Saturday, April 22, 2006

Plan Your PC Upgrade for 2006

ExtremeTech has a PC Upgrade Planning article, 2006 Edition. The article discusses processors, memory, GPUs, and planning your system for 2006.

If you need to buy or build a system today, it's a tough choice. We suggest that if you have a fairly current Socket 939 (AMD) or Socket 775 (Intel) motherboard, the best bet is to simply wait. If you need more horsepower, then you can drop in a faster CPU. Of course, if you have Intel-based motherboards with chipsets older than the 945 (915 or 925X), then you'll be shut out of dual core. But current Intel dual-core CPUs run very hot, and with Conroe just a few months away, it's probably better just to hang on for a new motherboard. [ExtremeTech]


The most compelling reason to upgrade would be to have PCI Express support for our systems. I suggest that upgraders just hang in there and wait until new processors are launched this year.

You can see ExtremeTech's suggestions for an upgrade path for the following systems:

  • Athlon 64/Early Socket 940/AGP
  • Athlon 64/Socket 939/AGP
  • Athlon 64/Socket 939/PCI Express
  • Intel Pentium 4/Socket 478/AGP
  • Intel Pentium 4/Socket 775/Intel 915 or 925 chipset
  • Intel Pentium 4/Socket 775/Intel 945

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