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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 4:05 am Post subject: what new and wonderful things are coming? |
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I'm looking into a new computer and somebody on this board posted that holding off for a little would be a good idea so I thought I'd ask somebody on this board.
The 64-bit processors are available now but a little expensive and I can see waiting for that but what else should I be waiting for before buying a new machine? |
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jaebea
Joined: 21 Sep 2003
Location: SYD
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| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 5:44 am Post subject: |
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The REAL thing to wait for is PCI Express. This new bus format will be coming out pretty soon, and NVidia and ATi are both manufacturing cards for this standard.
Apparently, BTX is the successor to the ATX standard, but I wouldn't hold my breath on this one.
DDR2 is also potentially on the horizon.
In any case, the main thing is PCI-X.
jae. |
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Gord
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 5:57 am Post subject: |
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| jaebea wrote: |
| The REAL thing to wait for is PCI Express. This new bus format will be coming out pretty soon, and NVidia and ATi are both manufacturing cards for this standard. |
This should be in the past tense, as PCI Express came out a month ago along with NVidia and ATI cards that support it. |
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The Lemon
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 7:04 am Post subject: Re: what new and wonderful things are coming? |
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| the_beaver wrote: |
| what else should I be waiting for before buying a new machine? |
Never wait. You'll wait forever. Just accept that whatever you buy will stop being the "latest and greatest" in just a few months, and people will look at you with pity if you're still using it after three years. But wait? Life's too short! |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 7:38 am Post subject: Re: what new and wonderful things are coming? |
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| The Lemon wrote: |
| Never wait. You'll wait forever. Just accept that whatever you buy will stop being the "latest and greatest" in just a few months, and people will look at you with pity if you're still using it after three years. But wait? Life's too short! |
Probably wise, but I've been looking at this a little (thanks jaebea and Gord for directions). Being that my computer is still doing the job (although it does take a few minutes for some photoshop filters to do their thing) I think I'll wait a bit. PCIe, from what I gather (and it's not unlikely that I've gathered wrong), will do wonderful things for graphics, but more interesting is the 64-bit processor -- I'm thinking that the delay in releasing Longhorn is because they're designing it for a 64-bit processor and I'm thinking that the next releases of Photoshop and Office will also be based on that.
I have a couple of questions, though (you guys are great):
Will the PCIe bus speed up hard drive access? Aside from graphics what does it improve in terms of things that I can see?
What the hell big difference is there between DDR2 and DDR1? |
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Gord
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 8:01 am Post subject: Re: what new and wonderful things are coming? |
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| the_beaver wrote: |
| Probably wise, but I've been looking at this a little (thanks jaebea and Gord for directions). Being that my computer is still doing the job (although it does take a few minutes for some photoshop filters to do their thing) I think I'll wait a bit. |
Computers are tools. If the current tool doesn't work well enough, you can buy a new tool for not much money these days.
| Quote: |
| PCIe, from what I gather (and it's not unlikely that I've gathered wrong), will do wonderful things for graphics, but more interesting is the 64-bit processor -- I'm thinking that the delay in releasing Longhorn is because they're designing it for a 64-bit processor and I'm thinking that the next releases of Photoshop and Office will also be based on that. |
PCIe will allow for more data to be tossed from point A to point B. But at this time, there is no appreciable difference in going with an PCIe graphic card over an 8x AGP card.
You can download the 64-bit upgrade to XP from Microsoft for free, though it doesn't really give you any noticable speed increase. But you can access ten trillion terrabytes of memory instead of the 4GB limit that exists with 32-bit machines today.
You can pick up an Athlon 64 right now, or Intel 64-bit processors starting in August for the same price as regular Pentium 4 chips.
The delay with Longhorn has nothing to do with 64-bit anything and more to do with basically redoing the way we use computers. New search routines, sorting, accessing, etc.
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| Will the PCIe bus speed up hard drive access? Aside from graphics what does it improve in terms of things that I can see? |
No, it will not make your hard drive run faster. Hard drives simply can't read nor right data fast enough even for yesterday's hardware.
A faster bus speed does allow for things like 10 gigabit network cards, but that's about it for anything at this time that will use it beyond graphic cards down the road.
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| What the hell big difference is there between DDR2 and DDR1? |
DDR2 is slightly faster, but you will not notice it. |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 8:08 am Post subject: |
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Gord, you rock!
(so do you Lemon and jeabea, but to a lesser extent) |
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jaebea
Joined: 21 Sep 2003
Location: SYD
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| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 8:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Gord wrote: |
| jaebea wrote: |
| The REAL thing to wait for is PCI Express. This new bus format will be coming out pretty soon, and NVidia and ATi are both manufacturing cards for this standard. |
This should be in the past tense, as PCI Express came out a month ago along with NVidia and ATI cards that support it. |
Ahh yes, good point. However, I don't think we'll be seeing a wide range of mobos with PCI Express for another few weeks. After fab, then distribution, should be a little bit longer.
But indeed, the technology is here and now.. :)
My bad.
jae. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 9:51 pm Post subject: Re: what new and wonderful things are coming? |
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| the_beaver wrote: |
| Will the PCIe bus speed up hard drive access? |
(Apologies if this post is an insult to your level of tech awareness.  )
If you're looking for that you want Serial ATA rather than EIDE hard drives; They are already commonplace and are rapidly becoming the standard (if they aren't already).
