac, eMac, iBook, and PowerBook G4) are much cheaper.

[senocular]

lol yea, those dispalys are so expensive. Macs on the whole are pretty expensive, but I think its worth it in the end :P

The G5 is the most expensive Mac tho, all the others (like the iMac, eMac, iBook, and PowerBook G4) are much cheaper.

As Macs go, the G5 is worth it though.

[Butters]

Yea definatly, its one mutha of a computer [/nerd]

[Coppertop]

but I still don't have $20,000 and would never spend it on a computer.

[Butters]

I dont have that much either, but if I was rich or a millionairre or somthing, I wouldent hesitate to order one off the Apple website :)