Ok, it's now time for an upgrade.  I finish work in two weeks and go back to Uni in October. In the meantime, I have to do a few 4000 word reports for University before I go back  :'(, but that should leave me with some allocated time to gaming! 8)

However, I am in need of an upgrade to the old graphics card if I'm to play any decent games!
I would turn my head to the latest 3dfx card (as you all obviously would) but seeing as there will be never such a thing, I have to look for alternatives, unfortunately. :-/

Time to ditch the old GeForce2 Pro and get a beefier card. But what?  ??? I'll admit, the GF2 Pro has served me well, running any game with medium/high visual settings right from July 2001 when I got it! (As I said in a previous post, it had no problem running Hidden & Dangerous 2 @ 1280 x 1024, 30fps, full highest visual seetings including complex real-time shadows and full environment mappings). But saying that, I wouldn't go back to nVidia.

1) Because of the money-grabbing strategies I believe they incorporate and they way they try to confuse the customer with their 'XT' and 'LE' versions of cards, which 'XT' clearly opposes the rules that ATI goes by.
2) A personal vendetta against them due to their harsh treatment towards 3dfx's staff, their loyal customers, colleagues and 3dfx company as a whole. >:(
3) Frankly, I see nVidia's cards as lagging behind ATI's rival card (e.g Radeon 9600 vs. GeForce 5700, Radeon 9800 vs. GeForece 5900/5950 etc..).

As a student, I cannot afford the prices of a Radeon 9800 card, so instead I was looking at the 9600 Pro (256Mb). A powerful card, but good value for the money.
However, will this card be able to support games of the future, well enough? e.g. Doom 3, Half-Life 2?

Or does anyone recommend a better all-rounder, good power and performance, against value for money.  ???

Id'e say wait for the ATi X600 prices to drop, but if you *must* buy one now, go for the Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 pro

Definately a Radeon of some description matey...but I'd avoid the budget ones and save up for the PRO cards... ;)

Such as 9700Pro, 9800Pro or X800. ;D

They may be a HUGE wad of cash, but it's worth it in the long run as you'll not need a new GFX card for quite a long time! :D

I myself own a modded 9500 (modded to a 9700Pro) and it wipes the floor with my uncles 9500Pro card! ;D 8)

Ya' know it makes sense! :)

Nuff said! :P 8)

Hm, since I tested and experienced a whole bunch of Radeon Cards :

I'd agree, that you shouldn't settle for anything below a Radeon 9700pro (325/315MHz).

With the upcoming Doom 3 / Halflife 2 , and the already existing GPU-eater FarCry, you'll need a Card that packs the right punch to deal with them at decent quality ;)

Lower models (e.g. Radeon 9600/pro/XT) would still run those, but you certainly don't want to start fiddling for compromises (reduced Details) to get a minimum fps out of your new Card right away.

Right now I'm evaluating/using a Radeon 9800pro (380/340MHz), and the performance and Quality observed is very good for the money :)

Thanks for the tips guys, this sure helps!  :)

@DenisF - When do these X600 cards expect to appear, and how long will we be waiting for them to arrive on the customer market?

@paulpsomiadis - Cheers matey. :D I heard the 9500 cards were good as they could be softmodded to 9700. But if yours is a 9500, how did it beat a 9500 Pro?  ??? Is this because you softmodded to 9700, and your uncle did not?

@FalconFly - Cheers for the info bud. One of my mates owns a 9600 (cannot remember if it's either a Pro or XT) and he said he had trouble running FarCry at top quality even on his card.

I do want a card that will last a couple of years, but I don't want to fork out a great wad of cash.  I just don't know which to start looking at.

Quote:

I do want a card that will last a couple of years, but I don't want to fork out a great wad of cash.

Hehe, that's a slight Problem, as usual in the Graphics world ;)

I bought the Creative 3D Blaster Voodoo2 in December wither '96 or '97 (I can't remember! :-[).  It originally cost me £188.00.:o
6 Months later I went and bought a second one for only £70!!!8)
And 3 months after that, I bought a Creative 3D Blaster Banshee for £99. I remember having a voucher for the Electronics Boutique store (now GAME, you'll know it Paul!  ;)) where if I bought a 3D Accelerator I got Half-Life for FREE (Bearing in mind HL had JUST come out!).  The store obviusly didn't know their standard display adapters from accellerators and I managed to get a brand new JUST CAME OUT Banshee for a discount price, plus Half-Life for FREE!  ;D RESULT!
However, I was one of the very first to experience the conflicts between the cards, forcing me to install a Glide Switcher from Creative!

