is Intels HT technology worth it?

Posts: 1475

im making a new comp, and ive been debating this for a while: is hyperthreading a good thing or not? i was thinking of going AMD, but i wanna see this HT stuff for myself.

Posts: 197 · Honey-Glazed Terror Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 197

HT was pretty nice a couple years ago, but it has kind of lost it's novelty now I think Sad

AMD pretty much has a faster everything if you are looking at things made recently. Razz

Posts: 2723 · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:51 am Post subject:

HT is overrated. Hammy, you remember AMD's 3DNow! tech back in the day? It's kinda gone the same direction I think.

I'd stick to AMD. Get yourself a Socket 939 AMD64 3000+ Venice Core and have yourself a jolly overclocking good time. When are you planning to build/upgrade?

Posts: 1475 · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 11:10 am Post subject:

well right now ive got some parts on my list, just need a few more then i can start buying them and building.

Posts: 2723 · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 11:28 am Post subject:

Before building any computer you should stop and ask yourself a few questions.

1.) How much money am I willing to spend?

2.) What are going to be the primary uses of my new machine?

3.) Am I comfortable enough to build my own, or would I rather pay more for a prebuilt that comes with tech support?

What are your answers to those questions? What's on your parts list? Do you already have some parts on hand?

Posts: 1475 · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 2:09 pm Post subject:

ive got a few parts on hand, monitor and CD drives, im reusing those. as for how much money, not a ton, but not too little either. primary uses are games, photoshop, school stuff. yea, i can make my own, i figure that its a good experience. as for parts, right now ive got a creative soundblaster audigy 2 ZS, leadtek geforce 6600 GT, 1 GB RAM(forgot the specifics on the RAM) processor and mobo are being debated, case with 420W power supply. thats as much as i can remember without going on to newegg.

Posts: 2723 · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 8:35 pm Post subject:

Is your video card PCI-Express?

I'd reccomend getting a socket 754 2800+ if you don't plan on upgrading again till you do a complete rebuild, but going with the socket 939 3000+ if you think you might be upgrading sometime in the next year or so.

Lastly, what brand of RAM did you get? Corsair, Mushkin, or OCZ? (all decent)

Posts: 1475 · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 9:52 pm Post subject:

video card is 8x AGP, as Haggs might recall(showed it to ya before) and i dont remember the RAM company. could you PM me about the slots, im a little fuzzy on those.

i forgot to say that im reusing my mouse as well, its a logitech MX700.

Posts: 197 · Honey-Glazed Terror Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 197

Onboard audio isn't all that bad, for a budget build, I'd recommend dropping the audio and upping the video Very Happy

But that is just personal preference I suppose Razz

Posts: 2723 · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:27 am Post subject:

Posts: 1475 · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 10:48 am Post subject:

ill think about that. in the meantime, im looking for a SATA HD with a lot of space for a little money. any help there?

Posts: 2723 · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 12:55 pm Post subject:

Monarch Computer has a Western Digital 320GB SATA Hard Drive (WD3200JD) for $150 - code SGJE-30CCHS = $134 with free shipping.

Enter the coupon code at checkout to get your discount =). That should fit what you're looking for.

Posts: 1475 · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:06 pm Post subject:

sweet, thanks haggs. Very Happy

Posts: 2723 · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 5:05 pm Post subject:

You're welcome. Let me know if you do end up ordering it. I believe WD is also providing a 5 year warranty these days.

Posts: 336 · Modder Joined: 16 May 2004 Posts: 336

holy ****, a 320gb sata HD for 150$? damn thats a lot. I am also thinkin about upgrading my comp pretty soon, maybe xmas time, and my specs are pretty much that same as him

geforce 6600gt - 8x agp
audigy 2 zs
1 gb pc3200 kingston valueram
52x24x52 CDrw
14x DVDrom
2x 120gb 7200 rpm WD hdds
asus a7n8x-deluxe mobo
amd xp 2700+ CPU, only 333mhz FSB Sad

(ram is faster)

i would mainly be looking at upgrading the CPU and mobo, and with that the ram probably, unless pc3200 (400mhz) is still up near the faster end. and I would also like to get a couple of 10k rpm sata hds to raid.

Posts: 399 · Modder Joined: 15 Sep 2004 Posts: 399

Everon, don't bother with the 10K RPM drives, get one of the new maxtors with the 16mb of cache.

Posts: 3257 · Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 10:11 am Post subject:

really depends on what you're doing..
The raptors have a much lower seek time (because of the faster RPMs)
but the WD's have a larger cache (more stored in non-moving memory)

Posts: 2723 · Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 11:57 am Post subject:

Hey Everon, you and I have about the same specs and I was thinking of holding off till the Agiea PhysX cards and UT2007 come out next year before I upgrade. You shouldn't have any real problems playing current games on the market with your current build...well, I've been happy with mine anyways.

Besides, by then there will be better 64-bit support for everything, better vid card, HDDs, procs, etc.

Posts: 336 · Modder Joined: 16 May 2004 Posts: 336

lol, no, it runs everything just fine, but who wants to fall behind on technology... not me

Posts: 2723 · Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:23 am Post subject:

lol, PC gaming can be such an expensive hobby, but oh so fun. If you don't want to fall behind you should run out and buy 2x 7800 GTX and run em in SLI and a pair of those 74GB 10K rpm drives RAID 0 for starters (on second thought, you should just go straight to SCSI). Find yourself an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+, but then again nothing really makes use of dual core... Rolling Eyes

Who care's though?! You'd be well on your way to catching up to the latest and greatest...though your bank account might not like you very much!