Upgrade or not ??!!!

[Aparajith]

Hi Guys,

As you can see from my signature I have 256 MB of RD-RAM.I do all kinds of stuff on my computer - AV encoding,3D graphics,Programming with real Memory stealers like Oracle [ 9i and above ] ,.NET and so on.So I thought I would upgrade to 512 MB of RAM.But PC800 RD-RAM at 800MHz alone is available , not 400 MHz.My question is :

1 . Will the RAM run on my Mobo ? I tried all kinds of customer cares with no reply.

If there is no RAM available my brother suggested me an upgrade of the following components alone : CPU , MOTHERBOARD and RAM and GRAPHICS CARD [ I admit I also play some games ].
Is it the right time to upgrade now ? or should I wait for some more time before the market stabilises as I do not want an upgrade atleast for the next 3 to 4 years.

If u think it is right to upgrade can u suggest me the best configuration for and AMD ATHLON 64 FX based system under 20 - 22 k with the above mentioned four components alone ?

[icecoolz]

Well its like this. There are 3 major changes happening in the hardware industry. 64 bit processors, DDR2 RAM's and PIC-E slot based graphics cards. And here are the problems with them :

1) 64 bit processors are available but very few 64 bit applications available so basically ur system is gonna run like a 32 bit OS. For 64 bit to become main stay it will take another year or more.

2) DDR 2 is just entering the market and it is the next generation of RAM's however few mobo's support it and the mobos are expensive.

3) PCI-E is the next gen from AGP which supports speeds upto 16x. Same problem as 64 bit processors very few apps take adv of the 16x speeds and also the graphic cards which are currently available for PCI-E are rubbish or exorbidantly priced.

So with all this and the introduction of SLI's in mobos and nforce4 chipsets there are some seriously unsettling times in terms of upgrades.

Your problem is that if you want to invest for a future system for 3-4 years then it will be very expensive. So I would say right now hang on and try to manage with what you have. Wait for another 6 months atleast and see.

RD RAMs are very difficult to procure and very expensive. So try to get another one with the same speed as urs to avoid incompatibilities. Or you might sell ur old syste and go in for a Athalon XP based system which will last for another 2 years and will not burn ur pocket. So think about it.

[pimpom]

I agree with icecoolz. Things are always changing in the computer industry and there's always something tempting on the horizon, but there are times when things are at a major transitional stage, and we are currently in one of those periods.

Like icecoolz said, either wait for a few months or get an Athlon XP now.

[gaurav_018]

same as what icecoolz said but if you just have to upgrede i'd recommed a nforce3 mobo with a plain athlon64. the only limitation i see is you are limited to ddr1 and a 8x graphic slots. right now all pci-e graphic slots work as fast as their agp counterparts and are more expensive. also sli has not been properly implemented in motherboards in my opoinion.
by the way icecoolz you also have a 6800? what kind of fps are you getting in doom3 and farcry? also how do you run the benchmarking demos in doom3 and farcry?

[Aparajith]

Thank you very much for all your suggestion guys.So you all basically feel that I should try eke`ing out more juice from my present comp. for atleast the next 6 months and then continue with an upgrade.Thanx all of you.

Aparajith . S