The other thing is, is that I will be running this card in my current machine, which is an AMD Athlon XP 1500+ running on a MSI KT266 Motherboard.
If I was to spend big bucks and go and get either a a Radeon 9700 Pro, or a 9800 Pro, would I really benefit using either of these cards on a AGP 4x? That is the maximum speed the my AGP bus will run at.
Will I benefit, because if I will not, would I be better settling off with something like a 9600 Pro? Will I see the differences between the 9600, 9700 and 9800 series on my machine, or would I need a more up to date system to notice those differences?


Also I have noticed there is a Radeon 9550. Is it based on the Radeon 9500 GPU or the Radeon 9600? Either way, is 9550 better than 9600?

If you *only* have an AXP 1500+, you really shouldn't spend your money on anything better than a 9600pro

your cpu will become a bottleneck even for a radeon 8500

How come it causes a bottleneck? What features start to unimprove when I run the cards on a mid-range PC?

Would it still be worth my while looking at the ATI Radeon 9600XT 256Mb, with the machine I have?

So what is better between the 9600 Pro and the 9550?

"How come it causes a bottleneck? What features start to unimprove when I run the cards on a mid-range PC?"
you won't be missing features, just speed.

It's like running a voodoo5 on a Pentium-II

Anyway, the 9550 is a heck lot slower than 9500/9600, stay away from it.

Id'e say that if you can find a 9500pro right now, go for it don't even think twice.


here's an example;
http://denisf.com/image029.gif

note the difference between the 9500pro and the 9700pro when used with an Athlon 1000, only 1.9fps difference!!!

*ugh*

Nice Hammer ;)
But I think THG just doesn't like direct Linking to their Images...

If people at rage3d can link to THG, i'm sure tom won't mind about my little linky  :P ;D

Apparently he does, since it doesn't work *g*
(to avoid confusion : I just see THG's generic Placeholder for blocked Image Links)

what the poop ???

iv'e even done a couple of forced refresh [ctrl+f5] and i still see it  ???

Seems you still have a valid Session with your IP, or a Cookie stored on your machine, thus you're the only one seeing it.

deep.. very deep.. lol

* goes to mirror that image on denisf.com

@Janskjaer - although you are correct in saying that the 9500 can be soft modded to a 9700Pro (likewise the 9600 to a 9800Pro, and the X800 to an X800Pro) and this is the reason why my 9700Pro is faster than a 9500Pro. :D

When I did MY card I did it the PRO way by lifting the heatsink and re-soldering the resistor on the GPU. This makes the MOD to a 9700Pro PERMANENT - so no need to keep modding the drivers after each install! ;D

Also I have fitted a custom GPU heatsink (copper with a blue LED) and RAM-sinks, so my GFX card looks L33T now! 8)

Falcon is correct in saying that the low-spec Radeons aren't all that good (they are budget for a REASON!) ::) :P

Oh and I know GAME (formerly EB - which was a better name) as I go there often. :D

Paul mate the guy has an Athlon 1500+, he doesn't need a 300$ powerhouse.

Big thanks to DenisF & paulpsomiadis for your help, guys!:)

@DenisF - Big thanks for the comparison chart. :) I can now totally understand the performance differences in the cards depending on how the CPU clock speed gap widens.

@paulpsomiadis - Cheers matey! ;D From your experiences with your 9500 Pro, and from DenisF's chart showing the CPU clock speed difference for the 9700 Pro, I think I would be better off either with a 9500 Pro or 9600 Pro.  I just have to decide now on which one I want, depending on the price I want to pay and the availability of the two cards!
Finally I can see the light at the end of the ATI Purchasing Tunnel. ;D

I did see a PowerColor Radeon 9600XT 256MB Bravo on sale for £129, and it also included a Half-Life 2 Voucher to get the game free when it comes out! :D
I also saw a PowerColor Radeon 9600 Pro EZ 256MB for £85. But that didn't have the HL2 voucher. :(

From what I've read in reviews, the 9600XT does not differ much from the 9600 Pro, and some say that it is not worth parting with the extra money for it.  Would you agree?
Should I stick with the 9600 Pro (failing that I cannot find a decent 9500 Pro) or should I splash out the extra cash on a 9600XT (if it's worth it)? ???

