When Will It Be The Ideal Time To Buy A PC?

[aeridus]

I'm looking to buy a $2000 PC, filled with just about the best hardware available at the time I buy it. I have a monitor and speakers and mosue and keyboard that are all perfect, I'm just concerned about the main system. I was wondering when the best time to buy a PC would be, considering there's the new Quad Core rage and the 64-bit rage right now. I want to wait until the new technology has been out for a couple months before I take the plunge.

Most likely I will get an nVidia video card and an AMD motherboard/cpu, but I haven't thought beyond that. I'll probably just get PCI-express even though there's no clear advantage of that compared to AGP8x, at least not one that I've seen explained clearly.

So the question remains, if you had $2000 to spend (and the nVidia+AMD restriction), what would you buy and when?

 

[apt403]

if you want to get an amd setup then you should wait till sometime in '07, thats when amd should bring out a conroe killer. If you get a C2D then i would suggest waiting until the R600 is out, that way 2 things will happen, there will be a price drop for nvidias highend cards like the 8800gtx, and well, the R600 will be out, and you might want to get one of those.

the advantage PCI express has over AGP is the fact its the new standard, AGP is basiclly a dead tech, its going no where at all.

 

[WR2]

A system similar to this AMD High-End Platform except I'd change out the 2 7900GTO video cards for a single 8800GTS.

The performance advantage PCI-E has (and its quite large at the moment) is that the newer more powerful video cards are all PCI-E. AGP cards top out in the mid-range mainstream section of performance as in 7800GS.

 

[okie]

There will always be "new technology" around the corner... K8L, octo-core, 16 core, whatever....

If you wait, you'll probably wait forever... you should just get what you want to now and enjoy it.

take care

 

[mad-dog]

I'm looking to buy a $2000 PC, filled with just about the best hardware available at the time I buy it. I have a monitor and speakers and mosue and keyboard that are all perfect, I'm just concerned about the main system. I was wondering when the best time to buy a PC would be,

It doesn't matter what or when you buy it, it's outdated within a maximum of 6 weeks, in other words, there's no time like the present.

considering there's the new Quad Core rage and the 64-bit rage right now. I want to wait until the new technology has been out for a couple months before I take the plunge.

Quad-core is for servers or systems that run dozens of applications at once like a workstation, Intel would like to make the uninformed it is useful for extreme gaming but this is simply not the case, modern games are graphics intensive.

Most likely I will get an nVidia video card and an AMD motherboard/cpu, but I haven't thought beyond that. I'll probably just get PCI-express even though there's no clear advantage of that compared to AGP8x, at least not one that I've seen explained clearly.

PCI-E offers the advantage of 2x the amont of data throughput lanes than the PCI card, this is not a advantage UNTIL the amount of data being transferred is too large for the 8 PCI lanes and a bottleneck occurs, neccessity is the mother of invention and henceforth the PCI-E slot is created to alleviate the problem when it indeed exists.

So the question remains, if you had $2000 to spend (and the nVidia+AMD restriction), what would you buy and when?

I'd probably get a nice winch bumper for my FJ Cruiser...happy holidays

 

[JMecc]

Yeah, there will always be new tech around the corner but Vista / DirectX10 is a major milestone & there won't likely be a DirectX11 anytime soon. There will be quad and more cores, but 2 is quite good (how many cpu-intense apps can you run at once? - dual gives you leighway to have one intense comp (antivirus, decompression...) in the background while still using your pc like normal.

I would wait until R600 like apt403 said, then you have 2 major choices for DX10 & prices will drop due to competition. So I'd say plan for March or so.

Jo

 

[croc]

You didn't list your existing system, or any compelling needs to upgrade. Makes it difficult to assess.

 

[CompuTronix]

Whatever recommendations you decide to follow, at least wait until after the Holidays for prices to normalize, and as has been said, perhaps a bit longer for the release of the R600, until the DX10 playing field levels out.

 

[aeridus]

These are my current computer specs:
Pentium 4 CPU 2.80 gHz Dual Core
1.00 gB DDR RAM
nVidia GeForce 7800 GS (256 mB)
Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit
Windows XP Home Edition SP2

For now, my video card is plenty powerful, but it's AGP so if I do get a new computer in the near future I'd just get the nVidia 8800 most likely. My current computer (minus the video card) is about 3-4 years old so it's about time for a nice clean upgrade, especially for the new Vista OS. Even if I do end up removing most of Vista's features due to anal retentivity. It's amazing how much of a speed boost one gets if disabling System Restore and File Indexing Service in Windows XP as it is.

Also, my current motherboard is an Intel and I want to switch to AMD, especially since they finally caught up recently and got the 65nm process up and running (though I'm aware that Intel has had their own 65nm process for a few months). I want a computer that is relatively quiet and doesn't sound like a hive of angry bees. Also, while quad core may not provide much benefits right now, I'm a Computer Science major and I want to be able to design and use powerful programs.

