Opinions: Best Upgrades you've made in 2002

[chizow]

Well, 2002 is coming to an end and there's been a lot of change in the PC market. Just a quick run down of the best upgrades you've made to your desktop in 2002, here's mine:

1) Dell 1900FP LCD. By far the best upgrade I've ever made to my PC, considering its what I stare at all day long. And what a thing of beauty to stare at. Using this flat panel has inspired me to make it the center of my home entertainment universe, and its performing wonderfully

2) Logitech MX700. Finally, cordless without the sacrifices! No lag, poor response time, skipping, short battery life, wires all over your desk....... Driver issues were a problem for early adopters, but I just never installed them. Latest mouseware has solved problems previous issues.

3) Audigy 2. Again, the senses dominate. The Audigy 2 was a huge improvement over my SB Live!, but also enabled me to do more with my PC. I've ditched my FPS2000 PC speakers in favor of a DTS receiver and 100W satellites, and the difference is amazing. Dolby Digital EX for analog sources and true 5.1 DD through the SP/DIF for DVDs....handled with ease and excellent sound quality!

4) Asus TV 880 Tuner Card. PVR, PCTV, video-in for Xbox, included PowerDVD 4.0, video capture, and mpeg encoding/decoding. This card is a key part of my HTPC build.

5) Video card: This is about where it would rank regardless. I've made 2 upgrades in a short span, a GF3 ti200 to a GF4 Ti4200 turbo, and now a Radeon 9700pro (just yesterday). Regardless of how the 9700pro performs, it would still be here on my upgrades list.

6) Windows XP: I stuck with Win2K pro to let everyone else work out the kinks...now I'm upset I didn't upgrade sooner I love this OS, its close to what I want in an OS.

7) A new desk. Got a great deal on a Z-line Eclipse Cart desk at Staples, and it allows for much better organization and placement of components.

Honorable mentions: XBox , A7N8X Deluxe, Samsung True PC2700, Adaptec ATA RAID w/ 2 Maxtor 120GB 8MB Ultras.

Duds: XP 1700+ T-bred A (early week 32), Pinnacle PCTV, WD BB 40gb HDD...hmm more when I think of em.

Happy New Year!

Chiz

 

[Wingznut]

For my work... My iPaq PDA.

For my PC... P4-2.8ghz and P4B533-V

But I get the most enjoyment out of my Xbox. I play games on that at least 10 times as much as my PC, anymore.

 

[Necrolezbeast]

1. Albatron ti4200 128mb
2. 17" Elements
3. MSI kt3 ultra2 w/1600+ @ 1753mhz
4. Window kit and cathode

 

[Hender]

Palm III to Palm m500. Wow. Didn't know Palms could work that well.

GeForce2 Pro to GeForce4 Ti4400.

Holy cow, is that it? I haven't upgraded my CPU and RAM in more than a year, so yeah, I guess that's about it. This dude's waiting for dual Opterons before he upgrades again.

 

[CurtCold]

GF2 MX 400 ---> Radeon 8500
No RAID--------> 2x60GB 120GXP's in RAID 0
256MBDDR-----> 512MB PC2100 DDR

Overall a nice change. Video and RAM were best performance increase IMO. 512 for Battlefield big difference, GF2 to 8500 yet another nice gain in performance.

 

[Gibson486]

My wallet....It is getting bigger by the year

I have not upgraded my PC in two years! I am still on a PII 300 Mhz, I can't even play games anymore! My last upgrade was teh videocard.

Although, now that I am in college, I wantto upgrade, but i have no money...stupid loans

 

[Brian48]

Ranked by what I feel to have been either a good deal for the money or what gave me the biggest "WOW" factor:

1. 21" Dell p1130 Trinitron. I love this monitor. Crisp picture, vibrant colors, dual VGA, and $300 off regular priced of $799.95. Free overnight shipping ($160 Airborne Express) was just icing on the cake.

