Waste of money to buy a new PC now?

i think it depends on how much you need it and for what purpose.

i think you can buy a second hand and cheap system and wait for 6-8 months since new technology will come to the life (hammer, SATA), so i do not think it is wise to spend and buy new components.

wish if there was UnDo in the life

You can get a generic system on pricewatch for about $300. It will allow you to surf the net, and do word processing. Just be sure it has an agp slot for a better video card if you need it for gaming. I build about 3 systems a year, and sell them in the paper when I'm done with them. I've never had any problem selling them. You can built a decent system (minus software and monitor) for about $600 if you don't spend too much on ddram or the video card. If you wait for the opteron or any other new cpu/mobo setup, you'll pay top dollar for a few percentage points difference in performance. It's up to you. Plenty of options out there. Depends on your budget.

That was somewhat the main point. I tried searching for second hand P3-mobos, but didn't find any decent ones, and the new ones started from around 75 euros. Seems like whatever I end up buying now - it'll be a crappy deal with a lifeline of more or less 1 year.

Well, that's nothing new in the PC world. *sigh*

Here's what I have in mind now. And bear with me, this isn't even the budget-version... I'm poor, i know...

Gigabyte GA-7VRXPRaid, VIA KT333 (obvious choice?)
AMD Athlon XP2000+
Gainward GeForce3 Ti200 128Mb
Ap 256Mb 333Mhz DDR-RAM DIMM (only 256 for now, since DDR costs a fortune)
Enermax 350W PSU (double fanned)
GlacialTech Igloo 2310 (with grill)
Windows XP OEM Home Edition

Price: <850 euros

Everything else I can re-use from my ex-comp, luckily...

where do u live? the cost seems high, however i think most of the parts are good, but you can buy soltek drv5 which is cheaper than gigbyte and very good performer and has cpu protection (your chosen gigabyte is with raid so it is pricey)

i have never heard about Ap ram? try to get better type because the ram should be very stable otherwise the crashes will kill you, i suggest samsung, micron, crucial.

wish if there was UnDo in the life

He/she is from Europe. Hey another one!

And I have to say that usually prices here are quiet higher that in US (we are talking easily about +30%), and it's really hard when you are looking for specific brand name components. Also, in comparison we have less than a tenth of online store on internet and it's prices are equall than those on the streets, plus shipping cost and risk involved.

Conclusion: you are so lucky if you live in US (from this point of view :-))

And it's so sad for me :-(

DIY: read, buy, test, learn, reward yourself!

I dunno how much the Intel systems over there cost, but how about this:

P4 1.8A Retail - $167USD
ABIT BD7-RAID - $91USD

That would be a bit cheaper and overclocking would bring it up to/past XP200+ performance easily. BTW IIRC, isn't the Gigabyte GA-7VRXP the one with massive amounts of problems with the voltages or something like that?

:smile: Falling down stairs saves time :smile:

the problem with waiting is in 6 months your going to be behind the technology curve, it might as well get a nice computer now, let it get old, and upgrade it when you feel like it.

You could simply replace the board with the better Soyo SY6-BA+III from www.justdeals.com for $40.

<font color=blue>At least half of all problems are caused by an insufficient power supply!</font color=blue>

you just have to face the hard facts.
Regardless of what you get, or when you get it, it will depreciate pretty quicky, and something better, faster, more efficient etc is allways around the corner.

you just have to bite the bullet at some stage and get a system, balancing your budget with your ego and your needs.

Ego: Check
Rose hued glasses: Check
Fanboy Button: Check
CPU forum, here i come! :smile:

Ap, short for Apacer. It was somewhat the cheapest DDR333 I could find here in Finland. I'm not aware of Ap's reliability issues, but it's easy to return it in case problems and get some quality Samsung instead.
Still, with WinXP I doubt if 256Mb is even moderately enough. I'll upgrade to 512 as soon as the DDR's price drops.

And after reading horror stories about that Gigabyte, I opt for the Soltek's SL-75DRV5 now.

I guess that's all. Thanks to everybody who posted to this thread. Wish me luck that this will run the new Rainbow 6: Raven Shield nicely!

You could also wait for something cheap on www.retailslasher.com -- I think they will be heavy into electronics soon

lol its a thread from 2002 that you just answered

^^ thats awesome, how do u even find a thread this old? lol

has toms hardware been around since 1970 ? OMG !!!!!