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[glynor]

I just had a birthday (ugh... 30) and to celebrate I'm upgrading some of the old computers.

To go in my HTPC, I just ordered:
AMD Opteron 165
Zalman CNPS9500

And I'll be enjoying some dual-core, overclocking goodness.  (I actually didn't them from newegg cos ZipZoomFly was a tiny bit cheaper for the pair, but still).

And I get to pull out my old Gigabyte K8NS - Ultra 939 to throw it in (which, since I upgraded the board on my main computer to an ASUS A8R32-MVP and PCIe ATI X1900XT, has been collecting dust in my closet).

And then of course, the stuff from the "old" HTPC will trickle down into some of my other systems.

Anyone else getting or gotten anything new and exciting?

[JimH]

Happy birthday, glynor.

[glynor]

Hey... Thanks!

[matshif]

Happy Birthday!!

You still have a bit to my 61 at the end of oct, though.

I will have a notebook at the beginning of dec.

[benn600]

I'll be 19 near the end of OCT!

[InflatableMouse]

I just had a birthday (ugh... 30) and to celebrate I'm upgrading some of the old computers.

To go in my HTPC, I just ordered:
AMD Opteron 165
Zalman CNPS9500

And I'll be enjoying some dual-core, overclocking goodness.  (I actually didn't them from newegg cos ZipZoomFly was a tiny bit cheaper for the pair, but still).

And I get to pull out my old Gigabyte K8NS - Ultra 939 to throw it in (which, since I upgraded the board on my main computer to an ASUS A8R32-MVP and PCIe ATI X1900XT, has been collecting dust in my closet).

And then of course, the stuff from the "old" HTPC will trickle down into some of my other systems.

Anyone else getting or gotten anything new and exciting?

Better late then never ... happy bday! 

I got myself a core2duo E6600 with 2 gb of ddr2 on a Asus 945p. This replaced a Athlon XP 3200 with 512mb. Limited finances, so the cheapest mainboard with a 40$ videocard and the cheapest brand memory I could get (Kingston).

Best thing I got in a long time. Being a hardcore AMD fan for many years (first AMD was a 80386DX40), I made the switch back to Intel (latest Intel I had was a pentium ii 266 slot 1, biggest mistake coming from a Pentium Pro 200 with scsi disks), after which I switched to a AMD slot A, 933mhz). Every upgrade since was only so-and-so, noticable only in a very specific area. Finally I upgraded and I don't need a benchmark tool to justify or convince myself it was a good buy. Literally everything got faster with the exception of 3D videoperformance. My 'old' AGP card is 3 or 4 times faster than this thing I have now but I couldnt care less because I'm not playing games anymore on my pc (xbox 360 )

The only thing I complain about is scalability of the integrated SATA controller. I installed the promise SATA controller from my old pc again because although it is sligtly slower in terms of data transfer, it scales much better in a multi tasking environment.

[glynor]

The Core2 line is certainly nice.  Finally a reason to even consider switching back to Intel.  Of course, it took them long enough...    We'll see how AMD responds.  Right now, comparing the Core2 to the AM2/S939 Athlon64s and Opterons is like comparing the Pentium 4 to the AthlonXP (new vs. old generation).  Yes, the P4 whomped the AMD for a little while, but then...

For me, I already had a S939 nForce3 board sitting unused.  I also have a still-got-some-legs-left ATI AIW X800XT video card (AGP) and 2 GB of nice DDR500 RAM in my existing nForce2 AthlonXP HTPC machine.  Upgrading to the dual-core Opty was a perfect fit.  I can keep using my existing stuff, and still get piles of new performance.  Had I won the lottery or something and been able to upgrade from scratch to a brand new machine, I'd have had to strongly consider the Core2.  But then, if I had that pile of money, I'd have probably grabbed one of these and thrown Windows XP on it (mmmm.... dual-xeon goodness).

That's what I like about AMD.  It seems like every new chip Intel releases requires new CPU, new chipset, new RAM, and every so often a new video card too!  Upgrading a little at a time makes sure I can maximize the serviceable life of my components (and also lets me upgrade a "little at a time" rather than having to come up with a huge pile of money all at once).

[InflatableMouse]

But then, if I had that pile of money, I'd have probably grabbed one of these

lol ... If I had a pile of money to spend on computer stuff, I'd prolly get a bunch of these  . I don't think there's a more powerful and versatile application of AMD cpu's.

[benn600]

Lol.  I don't know why you guys need the latest and greatest.  First, unless you do a lot of gaming, everything else can wait.  I do a lot of video encoding but it isn't for a business or something (like DL.TV) so I don't need it to be the fastest.  I definitely mean a lot, too, having recently burnt 100 home DVDs with about an hour of video each and then ripped 300 DVDs and 800 CDs.  All those things take a lot of CPU.

I recently bought 3 refurbished 2.4GHz P4's and they are great!  They are much better than what we had and they do everything that we all need.  I'm still using my 2.8GHz P4 Prescott w/ 1GB of ram and 2*120GB + 2*160GB.  I have 2 20" LCDs, 1 21" LCD, and a TV setup--so I have 4 monitors (3 LCDs are always on...don't usually use TV).  I just find that this is more important to me than the latest processor.  Getting those three LCD's and video cards for them cost well over $1K alone!  That right there could buy a decent desktop, but I prefer the real estate!  1600x1200x3 pixels + 800x600 (lol).

[glynor]

I don't know why you guys need the latest and greatest.

Come now.... It's not really ever about need.

Besides, I already had all the displays I needed (I have 4x 21" CRTs, 2x 19" CRTs, 2x 17" CRTs, and a smattering of "extra" 15" monitors lying around currently), nice video cards all around, gobs of storage space....  The main thing holding me back was that Athlon XP-M 2500+.  It was a great little CPU, and ran at 2.4 GHz solid for me for almost two years.  But....

I got those two things (the CPU and heatsink) for $220 shipped.  Not bad for the bump in power I'm gonna see.  If I didn't want to overclock, I could have saved $50 and just gone with the Opty, but, I wanna push her for all she's worth.

Oh, and...

unless you do a lot of gaming, everything else can wait

Right-e-o, good sir.  Right-e-o.

Why do you think I have the X800XT, X1900XT, and 7800GTX?

Oh... And I also thought I'd mention.  Ordering from ZipZoomFly turned out to be a good move.  For any of you who know Opteron steppings, I got a CCBBE 0615EPMW.  Won the stepping lottery on that one.  Ought to be able to push this puppy up to 2.7 GHz minimum.