Holding Fire?!

fatmas · 29 May 2006 at 22:55

Big Dilemma.....
My current PC Spec is:
AMD Athlon 2500 Barton
DFI Ultra Infinity Mobo
1.5 Gb DDR400 RAM (3 x 512mb)
Nvidia 256mb 6800GS AGP
120Gb SATA Hitachi Deskstar.

It actually plays everything I want it to at High Settings. (Battlefield 2, Obvlivion).

Yet I have this yearning to buy a new PC. Its always good opening a new CPU and installing all the new components..
And IMO A fresh PC always runs sweet.

Ok here is the dilemma.
I am gonna upgrade not long after starting Uni in september. I know the market is going to change a lot by then but just wondering.

Wait for the Quad Cores?
And does anybody know the general pricing of these? and who is looking better.
A friend who works at Intel was at a press conference and it was said these new Quad Cores would blow AMD out of the water.
They would say that I know....
Any recommendations?
I dont know on the budget yet...
Also I think I could get about £300 for my old system if I sold it privately.
The Graphics card will be less than a year old when I sell.
And i could sell it with a 40gb IDE i have as a slave and 256 - 512mb DDR400 I have also...
Cheers guys

Zefan · 29 May 2006 at 23:07

CPU's aren't the current bottleneck, quad core will be useless as they haven't even worked out dual core properly yet. I'd wait until the release of AM2 and then the next gen of chipsets using ddr3 and decide then.

At that point dual core 939's will be phasing out and will hopefully be at reduced prices. It is here where I would decide whether to dive into the deep end with the latest and greatest DDR3 systems or get a cheaper but perfectly capable dual core 939.

By the time you get to uni your PC will be worth even less unfortunately so it's not worth thinking about selling yours to cover costs, as it's likely to be a big enough pay out anyway.

fatmas · 29 May 2006 at 23:13

Cheers Rich ***OOOOOOOOOPS Zefan***
lol
Yeah your right, but there is very rarely a good time to buy a new pc. Because of them thar manufacturers bringing out their new tech and whatnot..

Zefan · 29 May 2006 at 23:19

There is never a good time as you say, but there are definitely bad times to buy hardware. I believe you shouldn't invest (Unless of course your rig is actually insufficient) until dual core is properly utilised. Upgrading to single core now would be a waste of money seeing as dual core's around, but there's lots coming out soon aswell... it's hard, but I'd say that now is not the time to upgrade. As I said, some things are certain, such as dual core 939 prices dropping. Think, a lovely x2 4200 for under £150. Win!

WolfR1der · 29 May 2006 at 23:29

Zefan said:
Think, a lovely x2 4200 for under £150. Win!

I live in hope

In all seriousness though, will we be seeing prices like that in the future? I haven't been in this long enough to really know.

fatmas · 30 May 2006 at 00:10

Hmmm hopefully.
You see Zefan is a bit of a market analysist (sp?) on the quiet.

i do like my current beast though. even though it is a 2500 barton.
yummy

Zefan · 30 May 2006 at 00:22

Then keep it. I reckon either the dual core 939's will be phased out then in which case you'll get a good deal, or will be unavailable, in which case *Oh well* you have to buy a brand spanking new rig with all the whistles

Energize · 30 May 2006 at 00:37

Forget 939 get conroe it beats anything amd have atm.

m3csl2004 · 30 May 2006 at 00:49

Zefan said:
CPU's aren't the current bottleneck, quad core will be useless as they haven't even worked out dual core properly yet. I'd wait until the release of AM2 and then the next gen of chipsets using ddr3 and decide then.

At that point dual core 939's will be phasing out and will hopefully be at reduced prices. It is here where I would decide whether to dive into the deep end with the latest and greatest DDR3 systems or get a cheaper but perfectly capable dual core 939.

By the time you get to uni your PC will be worth even less unfortunately so it's not worth thinking about selling yours to cover costs, as it's likely to be a big enough pay out anyway.

am2 is already out :confused:

Energize · 30 May 2006 at 00:59

m3csl2004 said:
am2 is already out

There isnt any new cpus though.

Jack Bauer · 30 May 2006 at 05:16

Correct me if im wrong, but does this have to last you for 3 years of uni? If it does and you are happy with your system at the moment I would wait till vista and DX 10. I no before everyone says it theres never a good time to upgrade so just do it. But that is a big release, dont realy think its worth missing for the sake of a few months. All depends how often you plan on upgrade tho