Tiger's upgrade uncertainty
I don't spend much time at home these days, so my desktop computer gets little attention. If my memory is right, I built it in 2007. I quickly overclocked it to its limits, which at that time, was well above the the standard that games were being built for. Aside from trying to keep my GPU up to date, and shuffling hard drives in and out, I just haven't had cause to keep tinkering with the hardware. My consoles have been getting a fairer share of my gaming attention, and web browsing and movie watching could cope with me underclocking the system.
The one thing that would really benefit from some hardware overhauling is my video editing, but I try to wring the most out of the Moore's Law cycle now. If I'm not going to get at least 2x the performance from an upgrade, it's not worth making the jump. Core i7 looks like it could double the performance of my 3.2GHz C2D (forgive me for forgetting which model - I don't even remember what motherboard I have :S ), but that means I need to invest in a whole new platform. So far, the only firm choice I've made about what I want is a full ATX desktop/HTPC case.
I've decided to wait until Windows 7 is released to pull the trigger on the new build. I've been running the beta for a while now, and from my own experience and all the positive buzz, it just seems like a better fit for my 2x-everything ideals than Vista. There's also so much uncertainty about what new hardware is on the horizon, I think things should be a bit more clear by the time Win7 is released. Plus I might even be able to save a few bucks for my patience. In preparation for my new beast, however, I'm going to make the jump to HD video editing. For that I'll need an HD capture card. I've long wanted to be able to use direct feed HD footage of games in my videos, and the Blackmagic Intensity Pro HDMI Editing Card