# Everyone's system Updates



## AMDCam (Nov 28, 2005)

Hey, I've been noticing that my pile of boxes I save from my hardware is turning into a cool little pattern of 2x power with every upgrade, and every company is different. 

So, go ahead and list what you've done to keep your system up-to-date through the years, without including full new system upgrades (you know, EVERYTHING including the case). Mine has been so far:

Processor:
ORIGINAL-......Athlon XP 3200+ Socket A
NEW-.............Opteron 144 64-bit Socket 939

Motherboard:
ORIGINAL-.......Abit NF7-S2 w/Nforce 2 Ultra 400
NEW-..............MSI K8N Neo2-F w/Nforce 3 Ultra

Memory:
ORIGINAL-.......Corsair Value Select TwinX DDR400 512mb x2
NEW-..............Corsair XMS TwinX DDR400 512mb x2

Hard Drive:
SAME-............RAID 0 2x 80gb 7,200rpm 8mb cache WD800JB SATA's

Graphics Card:
ORIGINAL-.......Visiontek Xtasy 9600 XT 256mb
NEW-..............Sapphire Atlantis 9800 Pro 256mb
NEWEST-.........Leadtek A400 6800 GT 256mb

Case:
SAME- Atrix ATX mid-tower

That's pretty much a full generation's worth of upgrades, but still hanging by a thread of last-gen because it's still AGP. Hope to see you guys upgrading and not just buying full new systems.


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## Velocity (Nov 28, 2005)

Processor:
ORIGINAL-......p3 1.5ghz
NEXT-............Athlon xp 1.8ghz
NEXT-............Pentium 4 2.0ghz
NEXT-............Pentium 4 3.4ghz *went to 4ghz*
NEW-.............Athlon X2 Toledo 4600 skt 939

Soundcard:
ORIGIONAL-..Soundblaster Audigy
NEXT-...........Soundblaster live 
NEXT-...........Soundblaster Audigy 2 zs

Psu:
ORIGIONAL-..Compaq 150watt
NEXT-...........Superflower 200watt
NEXT-...........Antec 300watt
NEXT-...........Antec smartblue 350watt
NEXT-...........Ocz Modstream 400watt?
NEXT-...........Antec Trupower 2.0 True controll 550watt sli

Motherboard:
ORIGINAL-.......compaq mobo
NEXT-.............Dfi lanparty socket A
NEXT-.............Abit Is7
NEXT-.............Abit Ic7 Max 2
NEW-..............Dfi lanparty ultra nf4

Memory:
ORIGINAL-.......128mb kingston
NEXT-..............512mb Corsair Value
NEW-...............2gb (4x512) Corsair Xms (with leds)

Hard Drive:
ORIGINAL-.......quantum 20gb fireball
NEXT-..............wd cavaliar 40gb
NEXT-..............maxtor 80gb diamond plus
NEW-...............2x WD raptor 79gb

Graphics Card:
ORIGINAL-.......voodoo 3 sli
NEXT-..............Nvidia Geforce 4mx
NEXT-..............Nvidia Geforce 4ti
NEXT-..............Nvidia Fx 5600
NEXT-..............9600pro
NEXT-..............9700pro
NEXT-..............Nvidia Bfg Tech 7800gtx x2 in sli

Case:
Origional-.........Antec Lanboy
NEXT-..............Coolermaster Wavemaster
NEXT-..............Thermaltake Xaser
NEXT-..............Aspire Xdreamer II
NEW-...............Thermaltake Tsunami Dream (with window)


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## PastryLikeDood (Nov 28, 2005)

Processor:
Old: Athlon XP 2600+
Newest: Athlon 64 3000+

SoundCard:
Old : Onboard
New: Onboard ALC850

PSU:
Old : CompUSA Brand 400Watt
New : TurboLink 420Watt

Motherboard:
Old : ASUS A7N8X-X
New : ASUS A8N-E

Memory:
OLD & NEW : 2x512 Corsair ValueSELECT PC3200

Harddrive:
Old: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM IDE ATA/133
New : Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM ID ATA/100

Graphics Card:
Old: PNY FX5200 128MB AGP 8x
New: Gigabyte 9600XT 128MB AGP 8x
Newest: PowerColor X800GT 256MB Flashed with X850 XT PE Bios (stable, 10 hours with 3Dmark05)

Case:
Old: CompUSA Brand
New: ANTEC Xfinity Gaming Case


Thats going from my Athlon XP system to my Athlon 64 Skt 939 System..


