The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something!

**kris23** · May 13, 2009, 02:52 AM

my 2 year old computer has generally inferior components than the $500 budget computer in my list....

$500 - Entry Level

CD/DVD - LG 22X DVD Combo Drive (US) Newegg.com (UK)
Chassis - Cooler Master Elite 335 (US) Newegg.com
HDD - Seagate 7200.12 500GB SATA drive (US) Newegg.com
GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD 4350 (US) Newegg.com (UK)
Motherboard - ASUS M4A78 Plus 770 ATX Motherboard (US) Newegg.com
PSU - Seasonic 300W ATX PSU (US) Newegg.com
Memory - OCZ Blade Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) CAS 4-4-4-15 DDR2 800 (US) Newegg.com
CPU - AMD Phenom 8450 AM2+ CPU (US) Newegg.com
OS - Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit (US) Newegg.com (UK) YoYoTech.co.uk

its only got a low end dual-core, this has a tri-core.

it only HAD 4x1GB DDR2 1200 (now 1GB), this has low latency 2x2GB DDR2 800

it HAD dual 7200.11s in RAID 0 (now just one) this has a considerably faster 7200.12

the list then goes on.....

pretty much the only thing superior would be the 3870 but that is corrected with the addition of a 4670 or better....

this system costed something around $1500 or so at the time of assembly.... and now its roughly comparable to a budget $500 rig.... wow where all the time go? anyone else feel like this?

gadabout · May 13, 2009, 03:18 AM

Well, yeah kinda okay not really. Why? I'll explain. Computer shop where I was working at back in 2006 was having a blow out sale because of a remodel of the store. So the "old" stock had to go. I bought an HP (yeah, yeah I know what most of you are thinking) it was originally $650+ tax. I bought it for $198.87 after taxes. It also had a $50 mail-in which I got back. Total price: $148.87! It was brand new in the box never opened.

The original specs are:
Athlon 64 X2 (T) 3800+ 2.0 GHz
1 GB (2 x 512)
250 GB SATA
GeForce 6150 LE (on board video)

You can see in my sig that I have upgraded it since then. And I just realized I paid more for my video card than my computer! lol

**kris23** · May 13, 2009, 03:26 AM

thats a pretty good deal right there..... hardware does get old and eventually you may need to upgrade the 3870s home lol

CDsDontBurn · May 13, 2009, 03:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kris23

wow where all the time go? anyone else feel like this?

me. my computer is coming up on 5 years in july. specs are on the left.

i built my youngest sister, now 11, a computer when she was 9. and for the low-low price of $500, i got away with a WD 80GB SATA II, e4400, Gigabyte p965 MoBo, 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800Mhz RAM, and an 8600GT 256MB, a so-so PSU, and a Coolermaster Elite case.

My system has cost me about a total of $2,000 since i've built it.

OldBuzzard · May 13, 2009, 05:58 AM

Could have been worse. I knew a guy that bought one of these

http://www.decodesystems.com/trs80-m2-sep80m.gif

Judas · May 13, 2009, 06:35 AM

got a TRS-80 sitting in my shop right now... in working condition.. and it has 48K RAM!

plus the Tandy 1000 setup which cost an insane amount of money..

i know some people that got some of the first macs... which were in teh 10,000+ price range back in the say which is just an absurd number.... coulda bought nearly 3 vehicles for the price of one computer at that time.

This is why i tend to want to stick to what i can play with....

anonemus · May 13, 2009, 07:37 AM

The financial crisis that started Q4 last year also contributed to making parts much cheaper right now, I think. I see new products being introduced with low price as the come-on...

IvanV · May 13, 2009, 12:49 PM

That's the way it goes... Still, your original rig would more than hold it's own against the new budget assembly.

The CPUs are comparable and, overclocked as it is, yours should actually be considerably faster than that X3; I'm guessing that the RAM you bought was rather expensive at the time, but at 1200MHz CL5 it has both higher bandwidth and lower access time than that 800MHz CL4 memory; the RAID configuration would beat the newer drive on both capacity and performance; and finally the 3870 should be a tad faster even than 4670.

BlueMak · May 13, 2009, 01:03 PM

Think, would buying a budget PC now, last you as much as spending 3 times the money on a better system?
I think it is a good idea to never buy the fastest CPU out there, ever, especialy for Intel solutions. Go for the second or third in speed. Right there you save a ton of money, and by the time you need to upgrade, you will upgrade the CPU too...so any money towards the most expensive ones, is waste of money. Especialy since the real world performance gain you might get is too slim to worth the money.