2. Lian-Li PC-82 Aluminum PC Case. Never could understand why people would pay more than $50 for a PC case,......until now. This case is worth every penny.

3. Audigy2. Simply a superb sound card. Best I've used to date. It put Creative back in my good graces and allowed me retire my Acoustic Edge and shift my Santa Cruz to my backup.

4. Retail 128mb Radeon R8500. Sure, both my Vistiontek ti4600 and Radeon 9700 Pro walks all over this card, but thanks to a mis-pricing on Circuit City's part, I only paid $119.95 for it.

5. Athlon 2400XP (runs great at 166x12.5).

6. Samsung 512mb PC2700. Built on a "True Samsung manufactured PCB". Have had to rely on this DIMM for use in several boxes.

7. Epox 8k3a. One of the best motherboards I've used to date. Will hold onto this one for a little while longer even if it's not in my "flagship" system.

8. Thermaltake SLK-800. Never thought I'd pay this much for a heatsink, but now that I have it, I absolutely love it. It cools well enough that it allows me to get away with not using an ear-splitting 7000rpm Delta fan.

9. Pine 6 channel CMI8738. OK, so the C-media is not as good as some of the other highend sound cards out there, but you just can't beat it for just $15 a pop!

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to mention. I really like my Antec 430w TruPower also.

 

[ProviaFan]

The upgrades I made this year were few and far between. The Lexar USB multi-format memory card drive (US$34) was the device that saved (and saves) me more time and makes my life easier, and the Philips 109B2 19 inch monitor ($200 after $100 in rebates at Staples) which runs 1600x1200@75Hz makes my eyes happy, and was probably the better long-term investment of the two.

Edit: forgot the 256MB of RAM that I added, giving me 512MB total. It makes the system so much more responsive and everything runs more smoothly (probably because I end up running everything at the same time ).

 

[Davegod]

Did full pc upgrade in Nov' 01 so not toally sure what I bought this year and what was last year lol, but:

8. 256mb Crucial DDR. 512mb became 768mb... Little real difference noticed.

7. Antec Truepower 430w. Its a PSU. Not exactly much to notice over the old 300w which was equally quiet.

6. Coolermaster ATC-710 case. Excellent case, weighs a TON but v good ventillation and looks the biz.

5. Audigy & Creative FPS 5300 speakers: This brought all but one of the problems I've had with my PC all year, but at the same time I'm very pleased with the sound quality, especially when watching DVD's. Better drivers (read: drivers that arent by far the most appaling I've ever had the displeasure of having to use) and this would be one of the best non-core upgrades I've ever made.

4. XP2400+. Dont exactly notice it in windows, but nice FPS boost (esp to min fps) on UT2003 and RTCW. Graphics card now easily the bottleneck for newer games in my system.

3. Samsung SynchMaster 757DFX; 17" monitor. I can use PC all day and no headaches. 'nuff said.

2. MS Intellipoint & Ratpad. So much better for gaming than my old logi ball mouse.

And teh winnar:

1. Win XP. Never, ever, ever going back to win98se. No. I actually like this OS. It does what you want and never crashes - the odd time a game crashes it just closes it and back to desktop.... The only downside is made me realise should of dumped w98se much sooner, for win2k.

edit:
LIES!!1111
by far, far far far the best upgrade of the year was ditching the 56k and getting ISDN. No, it isnt ASDL/Cable, but yes, I can actually play games properly online and yes the internet became something to surf, not wait & constantly redial for.

OMFG I've spent so much cash on this comp this year :Q
Still, next year only expecting a graphics card and possibly a second HDD.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Brian48

9. Pine 6 channel CMI8738. OK, so the C-media is not as good as some of the other highend sound cards out there, but you just can't beat it for just $15 a pop!

I'll beg to differ if I get my 20 OEM SB Live! cards for $31 shipped

All kidding aside, I have heard good things about this card for the value. Great for a 2nd or 3rd system.

