Should I wait?

[Sixpac_XP]

Here is the deal and I am sure it has been asked a million times already.

Right now I have a XP1600+ system (oc'd to 1526.51mhz)... I am looking for more power.

I have onboard a Abit Kr7a-Raid 133 board and also a good full copper heatsink fan combo.

Should I upgrade to a P4-2.4 with 512mb of 533mhz ddr or should I just keep my dough and wait till barton comes out next year?

My current specs:

AMD 1600+ (oc'd to 1526mhz)
ABIT KR7133 Raid
Globolwin CAK38II fan/heatsink
512 mb DDR 2100 generic ram
2 - 60 GB Maxtor 7200 drives
1 - 20 GB Seagate 7200 drive
1 - 80 GB Seagate 7200 drive
1 - SB Live
1 - MSI G4Ti4200 128mb Vid card
etc...

I have a couple of 19" monitors right now and am thinking of replacing one of them with a 21" monitor.

What should I do?

This makes it a million and one

You should always wait until the next latest greatest thing comes out. That way you'll never buy anything; 'cause something else is always in the wings, and your money will get lot's of interest in the bank waiting until the latest thing finally arrives!

Note the sarcasm IMO, if you want it now, get it now.

I tend to get the latest but one thing if I'm buying new, as it's normally slightly cheaper than the latest.

Cheers
Mick

[kjg]

Im not sure exactly what you need the power for at the minute, I run a duron 1300 with little trouble.
You could also look into the new amd chips I think they are 2400 and 2600 xp's said to be fast and have new cores and are usually cheaper than P4's.

[wrz0170]

Originally posted by kjg
You could also look into the new amd chips I think they are 2400 and 2600 xp's said to be fast and have new cores and are usually cheaper than P4's.

KJG,

That may not necessarily be the case anymore. In another post, I mentioned an article I saw and it basically compared the Intel 2.4 and XP 2400.

The XP2400 beat the Intel chip in several benchmarks AFTER it was overclocked. In other words, it took overclocking to match the Intel. What happens when you decide to push the gas pedal down on the Intel 2.4 ? And to tie this up and make the decision making worse, Intel looks to competively price with AMD.

BTW, if anyone knows this: Does the 845E chipset support DDR333 ? Officially or unoffcially?

wrz

[thekingofpain]

BTW, if anyone knows this: Does the 845E chipset support DDR333 ? Officially or unoffcially?

I have an 845e that im using PC3500 (DDR433) on, im running it overvolted at 344 2-3-2-2T without a problem...
(P4 2.4 @ 3.06 stock air cooling)

[wrz0170]

Originally posted by thekingofpain


I have an 845e that im using PC3500 (DDR433) on, im running it overvolted at 344 2-3-2-2T without a problem...
(P4 2.4 @ 3.06 stock air cooling)

Nice!

What mobo are you using? I am considering a Gigabyte 8IEXP2. It has attained pretty good reviews across different sites.

[thekingofpain]

Im using an AbitIT-7 Max2 ( http://www.techimo.com/forum/t35236.html ) ive used the Gigabyte 8IEXP2 for RDRAM and its a great board, im sure you would be happy with its ddr counterpart (possibly the GA-8IE533?)---good stuff!

[originel]

if you really want to, go for it. IMO i would wait till the next gen chip as well (i.e. hammer). a 1.4gHz machine is by no means slow, and i don't really think you would notice much of an increase in performance. if you want to get an upgrade something for more performance, i'd go for an ATI 9700 or get an NV30 when it comes out. you could also invest in a raid setp, or some more memory.