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## gerrynicol (Nov 28, 2005)

Proc 
old - Athlon XP 3200+
Current - A64 3200 S939

RAM 
old - OCZ dual platinum
current - as old, awsome ram!

Mobo
old - Asus k7n(something like that)
Current - DFi lanparty ultra d(modded to run sli)

HDDs
old X2 wd 37GB raptor 10,000rpm sata
current same drives + wd 80GB 8MB cache

GPU
old - Nvidia 6800GT (agp)
Current X2 6800GT in Sli

Case 
old - Thermaltake lan case(can't remember the name)
current Thermaltake Armor, black.

Soundcard
old - Audigy2 ZS
Current - as above

PSU
old - Vantec stealth 520W
Current - same, am planning on a new one after chrimbo.

If I were to log all the pits and pieces I have had it'd take a while, My first PC was a 386 33Mhz with 2MB ram and and 80 MB HDD and .5K video ram, had 486/ P166/ P2 333/ K6 2 500/ P3 500/ XP2600 X2/ XP3200 and the current A64 3200.


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## wtf8269 (Nov 28, 2005)

Lol man I'm way too lazy to list all of my stuff, I change something once like every 3 months.


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## Velocity (Nov 28, 2005)

wtf8269 said:
			
		

> Lol man I'm way too lazy to list all of my stuff, I change something once like every 3 months.



qft lol my list is compromised of all my systems at my moms house lol... if i did the entire list of every piece of hardware i ever owned it would fill 2 pages of this thread


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## AMDCam (Nov 28, 2005)

Awesome guys, gerry's is pretty close to mine but quite a bit more up-to-date. I didn't put the rest of my system's before but since you guys are, alright:

Laptop

Processor:
OLD- Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0ghz
NEW- Pentium M 740 Centrino 1.73ghz

Memory:
OLD- 512mb DDR333
NEW- Dual-Channel 1gb DDR2-533

Hard Drive:
OLD- 60gb 5,400rpm
NEW- 60gb 7,200rpm

Motherboard:
OLD- Nforce 3 250
NEW- Centrino 915 Chipset

Company:
OLD- Compaq R3000Z
NEW- Dell 9300

Screen:
OLD- 15.4" SXGA
NEW- 17" UXGA Brightview (glassy screen)

Graphics Card:
OLD- AGP 4x Nvidia GeForce Go MX440 64mb
NEW- PCIe 16x Nvidia GeForce Go 6800 256mb
FUTURE- PCIe 16x Nvidia GeForce Go 7800GTX 256mb

Operating System:
OLD- Windows XP Home
NEW- Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005


Thanks guys


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## zAAm (Nov 28, 2005)

Okay, this is an approximate estimate (hehe) of my upgrades...

CPU
Old : AMD Athlon Thunderbird 900MHz
Next : AMD Athlon XP 2400+ Thoroughbred "B"
New : AMD Athlon 64 3000+ NewCastle

RAM
Old : 128MB Unknown (2.5,3,3,7) PC133 SDRAM
Next : 384MB Unknown (2.5,3,3,7) PC133 SDRAM
Next : 512MB Transcend (2.5,3,3,7) DDR400
New : 1GB Transcend (2,3,3,6) DDR400

GFX
Old : GeForce 2 MX (The original) 32MB
Next : ATi 9550 256MB
New : ATi 9600XT 256MB

Hard Drives
Old : 20GB Western Digital 7200RPM ATA100
Next : 40GB Seagate 5400RPM ATA100
New : 160GB Seagate 7200RPM 8MB SATA w/NCQ

Motherboard
Old : ASUS A7V
New : ASUS K8V-X

Screen
Old : Crappy no-name 14"
New : ViewSonic E70f 17"

Soundcard
Old : SoundBlaster Live! Value
New : Onboard rolleyes: )

PSU
Old : No-name 300W
New : AOpen 300W

Case
Old : I don't have an idea. No-name OEM case.
New : Look above but with some serious modding. 

