After work today, I went down to the local clone shop and ordered a new PC. I didn’t go for a high end CPU — I just couldn’t justify the price difference given the relatively small performance differential. What I ended up with was:
| Motherboard | ASUS P5N32-SLI-DLX |
| CPU | Intel P4 D 950 |
| RAM | 2 x 1GB DDR2-667 |
| Graphic Card | nVidia 7900-GTX 512M |
| Hard Drive | WD Raptor 74G (10K RPM) |
| Sound | Creative X-Fi Extreme Music |
The CPU definitely isn’t the most high-end thing on the planet, but it should be a step up from what I currently have. The graphics card should also be significantly faster, so between the two of them I’m hoping this will be a satisfying upgrade. Mostly though, I am just looking for a replacement for my current, aging gaming machine. It has been through three previous upgrades, and it’s really starting to get tired.
In any case, over time, adding a second 7900, a second raptor (raid 0) and one of the new hyperthreaded dual core chips (or whatever succeeds them), will incrementally get me to close to double my performance yet again. Woot!
It should be ready in 7..10 days. Unfortunately, not quite in time for Oblivion, but close. That will be my first real test.