How far do you plan ahead?

Loony BoB

Loony BoB

Loony BoB

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I'm planning on upgrading my PC and my girlfriend's PCs in September, although I've been watching threads around here and reading up reviews all over the web for about a month already now. Do you guys just wait until you are going to upgrade or do you spend time researching like this?

On a sidenote, it sucks having to pay for the upgrade of two desktops rather than just the one. :( I'd make her pay but I know I'd regret it one way or another, she's struggling for cash lately anyway...
 
generally i dont have the money straight away, so ill be doing research into my next upgrade until i get the money to pay for it.

once i have enough money thou, i tend to just get it pretty much straight away.

obviously the main problems with planning too far ahead, is that hardware changes pretty quick, and prices also change, so its best just to get a general idea, then look properly when your ready to buy
 
I took a few months over my last major purchase of mobo, RAM, CPU and Graphics card. That was mainly due to funds as I'd basically decided quite quickly what I wanted.
 
How much do prices change? I've never really noticed even with a month of looking - I can't think of anything that has changed dramatically. Although I must say that I look at the various weekly deals and notice some good ones here and there. I remember the deciding factor of when to buy the kit for my current desktops is that OcUK had deals on about three of the parts I wanted in a single week... made the decision for me, really. :p I had to buy a week before I wanted to but it was worth the investment (just used the credit card and paid it back the next week).
 
I always do a bit of research first, maybe a month or two as there's nothing worse than buying something and then finding out there is a new version out 2 weeks later.
 
I'll pretty much ignore hardware until it's time to buy a new system, then do the research.

However, having said, that my old E4300 C2D system at 3.2GHz is still running sweet as, over 3 years since it was built. Just don't need faster hardware these days.

When there's a six core processor with single thread performance say twice as fast as my old C2D for £100, I'll consider upgrading.
 
Loony BoB said:
How much do prices change? I've never really noticed even with a month of looking - I can't think of anything that has changed dramatically. Although I must say that I look at the various weekly deals and notice some good ones here and there. I remember the deciding factor of when to buy the kit for my current desktops is that OcUK had deals on about three of the parts I wanted in a single week... made the decision for me, really. :p I had to buy a week before I wanted to but it was worth the investment (just used the credit card and paid it back the next week).
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depends on the componants really, sometimes theres little change in prices, others there can be a lot, memory especially can change a lot.

the latest nvidia gpus have been steadily reducing inprice, a month a go u'll be lucky to get one for £400, now i've seen them for as little as £360, not a massive drop sure, but still fairly signficant

2 months ago, if u was looking for a mid range pc, it would be pretty much always built with a 5770, now, its much more likly to be a GTX460 due to price changes/new releases, etc
 
i knew what i wanted and planned to build over a few months, then an unexpected student loan came through and BAM! £900 in 5 minutes. im not settled though, i enjoyed building mine so much that i keep trying to build other systems now, thinking of doing a mini-itx system soon.

on a side note i might be dead before i get to do it, my fiance is not happy with my new hobby.
 
EdGey said:
I'm never really out of the loop at the moment, so i always know what I'd get if i upgraded.
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Same, spend too much time fantasising about what I would get, so when I eventually get the cash it's go time. 5850 next, then when I'm rich enough I'll be thinking whole new build :D Turn my existing rig into a quiet little home server :D:D Then try to coax my girlfriend back into a relationship after the inevitable rage.;)
 
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