This list is a little short. Wish I could add some under the current entries... Sigh.


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## AMDCam (Nov 28, 2005)

How do you mean current? Add anything you want dude. You guys are going really far back, down to T-bird and P3 days. I had a whole 1.2ghz T-bird system with a GeForce TNT2 Riva back in the day that got upgraded to a Radeon 8500 and from 128mb PC133 to 256mb PC133. That was before I started the current system so I didn't put it in because it was it's own system. But this is awesome guys.


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## zAAm (Nov 28, 2005)

I only go back 3 generations.  It's just that my PC evolved from a TBird in that 3 generations... And I mean I'd like to add upgrade entries under my current entries, which means I'd have to upgrade.


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## Thermopylae_480 (Nov 28, 2005)

Processor:
Current - Pentium 4 3.0GHz 1Mb L2 Cache
Next - Pentium 4 Extreme Edition with EM64T (When they get a bit cheaper )

Memory:
Current - 1 GB DDR2 533
Soon - And additional 1 GB of OCZ DDR2 533

Graphics:
Old - X700 Pro 256MB
New - X800 256MB

Motherboard:
Current - Abit AA8 Duramax
Next - No real reason to upgrade for awhile I love this board.

Sound:
Old - Old Soundblaster Live! 
New - Audigy 2 ZS

Hardrive:
Old - 80GB Segate 8MB Cache
Soon - 200GB Maxtor 16MB Cache


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## TurboGLH (Nov 28, 2005)

Here we go

Proc
Orig  - Duron 600
Next - T-Bird 900
Next - T-Bird 1200
Next - T-Bred 1800 @ 2.2-2.4
Next - Opty 144 @ 2.835

MB
Orig  - Abit KT7
Next - MSI K7T Turbo2
Next - Aopen AK79D-400vn
Next - Abit NF7-S v2.0
Next - MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum


Mem 
Orig  - 256meg pc133 (128x2)
Next - Orig + 256meg pc133 Crucial
Next - 512meg HyperX pc4000
Next - 1gig HyperX pc3200 (512x2)

Video
Orig  - Radeon 32meg DDR
Next - Geforce3 64meg
Next - 9700Pro 128meg
Next - 9800Pro 128 @ XT
Next - x850pro - 16p 540/600

Sound
Orig  - SBLive 5.1 Digital
Next - Nforce2 Soundstorm
Next - MSI Onboard (Till I can buy a new sc)

HD
Orig  - 10gig Maxtor
Next - 40gig Maxtor
Next - 80gig WD + 40gig maxtor
Next - 200gig Maxtor + 80gig WD

Monitor
Orig  - 17" CRT
Next - 22" CRT
Next - 15" LCD + 22" CRT

P/S
Orig  - 350w Enermax + 300w AT (powered all case cooling)
Next - 465w Enermax

O/S
Orig  - Win98 (for about 2 weeks)
Next - Windows2000 (W2K4lLIFE)


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## AMDCam (Nov 29, 2005)

Turbo, that's so cool. Along the way in almost every type (processor, memory, etc), we've had the same hardware. I had the 1.2Tbird, Abit KT7, Abit NF7-S2 (not S version 2 but still), Opteron 144 and MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (which are both on it's way here as we speak), 9800 Pro (mine was 256 but close enough), EVERY SOUND CARD IN THAT ORDER, and 80gb WD hard drive. Awesome.


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## TurboGLH (Nov 29, 2005)

AMDCam said:
			
		

> Turbo, that's so cool. Along the way in almost every type (processor, memory, etc), we've had the same hardware. I had the 1.2Tbird, Abit KT7, Abit NF7-S2 (not S version 2 but still), Opteron 144 and MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (which are both on it's way here as we speak), 9800 Pro (mine was 256 but close enough), EVERY SOUND CARD IN THAT ORDER, and 80gb WD hard drive. Awesome.



