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Is it a good time to build a PC?
lionheart_m
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, my desktop died on me this past week. I've been wanting to upgrade it for quite some time, but I'm not sure if this is the best moment. Vista just came out and I'm not sure if it's wise to make the jump. On the other hand, I don't want a system that'll be REALLY outdated in a couple of months (because it'll probably be outdated the minute I buy the Mobo...). Should I just stick to my puny laptop or should I make the jump?
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I'd wait until a. the bugs in Vista get fixed and/or b. the next groundbreaking game comes out that needs a new system.
So, unless you seriously have NO pc games you want to play right now...and for the next couple months as well, I'd say go ahead and get it.
Yes, but a few price drops are on the horizon, so I'd say you should wait until CPUs and GPUs drop, which shouldn't be long now.
Just hold off for another few weeks.
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These are only minor price cuts though, the really big cuts and new products are supposed to be comming in July.
Also with the release of the 8800GTS 320 there is an option for people who want a good DX10 card without spending $400+. Most people don't push the resolutions that the more expensive cards are needed for anyway. I know I don't.
All told I put a damn good machine together for 1300 with shipping. I could have saved a bit if I would have ordered from lots of different places, but I like Neweggs return policy, and I've always had good luck with them. And this machine will rule Oblivion's balls so I can finally play it. It sits there mocking me from my shelf becuase it makes my current machine cry, even without any fancy stuff turned on.
So at some point your gonna have to bite the bullet however you are probably best off leaving it as late as possible to get the most for your money, if you need a pc now go for it, if you can put up with your laptop untill game X hits wait untill game X is on the doorsep and build a new machine then,
This is pretty much my advice...although I would say that if you're willing to wait this long, wait for reviews with the inevitable benchmarks, so you can build a system you know will run the game smoothly at the resolution you choose.
I'm currently waiting for Unreal Tournament 3 to do just this...which is kind of aggravating, because after Gears of War Epic is back to "it's done...when it's done!" I may not have a new computer until mid-2008 at this rate.
Crysis, on the other hand...
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I mean, obviously, you have some sort of computer to be posting here, but...do you plan on buying a junker just to get by for now?
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On the higher end models. The low-midrange C2D's, which overclock to 3.5Ghz with a good quality heatsink will be between $113 and $133 shortly after April 22nd. It's only the E6550 and up that get price cuts in July.
The end of the month, beginning of May is actually an excellent time to build PC because the midrange C2D's get a healthy price cut and hopefully Nvidia and ATi will have their midrange DX10 cards on the market. Having a card based on a unified shader architecture is definitely worth waiting for.
Good way to build.
What are you trying to say? It doesn't matter when the first DX10 game is released, the important thing is that they're using unified shader architecture, which means about twice as much horsepower as the current generation, aside from 8800 cards obviously. Are you advocating waiting even longer? The point is not the DX10 features, but the raw processing power, which in the midrange and lowend segment, will double in the next month. If you're really suggesting to wait for the next batch of cards after that for whatever unfathomable reason, be prepared to wait until Q4 '07 at the earliest. GPU hardware cycles are getting MUCH longer than they have been in the past, and considering the fundamental change in GPU technology that this coming generation is bringing, I would not expect the NEXT one to be anywhere near as large a performance improvement.
One thing I've noticed (though this might just be my imagination) is that RAM prices fluctuate quite a bit due to demand - when new processors come out, older processors decrease in price but RAM prices increase (since more people are building systems at this time), so you wouldn't save as much on a whole system as you might hope.
Unified shaders are exactly WHY the 8800 cards are so powerful. Instead of being bottlenecked by what distribution of vertex and pixel shaders the card possesses, the GPU will allocate whatever is required by the game. It hugely improves shader utilization, which is increasingly important with each generation of graphics engines, and has been a source of inefficiency since the very inception of vertex and pixel shading. Now the limitation is going to be raw horsepower. Simply the sheer number of calculations the GPU can do per cycle, and to a lesser degree, fill rate (mostly on bottom end cards and at high resolutions with AA/AF enabled).
RAM prices, especially DDR2, are at an all-time low.
That makes sense right now. What I'm saying is expect RAM prices to rise as the new processors come out this summer.
Maybe buy the RAM now, and buy the rest of the rig in July?
Now, if you ARE buying so close to the bleeding edge that it hurts...then you're probably not really concerned with price anyway. So you should STILL build it now, and just upgrade later.
There's going to be three versions
One's going to cost $120, another $150, and the last one $200.
So it might go Vanilla, GT, and Ultra.
Oh wow. Definitely going to wait, I think. Unless a 7900GS is better than an 8600GT/GS.
Does anybody know if the rumored April 17th date still stands?
I'd love to get one then, as it's right around the same day I'll get my tax return.
Hopefully I won't be the only one equipping the 8600GT/Ultra (Whichever I get) into my 939 socket system.
As people that say anytime is a good time to buy a PC, I'm inclined to disagree. I think the time is when there is a swag of games you want, that you can't play on your current rig. I wouldn't suggest anyone getting a new PC for the sake of playing games in 7 months time. That's just silly. Wait until what you want it here, then upgrade. Now is not always the time to get a new PC.
But what was also said was, "It's always going to be on the verge of a price drop." Eventually, you're going to need to buckle down and just buy what you want. It's constantly getting cheaper, but it's also constantly becoming outdated.
Aye, that's also true, but you can still do a little research and find out the release dates of hardware that's coming up, and aim for then. I still don't think it's wise to make the blanket statement that there is always something coming that will make you regret your instant purchase. I think you're better off doing a little research, finding out if there is anything coming out in a reasonable time frame, and set yourself a date. There are still better times to buy hardware than others
That's not what I meant. Let's make an example: you have $100. You're waiting for item A to become $100. When it does, item B comes out. Now you want to wait for item B to become $100. When that drops, item C comes out. Basically, you're going to need to buy something sooner or later, because technology develops so rapidly.