Is it even worth building a rig right now?

[p3matty]

I know that this statement can be said all the time, but with Quad cores, DX10, DDR3, and the new motherboards to handle all of this on the 6 month horizon, why buy dual cores, DX9 and DDR2 stuff now?

All that being said, if I were to build a rig based on a Pentium D805 (now at a tasty $95), what parts should I get that can still be upgradeable to future processors and such? In particular, is there any Asus boards that are "backwards" compatible with the D805, currently compatable with C2Ds, and "future" compatible with Quad cores (with overclocking potential for the 805 and C2Ds)? Is the new Zalman cooler compatible with both the D805 and C2D?

Also, any ideas on when DDR2 and DX9 GPUs will start falling in prices? I'm thinking of building a rig around Christmas time.

 

[Guest]

DDR3 is really not here yet, I give it a good 1year+ before even high end system really adopt it. Im fairly confident the DDR1 to DDR2 history will repeat itself and we just started to see 'good' timming for decent on DDR2 less then 6 month ago.

About quad core, they should remain high price part for quite a while, and most people will be better suited with more MHZ then more cores, so that take care of that!

About DX9, well the new DX10 card should be blazing fast in DX9 and that's what matter, not really the DX10, again, if history repeat itself, the DX10 card will be outdated and slow when full DX10 games come out.

I would call what's ahead as a big platform change, usually, you should not jump the bandwagon and be early adopter of any technologies, not worth it.

I wouldn't build a system now, but thats because of the upcoming motherboard, RD600/n680,650/Bad Axe 2. In one month should be a good moment.

The release of the nVidia 8800 might drive the price down a bit, but I doubt the processor will go down much more then what we just saw this week. As of DDR2 prices, they should go down a bit because they were really high, but DDR3 wont change much.

 

[accord99]

Pretty much all of the recent Asus MBs will support quad-core.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2848

But I would spend the extra $90 on the E6300, which has a very good chance of hitting 2.8GHz and still less power than the 805.

 

[BMFM]

Ah! The ever lasting question...

It really depends on your needs at the present moment.

There will always be something in the horizon. If you keep burning your neurons on that you'll go insane (and that applies to any and everyone).

BTW, I agree with labbbby: when those changes arrive to the public they will do so at a premium price.

 

[niz]

I know that this statement can be said all the time, but with Quad cores, DX10, DDR3, and the new motherboards to handle all of this on the 6 month horizon, why buy dual cores, DX9 and DDR2 stuff now?

....

Hardly 6 month horizon...

mobos that support quad cores are out now.
intel Quad core will be out in 3 weeks. (Nov. 13th)
nVidia DX10 GPU will be out in 2 weeks ( Nov. 8th @ nvidia BYOC party )

Vista is out already if you want the release candidate for free, or Jan. if you feel like paying $300. Trust me though, I tried the final release candidate (2) and its very obvious that vista is very much a downgrade.
I've gone back to XP for games. Anything serious I use Linux.

 

[pat]

I know that this statement can be said all the time, but with Quad cores, DX10, DDR3, and the new motherboards to handle all of this on the 6 month horizon, why buy dual cores, DX9 and DDR2 stuff now?

All that being said, if I were to build a rig based on a Pentium D805 (now at a tasty $95), what parts should I get that can still be upgradeable to future processors and such? In particular, is there any Asus boards that are "backwards" compatible with the D805, currently compatable with C2Ds, and "future" compatible with Quad cores (with overclocking potential for the 805 and C2Ds)? Is the new Zalman cooler compatible with both the D805 and C2D?

Also, any ideas on when DDR2 and DX9 GPUs will start falling in prices? I'm thinking of building a rig around Christmas time.

It still amazes me that this question is always asked when new things are announced.. There will always have new things..

I'm sure that there is people that end up never getting a computer because thay always postpone their purchase..

You need one, just get one.

 

[Guest]

Hehe totally agree, and invest good money in stuff that will last a while: Case / PSU / HDs.

Dont go spend fortune on X6800 and Dual 7950GX2...Because the next gen might top this for a fraction of the price. At least that's how I see it.

 

[p3matty]

Maybe I worded my question wrong. I mean should anyone purchase a DX9 card right now, or wait 2 weeks for a hopefull price drop when the DX10 cards come out? It is worth getting a C2D chip right now, or will there be a price drop when the Quads come out in a few weeks. Is it worth getting DDR2 memory right now, or will their prices drop as well in the coming weeks?

I understand that you need some modern computer parts these days, but I've NEVER been one to get the top of the line stuff as I totally realize it will be outdated in a matter of weeks (months if you are lucky). As you can tell from my screen name, I'm still using a Pentium 3 1GHz chip with 512MB of PC133 RAM, and a 6200 AGP card. With my next upgrade (read overhaul), I'll be more price vs. performance oriented, as well as being able to upgrade in the "near" future. With the quantum leap that the C2Ds made, I think that's the chip I should at least start with.

I'm just looking for a quality board that will fit the entry level C2D (6300) now and give me a CPU upgrade path. Also, I'm not a huge gamer, so a 7600GT is most likely more that I'll need, but I dont want to get one now if they will drop by 25% in 2 weeks either, and same with 1 or 2 GB of DDR2 800 RAM.

I hope that words what I'm trying to say a bit better. Thanks for the previous thoughts, though .

 

[NMDante]

It won't matter what you buy or when you buy it.

When you buy something now, of course it will go down in price. Same thing if you pay a ton for something later, you don't think it will stay that price for years, or even 3 months, especially video cards.

I bought a 7600GT for $180 3 months ago, and now they are under $150. Am I mad? No. Cause in those 3 months, I played some games I liked, and enjoyed the visuals. I also didn't have to stress over whether my video card could run certain things.

So, it doesn't matter when you buy hardware, cause it will always depreciate...sometimes faster than you want.

 

[sailer]

I think this is a combination of need and timeframe. If you need it now, buy it now and don't worry about what happens next week or next month. At the same time, if you can hold off for a month, then you will have the advantage of a lot of new hardware coming out. When that happens, you have the choice of buying the new stuff, or probably getting the present stuff at a cheaper price.

But it all comes back to that equation of need verses timeframe, and only you can answer that.

 

[Guest]

You are right, that RIGHT NOW is proably not the best time.

August september was fine, 965 Bios were getting mature. Now end of november/ beginning of december will probably be a better moment to upgrade.

I was planning on a september upgrade since my mobo/CPU celebrated their 3 year anniversary, but I went on an internship so I figured I could stick with my laptop for 3 month and most likely get better prices/ newer mobo.

The main reason of waiting right now, at least for the enthusiast, is the motherboards comming that should come out pretty soon. The DX10 and QuadCore are added benefit, DDR3 is not a key player for another 3-6month, but I could be wrong

 

[GavinLeigh]

Is there ever a right time to buy a rig ? I mean that Weird Al song where the guy says "My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks. It was obsolete before I opened the box" rings true every time I buy a piece of premium kit. If you've never seen this video is pretty funny:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nEi0eQB-NtY

Right now processors are turning a corner and even though there are some screaming deals on X2 AMD's and dual core Intels... everyone is wondering where it's going to go in the next 3 months. If I was trying to build a decent business class machine I might consider doing it right now. But then memory prices seem to have become high again. Three months ago I bought 2Gb PC2-6400 for $160... now it's almost $250.

Well the truth is there's never a good time to buy or build a new machine. Just know that once you have it you'll get a lot of pleasure and pain out of it.