Is there ever a good time to upgrade?

uummm no  

when the component is shipped to your door it is out of date  

In the moment you pay is out of date

no. actually that happens after i buy something  

except for the x2 4400 i just got   .
it went up in price  

(Infinite) Soon  

Simple answer is, No. It will never be a "good" time to upgrade.

When sh*t is new, it's good but expensive.
When it drops in price, something new is out.

Only computer part left out of the upgrade hysteria are harddrives, monitors and sound cards.

(If you're into TFT, there's that upgradeability though)

Don't forget - The Quad is coming.

I'm waiting on Quad.
I'm waiting on.... MB 680i or RD600
I'm waiting on.... DX10 - 8800gtx or R600

Vista... It would be nice, since I won't have to pay the upgrade fee.
But I won't wait

waiting is for the birds... Dont wait, get what you want and enjoy it until it's no longer enjoyable.. then upgrade again.. its useless waiting for the next best thing.

Waiting is for the birds. But, all I need will be coming out in Nov.
At that time, when I see the reviews/benchmarks. I re-evalualte the
R600 and RD600 situation. I'm planning on building my system
in the Jan/Feb timeframe - By that time - price/bugs/ should be worked out.

Why don't you get the CPU today, get the MB later, the GPU after that, then Vista... Withing a year I believe you'll have an entire up-to-date system! Oh.. except that by then we'll all be using octocores  

Seriously, you gotta calculate the worth of waiting versus how you'll enjoy the new computer today. My thinking: there's (almost) no justification to keep using a computer once it starts annoying you (well, maybe a few weeks if there's a specific release that is important to you). In general, if you start waiting for the next thing to come out, soon you'll be waiting for the next thing after that, and the next... and so on, which adds up to you sticking to a crappy computer for much longer that you'd like. Think of it this way: the sooner you get your new computer, the sooner you'll be getting the even better one after that!

Cheers  

when you win the lottery :trophy: :mrgreen:

Edit: Some fun facts about when to expect to win the lottery where I live: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gamble/od...

The right time to upgrade anything is: When you NEED it. If your comp. needs a new whatever
to function then that's the time. Many ppl get confused between their needs and wants. As an example, I use a AthlonXP 2K with 1gig of ram. When I make my next comp, It will at least double the performance of this machine. All i do is wait and watch my local newspaper (the West Australian) and pick what I think will get the job done for the LEAST amount of money. That is probably the best way to save money. I am an experienced techie and don't mind putting thing's together myself. As an example, right now I've just seen an ad in the West on Sat. 28th Oct, and there is a notebook for $788 after the cash back. That is the best price I've ever seen for an entry level notebook. Also there is an AM2 X2 3800+ for $239 and an E6300 for $258. That is unbelievable pricing if you want to buy new. Cheers all.

The best time to upgrade is right after your intial upgrade because by the time you put your new PC together there will be better parts.  

In fact, it's probably best to upgrade at least once a month, every month in the year for the rest of your life.    

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Or you can upgrade when you need to upgrade. Waiting is fine up to a certain point. New technologies are always coming out. If you are always waiting for the next big thing then you'll end up keeping your current PC.

Many wise words in this thread. I'm not so sure about some of the sentences, but the words were good  

It is tempting to just upgrade a couple of existing components to keep my old computer limping along for another few months and then do the big one next year. However I'm almost certainly going to take the plunge on a full system upgrade as soon as a few components come into stock at the right price.

DX10 and Vista – who need’s ‘em :!:

Me  

Best time to upgrade is the exact time programs,games you want to use no longer run they way you want them to. Other then that no there is no good time to upgrade. For me its time to upgrade when i cant run games in max settings at the resolution i want then i go and buy a whole new system.

It's ALWAYS a good time to upgrade!

It's ALWAYS a good time to upgrade!

exactly  

No, there is never a good time, only a time you need to do it.

When you upgrade, it's for a reason. Buy just what you need right now.

And don't worry about future-proofing a system - typically a spec or a socket will change anyways, causing you to build new system, even if it means like re-using some parts. This assumes an approx. 2 year upgrade cycle.

Most people I know buy one part below the top of the line, which is where most of the price breaks are.

Processor and hard drive prices will have a top end, some more up top with that processor, and somewhere down the line there is a big drop where the rest of the processors bunch up on the dollar scale. The top of the bottom (or middle) is what you want to get.

Rules of Thumb:

Double the MHz: +30% performance, typically
Double the cores: 0-85%, depending on whether the programs can take advantage of it
Double the RAM: 20-200% (depends on what you start out with and what you run, i.e. Battlefield 2 from 1 GB to 2 helps load time, stability, plus increases performance about 25% or so, but I did not measure this)
Double the disk space: +0%

If you're going to splurge on one component, do it on the RAM - more of that will get you more of a boost than a faster processor out of the same series.

Just my 2 cents.

This advice is what you paid for it.