Graphics cards is a bit different. As long as there isn't a newer version 1-2 months away, you are ok with buying the most expensive card (not those that are overclocked 5-10% and cost 50% more) . If you bought a 8800GTX when they came out, you should still be ok now and perhaps for another year, as long as you don't play your games at very high resolutions or demand 100fps from the latest games out there at 1920x1200.

I also find spending extra money for expensive RAM modules just for any extra speed, to be waste of money.

swimtech · May 13, 2009, 06:27 PM

Heh, sure - even after just a full year now I can feel it a bit...

My son wanted to build his first - so we specced it together. What came out of that was that he wound up picking the monitor and case (an Acer 23" 1920x1080 and an Antec 1200), and I picked the rest - based on a i7 920 processor and 4670 video card on a Gigabyte UD3 mainboard. He gave me his budget so that's what we hit - less than $1300 altogether after a couple rebates. Nice system (in a monster case!), and right at what it cost me to build mine a year ago.

If I weren't overclocking to 3.4Ghz and Crossfiring two 3870s, his overall performance would be way ahead of the system I have. As it is, mine games better, but that's about it - with his system at stock. He hasn't wanted to overclock much...yet.

But, that's normal. I'm sure in another year I'll be in a similar situation as you are now kris.

At least the new OS coming from Microsoft later this year shouldn't hurt anything - for a change!

Mac Daddy · May 14, 2009, 02:01 AM

I update as I go still a decent system you have Kris

**kris23** · May 14, 2009, 02:33 AM

well.... ive officially buried my system's status as high end now....

recreating a similar setup at EXACTLY $501.91 dollars

$500 - Entry Level

CD/DVD - LG 22X DVD Combo Drive (US) Newegg.com (UK)
Chassis - Cooler Master Elite 360 (US) Newegg.com
HDD - Seagate 7200.12 500GB SATA drive (US) Newegg.com
GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 (US) Newegg.com (UK)
Motherboard - ASUS M4A78 Plus 770 ATX Motherboard (US) Newegg.com
PSU - Seasonic 300W ATX PSU (US) Newegg.com
Memory - OCZ Blade Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) CAS 4-4-4-15 DDR2 800 (US) Newegg.com
CPU - AMD Phenom 7850 AM2+ CPU (US) Newegg.com
OS - Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 64-bit (US) Newegg.com (UK)

haha really.... where does all the time go? id probably trade someone my current tower for the one above if offered to me lol

procupine14 · May 15, 2009, 02:57 PM

Yeah I know where you are coming from on that. My current rig upgrade cost me half of what I paid for my old setup which ran a DFI Infinity Mobo, AMD ath x2 5200+, XFX 8600 GT XXX and 2GB corsair XMS-2. It was sad that I picked up my main four new components (mobo proc RAM vid card) for almost half the price. I mean my current ASUS motherboard only cost me around $70 after mail-in. My DFI motherboard cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of 150. The 8600GT was about the same price as what I got my 4850 for. and the OCZ Gold RAM I'm running now was 1/3 the price of the 2GB XMS-2 ddr2 800 kit

And lets be honest here.....My new system smokes that one....I mean it isn't even close in comparison.

jandarsun8 · May 15, 2009, 10:19 PM

Hmm yeah, but if you do it right, you can have a machine last 3/5 years with minimal upgrades (video, ram) and still be ok. I upgraded last spring to a quad core 9850BE and 2x 3870 cards which should last another year or three if I really need to push it. Cost for this one? 1100. My old machine, Barton 3200+ x1950 Pro AGP 2 gig's of ram lasted almost 5 years with only a video card and mem upgrade. Cost of that one? About the same 1100. The machine before that was about the same 1K mark but was a Athlon 1400 Socket A with a Radeon 8500 and maybe 512 ram? So the way I look at it, I'm spending about the same money, but with a machine that's about 4+ times faster each time.

adamosmaki · May 19, 2009, 04:42 PM

your pc is still capable and is better for gaming than the one you posted. Probably that pc will outperform your pc in most apps (not by much though if any).The only think better is that tricore athlon and the slightly faster memory

**kris23** · May 20, 2009, 03:02 AM

haha yea the first one... but look at the second one...addressed all the points you listed.

