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intel purchase plan

Kaos

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 14, 2003
Messages
1,328
the intel retail employee purchase plan is hot this year p4 3.0ghz with a 915 chipset board...its pci express, one of my buddies said that nvidia uses osme sort of bridge technology so that i could slap a agp card in there is this true? anyone done this yet?
 
pci express and agp wont work together, you have one card in one or the other from what i have been told, now VIA has made boards where you can use agp cards and then upgrade to pci express later, but from what i know, you cant use both at the same time.

nvidia uses SLi tech which uses two pci express cards and has nothing to do with agp, its not out yet and wont be out until the nforce4 comes out from what i have read.
 
Yeah, the NV40/45 aren't native PCI-E chips and use a bridge (NV43 is native PCI-E). The NV40 isn't just a plain AGP card though. With the bridge, the card can run 1GB/s down and > 2GB/s up which is more than fast enough for video processing, despite what ATI claims.

The high down speed rates in x16 PCI graphics cards is pretty much only for uncompressed video processing right now (i.e. 1920x1080 60fps uses about 350MB/s each way).
 
FYI the program this year includes the 550 Processor (3.4 Ghz), Intel D915PBL Board, and a copy of Windows Xp Pro.
 
yeah, its still a great deal at $199, but its kinda like buying a spaceship. I mean, how many people here have PCI express video cards AND DDR2 memory? If i buy that thing, i would have to either:

a) sit on it for at least 6-8 months until DDR2 comes down in price, and PCIX cards are widely available

b) blow the whole damn idea of getting a good deal on a computer and spend over $250 for a measley 512mb of DDR2 memory, get ANOTHER 6800GT, but PCIX, not to mention all the other crap i'd need to put the machine together.

look at my sig. now my machine will bench 11,600 with the video card mildly OCed to ultra specs, no other OCing.

What's a 3.4 (NOT socket 478 mind you) gonna bench with similar hardware? 12,000?

and if you don't like 3dmark03, then insert some other benchmark.

my point is, it makes sense if u need to upgrade and you can either spend an ass load of money now, or sit on it for half a year.

but otherwise, it is as i said before, like buying a spaceship: too expensive to be practical, and damned if i ain't goin anywhere special in the thing. :rolleyes:
 
buy that intel kit and sell it, and then go buy a similar AMD setup and pocket the extra cash
 
Steel Chicken said:
buy that intel kit and sell it, and then go buy a similar AMD setup and pocket the extra cash

could do. a word to the not-so-wise. don't ebay or anything. If u get caught selling it (somehow?), you will not be elligible for future employee purchase programs.
 
UltimateMan said:
could do. a word to the not-so-wise. don't ebay or anything. If u get caught selling it (somehow?), you will not be elligible for future employee purchase programs.

well, dont ebay it. use the fs/ft forums here and on other sites....thats a good price for an intel setup. you could pocket a serious profit margin on that. im sure someone will eat it up.

The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
Rule 002 » The best deal is the one that brings the most profit.
 
I got in on the Intel Retail Edge package last year. Funny thing is, my system (with an IS-7) is faster than what they're offering this year. I want to sell mine, but I suspect lots of people will be selling their bundles this year. :(
 
Jonsey said:
Funny thing is, my system (with an IS-7) is faster than what they're offering this year. :(

by "faster" i hope you mean that the IS-7 is some sort of replacement processor, b/c last years retail edge was a 3.0 (northwood) Ghz P4 and 865GBF, not faster than a 3.4 Ghz prescott.

i don't know what the IS-7 thingy is (pardon the ignorance), but i know it didn't come with the package last year.
 
For $199, this is of course an awesome deal, and I'm going to take advantage of it. A legit copy of XP Pro would be nice. : ) It's a really nice board, a really nice chip, but what sucks, as it was stated before, I'll have to upgrade almost everything else in my rig to accomodate the new board.

2 IDE harddrives. NOPE. Get a SATA Raptor. +$176

1GB Kingston HyperX DDR memory? Guess again. 2x512MB DDR2 = $314

My nice new 6800GT AGP runs awesome! Too bad you can't use it on this board. In fact, I couldn't even find a PCI-E card that would be comparable at the moment. There's a couple Quadro cards, but c'mon now. Let's be serious. Add ~$400 at some point in time.

My old socket 478 HSF won't get the job done. New one for 775 chip: $40

Will a 430 Watt PSU get the job done? If it won't, add another $75.

I'd like to use that front 5.25" accessory panel for the ports. Dammit. My mid-tower doesn't have the room. Throw a nice Antec case into the mix. +$75

I can easily afford the $200 for the board, chip, and OS. It's just the other thousand I'd need to spend in order to use it effectively that seems to be out of my grasp.

Granted, I could sell the used parts that I could replace for around $600 or so, but it's a little bit of a hassel to find buyers for all the stuff in a timely manner.

I'll be selling mine.
 
I've gotten in on this the past two years, but I don't work in retail anymore so I won't be getting this one. I don't think I'd get it anyway for any other reason than to sell it for a profit since it would be necessary to buy DDR2 memory and a new video card. No thanks. But I'm perfectly happy with the 3.0C and D865GBF I got last year. And I have the 2.53 / D845PEBT2 setup in another system.

Also, this isn't really $199... if it's like last year, they'll charge $10-20 for shipping. But it's still a good deal for a combo that goes for about $480 on NewEgg. Much better savings than last year... it was also $199 but was only about $375 if purchased anywhere else.
 
Buckchop said:
For $199, this is of course an awesome deal...[all the stuff inbetweeen]...I'll be selling mine.

exatcly

and you don't have to sell you soul to those companies, working there will do fine.
 
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