The parts we got were all really popular at the time that I bought them.  You know how it is, "holy shit my $135 144 outperforms an fx-57, check out the screens" next thing you know everyone and their brother is picking the stuff up.  Very cool to see how much word of mouth affects peoples purchases, both of us buying the same stuff over the years.


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## McDee (Dec 18, 2005)

nice! now I want a 144 to replace my A64 +3000 E6 venice  it was only $170 canadian after tax tho, thats like $130 US, after tax)

CPU
OLD    K62 450 @500MHz
Next   Duron 800@1000MHz
Next   XP 1700@1.6GHz
Next   XP 2500 preweek52 Barton @2.5Ghz
Current A64 +3000 E6 Venice @2.7Ghz
Next?  M2?

MB
OLD   Asus P5A-B
Next  Asus A7V133
Next  Asus A7X 8X
Current MSI K8N Neo2 Plat.
Next?  M2?

RAM
OLD  128MB Infineon PC100
Next 256MB Infineon PC133
Current  512MB shika PC2700 (samsung chips)
Soon 2GB Samsung TCCD DDR

Sound
OLD Soundblaster 16
Next SB Live 5.1
Next ac97 onboard
Current MSI onboard
Soon Xifi card

Video
OLD Voodoo3 3000
Next Radeon 64DDR vivo (r100 core)
Current X850XTPE (I loves it)
Next?

HDD
OLD 10G 5200 IDE
Next 20G 5200 IDE
Next 40G 7200 IDE
Current 80G 7200 IDE 2MB cache
Soon something with 8MB cache

Monitor
OLD viewsonic 15'' CRT
Current Samsung 700NF CRT
Soon 2000 lumens HD projector
Eventually:  a decent 19'' flatscreen with -8MS refreshrate.

Case
OLD no name ATX mid size tower
Current 486server case with a turbo button! remember the 33Mhz, 66Mhz switch?

PSU
OLD Stock 250w 
Next Generic 300w
Current Topower 370w 16a@12v rail

OS
OLD Win95
Next win98
Next win98se +Mandrake, Redhat, and other noob linux releases. Still running today.
Next winME (was actually the best win9x version I had)
Next Win2k
Current WinXP SP1
Next?

TurboGLH, what is sideeffect bios btw?


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## AMDCam (Dec 18, 2005)

Dang dude, I think you mean 5400rpm for hard drives, but damn, you have evolved evenly for the past 9 years! I mean EVENLY. I'm only 17, so I've only had a chance to since I was 12 (when I got into computers), and I try to keep things at least 2x power when I upgrade, but it never happens that evenly! Awesome though man, nice to see a long-term techie.


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## infrared (Dec 18, 2005)

I'm gonna get another 2 sticks of 512mb ddr2 ram to get me up to 2gb, all overclocked to 700mhz. Then i'm going to get another seagate baracuda 7200rpm 80gb and put it in a raid 0 configuration, which should give me a similar performance to the Seagate Cheetah 15000rpm!

I'm going to volt-mod my card and sqeeze all i can out of it for however long it lasts, i'm expecting around 6 months tops, and then get a x1800xt or anything that's better and repeat the process with that.

I need to install some decent cooling on everything:

New cooler for the gfx card, with copper ramsinks. Zalman perhaps
New cooler for cpu... Not to sure what to get at the moment.

I'm going to download Vista just to try it. If i'm impressed by it i'll buy it, if not, i'll go back to xp sp2 which has worked flawlessly for me.

It's nice to see how technology's coming along.


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## gerrynicol (Dec 18, 2005)

I doubt you will match the performance  of the 15k drive, I got 2 10k drives in raid0 and it dosn't match.  It will be faster but don't think it will improve your performance to the "nth" degree.


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## AMDCam (Dec 19, 2005)

lol, my 2x 7,200rpm 8mb cache 80gb WD Caviar's in RAID 0 (SATA) don't even touch 1 ATA66 5,400rpm drive. RAID 0 kind of sucks, no easy file transfer, need cards or motherboards, 2x unsafe as 1 drive, oh yeah, and speed isn't as fast as you think (especially with my system) it sucks bad.


