Should I wait?

[skipper2]

I am going to do a new build of a system. What I am looking at is:

PROC - AMD Athlon 64 FX-51
MoBo - ASUS SK8V
HD - WD Raptor 74GB 10,000 SATA - As just the boot and OS drive.
CASE - Cool Master TAC-T01-E1C
RAM - Mushkin HP Black Registered 3200 memory (512MB x 4)
GPU - ATI 9800 Pro AIW
OS - Win XP Pro


What I am replacing:

Dell Dimension XPSB 1.2GB P3
1 GB Ram
HD - Varius totaling 560 GB 2 partitions NTFS and 7 at FAT32
CASE - Dell
GPU - ATI 9800 Pro AIW
OS - XP pro

This computer will be mostly for:

1. Databases
2. Photoshop/Illustrator/Dreamweaver
3. Rendering of VHS movies to MPG2
4. Flight Sim 2004

I have a couple of questions:

1. Should I wait for the 939 boards for the AMD? From what I have read it will allow you to use the lower priced unbuffered/unregistered DIMM's
2. I have also read that this will only realy benefit gamers, and that the current 940 board is still better for apps. True?
3. The MoBos will soon be replacing the AGP slot with the PCI Exp. slot which is much faster. I have a decent $500 GPU that is for the AGP slot. Is it worth trashing it and going with the new PCI express?
4. Would a P4 system be better for me?

What should I do in this case? What would you do? Is there a better, more powerful solution to what I am looking for. Money is not really an issue.

Thanks.

Skipper2

 

[jdogg707]

If you're gaming, go with the AMD chip, if you are rendering you might want to look into a P4. I wouldn't get the Athlon 64 FX-51 anyway, rather, go with the Athlon64 3400+, it's just as fast wihtout adding the extra expense (More expensive CPU and RAM). You can wait until Socket 939, and for a high end system you may want to, it all depends on how much time you have to wait.

 

[vansouza]

Life is short, wait for nothing....

 

[skipper2]

Thanks for the advice. I have always used the Intel chipset for my needs and was looking to branch out since I have read every pieve of info on here and many other sites including ZD and Toms. The prob if I wait for the new board is that they may not have the AGP slot any more becuase of PCI express and I have a $500 GPU now worth maybe $400 and it would be a shame to throw it away and wait for the newest best GPU. I bought it before the ATI XP.

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: skipper2
Thanks for the advice. I have always used the Intel chipset for my needs and was looking to branch out since I have read every pieve of info on here and many other sites including ZD and Toms. The prob if I wait for the new board is that they may not have the AGP slot any more becuase of PCI express and I have a $500 GPU now worth maybe $400 and it would be a shame to throw it away and wait for the newest best GPU. I bought it before the ATI XP.

I would probably just go for it, any system you make now, especially a high-end one will be able to provide you with more than adequate performance for anything you are looking to do.