{"id":394,"date":"2005-11-07T02:14:46","date_gmt":"2005-11-06T18:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/http:\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/archives\/2005\/11\/2005_11_07_0214.php"},"modified":"2005-11-07T02:14:46","modified_gmt":"2005-11-06T18:14:46","slug":"time-to-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/11\/07\/time-to-upgrade","title":{"rendered":"Time to upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After my PC has been giving me problems, I&#8217;ve decided that it&#8217;s time to upgrade. But this time I decided not to really go for the highest specs, but to build a practical gaming system \/ Digital Audio Workstation.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately for me, a bunch of components which I&#8217;ve spent quite a lot on are still very much in the game and haven&#8217;t lost their appeal, such as the Lian-Li casing, the hard disks, audio card, cd-roms, monitor, keyboard\/mouse, etc. I basically just had to change the Videocard and CPU. Unfortunately, the CPU I intend to buy entailed that I had to change the motherboard, since it was a different socket type. With such a drastic change, my current RAM would do the new components justice. And of course it was time for a new Power Supply Unit just to be on the safe side.<\/p>\n<!--more-->\n<p>After researching, I went with these components:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>AMD Athlon64 3000+ (Venice core)<\/li>\n<li>Epox EP-9NPA+ (socket 939, NForce4 chipset)<\/li>\n<li>2GB (1GBx2) Geil RAM<\/li>\n<li>Palit GeForce 6600GT 256mb (PCIe)<\/li>\n<li>HEC 550W PSU<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I started out with the budget configurations by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.extremetech.com\/article2\/0,1697,1822641,00.asp\">ExtremeTech<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tomshardware.com\/howto\/20051014\/index.html\">TomsHardware<\/a>. The sure choices from there were the CPU and the GPU <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_394_1('footnote_plugin_reference_394_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_394_1('footnote_plugin_reference_394_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_394_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_394_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Graphics Processing Unit&#8230; otherwise known as a videocard.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_394_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_394_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script>. As for the motherboard, I was ready to get the cheapest 939 board out there (ASRock, ULI chipset) since I wasn&#8217;t an overclocker or anything, but given the GPU, and amount RAM I&#8217;ll be putting in, then the board had to be somewhat on an enthusiast level to handle the &#8220;load&#8221; properly.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately at stock settings, those pricey motherboards out there perform very closely as any other cheaper board <em>of the same chipset<\/em>&#8230; the key term here is &#8220;at stock settings&#8221; &#8211; meaning no overclocking. I never was a fan of overclocking, so those NF4 ULTRA \/ SLI based boards, at stock speeds, have minimal gain over any other NF4 board.<\/p>\n<p>Bottomline is, I wasn&#8217;t going to use a value\/budget board, but also didn&#8217;t need all the bells and whistles, of a top-of-the-line enthusiast board. So I ended choosing the cheapest, enthusiast-level board.<\/p>\n<p>But the board was only 1.5k more expensive than the uber-value board with a totally different, and inferior chipset. So that was the least of my concerns.<\/p>\n<p>The suggested specs for the 6600 GPU was 128MB non-GT <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_394_1('footnote_plugin_reference_394_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_394_1('footnote_plugin_reference_394_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_394_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">2 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_394_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Which is a cheaper, but SEVERELY underclocked GPU line.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_394_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_394_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script>, but after researching more, bang for buck was pointing to double the memory and of course, going GT.<\/p>\n<p>I did spend on the RAM though, my audio needs needed more than 1GB. Drum modules like BFD, and Drumkit From Hell <em>alone<\/em> can take up a gig of RAM if you don&#8217;t freeze\/mixdown their output.<\/p>\n<p>Another bummer is that the bigger the RAM you get, then the better quality they have to be, since there&#8217;s a whole size\/access speed relationship now involved. So while running at stock speeds can allow a user to choose non-branded RAM, when you go higher density RAM (2GB), to maintain the latencies you need you&#8217;ll need reliable ones &#8211; regardless if you overclock or not.<\/p>\n<p>Besides having a gig of ram, kept my obsolete computer snappy for 4 years&#8230; I guess it&#8217;s about time I doubled that so this new setup would last me another couple of years.<\/p>\n<p>So tomorrow, I will start dismantling my PC, and start a general cleansing of dust et all. Wish me luck!<\/p><div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_394_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_394_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_394_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_394_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_394_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_394_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_394_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Graphics Processing Unit&#8230; otherwise known as a videocard.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_394_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_394_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_394_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Which is a cheaper, but SEVERELY underclocked GPU line.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_394_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_394_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_394_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_394_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_394_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_394_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_394_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_394_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_394_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_394_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_394_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_394_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_394_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_394_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After my PC has been giving me problems, I&#8217;ve decided that it&#8217;s time to upgrade. But this time I decided not to really go for the highest specs, but to build a practical gaming system \/ Digital Audio Workstation. Fortunately for me, a bunch of components which I&#8217;ve spent quite a lot on are still &hellip; <p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/11\/07\/time-to-upgrade\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Time to upgrade&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[84,1236],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-amd","tag-upgrade"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}