Whats the next best hardware we're waiting for ...

[tang0]

I want to upgrade and want to wait till the new stuff comes out, when are the new cpu's + gfx cards coming out ?

Are the AMD or Intel chips looking better out of the two

 

[Nymins]

The next really good Nvidia cards should be out early next year. The new mid-range ones should be out before Christmas, but aren't that much better than current mid-range cards.

 

[tomanders91]

would also like to know, is it worth building now, or waiting maybe til next year, when quad is mainstream/cheaper, more dx10 cards etc.

 

[Teaf]

Intel Penryn CPU's: Nov '07
AMD Phenom CPU's: Dec '07
G90?: Jan/Feb '08
R700?: Jan/Feb '08
X38 chipset boards: Sept/Oct '07
X48 chipset boards: Sept/Oct '07
RD670 chipset boards: Nov '07

Note on the DX10.1 cards, it's that date roughly for the high end cards. There are other stuff like the 8700 series coming out before that, but will performance levels of slightly lower than the 320mb 8800 GTS (expected levels anyway). Regarding X48, some boards are shipping with X48 chipsets around the time that the rest of the X38 stuff is coming.

is it worth building now

Tough one, I'd personally say that if you have the money to buy now then I'd buy, as there is always things "just around the corner" that will make your hardware outdated. It's just how it goes. Although due to the amount of new technology coming out, some may say that you should wait if you can hang on.

 

[mk17]

...
Tough one, I'd personally say that if you have the money to buy now then I'd buy, as there is always things "just around the corner" that will make your hardware outdated. It's just how it goes. Although due to the amount of new technology coming out, some may say that you should wait if you can hang on.

And also the fact that the new releases typically come in on a price premium and push the existing h/w down a notch in price. If you wait you can either buy the new stuff, or get a discount on the existing good stuff.

Now is a pretty good time to buy, but as flibby says, its a tough one.

 

[jac4593]

I'm waiting but mostly because I won't get the PC I want if I buy it now as I'm a bit short. But what I'm not sure is, whether to buy a cheaper GPU and wait for the new nVidia's to come out in Jan/Feb or buy a 8800GFX when I build it at christmas?

As time goes on I'm going more and more towards getting a cheaper card christmas and getting the best card February. What would you do?

 

[mk17]

I like to stay a few months behind the curve (at the very least), and see prices drop, drivers updated, etc. Newest anything has snags, not to mention the early-adopter price point. But that's just me.

The 8800 GTX will certainly drop when the new top cards come out, and its worth considering if your monitor is 24" or less.

 

[HangTime]

First time in recent memory, but I don't think I'm really waiting for anything in particular at the moment.

Maybe those 120hz TFT monitors.