I just hope that my dad upgrades his computer monitor soon so I can use his old 19" LCD. I'm currently using a 15" LCD that works perfectly fine, but I could probably stand to have something that's just a tad bigger.

I will keep an eye on the R600 though, thanks!

 

[CompuTronix]

Your current rig is still quite nice. I understand the goals you have in mind, however you may want to reconsider your thoughts regarding switching to AMD.

I recently upgraded from an AMD dual core Opteron OC'd to 3.0Ghz, faster than the FX-62 flagship chip. My current rig runs rings around it, no contest. We haven't seen any proof that AMD will be able to deliver, at least on any timely basis, a new platform that will match, let alone marginally best Intel's current offerings. If perhaps you haven't seen this, check out the following THG article, and then look at THG's CPU charts.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/02/thg_tuning_test/

The C2D isn't just slightly faster, it's in a league of it's own. I've built several excellent AMD rigs. I'm only interested in performance. It doesn't matter to me which logo is on the CPU. I just buy the fastest technology. I'd like to see AMD regain the Crown at some point, if just to keep competition keen, but I don't think it'll happen for at least 9 months, if even then. So for the forseeable future, I have to recommend the C2D.

Hope this helps. Good luck

 

[aeridus]

Thanks!

Ultimately I'm looking at both performance and energy efficiency. Granted, I could just spend $500 on a quiet power supply and go ultimate with the motherboard and not care about energy efficency. It's not me that pays the electric bill anyway.

But yeah, the two main advantages AMD has over Intel, keeping their new quad core product for 07 in mind, is that AMD tends to be more energy efficient and their quad core solution is more integrated (or so I believe, I wasn't able to find full details) than Intel's current quad core (which is actually 2 dual cores on one chip).

With that in mind, for the time being is there a superb power supply that makes no noise at all and is great at cooling off a system? I prefer not to use water cooling just yet... I believe my current power supply is around 450W.

 

[CompuTronix]

So far, the outlook for quads doesn't look stellar, because there will be very little in the way of software, to utilize their power over the next several quarters. As such, it's hard to justify the expense.

If you've already read the THG article I posted, then you know that Intel finally managed to upstage AMD's power efficiency with the C2D. Not only are they remarkably faster, they also run significantly cooler.

In terms of power supplies, I can't speak well to that topic, as I haven't been up on it for several months. However, there seems to be much positive chatter about the new Corsair PSU's. 600w seems to be minimal.

 

[aeridus]

I might well just make a few minor adjustments to my current computer and sit things out until I desperately need to upgrade, then. Probably waiting until I've graduated and have a better paying job would be a good idea (by January 2008, hopefully). I'm currently researching CPU fans now, since the Corsair looks like a good buy.

 

[aeridus]

Here's my current power supply:
http://www.computerhq.com/Nspire_Black_Aluminum_Power_Supply/NSP-550P4LF12/products/partinfo-id-506160.html

I believe it's still doing fine and relatively quiet...

My motherboard is a P4P800-VM (Socket 478 it seems) and the CPU fan+heatsink is what originally came on the motherboard. I'm almost positive that this would be the better thing to try to replace first, especially since it is much cheaper than a new power supply. I want to buy the best CPU fan+heatsink on the market, and Zalman looks like a good choice.

 

[ben72227]

So far, the outlook for quads doesn't look stellar, because there will be very little in the way of software, to utilize their power over the next several quarters. As such, it's hard to justify the expense.

If you've already read the THG article I posted, then you know that Intel finally managed to upstage AMD's power efficiency with the C2D. Not only are they remarkably faster, they also run significantly cooler.

CompuTronix is right here; even though we like to cheer for AMD (since they are THE gaming CPU 8) ), Intel is beating them hands down, and probably will for the next 6 months at least. AMD is still recovering from it's takeover bid of ATI. Now, ATI and AMD being one company can ONLY mean good things (rumor has it that there will be a CPU/GPU in one component released sometime!).

But for now, Intel is focusing SOLELY on new chip designs. Their next quad-core design (called Yorkfield; follows Kentsfield) will be single die, 45 nm, 8MB of fully shared L2 cache, bus speed greater than 1333 MHz, and will support DDR3 memory.

If you want an AMD, you're going to have to wait for mobo's with the AM3 socket (buying current AMD stuff is just silly when you can get Intel chips that perform better for the same price) which doesn't come out until late 2007 at the earliest.

So, in closing, if you're going to get a PC RIGHT NOW, then go for a C2D.

 

[aeridus]

How many processes are there? In one year I've seen Intel go from 90nm to 65nm to 45nm... is there a chart somewhere listing progress? XD

Realistically though, I probably won't buy a new PC until January 2008. I'm too poor right now and I have debts to pay off first.

 

[NewITguy]

Buy anytime lol, the sweet spot is when there is a big discount on most of your parts

 

[flyoffacliff]

I think now is a pretty good time.