Upgrading..

[Guest phantom]

I'm planning on updating my computer, and want some opinions and/or

suggestions.

 

Note that I am an Intel/ATI person, although considering how AMD

bought ATI you might be able to convince me to choose nVidia (although

I didn't leave Google even though they partnered with AOL <.<).

 

Currently I am on:

2.6 GHz Pentum 4

1.5 GB DDR RAM (I think it's 400 MHz)

256 MB ATI RADEON 9550 AGP video card

http://beatme101.com/images/xblade.jpg

An old, but still quite good 17 inch Compaq FS740 monitor that maxes

at 1280*1024*32@60.

 

I have 3 hard drives, which I plan to transfer to the new rig. They're

fast drives (all 7200 RPM), 2 IDE and 1 SATA. ~740 GB (40 + 300 + 400)

total. Running Windows 2000 Professional.

 

I'm looking at getting:

2.0 GHz (or higher?) Core 2 Duo

Some sort of PCI-Express video card.

A new case, so I won't have to empty out my current one. Hopefully the

new one will be a good looking one, since my current one certainly is.

An LCD screen of some sort, maybe. If I have the money left for it.

A power supply capable of powering what's going to be in there.

 

My budget is kind of small, I'm hoping for somewhere around $400 (CAD)

(by the end of this month I should have that), but I could save up to

something over $560 by the beginning of November.. If I manage to buy

the new stuff at $400, then by November I'll probably get that LCD

screen. I've been told by one store (don't remember the name, they

don't have a web site) that I can obtain a 2 GHz Core 2 Duo with

motherboard and heat sink for $250.

 

I'm fairly sure that the processor I'm looking at will smooth out

performance in this game I just got, Supreme Commander (you may have

seen a topic I had about that earlier today). However, what I'm more

worried about is getting high definition video to play smoothly.

Currently that doesn't work so well on my computer, getting very far

out of sync in mere seconds (and that's just 1280*720@29.98). I use

Media Player Classic to play my videos. I'm curious as to whether or

not media players (such as MPC) are good at making use of dual core

processors, or if I would have to get a considerably higher clock

speed to handle it..

 

Also, does Windows 2000 Professional support quad core processors, or

would it only make use of 2 cores (due to the license only supporting

two processors, and Windows 2000 seeing each core as a whole processor

unit in it's own socket)? Not that I expect to be able to afford one

of those any time this year..

 

 

Some time after I do all this I might turn the old one into a Linux/

Win98 dual boot machine, to play with archaic TV tuners (and maybe

even The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, which was an awesome game but

quite dated), and explore the world of Linux.

 

Whew, I think I wrote too much. Maybe I should sum it up in one word

for people who don't want to read it all: AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!