Here's a little comparison chart; http://denisf.com/r96.html

Decide for yourself if the money is worth the difference :)

Yeah, I've seen this comparison many-a-time. Thanks anyway though.

Nice to also see your site up again mate, it's looking pretty cool! :)

What I was after was personal opinions of the differences between the two.  I myself, have seen mixed reviews regarding the performance benchmarks of the PRO and XT models competing against each other.

I just couldn't make up my mind if it was worth the extra money to go XT.  ???

Quote:

Nice to also see your site up again mate, it's looking pretty cool! :)

;D spankyou-very-much ;D


Quote:

What I was after was personal opinions of the differences between the two.  I myself, have seen mixed reviews regarding the performance benchmarks of the PRO and XT models competing against each other. I just couldn't make up my mind if it was worth the extra money to go XT.

Lets turn to math for some assistance,
9600pro alone = £85
Half-Life 2 = £39~ish
^Total = £124

9600XT w/ HF2 = £129
^^ £129 - £124 = £5

Basicly, if you're gonna buy HF2 anyway, you're getting a better card for £5, but if you are ABSOLUTLY 100% SURE that you won't buy HF2, go for the Pro, you'll save £44 :)

Ooh, I think it's safe to say I will be purchasing Half-Life 2 in the near future!  ;D

You betcha! That game will rock!  :D

9600XT it is then  ;D

wrote on 06.07.04 at 12:05:37:

9600XT it is then  ;D

I went with the 9800 pro 128 meg- Lower clock speed out of the box but it has twice the pipelines and runs away from the 9600.

Overclocks nice too =)

wrote on 06.07.04 at 12:59:08:

I went with the 9800 pro 128 meg- Lower clock speed out of the box but it has twice the pipelines and runs away from the 9600. Overclocks nice too =)

This I have considered, and I still am. But the range I would be looking at in this aspect would be the 9500/9700 Pro.

I also purchased a 9800 pro back in march for $300 canadian, I've had it overclocked to 465/380 since installing it and it's been solid as a rock with the athlon 64 3400  ;D.

A good freind purchased a 9600 pro about a month ago and he's loving it also.

These cards are powerful with fantastic image quality, you cant go wrong with a pro or xt model.

wrote on 06.07.04 at 14:23:51:

This I have considered, and I still am. But the range I would be looking at in this aspect would be the 9500/9700 Pro.

From Newegg the price of a 9800pro128 is $199 USD

(Or about 107 GBP)

My Powercolor card overclocks to 435/376 (752 DDR)

All I have is a $17 fancard to keep things cool and a few heatsinks on the ram chips.

There won't be any difference in performance between a 9600xt, a 9800pro, and even an X800 PE on his pc.

incase someone missed a point here;
[glb][glb]HIS CPU IS A BOTTLENECK EVEN FOR A 8500!!!!111oneoneone[/glb][/glb]

Well, unless FSAA, Aniso and/or High Resolutions are used that is, so it's not that bad (and the Card will live through his next CPU upgrades as a Bonus).

However, Framerates will indeed be otherwise CPU limited...

Well I can run Counter Strike, GTA:VC and DeusEx2 at 1024*768*32bit with 4x FSAA and 16x Aniso without any performance loss..

and that's on a 64mb radeon 8500 with a pentium3 733mhz..

don't think he'll have problems with his 9600xt..

I personally would'nt purchase a video card with logic of limiting the video cards performance to a 1500 mhz cpu.

I would buy the best card possible (taking into consideration budget constraints) with the thinking I could still use the card with a cpu/system upgrade ;)

wrote on 06.07.04 at 15:25:29:

Well, unless FSAA, Aniso and/or High Resolutions are used that is, so it's not that bad (and the Card will live through his next CPU upgrades as a Bonus).

Correct- I play in 1024 x 768 with all graphics options cranked to the max and FSAA x 6 and Filtering set to 8x or better. Since I don't run at 1600 x 1200 the extra ram of the 256 meg cards would be useless.

Pound for pound the 9800 will be faster (even when cpu limited) then the 9600 due to double the pipelines when everything is turned on, a key piece to remember and the price difference between the 9600 and the 9800 isn't all that great.

