Good time to buy a new PC or ??

[xanupox]

I am still using a P4 3.0 Ghz Prescott overclocked to 4.0 Ghz and a AGP motherboard. I got a new video card last year, an ATI X1950Pro 512MB.

My system has 2 GB of DDR dual channel memory, 2 WD hard disks in RAID 0 config.

I can play most games still on "high" settings, but I really would love to see DirectX10 and the games on "FULL/MAX" settings.

Is this a good time to buy a new PC and put it together technology wise, or is something big around the corner? I don't want to waste my cash if there is going to be some new CPU or GPU out soon, or a revision of DirectX10, etc.

Any info would be much appreciated as I have been out of the tech loop for a couple years now.

Thanks!

 

[digitalwanderer]

DX10 really isn't worth buying a new rig for at this point, IMHO. If you need better performance then yes, but if you're just doing it "to check out dx10" I'd advise you wait a bit longer until more games utilize it.

 

[pjbliverpool]

I am still using a P4 3.0 Ghz Prescott overclocked to 4.0 Ghz and a AGP motherboard. I got a new video card last year, an ATI X1950Pro 512MB.

My system has 2 GB of DDR dual channel memory, 2 WD hard disks in RAID 0 config.

I can play most games still on "high" settings, but I really would love to see DirectX10 and the games on "FULL/MAX" settings.

Is this a good time to buy a new PC and put it together technology wise, or is something big around the corner? I don't want to waste my cash if there is going to be some new CPU or GPU out soon, or a revision of DirectX10, etc.

Any info would be much appreciated as I have been out of the tech loop for a couple years now.

Thanks!

GF9 should be out early next year, if your not too budget constrained then its definatly worth waiting for, it might even be able to play Crysis reasonably well . Plus the more reasonably priced Penyrns should be available so its probably worth waiting until around february time now.

Rgd DX10, I see were digi is coming from but it really depends on what games your going to be playing, if for example your going to play a lot of Lost Planet, Call of Juraez or Company of Heroes then DX10 is worth having as the improvements are fairly significant. But then their are games like Crysis, Bioshock, Gears etc... that have either no DX10 support, very limited support, or great support thats been mostly hacked to work under DX9.

Personally though, I wouldn't want to be gaming on DX9 right now, despite the limited advantages of DX10. DX10 is certainly doing at least as well as SM3 did back in the day and I remember being pretty jealous that I only had a 9800pro with SM2

 

[Mize]

That said, now is a great time to buy a computer. Prices on DRAM, HDs and CPUs is the best it's been in years. And if you read the reviews there's just about 1 game with better DX10 visuals while the rest suffer extremely from their DX10 modes.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

You're in no urgent need of an upgrade. Wait at least until mainstream Penryn CPUs are out (January) and the GF9 series is out (February - rumored).

 

[xanupox]

Thanks for the replies! I was checking out http://www.pugetsystems.com/ and the system I priced out was still over $3,000.00 That was without monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers... Jeez I remember that 3k used to buy top of the line with all the fixens!

I'll be waiting till Feb/March and take another look once the new tech comes out. Thanks again.

 

[Skrying]

You buy so much more for that last 10%. Therefore us not wanting that last 10% are getting the best deals in a very long time.

 

[pjbliverpool]

That said, now is a great time to buy a computer. Prices on DRAM, HDs and CPUs is the best it's been in years. And if you read the reviews there's just about 1 game with better DX10 visuals while the rest suffer extremely from their DX10 modes.

Yes and no. True that games with DX10 modes seem to suffer performance wise but 8800 level GPU's can handle them just fine (besides Crysis). SO the question becomes, do you want 120fps with DX9 graphics of 60fps with DX10 graphics. Sure performance is much lower but when performance is good enough in the first place, graphics should take priority.

I agree that now is an incredible time for hardware prices though. Unfortunatly its because the two winners are trying to kill off the two (one) losers. If they succeed, this will certainly be the last time we ever see prices like this.

 

[Rangers]

I think it's a good time just because a Intel Quad core runs a reasonable 260. Overclock it to 3 ghz and you'll have one of the fastest CPU's on the planet, and enough ahead of the curve to last a long time, considering 8 core CPU's dont even exist yet.

I priced a top of the line system based on said Intel CPU at newegg, and it ran about $1500. That's with one 8800GT, 2 500 GB hard drive, 4GB RAM, $100 Case, Power supply, Windows, and also $200 budgeted for a monitor (which you may not need).