Here's a good article on PCI Express that may answer some of your questions:
GET ABOARD THE PCI EXPRESS |
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Industrial Strength
Joined: 02 Dec 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 11:21 pm Post subject: |
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| what new and wonderful things are coming? |
My new HPzd7000 on Tuesday. 
I agree with the Lemon. Took me a while to bite the bullet and place an order, but thinking about what might come next and how long to wait was driving me crazy.
Buy something now and then have fun getting the 'latest and greatest' again in a couple years.
IS |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2004 1:28 am Post subject: |
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Yes, computers are such that you buy now, and something better will come soon.
Now, however, is a very pivotal point for the PC.
PCIe will make a difference...a big one. Not right now, but it will.
DDR2 is the same. Looks blah right now, but it will be the thing.
Intel will eventually move to the 1066MHz FSB. Probably not soon, much longer on that than other implementations. It's 800MHz still for Prescott. DDR memory can't do that speed efficiently. DDR2 will.
Mainboards have changed drastically to accommodate the new implementations, as well as having the CPU pins on the mainboard, not the chip for the newer prescotts.
Dunno...I guess there are times to buy and times where waiting will pay off. Now is a waiting time, for sure.
Yes, computers are tools, but we aren't re-inventing the wheel here, but improving it. Those few seconds waiting for photoshop filters add up. I think if you approach tech with the "It's not broken, don't replace it" attitude, we will never fully appreciate just how much better things can be.
I can't wait for the systems coming in 6 months or so...they shoould lay waste to today's quite handily. |
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Alyallen
Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Location: The 4th Greatest Place on Earth = Jeonju!!!
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| Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2004 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Demophobe wrote: |
Yes, computers are such that you buy now, and something better will come soon.
Now, however, is a very pivotal point for the PC.
PCIe will make a difference...a big one. Not right now, but it will.
DDR2 is the same. Looks blah right now, but it will be the thing.
Intel will eventually move to the 1066MHz FSB. Probably not soon, much longer on that than other implementations. It's 800MHz still for Prescott. DDR memory can't do that speed efficiently. DDR2 will.
Mainboards have changed drastically to accommodate the new implementations, as well as having the CPU pins on the mainboard, not the chip for the newer prescotts.
Dunno...I guess there are times to buy and times where waiting will pay off. Now is a waiting time, for sure.
Yes, computers are tools, but we aren't re-inventing the wheel here, but improving it. Those few seconds waiting for photoshop filters add up. I think if you approach tech with the "It's not broken, don't replace it" attitude, we will never fully appreciate just how much better things can be.
I can't wait for the systems coming in 6 months or so...they shoould lay waste to today's quite handily. |
Dumb question: Does this apply to laptop computers? I mean waiting 6 months for a new innovation... |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:22 am Post subject: |
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The DDR2, Prescott, PCIe are coming, perhaps a bit longer wait than the desktop market, but probably Q1 or Q2 2005. YOu will pay a massive premium for that tech too....
Then again, we know how fast notebooks become obsolete (strong word...contentious...), so the PCIe route is very attractive....the graphics cards are fully upgrade-able. (Is that a word?!)
I would have a REALLY tough time shelling out for a notebook (they just aren't cheap!), or any computer, now when there is so much on the horizon. I know...there is always something better....but like I said, and even more pertinent in a laptop, the coming changes are big...comparable to the move from SDRAM to DDR, or the advent of the AGP slot...
The changes coming will make the laptop more adaptable and flexable....more future-proof, if that's possible.  |
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Alyallen
Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Location: The 4th Greatest Place on Earth = Jeonju!!!
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| Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:20 am Post subject: |
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| Demophobe wrote: |
The DDR2, Prescott, PCIe are coming, perhaps a bit longer wait than the desktop market, but probably Q1 or Q2 2005. YOu will pay a massive premium for that tech too....
Then again, we know how fast notebooks become obsolete (strong word...contentious...), so the PCIe route is very attractive....the graphics cards are fully upgrade-able. (Is that a word?!)
I would have a REALLY tough time shelling out for a notebook (they just aren't cheap!), or any computer, now when there is so much on the horizon. I know...there is always something better....but like I said, and even more pertinent in a laptop, the coming changes are big...comparable to the move from SDRAM to DDR, or the advent of the AGP slot...
The changes coming will make the laptop more adaptable and flexable....more future-proof, if that's possible. |
But I'll be in Korea in 6 months  And I keep hearing that laptops are more expensive there than here...ANd I was sooo close to buying a new laptop...
I'm confused  |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 11:47 am Post subject: |
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Don't be confused
I would NOT let any of the stuff discussed in this thread keep you from buying a laptop before you travel- it'll take longer for these changes to hit the low and med end laptops, and unless you plan on using your laptop to play Doom3 and HalfLife2 at maximum video settings you're probably not going to be missing out on anything.
If you end up doing all your emailing and websurfing from work or a pc bang you'll regret not having bought a computer.
(Of course another alternative would be to buy a desktop when you reach Korea...) |
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