As a bonus when/if you upgrade the card will have more cushion for future games then the 9600.

Just some thoughts.

wrote on 06.07.04 at 16:04:14:

Pound for pound the 9800 will be faster (even when cpu limited)

Bullshit, I had the pleasure to test a 9800 XT 256mb on my system, and it didn't even give better performance than my 8500 64mb.

Though you're welcome to show me a benchmark of both cards on a 1ghz cpu which will show the *pound for pound* difference. ::)

*ehm*

I do hope nobody buys a Radeon 9x00 for Counterstrike (?)

The way I understood it, the purchase Options in question were intended not for years old legacy Games like CS that run fine on 3rd line Graphics Cards, but rather serve as a future oriented investment (we're talking Farcry, UT2004, Doom3, HL2 and alike Engines)

wrote on 06.07.04 at 17:19:57:

Bullshit, I had the pleasure to test a 9800 XT 256mb on my system, and it didn't even give better performance than my 8500 64mb. Though you're welcome to show me a benchmark of both cards on a 1ghz cpu which will show the *pound for pound* difference. ::)

Please re-read my post-

*with everything turned on and maxed out*

This shifts some of the burden back to the video card and a 8 pipe ATI card will handle the load better then a 4 pipe ATI card.

Quote:

"we're talking Farcry, UT2004, Doom3, HL2 and alike Engines)"

Indeed, Doom3 will make your video card grunt a bit.

I know it does on my computer ;-)

wrote on 06.07.04 at 17:31:23:

*ehm* I do hope nobody buys a Radeon 9x00 for Counterstrike (?)

Who said anything about buying? ;)

Sorry, you lost me there.

I sure as hell don't hope people are even stealing Cards to play Counterstrike then ::)

lol

I got it as a gift for a V4 mod :)
no stealing/buying involved :p

Alright people. :)

Well, I've bought a card, and you may be suprised as to what I have gone for.
I bought a Radeon 9500 Pro (built by ATI), fully retail boxed with all it's goodies for $76.00 (£41). :D
My reasons?:

1) I took DenisF's advice on the bottlenecks my machine will produce trying to run high-end cards (even with 256Mb RAM, as I take it this extra memory won't make a difference on my mid-range machine), and that I should avoid the high-end cards as shelling out the wads of dosh for these cards will not give me the performance gains you guys with high-end machines will be getting.

2) I took gdonovan's advice on the pipeline architecture making all the difference in terms of performance, rather than video memory.  I have also seen the benchmarks between the 9500 Pro Vs. the 9600 Pro/XT, and the 9500 leaves them both standing!

3) I took my mate, paulpsomiadis' advice, as he is a hardcore modding maniac  ;) and he already has the experience with the 9500/9700 series.  He knows his stuff, so I trust his judgement completely.

This card is a good all-round card and is ideal for me.  I get some great performance from the card with it's 8 pipeline architecture, won't suffer as many performance bottlenecks as I would with say, something like a 9800 Pro, and the card was good value for money IMHO.  :)

Let me know what you think guys on my purchase, and if I have made a decent choice or not?
:)

One question however, as the 9500/9700 series supports DX 8.1 and 9600 series supports DX 9, which card will still run faster on DX9 games such as Doom 3 and Half-Life 2?  
Even though the 9500/9700 series outperform the 9600 series in today's games, will they still beat the 9600 series for DX9 games (as mentioned above)?

Moreover, will I be able to run Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 at an average setting and speed (say 1024x768, high settings, maybe 2x/4x AA)on the Radeon 9500 Pro?Would it be possible?  ???

wrote on 07.07.04 at 11:22:19:

One question however, as the 9500/9700 series supports DX 8.1 and 9600 series supports DX 9, which card will still run faster on DX9 games such as Doom 3 and Half-Life 2?   Even though the 9500/9700 series outperform the 9600 series in today's games, will they still beat the 9600 series for DX9 games (as mentioned above)? Moreover, will I be able to run Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 at an average setting and speed (say 1024x768, high settings, maybe 2x/4x AA)on the Radeon 9500 Pro?Would it be possible?  ???

1) The 9500 is a DX9 part

http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=88&var2=0

2) Should support everything the Doom3 needs, only question is clockspeed.