May 13, 2009, 02:52 AM	#1
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,018 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! my 2 year old computer has generally inferior components than the $500 budget computer in my list.... $500 - Entry Level CD/DVD - LG 22X DVD Combo Drive (US) Newegg.com (UK) Chassis - Cooler Master Elite 335 (US) Newegg.com HDD - Seagate 7200.12 500GB SATA drive (US) Newegg.com GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD 4350 (US) Newegg.com (UK) Motherboard - ASUS M4A78 Plus 770 ATX Motherboard (US) Newegg.com PSU - Seasonic 300W ATX PSU (US) Newegg.com Memory - OCZ Blade Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) CAS 4-4-4-15 DDR2 800 (US) Newegg.com CPU - AMD Phenom 8450 AM2+ CPU (US) Newegg.com OS - Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit (US) Newegg.com (UK) YoYoTech.co.uk its only got a low end dual-core, this has a tri-core. it only HAD 4x1GB DDR2 1200 (now 1GB), this has low latency 2x2GB DDR2 800 it HAD dual 7200.11s in RAID 0 (now just one) this has a considerably faster 7200.12 the list then goes on..... pretty much the only thing superior would be the 3870 but that is corrected with the addition of a 4670 or better.... this system costed something around $1500 or so at the time of assembly.... and now its roughly comparable to a budget $500 rig.... wow where all the time go? anyone else feel like this? __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

May 13, 2009, 03:18 AM	#2
gadabout Im Zaphod Beeblebrox Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Scottsdale, AZ Posts: 89 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! Well, yeah kinda okay not really. Why? I'll explain. Computer shop where I was working at back in 2006 was having a blow out sale because of a remodel of the store. So the "old" stock had to go. I bought an HP (yeah, yeah I know what most of you are thinking) it was originally $650+ tax. I bought it for $198.87 after taxes. It also had a $50 mail-in which I got back. Total price: $148.87! It was brand new in the box never opened. The original specs are: Athlon 64 X2 (T) 3800+ 2.0 GHz 1 GB (2 x 512) 250 GB SATA GeForce 6150 LE (on board video) You can see in my sig that I have upgraded it since then. And I just realized I paid more for my video card than my computer! lol __________________ AMD64 X2 3800+ 2GB DDR400 Dual Channel 250GB SATA Seagate \| 500GB SATA WD (WAS an external HD unit, until closure failed) DVD+/-RW Dual Layer w/ Lightscribe \| Plextor DVD+/-RW Dual Layer ATI MSI RX3870 OC Edition PCI-E 2.0 Windows 7 64bit

May 13, 2009, 03:26 AM	Thread Starter #3
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,018 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! thats a pretty good deal right there..... hardware does get old and eventually you may need to upgrade the 3870s home lol __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

May 13, 2009, 05:58 AM	#5
OldBuzzard DH's oldest Geek Join Date: May 2003 Location: Oberlin, OH Posts: 2,783 Rep Power: 145 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! Could have been worse. I knew a guy that bought one of these http://www.decodesystems.com/trs80-m2-sep80m.gif __________________ When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

May 13, 2009, 07:37 AM	#7
anonemus 80 Plus Certified Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Philippines Posts: 989 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! The financial crisis that started Q4 last year also contributed to making parts much cheaper right now, I think. I see new products being introduced with low price as the come-on...

May 13, 2009, 12:49 PM	#8
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,914 Rep Power: 333 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! That's the way it goes... Still, your original rig would more than hold it's own against the new budget assembly. The CPUs are comparable and, overclocked as it is, yours should actually be considerably faster than that X3; I'm guessing that the RAM you bought was rather expensive at the time, but at 1200MHz CL5 it has both higher bandwidth and lower access time than that 800MHz CL4 memory; the RAID configuration would beat the newer drive on both capacity and performance; and finally the 3870 should be a tad faster even than 4670. __________________ If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

May 13, 2009, 01:03 PM	#9
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,465 Rep Power: 349 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! Think, would buying a budget PC now, last you as much as spending 3 times the money on a better system? I think it is a good idea to never buy the fastest CPU out there, ever, especialy for Intel solutions. Go for the second or third in speed. Right there you save a ton of money, and by the time you need to upgrade, you will upgrade the CPU too...so any money towards the most expensive ones, is waste of money. Especialy since the real world performance gain you might get is too slim to worth the money. Graphics cards is a bit different. As long as there isn't a newer version 1-2 months away, you are ok with buying the most expensive card (not those that are overclocked 5-10% and cost 50% more) . If you bought a 8800GTX when they came out, you should still be ok now and perhaps for another year, as long as you don't play your games at very high resolutions or demand 100fps from the latest games out there at 1920x1200. I also find spending extra money for expensive RAM modules just for any extra speed, to be waste of money. __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

