inahandbasket | (no subject)

So, like many gamer geeks around the world, i'm about to embark on building a new computer for the upcoming DirectX9 games. Namely, HalfLife2 and Doom3.
But I need some help on a major decision.
Sound card, hard drive, vid card, and monitor are already procured or decided on.
the question is the processor/motherboard, and more specifically:
64bit processing

The new Athlon64 and the AthlonFX that were released are sick, sick processors, and I fully expect them to rule in about... 6-8 months when the rest of the hardware and software catch up. Motherboard chipsets always suck for the first few iterations when something majorly new comes along.

But I'm going to need a new puter before those 6-8 months go by.

My question is this:
Buy an expensive 64bit processor(and assorted kit) now and upgrade the motherboard in a year?
OR
Buy a nice 32bit processor at the current sweet pricepoint (Intel 2.8 with HT) and use the saved cash in a year to get a faster 64bit processor and 2nd/3rd gen motherboard?

Let me know what you think, and why. :o)

(currently running Athlon 1ghz, 1GB PC133 RAM. sloooow.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Haven't done research on CPUs in a while, but it seems like for most apps the Athlon 64 was rather underwhelming (I only looked at one set of benchmarks, though).

Were Doom3 and HL2 going to be 64 bit optimized? That could be a deciding factor.

Which video card you get? I'm still running my ::cough:: Geforce1. Up until the newest iteration of the Unreal engine it did fine, but now I must to be upgradink. Am thinkink that Radeon 9800 Pro 128 is beink for me, da?

Also, why did I start talking like Pitr partway through? The world may never know.

don't know if they are, but I'd be surprised if they don't. it's just a recompile if nothing else.
as for vid card, probably going with a radeon 9800 of some sort, depending on how rich i feel at the time. unless they bust out something new in the next 2-3 months.

There is that new 9800 XT... but I really don't think it's worth $500. 'specially not when I'm about to drop $670 on a Dan Wesson.

Heh.
yeah, $500 for a video card is just a little bit silly.

'specially since my PS2 was way less than that.

And I gained the ability to play copied games without voiding my warranty. Not that I'd, you know, DO that or anything. I just like having the knowledge that I could.

ri-ight...

And it's for... running Linux! Yeah!

That's something that makes PERFECT sense to do on a PS2.