Hardware Envy????

[DiseasedDonkey]

Well, after reading this board and others for many months (and I must say Anandtech is, by far, the best)I am constantly jelous of everyone's set-ups.

Not saying that my set-up is weak, but it pales to many others on this board. I constanly toy with the idea of upgrading to a T-bird and getting one of them' there fancy GE Force.... But my arguement is WHAT FOR??? Counter Strike work just fine, I already finished Dues Ex (it ran without a glitch), and how powerful does your set-up really need to be to run Quicken or Word???


My arguement (aside from those people who are doing heavy Photoshop work) is ----- well put bluntly ----- IS THERE ANY GOOD REASONS TO UPGRADE AT THIS TIME???????? What would be the point????? There are no killer games out and no cpu cruncher os's.

[I very anxious to hear really good justifications, cuz I really do want another system...and then again making computers is kind fun in a frustating, self-hateful way]

 

[office boy]

Hardware Envy?
Get over it. Nothing will put you in the poor-house quicker

 

[CQuinn]

DiseasedDonkey, my friend,
I too suffer from the dreaded "Hardware Envy".

I think the secret to controlling the feeling that your system could
be better is to apply a plan to upgrade or replace your current system.
Then, you won't have to feel like you must run out and get the latest
hardware, because you first have to fit it in to the plan...
(This really helps if you're on a budget like me.)

For example, I'm not as much a gamer, but I'm getting interested
in video-editing, so I eventually want a more powerful system to
better serve that purpose.

My current plan is to
Upgrade my All-in-Wonder Pro card to an AIW Radeon

Possibly upgrade the memory

Get a DVD drive (looking at the new DVD/CDRW combos)

Looking at buying a new case to build the next setup into

Next, a new motherboard and CPU to put in that case

Get a really big IDE drive, or a good sized fast SCSI drive
as my main video editing workspace.

The current "plan" I'm holding to, is to take at least a month between
each purchase on this list. This will allow me time to research and
decide if I really need to get that part then, and affords me a growth
path that should keep me quite happy with my system without feeling
the need to play catch-up with everyone else.

 

[BurntKooshie]

its not envy when you need a minimum FPS that is greater than your refresh rate (for those of you who don't get it....think about it).

Its not envy when you have an old computer, which crawls with 10FPS or less in modern games.
Its not envy when you have to do a lot of graphics work, both in 2d and 3d....I need a new comp (rather, mine new one's motherboard replaced) because I do lots of intensive work - MUCH multi-tasking.

I can feel the difference between an athlon 500 and an athlon 700 while doing heavy multi-tasking. I need it because i'm power hungry

 

[hubbs]

Well you can just about imagine my so called "hardware envy" here is what I'm running

P233mmx
32mb ram
4.3gig hd
integrated 2mb video
turtle beach sound
15in monitor

here is what I am going to be building

Duron 600 o/c to 900 at least
Asus A7V
30gig IBM
Geforce2 MX 32mb
Soundblaster Live!

 

[Imported]

I had that same hardware envy too, I probably will still have it when DDR motherboards come out, etc. I was stuck with a P100 since they've been out and I put together my system just a couple of weeks ago. It was hard doing web-publishing on my old P100, yes a P100 using Photoshop and Flash, but now I just hope this system will last a while..

 

[Dan]

Hardware Envy: The first step is admitting that you have a problem.

 

[Soccerman]

actually, I personally don't think I have hardware envy (the last step in getting addicted? denial!).

I think what I have is the lust for the feeling of newness.. or something like that. I recently saw an old 286 running some sort of Linux OS. it wasn't new, fast, or anything like that, but it was COOL! I can't describe that kind of feeling.

it's the same reason why every so often I change my desktop drastically. though recently I haven't done that.

It's the same feeling I get when I first buy a new upgrade for my computer. it's the feeling of the power that the device is capable of. it's fresh, new, and different.

that's what I find has driven me to upgrade. that and trying to get acceptable framerates in games (I used to have a P133 with S3 Virge, 32megs SDRAM etc.. I upgraded to the Voodoo Banshee. it helped ALOT. I upgraded the CPU to AMD K6-2 400 (needed a new mobo too). it helped games a fair amount, AND helped the overall computer A LOT. I added 64 megs SDRAM, that helped a fair amount. changed to a Voodoo 3, that added speed in Games a fair amount.

with each upgrade, I got the same feeling! it's like. man that would be neat if I could do a ton of video editing on this computer, and then a month later find that I can, thanks to my ____.

I like to be amazed at what my computer can do, the same I was amazed at what the 286 could do.

 

[Viper GTS]

I don't have hardware envy, but I can give it to most people:

P3 700e @ 980 MHz (138 FSB, RAM @ CAS2)
GF2 GTS @ 220/400

7588 3DMarks in 3DMark2000.



Viper GTS

 

[Maniac9127]

Yeah, I've got a case of hardware envy.

I just upgraded my K6-2 266 to a duron 600 and now my other computer, a K6-III 400 is jelous of it, and because of that it taunts the 266 about about only having a V3 2k when it's got a 3.5k, then it just yells back about still being able to get at least 71fps in CS at 10x7, while the 400 can barely do 8x6.

It's really getting bloody, I had to put them both in seperate corners of the room, and I can't put them both on the LAN at the same time. I'm going to have to fix something

 

[ERJ]

I go in waves. Most of the time I am completely satisfied with my 300a/450 w/ 128mb and TNT1. It does all that I need it too include playing HL and Q3 at acceptable framerate (your acceptable framerate may vary ). The only time I think to myself "Man, I could really use a new system" is when I do video encoding. When one minute of video takes 12 minutes to encode life seems to draw on a bit.

ERJ