Quad Core-260
4GB RAM-120
Asus motherboard-120
Vista 64-bit OEM-120
8800GT-300
2X500 GB hd -200
Case-100
Power supply-100
Monitor-200

I budgeted enough for case and power supply you can probably throw a mouse and keyboard in there (mainly because mine are dirty, heh), and I already have decent speakers. This also assumes you reuse optical drives. Though they are like $25 anyway.

If you want one prebuilt, yeah they do seem really expensive from some vendors (Alienware, etc). Cyberpower PC is a cheap one, my brother just bought a similar specced rig to the one above for around 1k from them, without monitor, although I believe it was on sale. CyberpowerPC has a reputation as being somewhat dodgy, but I imagine it's overblown as people love to whine on the internet. We'll see when the goods are delivered how it is.

I disagree PC prices have increased, I remember a decade ago my Dad bough a just under top of the line Pentium 2 from Gateway for 2500. I dont think that included any GPU. Nowdays, for 2500, I can build an SLI monster. And a similar thing to what he bought from Gateway would be much less, probably half. Not even accounting for a decades worth of inflation.

 

[INKster]

If the objective is mostly gaming it would be better to skip the Core 2 Quad and go for a cheaper Core 2 Duo E6750 or even an E6550 instead.
The savings could help you buy a second 8800 GT which, honestly, would give you much better overall 3D performance than the former combination.

 

[Skrying]

If the objective is mostly gaming it would be better to skip the Core 2 Quad and go for a cheaper Core 2 Duo E6750 or even an E6550 instead.
The savings could help you buy a second 8800 GT which, honestly, would give you much better overall 3D performance than the former combination.

Then you have to up the cost of the motherboard. So it really gets you nowhere...

 

[Mize]

Keep in mind there are those forecasting steep increases in DRAM prices over the next few months. They could well be wrong, but right now 4 Gigs of DDR2 for (way) under $200 is amazing. If you have to have Penryn it might be good to buy ram soon.

As for C2Q vs C2D for gaming, doesn't Crysis use those extra cores?

Also, 3k will buy one hell of a machine if you stay away from tippy-top-end CPU and GPU.
Go check Albuquerque's $1k machine thread.

 

[Davros]

why not buy the stuff people forget about when upgrading like a forcefeedback steering wheel, a trackir, a gaming keyboard, a joystick or othe cool stuff

 

[PsychoZA]

Because that stuff doesn't give you a higher frame rate/bragging rights.

 

[Arun]

Keep in mind there are those forecasting steep increases in DRAM prices over the next few months.

And those people tend to have obvious interests in that happening, thus making their opinion null and void. And while my opinion is far from flawless as well, I'd at least expect it to have no conflicts of interest (direct or indirect): http://beyond3d.com/content/news/528

 

[NovemberMike]

I would wait until the penryns come out. That should coincide with a price drop in all of the other processors as well, so it should net you some nice savings no matter what you do.

I just don't like upgrading when something is coming around the corner in the next month...

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Wait a second.. What?

He's essentially in the same position I am, only he's invested more in his current system than I have.

I could easily upgrade to match his current system specs but would that in anyway be logical to do?

It seems that people are telling him to wait to upgrade because the .45nm chips are on the way, but:

1: Haven't they been delayed indefinitely?
and
2: Doesn't he still need a new motherboard, new memory, new graphics card, and a new PSU at the very least?

If you want to wait, you'll always be waiting on the next best thing that will be right around the corner.

But isn't his question the same that I asked in my thread? Are any significant changes predictable on the horizon? The .45nms will use the same chipset he'd buy now, the memory timings would be the same, the PCIx16 slot would be the same.

The only advantage he stands to gain by waiting is an increased performance and efficiency from the newer CPU's, but that's it.

He could still build his new system today using an economical CPU, realize a noticeable increase from his current system, and then simply upgrade the CPU when the .45nms are finally released if he wants to do that a year from now.

Couldn't he?

Why wait to build an entire system because one component, that isn't likely to be a bottleneck anyway, might provide a better offering in the future?

Especially not when that superior offering will be compatible with what he builds today?

If that's not the case, then I shouldn't build an entirely new system. I should just get more DDR2, a new CPU and GPU and I'll be fine with the rest of my current hardware.

Of course, I'd be making an investment now that he's already made in the past, but it still doesn't seem quite right to me.