The update plan...

Now playing: Breakdown - Breakdown

For quite some time I've being studding the performance possibilities of my actual PC. While the "temptation" of getting a more improved new machine, I´ve often caught myself contemplating my percentage of use of my actual equipment.

So far i'm not convinced that i'm overusing it. And it's a pretty lowbase machine compared to the new motherboard and processors.

Actual Hardware

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+ 2.41GHz Socket AM2

Fan/Heat Sink:
Asaka OEM

Motherboard:
Asus M2N4-Sli
- 2 x PCI Express x16
- 2 x PCI Express x1
- 2 x PCI 2.2
- 10 x USB
- Gigabit Mac Lan

RAM:
Corsair Value Select DDR2 667Mhz 2048Mb PC2-5300(2x1024mb)

Storage:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA2 3.0 GB/s 160-GB Hard Drive
LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H42N 48X DVD/CD Writer
Generic 3.5” FDD

Graphics Card:
Foxconn NVidea GeForce 8600GT 256 Mb DDR2 Sli 128 bits

Sound Card:
Onboard

Monitor:
Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW 22” 1680x1050 @ 60 Hz

Power Supply Unit:
Seventeam ST-420BKV-03F 420W ATX PSU

Miscellaneous:
Forceline 101/102 keys ABNT-BR Keyboard
Clone Optical Mouse

OS:
Windows XP Professional SP3
BricoPacks Vista Inspirat 2


As you can see, it's not exactly bad, but not great either, it's just fine. I can do my work fine(rendering doesn't take much time since i do a lot of optimization prior rendering), and play some games at full specs without much lag. But, after looking around, i started thinking if it was worthy to push it to it's limits...


So far i managed to list what my motherboard and power supply unit can handle, since these are so far these two items are the ones that will determine what i can and can't do with it. While the PSU is replaceable, the motherboard is not. After i change the PSU, everything i planed will be feasible...

Updated Hardware

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ 3.1GHz Socket AM2 (65nm SOI)

Fan/Heat Sink:
Akasa AK-922 Evo Blue

Motherboard:
Asus M2N4-Sli
- 2 x PCI Express x16
- 2 x PCI Express x1
- 2 x PCI 2.2
- 10 x USB
- Gigabit Mac Lan

RAM:
Corsair XMS2 DHX DDR2 800 MHz 8192Mb PC2-6400 (Q2X8G6400C4DHX - 4x2048mb) – only after Windows 64 bit update

Storage:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA2 3.0 GB/s 160-GB Hard Drive
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 320GB Hard Drive
LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H42N 48X DVD/CD Writer
Generic 3.5” FDD

Graphics Card:
XFX NVidea GeForce 8800GTS 512MB XXX Alpha Dog DDR3

Sound Card:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series PCI Express

Monitor:
2 x Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW 22” 1680x1050 @ 60 Hz

Power Supply Unit:
Seventeam ST-850ZAF - V FORCE series 850W PSU

Miscellaneous:
Divoom X-Force 5 2.1 Audio Boxes unit
Akasa AK-FC-03 Fan Control Unit
Akasa ATA-60-CU Round Cooper IDE ata133 Cable
Akasa FD-45-BL Round Blue FDD Cable
Akasa AK-ICR-05 Card Reader
Forceline 101/102 keys ABNT-BR Keyboard
Clone Optical Mouse

OS:
Windows XP Professional SP3
BricoPacks Vista Inspirat 2


Now, the way i see it, not only I'll have something up par in terms of performance with many new PCs, but I'll also not need to worry about moving for a new PC platform for a while. I mean, my machine now is close to be good enough for me to work on. And, if everything goes along with the plan, it will be more than perfect to work with, specially 3d modeling, and it will be cheaper than building a new Quadcore monster Ram something in the long run...

What baffles me is the fact that people keep claiming that i should scrap that and go for something newer, just because it will be milliseconds faster... I seriously don't get that.