daniel wrote:
I buy a new computer every 5 years or so. My current machine is an Athlon800 and it continues to perform well because I was careful about my purchasing back in 2000 and I'd like to repeat that this time around.
To that end, I'm looking for suggestions from the lot of you with regard to what kind of hardware I can/should get for my new shiny desktop machine. requirements are:
Linux friendly and stable (duh) Slick graphics for WindowsXP games (doom3 is my benchmark right now) TV-in No monitor/dvd/cd/sound since i have that already < $2000CDN
What i do with it most:
Compile stuff (i heart Gentoo) Rip/encode DVD/CDs Write code & surf (KDE) Play games
I don't like to have to upgrade outside of adding another stick of ram, so the CPU that comes with it is likely to be the CPU that stays with it forever. same goes for the video card. I'd like OpenGL to work, so when Xorg stabilises their transparency code, I'd like to be able to use that without having to worry about support for my card. Your suggestions or opinions are very welcome. Please and thank you.
All right, moving away from Linux now. But don't ignore this...
All right, in the PC world, the emerging (pun not intended) technologies are PCI Express, DDR2, 64-bit processors (AMD, Intel's still in the planning stages with theirs) and Serial ATA 2. If cost is an issue, stick with IDE and SATA-2. SATA-2 calls for Native Command Queuing, if both the disk and controller support it. This lets the drive perform reads/writes not in the order received, but in the order that will get them done the fastest. Preliminary tests with prototype technology show NCQ to give a drastic performance boost. SCSI will probably always be faster, but NCQ will be giving IDE a nice shot of steroids in the near future.
You should really look into upgrading individual components down the road. Pop in a new processor in two or three years for a nice performance boost, plus it doubles as a tiny bit of obsolescence protection.
If you're willing to abandon Windows or be willing to use an emulator, a nice dual-64-bit-processor water-cooled Power Mac G5 might be just what the doctor ordered (I mean, an Apple a day keeps the doctor away, am I right?). It's got all the technology I listed above (except for DDR2 and SATA-2, it only has SATA-1). For games, though, I wouldn't recommend this option, but if you want raw power (or possibly a 30-inch Apple Cinema Display), I'd go for it.
I was planning to give you my two cents, but this is more like a nickel's worth. :-P
-- Colin
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