John Fryatt wrote:

"Franklin" wrote in message
...
Hi guys, after several years I have run out of power on my old 700
MHz Duron system and now want something new.

I don't play games, I am not a power user, I don't do video or audio
editing. I just surf and do some small office activities.

I had thought of upgrading my current system to a T'bred 2400+ but
the PSU is not big enough and the case is a bit small, so I will
build a new system instead.

A Barton 2500+ (with maybe an Asus A78NX mobo) is more than enough
power for me but am I buying into obsolescence? Athlon64 is where
the growth will be and furture residual values will be higher than
for Barton.

Are there any other advantages of Athlon64 for a user like me other
than that?

Are there particular disadvantages ... e.g. more expensive mobos
for athlon64? more expensive memory?

Well, if you've been happy with a Duron 700 up until fairly recently I
suspect a new machine based on an Athlon 3000, for example, will do you
pretty well.
You will probably pay top money just now for Athlon 64

Top money? An Athl 64 3000+ is only around $160, which is around the
price of a Pentium 4 2.8 ghz, and only around $50 more than an
Athlon XP3200+. The motherboard for an Athlon 64 is around $25
more than a comparable one for an Athlon XP. So an Athlon 64
doesn't have to be very expensive.

as it's the latest
trendy thing, and the sweet spot for price/performance is likely a step or
two back from the leading edge of technology.
When you buy any computer you are buying into obsolescence, to some extent.
AMD already have the next CPU after Athlon 64 on the drawing board I expect,
as do Intel have the P5 or whatever in the design stage.

It will be nice to buy a pc with a dual core processor a few years from now.
They might be out in a year, but will probably be quite expensive when
first introduced.


My feeling is to buy for what you need now, trying to keep an eye out for
long-term life but not be a slave to it. Upgradeability is limited by new
developments. Look at AGP, you might have thought, a year ago that you'd
buy, for example, a Radeon 9500 video card and upgrade to a Radeon xxxx in
two years time perhaps. But, of course, AGP is now being replaced by PCI
Express, so you can't do it.

He is not a gamer. AGP will be fine for him. The benefits of PCI Express
will be in the future for very expensive video cards.

Similarly with processors, chances are you'd
need a new motherboard anyway to make use of new generations of CPU.