Poll: Dressin' Her Up and Takin' Her to Town (an upgrade dilemma)

[grygrx]

I've got about $200 for an upgrade and i'm torn between a new processor and a new burner. Looking for opinions to help sway me.

I'm leaning towards the burner: The iomega I have is a piece of junk, it won't ever burn on 8x and it won't burn 80min cds and it sure has hell doesn't have burnproof (or similar technology).

Yet, there is always the draw toward raw speed.... a 1.4 pony under the hood would be styling, and certainly aid in some of the light rending work I do (when I can pull away from gaming).

Current:
CPU: AMD Duron 750MHz @ 1050MHz (7.5*140)
HSF: Millennium Glaciator
Motherboard: Abit KT7E
Memory: 256 MB of Crucial PC133 Cas 2
Hard Drive: Western Digital 40.0 GB @ 7200 RPMS
Monitor: 19 inch KDS
CDROM: Creative Labs 52x w/Audi Accel
CDR: Iomega ZipCd 8/4/32
Video Card: Creative Labs Annhilator 2 (Geforce 2)
Sound Card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Speakers: Boston Acoustics BA4800
Mouse: Razor Boomslang 2000 w/Ratpadz
Operating System: Windoz 98/2000

 

[Sketchy]

Certainly you've got enough power for today's games, but the graphics stuff you do should definitely see a benefit from the Athlon. I guess it's just a matter of what tees you off more, having CD's burned slowly and unreliably, or rendering graphics slowly. Choose whichever one wastes more of your time. Of course, the processor would make the games go faster as well, so tough choice. Either route would be nice though.

 

[grygrx]

Ahh there lies the problem. Both would be good.. but I must decide!

 

[grygrx]

Oh I just noticed I am a senior member, how the time flies even when you post as seldom as I do!
:grygrx has posted 203 messages to the Community, an average of .57 posts per day

 

[Sketchy]

Well, I guess that if *I* had to choose, I'd go for the processor, unless your burner makes a lot of coasters. I don't really find speed to be an issue with burners. I've had a 6x (which I only use at 4x or it screws up) and a 12x, and while the 12x is nice and fast, I don't burn a great number of CD's. So it doesn't make too much of a difference. But if it's constantly making coasters, I would upgrade it.

The processor, though, will make everything else faster... so that's what I'd go for.

 

[grygrx]

Well, it does make coasters. Not tons, but probably 1 of 6 has some glitchy wierdness on it. The speed isn't really a huge deal for me time wise, but the fact that its an 8x burner that only burns at 4x irks the hell out of me (granted I have an 8x because I RMA'd an old 4x and they didn't have any of the old ones left). Special burning apps like CloneCD are totally wasted on it also.


Arrgh