Chip Expectations Lowered After Worst Sales Decline Ever

[Jimstep]

I just upgraded from an Intel Pentium 233Mhz MMX to an AMD Athlon 1.4Ghz 266Mhz FSB processor.

There has been no real reason to upgrade other than I wanted to get a faster processor. The 233Mhz setup I have is very powerful for all my needs except for the newer games that require some horsepower. I was able to extend the life of the 233Mhz processor with the aid of a graphics accelerator card.

I think the pc industry has saturated the market with workhorse pc's. The hardcore users with a broader budget have kept pace with the changes over the years. My budget limits me to what I can do with my purchases. So, I make them count when the time is right. If it wasn't for AMD prices, I would still be running on the 233Mhz machine.

[Ranma]

In a related report, unattended CPU house fires also dropped 31%. The specific CPUs causing the incidents have yet to be specified.

[mileandahalfhigh]

I agree, Jimstep. But for the price I wouldn't have upgraded, though I am very glad I did. Problem is, after I got new a mobo and 1.2 chip, I felt obligated to put half a gig on, a new modem, a larger case and PS, new 7200 HDD and upgraded graphics. Still not happy with 98SE, and will be going to XP Pro within next week on as-yet uninstalled Caviar.

Wish me luck!:D

[ukulele]

I too have decided not to upgrade this year for the first time in 20 years. My last upgrade was in early 2000 when I built an Athlon 700. I usually upgrade every time I could double CPU speed. As far as I am concerned this system is plenty fast enough for any applications I care to run. I detest the concepts of Win XP and Passport and hope that Microsoft falls flat on their **** with this latest monopoly ploy and I will stick with Win 98SE which only armatures, AOL users and illiterate people have trouble with. I have plenty of acquaintances who tell me how they have to upgrade to keep up with all their graphics gadgets. I have yet to see any of them get anything done faster then I can with half the CPU speed. I think once you get past the 500 mhz CPUs the rest is just eye candy and bragging rights unless you work for a Hollywood graphics producer. What really cracks me up is the countless fools that bought a non-legacy 800 mhz mini ATX computer with a Celeron processor and now they want to upgrade it. One friend of mine bought a 800mhz Micron last year and brought it to me to fix and upgrade it when it quit running (the power supply died). It had a 145 watt power supply, 16 mb on board graphics card, no AGP slot, one ARM slot used by his modem, 2 PCI slots used by a LAN card and Flight Sim Controller card and USB. He plays games with it and creates sceneries for flying and war simulators. I let him use my Athlon 700 for a while and he was astonished at the performance difference and asked me if I could get his working at least that fast. He was running a USB keyboard, USB mouse, USB scanner, USB printer, USB PC cam, and USB throttle control unit and joystick. He had three unresolved resource conflicts in the System folder. I told him no problem to upgrade. Bring me a new mid tower case and power supply, a new motherboard, CPU and cooling fan, a PS2 Kb and mouse, 256mb ram and a good APG graphics card and a Win 98SE OS. The point is that no matter how fast the CPU is and how big the ram, crappy parts, buggy software (USB devices are loaded with it) and poor maintenance will make it run like a 8088 with MS DOS 1.0 !!! Until the applications catch up with the CPU, ram and MB bus speeds, I’ll stick with my always cool and collected Athlon 700.

[RJGryphon]

New chip? Betcha don't need just one...
I agree with Uke, my Athlon Classic 550 (slot) is way fast, for a tired old rig. The key of course is 256MB CAS2 PC133, and a GeForce 256 DDR (both just invented in March 2000, when I built this thing) and so it soldiers on, non-upgradable.
It blows 5500 or so, on 3DMark2000. My buddy's TBird 1200C blows 6000 in the same BMark!
I am excited about the inexpensive SiS735 Mboards, with AGP 4x slot AND onboard video. I am happy to send out a rig like this, because one day you could pop in a GeForce4 or whatever. The price is NICE (US$72. retail!) and 512MB PC2100 DDR is inexpensive too. I can build a very nice PC for US$500, incl. 350W Enermax dual-fan PS.
People will not buy a whole new PC to get a new CPU just because the platforms have changed. Instead, they put a new vid card in their 2x AGP, or they buy a bunch of memory, or both.
People aren't buying new cars every second year either; it is analogous to upgrading to a new motor... forget it, you need a new car! Sorry, my old car runs just fine (and it doesn't get nearly as hot...) Regards to all