Now a "Good" time to build a new PC?

Tricky question, because things change so fast that you can never keep up and stay up. But is there anything MAJOR happening soon that would be worth waiting until the new year for? I'm not in a terrible rush, but eventually want a new PC to play some of the new games.

If you're in the mood for waiting, I'd wait for the TRUE next generation of video cards to arrive. The 8800GTX/Ultra is over a year old now, and the technology is already beginning to show its age (especially with the release of Crysis) so if you chose to wait, you should wait for the next series of cards to be released.

It all depends on your budget. If you can afford to go "enthusiast" then I'd say wait. If you can only afford mainstream or budget, then I'd say that it's fine right now.

That's because of Intel's paper launch of their high end 45nm quad core and the x48 chipset. Anything you build on the enthusiast level with Intel right now will be second tier by the end of first quarter 2008.

If you go AMD, you should only go quad core if you insist upon mainstream future proofing, or if you don't mind upgrading again once the 45nm Phenoms arrive by the end of 2008. Personally, I think a 790 chipset motherboard and an Athlon X2 6000+ or 6400+ is good for a mainstream future proof build.

Graphics card wise, availability of the 8800GT is dodgy right now, but so is the X3870. If you don't mind an X3850, then they're available right now. I intend on getting an X3870 on December 15th, and I temporarily went back to an X200 based P4 630 just for that purpose.

That's because my Athlon X2 4600+ MSI KN9 405 chipset board doesn't like ATI cards, and I want to get the X3870 before I build my new AMD system when the hybrid Crossfire boards arrive sometime in January or February. Then, I'll probably go Phenom dual core, as I have no real reason for quad core yet.

What I like about AMD is that they support boards for longer than Intel. Though socket 939 is obsolete as far as new processors go, the AM2 and AM2+ are interchangable and I believe the AM3 will be as well.