AM2 doesn't look worth the wait?

[Booner!]

not being funny, but im thinking that if AM2 isnt desirable and conroe starts to provail... then are we going to see yet another socket?? to regain the market

As i found out the other day,

There is NO right time to upgrade

meh, all i want is a high spec pc that sis up to date, and most of the sockets i am saving for now will be long gone soon, so therefore just gonna have to jump on the bandwagon and save for conroe now

 

[Durzel]

There is NO right time to upgrade

This is true, however there are sometimes better times to upgrade than others.

Right now if you're looking for a full system I think the smart money is on waiting for Conroe, even if the first round of motherboards are a little sketchy. AM2 doesn't look too hot unfortunately.

 

[Monstermunch]

Im going to have to disagree, DDR2 is really starting to take off, if you buy cheap DDR2 then yes its not brilliant but Corsair have DDR2 modules that can do close to 400mhz (DDR800) at 3/2/2/8.

Yea but they only do 1gb kits and they're £200inc, will probably be around £400inc for a 2gb kit! I'd rather spend the extra money on a better processor and increase my speed that way cos it'll be cheaper.

£200inc for a 1gb kit, honestly. You'd have to be either a spoilt rich kid or just plain nuts to buy one!

 

[sja360]

Yea but they only do 1gb kits and they're £200inc, will probably be around £400inc for a 2gb kit! I'd rather spend the extra money on a better processor and increase my speed that way cos it'll be cheaper.

£200inc for a 1gb kit, honestly. You'd have to be either a spoilt rich kid or just plain nuts to buy one!

its expensive atm but once ddr2 becomes mainstream with both intel and amd motherboards being used it'll be as cheap as ddr is currently within a few months i'd have thought.

 

[m3csl2004]

ddr2 is pretty cheap atm, remember what normal ddr prices were like before the big drop? (Like 100 quid a gig for cheap stuff)

 

[Monstermunch]

its expensive atm but once ddr2 becomes mainstream with both intel and amd motherboards being used it'll be as cheap as ddr is currently within a few months i'd have thought.

I'd be willing to be money on the fact that the £200 kit I mentioned (being the only one I can see with decent timings) will still be expensive my this time next year.

I've worked for a manufacturer for 8+ years and I know how these things work. I agree that when the demand increases the prices will drop, but it's not as easy as that. Firstly there has to be a huge increase in demand, secondly it would have to be sustained for at least 3 months. Then the manufacturers will go to their suppliers and negotiate better prices for materials because of the increased quantities they are buying. After all that and another 3 months prices should start to fall.

However, with prices as high as they are currently and also general performance, i'm not convinced that the demand will increase dramatically for a while yet.

AM2 just sounds like a load of old pants to me, all the review i've read are reporting decreased performance to that of an equal speed S939 chip. If things stay the same and there are no good new reviews then I will be buying a spanking new skt939 rig about a month after AM2 is released.

 

[TooNice]

The latest note from Anandtech here: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2734&p=2 is that the AM2 is improving. Still doesn't look like it'll match Conroe, or anything to get excited about... but I think the main reason for people to wait for AM2 is for potential upgrade paths. But one might wonder if the AM2 based chip (even the ones released later on) would ever be better than the Intel equivalent.

*My* opinion is that those who have a solid single core chip (say, a Venice), should stick with it until Conroe/AM2 faces off.. but those who run slower chip wishing to play the latest game/benefit from PCI-E should just go 939 now.