Performance Sacrifice

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by DeveloperX, Apr 1, 2003.

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What part of performance would you give up first when building a computer on a budget

  1. Graphics

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  2. Sound

    5 vote(s)
    83.3%
  3. Memory

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  4. Core Clock Speed

    1 vote(s)
    16.7%
  5. Bus Speed

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  6. Quality of Componants

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. DeveloperX

    DeveloperX Geek Trainee

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    What area of performance would you sacrafice first when trying to save money while building a computer.
     
  2. harrack52

    harrack52 Supreme Geek

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    I voted for sound because nowadays all the mobos have onboard sound, so you can forget about buying a sound card and buy it later.
    Also sound does not influence performance.
    I know onboard sound uses clock cycles but it is not dramatic.
    The thing I would absolutely not compromise on is the quality of components because it may cost you more to get quality, but in the long run you will save money.
     
  3. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    I have to agree with the above: even the low-end AC97 stuff is decent nowadays. With the advent of the nForce chipset and motherboards in general, there's a lot more integration.
    I refuse to buy lower quality components. I'd rather buy less RAM of a good kind than buy a ton of crappy ram at the same price. I've learned something from ECS and FIC boards: there's a reason you pay more for other brands: they tend to give you less hassle than the cheaper brands.

    Graphics would be next, as you can still get some very solid cards with nice features and performance for a small amount of cash.

    CPU speed is another one I could cut back on since having the bleeding edge components usually means shelling out a lot more money than another CPU a few hundred MHz slower. Plus, you can do some nifty overclocking to boot and get a better FSB speed that'll more than make up for the slower CPU.

    When buying RAM, I won't buy anything slower than PC2700 DDR or PC133 SDRAM. The extra speed might not be used now, but it's generally not that much more for the slightly faster stuff than the slower PC2100. PC3000 and PC3500 I should pick up a stick of Corsair or something for testing, but I just haven't yet. I probably won't either with my funds being a bit tight.

    I try to keep in check with the current technology, and at least try it out once just for the hell of it (except SCSI---haven't had the guts to plunk down the cash for a controller card).
     
  4. Sniper

    Sniper Administrator Staff Member

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    sound doesn't bother me too much :) right now, cuz I'm using an onborad sound system now, which works fine :)
     

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