Chiz

 

[ragiepew]

I also did a recent upgrade... and all were good parts:

Athlon 1.4 -> P4 2.53 @ 2.85ghz
Iwill KK266 -> Asus P4T-533
Radeon 8500 -> Radeon 9700 Pro
512mb PC133 -> 512mb PC1066 RDRAM @ PC1200
TDK 121032 -> Yamaha 44x24x44x -> TDK 52x24x48x CD-R Drive
Seagate x15 (gen 1) -> Seagate X15-36LP (about to move to 15k.3 )

I guess the most substantial was the CPU but the Vid Card was nice . All the rest of the stuff in my box I didnt upgrade... not that I had too ...

Anyway, 2002 twas a fine year!

 

[EndGame]

- P4 3.06

- 2X 17" LCD's

- Audigy 2

- nForce2

- P4S8X

- Sony DVD/CD-RW

- 9700 Pro

- Klipisch Pro med's

- Seagate HD's

That's about the list of what I really like as far as what I bought this year, there's a lot more, but, for one, the Athlon chips were about the same for this year so not much impressed me there as were the early P4's. Probably more, but that's all that comes to mind as I write.

 

[Wolfsraider]

IBM 36z15 scsi drive- this thing is super fast,for the money(got a free lsi scsi card from hypermicro-thanks hot deals) it was the best upgrade price vs performancei use a hdd cooler i got for 6.99 and you can hold the hdd as it doesn't even get warm.

2.8 intel processor -expensive but worth it

9700 pro-absolutely amazing

true power 430 watt power supply to replace the 350 watt generic i fried-the bonus is how quiet the psu is and combined rating is 410 watts,purchased open box from bestbuy

liteon 40x cdrw flashed to a 48x for 40.00 not bad only 2 coasters so far and over 300 discs burned

epox 4g4a+ motherboard -stable and flexable

corsair ram - its worth the money memory scores on par with rdram

duds,generic power supply round cables-i bought some cheap cables and the corruption of files even though not bad is very annoying so i removed them.

best game- morrowind its challenging and different and mods are out to make it better

gun metal is a decent demo (supports a few directx9 features and will be available early next year)

happy new year

 

[mjolnir2k]

New girlfriend
36-24-32
Blonde
Blue
5'5"
DOB: 9/22/80



pps.

 

[Vegito]

10. GeForce4 Ti 4600 128Mb

9. Dell FP2000

8. Firewire

7. Supermicro SUPER P4DCE+ Mobo

6. Dual Western Digital 10,000 RPM Boot Drives - One OS In Each, Selectable Through BIOS For 2000/XP

5. Dual Western Digital 7,200 RPM Data Drives - 120 GB Each - Still not enough

4. DVD Drive In PC - Finally

3. Chieftec Full Tower

2. Dell AXIM - Never carry those ipaq sleve again !

1. Dual 2.4 Xeon Processors

 

[wetcat007]

AMD XP 1700+ @2000+ rock stable on a Shuttle AK31A mobo
Voodoo 4 PCI to GeForce 2ti to my current GeForce 4ti4200
17Inch flaty screen crt compaq fs740 works great
Leaktek TV Tuner
CD Burner - 24x10x40x
Western Digital 120Gb SE
Crucial ddr2100 256MB

Now for bad upgrades that got returned...
Maxtor 120GB hd - was insainly noisy
Generic 128MBN ddr memory(i swear i'll never buy generic again no matter what the price!)

-Mark

 

[butch84]

 

[DT4K]

Bad upgrades:
Compaq mobo >> ECS K7S5A (that mobo sucks and caused me many more problems than my Compaq ever did)

Good upgrades:
ECS K7S5A >> Epox 8kha+
K6-2 380 >> Athlon XP 1700+ @ 1900+
128 MB PC100 >> 512 MB DDR PC2100
Voodoo 3 >> GF3 Ti200 @ Ti500 speed
Crappy Compaq speakers >> 3 piece Altec-Lansings w/ Sub (the ugly ones made to match the iMac)
(they're nothing great but only cost me 20 bucks and sound a hell of a lot better than the crappy compaq ones that hang on the side of the monitor. I never realized how important a subwoofer is for gaming. Now my chair shakes when a tank shell lands nearby)
Compaq 8GB 5400 HDD to WD 80 GB Special Edition (damn this thing is fast)
Cheap 2 button mouse to MS Intellimouse Optical.

