I was talking from a frugal point of view. If you have deep pockets and don't mind upgrading in a few months to Windows 7, or if
you have the full retail version of XP (or VISTA) and can upgrade without purchasing a new operating system, it may be worth your
effort for the performance improvement alone. It maybe was a bit presumptuous of me to suggest you wait. But, you do have a good
reason for waiting, maybe. My wife had some money burning a hole in her pocket and wanted to upgrade, but I told he we should wait
until 7 came out for real, and, then, a little longer while they got the major bugs out of it. It won't be too long now, I think,
before it is released; I haven't been following it.
I am only speaking from MY experience with ASUS. I have been using bleeding-edge stuff for some time now, and ASUS has certainly
contributed to the bleeding. The same motherboard that had so many "code init" problems with my cpu seemed to work well with the
Wolfdale (two core) processors. I just figure that for $350 I should have got something a little better than what I got! ASUS may
still be the best mb manufacturer, particularly for more mainstream processors. I would still buy ASUS, partly because there isn't
a better brand that I know of. Somebody at freepctech recommended Intel motherboards, but they don't always offer the bleeding-edge
stuff for gamers... At our house we like the fancy graphics, stutter-free playing, and quick load times that the higher-end stuff
brings.
BTW, budget for DDR3 memory. It has come down in price and, in my opinion, can be significantly faster than DDR2. If you are
running a 32 bit o.s., I think that two GB of DDR3 would be better than 4GB of DDR2.
Dean Kukral
----- Original Message -----
From: bobwarasila
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 1:40 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] New build
>
> 6) I used to swear by ASUS, but my last three motherboards from them have
> been problem-laden. I tossed one and replaced it with an
> EVGA which was not much better. The trouble is, I can't make a
> recommendation. My last MSI motherboard had some problems, too.
> Check Tom's HWG before making a decision.
>
> I suggest that you take your time and do your research by poring over the
> reviews. You may decide that you want to wait for Windows
> 7 or you may decide that what you want is available now. You've had your
> old computer for four years, so there is no reason to
> rush. A 2.8GHz processor is no slouch.
I will wait it out as you suggest. What is motivating me at this time is
two things: First I tried IE 8 and found it noticeably slower than 7 on this
machine. Next I'm running an EXCEL financial package that takes 4 minutes
per run vs. a friend running a dual core who runs the analysis in 1.5
minutes. Disappointed to hear that ASUS is not what it used to be. I've
built an AMD ASUS mb and this P4P800 Deluxe. Both of these have held up
well.
Thanks for your input,
Bob
PCBUILD's List Owners:
Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
Mark Rode<[log in to unmask]>
PCBUILD's List Owners:
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Mark Rode<[log in to unmask]>
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