My 6 year old machine could use a tune-up but most of the new cards are this PCIx; I have an old video (AGP?) slot; not SATA for HDs; sound (on MB) is flakey; etc…
My case is fine and roomy and my power supply is only a year old (750 watt) due to the old unit sacrificing itself to a surge (power strip protection also vaporized - long story - yes, now I have a big UPS boulder in the way of incoming).
The point - Hold out for a new MB with USB 3?
Don’t bother, cards will be available to hook up the USB 3 in a short while?
USB 3 will never catch on?
For what do you use your PC? The sound issue can be sorted with a very cheap sound card. Really, if your PC is fast enough for what you do and want to do, then leave it until it fails utterly.
I’m soing more video and photo work for a friend’s web site generation business. I’m also the family photo archiever; lots of storage. Music is also important; grabbing most of my remaining 450 albums to digits along with my CDs.
I’d like to make the new machine part of the TV/DVR network as well.
I don’t type any faster but I’m looking forward to “scream recognition software” becoming a reality.
Things like AGP video boards, IDE hard drives, etc. are all still available.
But since they are declining in sales, their prices are becoming higher as compared to the current technology. At some point, you might find it cheaper to replace the motherboard and use newer technology components.
You might consider replacing the motherboard & processor (and probably memory) with a new one, but one that still allows you to use parts from your old machine, like your current hard drive, CD/DVD drives, etc. Then you’ll have a new, faster machine, while still saving money by reusing components from your old machine. And you can replace them one-by-one when you want.
The other rule is to calculate the cost of what you’d need to replace or upgrade, and compare with the cost of a new system.
It sounds like USB 3 is the feature you are most looking forward to. While I’m sure it’s possible, I don’t tend to think of a 6 year old computer being capable of comfortably running Vista or Win7, and you’ll need one of those for USB 3. (Or Linux, if you’re so inclined.)
Thanks so far. I have upgraded (soon to arrive) the sound (fits the old PCI card slots). I guess I’ll hold off for a few months and see what pops up for a new motherboard with USB 3 support. The hard drives can go in external cases if not useable with the new MB.
Mostly I scream when the software doesn’t remember to do what I should have told it to do:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Can I ask you something? Why are you waiting for USB 3?
The only thing that might take advantage of that kind of bandwidth is some sort of external rack of RAIDED drives. And even then the bandwidth would go to waste unless your looking to process uncompressed HD video in a hurry.
And Even then you’ll probably copy the files over and work with the streams locally on an internal SSD drive array anyway. For your particular level of use, I see no point in waiting for USB 3, nevermind paying the extra for it. Processing power, system RAM coupled with the parallel processing capabilities of a nice video card will serve you infinitely better. There are plenty of affordable options in terms of that type of hardware right now.
Copying stuff - like video - to external hard drives?
That said, I’m sure you’ll be able to get USB 3 add-on cards. But I’m with Kinthalis for a different reason: USB 3 may be here, but I doubt all the kinks have been worked out. I don’t like being on the bleeding edge.
Also, USB 3 requires TWO peripherals. So those external hard drives have to be USB 3 as well.
I run a NAS with drives on RAID on my gigabit network and work with video a lot, but the 75MB/s transfer rate is fine for regular home use. That’s about 1 gig every 15 seconds or so. The only time USB 3 would come in handy is when doing something like a full-system backup. Is that relaly worth the price?
Thanks again, nice to see some USB 3 boards out there. I asked not to be bleeding edge but, with the rate of change during the time another board ships - I’ll be getting dogged with, “Man, how come you didn’t get USB 3; your machines a dog”. It’s been pointed out that I don’t need it now but my luck runs to the next great gadget has to have “XXX”.
I’ll wait. The old box isn’t dead and will serve well as the network hub or in some other capacity. New sound card (in last night) cured the audio problems I was having. It, the MB, is just short of the slots for new add-ons.