It's hard to tell which was the best since everything except the switch from ECS to Epox was done at the same time. This was my first system build and I had been wanting to do it for a year before I finally did last february. Now I have the upgrade itch again. But I just bought a house and my wife has a very long list of things she wants for it. So by the time I can actually afford to build a new system, the current games will require at least 5 gigs of RAM and a 10 Ghz CPU. Of course we won't need monitor because we'll just implant the electrode into our brains.

 

[pillage2001]

Best upgrades

1) Dumping my 1.4Ghz for this AROIA. Getting an upgrade for just 5 bucks rock.

2) Got the WD SE for practically free when I bought 3 and egay it off.

3) Got the Maxtor Ultra for free too when I bought 2 and egay one off.

4) Swapping my ti200 for a 8500LE. Seem like a worthwhile upgrade.

There are more upgrades but these are the few that I really liked.

 

[stonecold3169]

1) went from an old 40gb 5400rpm Samsung hdd to a 120gb western digital SE drive for $30 after mail in rebate thanks to best buy
2) Changed from a generic case to a Chieftech Silver Dragon (alienware case) and went from a 300 watt to a 420 watt PSU
3) Picked up an HP DVD100i dvd+rw drive for (drumroll) FREE after mail in rebate
4) Got a Canon s200 digital camera. Not sure if thats the kinda upgrade you were looking for, but I love it
5) Changed my aging Abit KT7a RAID mobo to a Soyo Ultra Dragon Platinum kt333
6) changed my 512mb pc133 sdram to 512mb of pc2700.
7) Changed from a radeon 64ddr VIVO to a GF3 vanilla. Not great compared to most here, but enough for the gaming I do.
8) My best investment ever, went from a 17" crt to a 21" flat screen crt. Try it, you'll love it.
9) Changed from a Logitech iFeel Optical to a Logitech cordless optical mouseman to a logitech mx700
10) Went from my stock cooling setup to a gc68 and a bunch of vantec stealths, very noticable sound and even heat reduction.
11) Put in a 5 1/4" drive bay that has 2 usb 2.0 ports on it and cf/smart media memory card slots on it (came with the mobo, but it deserves it's own spot)
12) WinXP Pro: Got a copy free as a CS student, easily the best home OS ever made. Crash-free for over 6 months with me.
13) Round cables. They're just so much prettier.
14) Logitech Z-560's. Great speakers that fit my student budget while giving me decent sound and tons of colume to spare.

LOL, I didn't realize it, but the only thing in my comp I HAVEN'T changed in the last year is my cpu, my printer, and my soundcard, and I have an xp 1800+ in the mail and am getting a new printer friday, so wow, I feel like an addict now

 

[Giblet]

my best upgrade....

a computer

 

[microAmp]

1) WD 120 GB w/8 MB cache (was WD 20 Gig and IBM 25 Gig)
2) ATi 9700 Pro (was GF3 Ti200)
3) Athlon 1600+ 1.4 Ghz @ 1.774 (was TBird 1.2 GHz)
4) TBSC (was SB Live w/ pops & crackles)

 

[spanky]

i upgraded from aim, icq, & msn to trillian.

 

[Chad]

For me, it been the Xbox and Xbox Live. Second would be my new 1.6a Northwood. Dissapointed with my KingMax DDR 400 memory upgrade though.

 

[Willoughbyva]

I really didn't do much upgrading this year, I will after the first of the year though.

60gb maxtor
12X dvd
All in wonder 7500