yes, it’s finally going to happen… soon. It’s been on the waiting list for more than 2 years now. (That’s how long I’ve been postponing it) It becomes more and more of a requirement than a luxury option; my machine is almost seven years old now.
I bought my current computer in 2002, the year I graduated and moved to Leidschendam. My old computer had been upgraded to the point there was nothing to upgrade on. So I decided to buy the parts and build a new one.
That computer has more or less stayed with me. I did replace the videocard a few times (out of necessity, they quit on me) put in an extra stick of memory and added a harddrive at some point, but the basic setup has been the same.
This time around I won’t be assembling anything myself. I am sort of past the point of finding it interesting to do it myself. I just want a computer that works. I will have them assemble a computer based on my choice of components.
Choice of processor is not going to be hard; the new Intel I7 core is definitely going to be my choice. At which clockspeed that puppy will run will depend mostly on my budget and what they cost.
Choosing a mainboard is going to get extra attention. My current computer has a limit I only discovered a few years later. I will not make that same mistake twice. I’ve always had a thing for Asus boards, but I think that this year I will I might go for Gigabyte instead. Not so much based on reviews but based on the accusation that Asus has been cutting corners in order to cut costs. Sure, that accusation was made by Gigabyte, but I find it hard to believe that one manufacturer would come with baseless accusations against another. More so, because I have seen what kind of crap bad capacitors can cause.
Harddisk(s): I’ve stuck with Western Digital for a while now and I have yet to be disappointed. I am still debating on whether to get 1 or 2 of them. The type has been determined: black edition, for better performance. From what I saw a few months ago they dominated the performance benchmarks within their price range.
The configuration is not settled yet either. Getting 2 disks means I could go for either 2 separate partitions or RAID. Separate partitions can help for video and image editing, or programs that require a lot of disk IO. RAID0 on the other hand means everything gets a boost, but the risk of data loss doubles (twice as many chance of one bad disk) RAID1 gives increased read performance, but limits the space, so that’s a relatively expensive solution.
What I will do depends a bit on the prices of hardware at the moment I buy it.
And then there is the videocard. After the mainboard, this is probably the hardest to pick. not because of the massive varieties available for each chipset, but mostly because it’s the biggest disinvestment you make; as soon as you plug the video card in the board, it’s devalued by half and usurped within half a year.
The trick I’ve done so far is simply to take the high end of midrange. A card that touches the limit of what you want to afford for such a card. Of course with the promise of SLI or Crossfire these days it’s pretty easy to get a bit of extra power by just plugging in a second (similar) video card. The only downsides of that is heatbuildup and power consumption; you will need to get a power supply that can deal with twins and your case must be set up to dissipate heat fast.
So what am I waiting for? Hardware to get cheaper? New stuff? Nope… The rule is, that as soon as you buy your computer something better will be available the next day. I am however waiting for the free upgrade from Vista to Windows 7.
Prior to every new release of Microsoft’s operating system they hand out vouchers for free upgrades to the new OS. This is to stimulate the hardware market, otherwise sales would stall until the new OS is released.
Considering the operating system is about as expensive as a good graphics board or processor, so you might want to plan it very well.