May 13, 2009, 06:27 PM	#10
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! Heh, sure - even after just a full year now I can feel it a bit... My son wanted to build his first - so we specced it together. What came out of that was that he wound up picking the monitor and case (an Acer 23" 1920x1080 and an Antec 1200), and I picked the rest - based on a i7 920 processor and 4670 video card on a Gigabyte UD3 mainboard. He gave me his budget so that's what we hit - less than $1300 altogether after a couple rebates. Nice system (in a monster case!), and right at what it cost me to build mine a year ago. If I weren't overclocking to 3.4Ghz and Crossfiring two 3870s, his overall performance would be way ahead of the system I have. As it is, mine games better, but that's about it - with his system at stock. He hasn't wanted to overclock much...yet. But, that's normal. I'm sure in another year I'll be in a similar situation as you are now kris. At least the new OS coming from Microsoft later this year shouldn't hurt anything - for a change! __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

May 14, 2009, 02:01 AM	#11
Mac Daddy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 7,950 Rep Power: 79 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! I update as I go still a decent system you have Kris __________________ "My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

May 14, 2009, 02:33 AM	Thread Starter #12
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,018 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! well.... ive officially buried my system's status as high end now.... recreating a similar setup at EXACTLY $501.91 dollars $500 - Entry Level CD/DVD - LG 22X DVD Combo Drive (US) Newegg.com (UK) Chassis - Cooler Master Elite 360 (US) Newegg.com HDD - Seagate 7200.12 500GB SATA drive (US) Newegg.com GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 (US) Newegg.com (UK) Motherboard - ASUS M4A78 Plus 770 ATX Motherboard (US) Newegg.com PSU - Seasonic 300W ATX PSU (US) Newegg.com Memory - OCZ Blade Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) CAS 4-4-4-15 DDR2 800 (US) Newegg.com CPU - AMD Phenom 7850 AM2+ CPU (US) Newegg.com OS - Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 64-bit (US) Newegg.com (UK) haha really.... where does all the time go? id probably trade someone my current tower for the one above if offered to me lol __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

May 15, 2009, 02:57 PM	#13
procupine14 Why is it Beeping!?!?! Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: USA, Missouri Posts: 1,400 Rep Power: 58 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! Yeah I know where you are coming from on that. My current rig upgrade cost me half of what I paid for my old setup which ran a DFI Infinity Mobo, AMD ath x2 5200+, XFX 8600 GT XXX and 2GB corsair XMS-2. It was sad that I picked up my main four new components (mobo proc RAM vid card) for almost half the price. I mean my current ASUS motherboard only cost me around $70 after mail-in. My DFI motherboard cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of 150. The 8600GT was about the same price as what I got my 4850 for. and the OCZ Gold RAM I'm running now was 1/3 the price of the 2GB XMS-2 ddr2 800 kit And lets be honest here.....My new system smokes that one....I mean it isn't even close in comparison. __________________ HTPC/file server: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Phenom x4 9850 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 800 (2x2GB) - 1TB WD Black - 4 x 1TB Hitachi DeskStar in RAID 5 - ATi TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner - HIS Raedon 4850 512MB - ASRock N68C-S UCC mobo - OCZ ModExtreme Pro 500W PSU GF's Gaming PC: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Phenom 9850 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 1066 - 500GB Western Digital GP - HIS Raedon 5770 1GB - ASUS M3A78-EM - Zalman 650W PSU Media Streamer: Win 7 Pro 64-bit - AMD Athlon x2 3200+ - 4GB SuperTalent DDR2 800 - 250GB SeaGate Barracuda - MSI K9N6PGM2-V2 - ASUS Raedon 5450 SILENT - FSP group 250W PSU

May 15, 2009, 10:19 PM	#14
jandarsun8 HardwareHeaven Addict Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: MN, US Posts: 323 Rep Power: 46 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! Hmm yeah, but if you do it right, you can have a machine last 3/5 years with minimal upgrades (video, ram) and still be ok. I upgraded last spring to a quad core 9850BE and 2x 3870 cards which should last another year or three if I really need to push it. Cost for this one? 1100. My old machine, Barton 3200+ x1950 Pro AGP 2 gig's of ram lasted almost 5 years with only a video card and mem upgrade. Cost of that one? About the same 1100. The machine before that was about the same 1K mark but was a Athlon 1400 Socket A with a Radeon 8500 and maybe 512 ram? So the way I look at it, I'm spending about the same money, but with a machine that's about 4+ times faster each time. __________________

May 19, 2009, 04:42 PM	#15
adamosmaki http://pcvideogaming.blog Join Date: May 2009 Location: Cyprus Posts: 61 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! your pc is still capable and is better for gaming than the one you posted. Probably that pc will outperform your pc in most apps (not by much though if any).The only think better is that tricore athlon and the slightly faster memory

May 20, 2009, 03:02 AM	Thread Starter #16
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,018 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	Re: The passing of time and hardware... I just realized something! haha yea the first one... but look at the second one...addressed all the points you listed. __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!