Good compromise choice! Only downsize I see is the clockspeed compared to the 9800 but you might be able to bring that up some.

wrote on 07.07.04 at 13:01:50:

1) The 9500 is a DX9 part http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=88&var2=0 2) Should support everything the Doom3 needs, only question is clockspeed. Good compromise choice! Only downsize I see is the clockspeed compared to the 9800 but you might be able to bring that up some.

Muchas gracias amigo para la lista!  ;)

I suppose I could give the graphics card a thrashing with the Quake Tenebrae mod as a taster! :P

@paulpsomiadis - Matey, I will be calling upon thou divine skills ;D in modding this excellent 9500 into a beast of a 9700!  :D I'll probably want to do the softmod first, then if I'm brave enough, I'll think about crossing over to the physical hardware mod. Do you know of any forums of people who have documented their work, doing both of these exercises?

Yeh all Radeon 9x [x>2] are DirectX parts.

Good choice amigo, but the 9500pro can't be modded into a 9700pro :)

you're still better off with the 9 pipelines on that beast, though :D

Ah, ok!  :'(

But still, I suppose the Genuine 9500 Pro is better than a 9500 being softmodded to a 9500 Pro or 9700.

According to this page:

http://softmod.ocfaq.com/faq.php

The 9500's cannot be modded to a 9700 Pro. Just a 9700 non-pro.

yup

it's all a number game

don't worry though, like said before, the 9700np wouldn't show any difference in performance to the 9500pro

Safe! ;D

However, I have seen a few forum topics kicking about where people have claimed they have softmodded a Radeon 9500 Pro to a Radeon 9700 Pro.  ???

How does that work then?

I'll se if I can find the forums again. :)

Look on rage3d.com, these guys are the experts on everything concerning radeon card

There are even some ati devs who regularly visit there, so if any - they will know.

Nice one DenisF matey ;), I will check that out.  Here are a couple of those topics regarding a
Radeon 9500 Pro ->Radeon 9700 Pro softmod:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://forum.rue-montgallet.com/ruemontgallet/OverclockingTuningSilence/sujet-24439-1.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3DRadeon%2B9500%2BPro%2Bsoftmod%26start%3D40%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN

http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123

I will regularly update these as I find them!

Ookay matey, I'm BAAACK! ;D

Been away a while cos' my American Dreamcast arrived and I had to install a MOD chip... 8)

DenisF is correct in saying that the 9500Pro CAN'T be HARDWARE modded into a Radeon 9700Pro - but you can STILL perform the soft-mod to boost it up to a 9700! :D

(I presume I'm correct here, but I've not tried this yet with a Radeon 9500Pro - I checked and my uncles card was also a Radeon 9500 non-pro! Only HIS card had broken pipelines - so he wasn't so lucky!) :P

Or just O.C. the sucka'! 8)

Oh and you might want to invest in a spiffy heatsink if the MOD works - you'll be running the card at higher clock rates and it won't do the GPU much good with a stock heatsink on it! ::)

And in case you're wondering WHY the 9500Pro can't be modded to a 9700Pro (via hardware at least), it is because the 9500 and 9700 use the same circuit board layout - whilst the 9500Pro is a different board! ;)

Also, if you'd gone and bought an ordinary non-pro 9500 it's still the 'luck of the draw' whether you get a moddable card. Most of the 9500 cards have broken pipelines - so ATI just disables the 'extra' ones (that are enabled on a 9700) and turns the card into a 9500... ::)

I just got lucky when I bought my 9500 and the extra pipelines were O.K. when enabled! ;D

Oh and @DenisF a stock 9500 CAN be modded to a 9700Pro - if you flash the card with a 9700 PRO BIOS after re-soldering the resistor on the GPU (hey I should know, I've already done it!) 8)

It also helps to have 3.3ns memory on the card when modding it to a PRO (mine does!) ;D

For your info, my card is the topmost on the page you linked here: -

http://softmod.ocfaq.com/faq.php

I presume your card looks like the second topmost, and therefore cannot be HARDWARE modded! :'(

(Actually, according to the page you linked it can't be SOFT modded either - but you can always try!)

Anyhow, I'll stop there before my fingers melt the keyboard from typing... ::) :P

Nuff said! ;D

Nice one matey, thanks for the pointers!

Yeah, i read up on which cards (with either 'I' or 'L' memory formations) mod to which cards.

I may try a softmod first, and if that doesn't work or I'm not satisfied with the performance gain, I'll o/c the sucka!  ;D Hehe.