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## gerrynicol (Dec 19, 2005)

I do notice a diff over 1 drive, but it is not as fast as everyone seems to think it is, raid 0 for me looks to be useful for maybehuge databases or something like that, for gaming and normal use it really is not that useful.  but heh I spent the cash getting it so im gonna use it dammit lol


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## infrared (Dec 19, 2005)

LOL, it's only another £40 for a second drive, and it 'should' improve loading times, but if not, i'll just use it as a backup drive. Can't hurt to try it. My ram's quick enough, so it won't bottleneck while loading.

I'll run some benchmarks and see how much difference it makes.

Wow, 2x 10000 in RAID 0!! cool!



> lol, my 2x 7,200rpm 8mb cache 80gb WD Caviar's in RAID 0 (SATA) don't even touch 1 ATA66 5,400rpm drive.



I'm not sure how putting 2x 7200rpm hard drives in raid 0 will 'degrade' performance. Are you sure you havn't got it in Raid 1 by mistake?? equivelant to 5400rpm sucks!


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## McDee (Dec 19, 2005)

AMDCam said:
			
		

> Dang dude, I think you mean 5400rpm for hard drives, but damn, you have evolved evenly for the past 9 years! I mean EVENLY. I'm only 17, so I've only had a chance to since I was 12 (when I got into computers), and I try to keep things at least 2x power when I upgrade, but it never happens that evenly! Awesome though man, nice to see a long-term techie.



oops, I did mean 5400rpm.

Wow, thanks! way to make a guy feel welcome!  but I'm only 31 and now I feel old... Glad I didn't mention my 1st PC, a tandy 1000EX with an EGA monitor and a 5 1/4 floppy drive.  

Seriously though, this thread was a blast, quite the stroll down memory lane.

 I have always been interested in getting the most bang for my buck, so upgrading for me has always been a painstakingly slow process with huge amounts of hours of research before any purchase.


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## AMDCam (Dec 19, 2005)

Well thanks for the kind words man. Yeah, I love seeing this stuff. Some people go from a 7800GT to a 7800GTX, and others go from Duron 800's to Athlon 64 FX-57's. It gives you a good idea of how practical the average computer hardware guy actually is lol, which isn't very. I mean most normal people are still handling everything they need on old Pentium 3's and Windows 98SE, while we've got more power than even the most demanding games need. And infrared, I know it shouldn't degrade performance, but I mean specifically my setup. It's definitely a RAID 0 and it does run pretty quick (around 12-15 seconds to startup from the loading screen), but in SiSoftware Sandra it says it's ULTRA slow. I don't know, probably some wierd glitch in my RAID controller or my hard drives are of 2 bad batches or something.


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## bruins004 (Dec 19, 2005)

I agree with u AMDCAM.
A lot of people upgrade a system that is way ahead of games and decide to upgrade it..It is quite funny.
I myself upgraded from a low-end Dell w/:
- P4
- No GPU
- 512 mb of memory
- Windows XP
- and who the hell knows what other crap was in there 
to the system in my signature.  It was a much needed upgrade.


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## infrared (Dec 19, 2005)

hmmm, i bet that overclocks great! Nice system!

Yeah, i can definatly see your point, we've all got obsessed by constantly trying to beat our previous benchmarks... I can now see that i've also fallen into this neverending loop


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## AMDCam (Dec 20, 2005)

Lol, I realized that when I started upgrading everything to stay up-to-date as an overclocker a couple months ago. But now that my hardware is plenty for this-gen and next-gen games I'm good for a while. My old 9800 Pro was great for Doom 3 but didn't have much room for power in next-gen games, so now I've got twice the power (6800 GT) waiting for a game twice as powerful as that, which gives a lot of slack. Although it's still awesome to see the japanese guys (you know, 5ghz Athlon's, near 8ghz P4's etc) and people like Viper John do EXTREME mods to push hardware to the maximum.


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