Dinosaurs, are you still using AGP Video card & Pentium-4 ? Don't let the "upgrade bug" sting you. That IS catastrophic extinction!

Having been around this site/forum many years, I'd still like to think there are those still trying to squeeze out the last bit of pc & gaming
power with the older mobos & P4s, etc.. Ohh, I'll take the plunge into a major upgrade the end of this year ...err, ughh...or maybe 2009. It's really a practical matter, not dollars.(make that euros now!) Multi-Core is not all that! (been there done that) It's your OWN magic mix of ALL components you need & use that makes the most difference.

Meanwhile, my trusty 3.4GhzEE Intel cpu on a Gigabyte mobo (8KNXP Ultra-64), with the aging AGP slot still runs great. Crysis & COD4....no problem. Sapphire ATI x1950 Pro is excellent well built card. The only mod is a ZALMAN FC-ZV9 VGA Cooler, keeps card temp down effectively. The latest ATI Radeon 3800+ series is coming to AGP. What more can us dinos ask for?

Running Vista Ultimate, because in testing I found WinXP does games & most other stuff faster...but only by 10% at best. This is true only now, with Vista SP1 (RC.v.668). Overall, Vista is excellent & getting better, but XP is still great. Vistax86 can't see all the 4GB ram (& that's ok), but AnyWinx64 is NOT worth the driver/software hassle just yet. Vista experience is improving rapidly with OS updates. Even though I have servers/computers on XP & Vista, I prefer gaming & most apps with Vista, online or offline. (any OS tweaking: Use 3rd party configuration software sparingly. Find the relatively few tweaks that make the difference.)

This old board has scsi 320 & 64 bit PCI-X slots. (not to be confused with PCI-Express) That enables us to run scsi drives at Ultra 320 speeds or Sata II drives connected to the PCI-X Sata II Card. In reality, the newer sata II HDDs, on a true Sata II controller, come closer than ever to scsi U320 performance. (scsi U320 is traditional Enterprise & reliability champ) Bottom line: you can attain true sata II HDD speeds or scsi U320 with many older mobos & older components.

Other pieces of the puzzle...online stuff needs a fast connection & solid router/modem/network hardware & uptodate firmware. It needs attention to detail in configuration...check everything! Don't rely on "auto configuration" ever. Use 3rd party configuration software sparingly. Find the relatively few tweaks that make the difference. (OK, I said it twice.)

Many of the older motherboards, cpus, memory modules & other components are dirt cheap. The key is to build it yourself & keep flexibility in components. (Ebay, various hardware forums, etc. Just about every thing you need is available at relative low cost.)

The point of these comments: is not to extol or put a spotlight on this or any particular system, but to look at ways we've found to extend the life of our current systems & hardware, in our experience. (Big corps want your money & try to force us to buy new, supposedly better systems/hardware. Screw that.)

Please respond if you're a dino, still roaming out there, even if you are a vestige bird in 2008. Your replies could help someone improve current system, save $ &/or even help save our planet.