Cheers mate! ;)

I'm back!  8)

Well, after nearly a week of trying to get the Radeon 9500 Pro up and running, I think it's beginning to look stable! God, ATI cards are hard work sometimes! ;)

After numerous problems and being in contact with the seller and Rage3D forums (cheers DenisF, would still be stuck with problems if you didn't forward this forum to me), and a trying a a large amount of varying drivers, I think I may have found something that's stable.

I'm using OmegaDrivers' Catalyst 3.9 drivers instead of ATI's own, as they suck and caused my system to crash or reboot all the time!

So, hopefully, fingers crossed, I have a successfull upgrade! Now just to sit back reap the benefits of the performance of a Radeon over my GF2Pro. ;D

Glad that you fixed your problems mate! ;)

I'll break out the Budweiser now..."true...true" ;D

ATI Radeon - gonna' kick jo' A$$! 8)

Too right matey ;D

I'm just gonna be chillin', playing UT2k4, bashing my Radeon 9500 PRO, havin' a Bud.


Whaaaasssaaaaaaaaaa :Daaaaaap!;D

Well Ivé upgraded 1 of my 4 PC's.

Old set was:

AMD AthlonXP Barton 2600+
ASUS A7N8X2.0 Deluxe nVidia nForce2 ULTRA 400
2x 512MB PC-2700 Samsung Original onboard sound/Lan
Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 Pro 128MB DDR

Enermax 350 Watt PSU
Maxtor 120GB + 8MB Cache 7200 rpm PATA 133 HDD
Pioneer DVD 106 16x/48x DVD-Rom Player.
TEAC 540E 40x CD-Rom Player.
Sony 1.44MB 3,5"FDD !! WOW ;D
LIAN Li PC-65 USB ALuminium Case with side window.
yellow and blue Cool Neons.


New set has become:

AMD Athlon64 Clawhammer 3200+
MSI K8N Neo Platinum nVidia nForce3 250GB onboard Sound/Giga Lan
2x 512MB PC3200 Elixir/NANYA [seems to be same comapny]
Connect3D 9800 Pro 128MB DDR

I moved the Hercules 9700 Pro to my other system and the HDD, CD/DVD roms and other stuf remained in the same case.

My next system upgrade wil be this one:

old set:

AMD AthlonXP Thoroughbred-B 2700+
ASUS A7V333-R VIA Apollo KT-333
1 x 512MB PC-2700 NANJA

Leadtek Geforce4 Ti-4600 Rev A3 0241
3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI 64MB Rev A1 2900
samsung 1.44Mb 3,5"FDD
1x Maxtor 40GB 7200 rpm PATA 100
1x Maxtor 40GB 7200 rpm PATA 133
Creative SB Live Surround 1024
Add-Tronnic 6896A Entry level Server Case, good ol American stuff
Enermax 350 Watt PSU
Intel Pro 100/ S Desktop Adapter

new set:

AMD Athlon64 FX 53 ;D Socket 939 version
MSI K8N Neo2 NF3 Ultra nVidia nForce3 ULTRA
4x 512MB PC-3200 Geil Cas2

and the parts like the SB live 1024 and net work card wil be replaced by the main board, because those parts are already onboard and the nForce3 Ultra gives way better sound than my old SB live 1024 ;) and the oother parts like GeForce4 ti4600, Voodoo5 5500 PCI HDDs and so on will remain in case.

and my last system upgrade wil be this:

old set:

Dual AMD AthlonMP Thoroughbred A 2200+
ASUS A7M266-D Rev 1.02 Bios 1009
1x 1GB PC-2100 ECC Reg Twin-Moss.

Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 Pro
Creative SB Audigy2 Platinum
1x Samsung 1.44MB 3,5"FDD
1x Maxtor 40GB 7200 rpm PATA 133
1x Maxtor 60GB 7200 rpm PATA 133
3Com-3C905B-TX 10/100 MBit Fast Ethernet Adapter
Chieftec DA-01-BLD
Antec True Power 550 EPS12V

New set:

Dual AMD Opteron64 Sledgehammer 250
TYAN Thunder K8W AMD AM8000
8x 512MB PC-3200 ECC Reg. Twin-Moss

and the rest wil remain in case. the only part that wil be removed is the network card.

the Athlon 64FX will be the first thing happening this year and then the Opteron will rise  8)