Question On Hardware Prices.
- Thread starter LEE929394
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Man of Honour
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It depends on exactly what you are buying because some parts depreciate faster than others (time in the release cycle has a bit to do with this) but as a general guide you can expect to lose between 1/3 to 1/2 of the value. Normally closer to the 1/3 in the first year I'd say unless you are really rather unlucky with your choices and timing. 
Soldato
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the 8800GTX has gone from about 500quid launch to 450quid (as the 500 carried a hefty premium) and they only recently dropped bellow 300 due to the nwe GT and GTS. They were around 350+ for a year. Not bad considering. Buying one now and it will depreciate fast however due to the next gen coming out in 2-3 months. But thats always going to happen.
Why are you worried about its depreciation? Why buy a whole pc that you want to sell in 6 months? I can understand swopping out graphics cards but a whole pc? lol.
Why are you worried about its depreciation? Why buy a whole pc that you want to sell in 6 months? I can understand swopping out graphics cards but a whole pc? lol.
Best thing you can do is spend the big money on a good case, solid PSU, top spec TFT, decent HD & a keyboard & mouse to your taste as these are the things that maintain value.
CPU's, mobo's, memory & GPU's decrease so rapidly, you should try and buy the cheapest you need that would get you through the year, rather than buying madly and thinking far too much about the future.
CPU's, mobo's, memory & GPU's decrease so rapidly, you should try and buy the cheapest you need that would get you through the year, rather than buying madly and thinking far too much about the future.
Have a choice of getting a new rig with an 8800GT today or waiting till the new nvidia 9 series(D9P) comes out in 6 months time.
Since the 9 series will be roughly double in power, i'm quite tempted to wait, especially if i can get the same rig a lot cheaper by then!
I agree it's all about timing, would it be wise to wait till June?
Since the 9 series will be roughly double in power, i'm quite tempted to wait, especially if i can get the same rig a lot cheaper by then!
I agree it's all about timing, would it be wise to wait till June?
Man of Honour
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The 9800s will carry a fair premium to begin with but I don't know exactly how they compare with the present graphics cards so unless you know or someone else has the information for you then it is just going to be a bit of a guessing game I'm afraid.
Associate
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if computer sales is anything like other retailing, as well as the product cycles affecting 'best time tobuy' so will Christmas...as retailers might over stock.
I totally agree with spending money on those parts which last a long time..keyboard, mouse, screen, psu, case as the previous reply.
the other thing that significantly affects cost of upgrading is the motherboard..if it dont support the next gen cpu/memory it could be an expensive upgrade nest time around (new board + memory and even graphics..eg a year or so ago agp>pcie).
best value at the moment I think would be a very cheap core2 and p35 motherboard..(New sockets will be out q4 2008 i belive) so any board you buy now may well not have that long a 'life' when considering new cpus in 2009.
for the most part the last few % performance costs exponentially more money..dont go for more than you need in terms of performance...go for the platform / feature set you need.
nows as good a time to buy as your going to find.
common excess expeniture for value machine
>500w psu
fast timing / fast speed memory (PC-6400 is more than enough)
paying for a fast cpu/gpu when you dont game/video encode/ cad and other high performance activities.
if you are going for best value, and you dont have 'enthusiast' performace requirements then you might want to consider an off the shelf pc. Building your own tends to only be better value when you value more premium parts/features eg. quietness.
best bang for buck at the moment for games I would say is the cheapest system that has 8800GT 512MB (cheap oem) + cheap Core 2 2GHz + good cooler for maximum overclock + cheap p35 motherboard + cheap 2gb pc6400 (max) ram, 500gb hdd + an onsite warranty included.