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Best Time To Build A New Computer?

M

MonstaThrilla

Golden Member
Next fall (about a year from now) I'm going to college, and I want to build my own computer to take with me. I'm majoring in Comp. Sci., and I'm willing to spend quite alot on the rig, but nothing unnecessary.

So, when's the best time to build a computer within the upcoming year? When will all new technologies "fall together", so to speak? I'm thinking that the second that the NV20 comes out is when I should build it, which is now slated for Spring 2001 last I heard. By that time, the AMD Mustangs/Palominos and Pentium IV should be out for me to choose between, and DDR Ram will be out as well. Is that the best time? The current computer that my whole family uses is very adequate, I've put in 192 megs of RAM in it, and I'll maybe put a new video card in it soon. In other words, I can wait until the time is right, but I have to get going late next spring...

Thanks in advance.
 
anytime is a good time. If you wait 10 years you will get a much better deal than if you wait 5 years. On the other hand you may have missed a learning window of opportunity if you wait 6 months from now than if you did it now. If you just want learning experience on building a computer as well as something that will be more than adequate for any CS learning you might be doing, you could build something next week and have a very adequate system that would last you for a year or two without upgrading for 600 or 700 bucks or so. The limiting factor is RAM. Go for 128 megs. Go light on spending money on sound/video as you don't want to have a dynamite gaming system or you will be distracted from your studies. Once you set it up go the the javasoft.com site, join the java developers connection, and get the latest java development software. Download the tutorials, also the book "thinking in java" which you can get from "bruceeckel.com" and also download textpad from "textpad.com" as your editor/ide for java. You will have an incredible killer learning environment without having spent a penny on software or books. Later you can download one of the free IDEs for gui development (such as Forte for java) but don't do that until you master the language essentials. Go slow, and by the time you arrive at college you will be way ahead of the curve. Good luck and have fun!
 
Kind of like when you had your eye on buying that 700mhz CPU, then figured you'd wait for the 750's. But then came the 800's, then the 900's, 950, then 1GHZ, now it's 1.1GHZ people are "waiting" for. Eventually you get caught in a neverending state of waiting.

It will be the same thing when the NV20 arrives in the spring. Shortly after a faster version of the NV20 will come out, then a faster version of that. People who originally waited so long to purchase the NV20 will feel ripped off because their NV20 is now outdated. But heh, the NV30's are only a year or so away. 🙂
 
You actually have two choices:
1) Now
2) Never

There really is no in-between. If you decide to wait for 'such and such' motherboard or video card, then in the meantime someone will announce a new chipset, or new RAM, or whatever. The key is to make an educated choice and not an emotional choice.

For example, I found out the Quantum Atlas 10K II is shipping after I just bought the IBM 36LZX. I was unhappy, but oh well. I would likely never know the difference between the two, and even if I did, if I wait until someone has the 36GB 10K II in stock (only 9GB/18GB now), then someone else will announce something better, yadda yadda yadda.

If I was to make one recommendation it would be - wait until you have all of your money together, are ready to build the machine, and buy everything at once. There are a few reasons for this. First, you can shop for good vendors and prices in the meantime. Prices drop in computer hardware, they don't rise, so waiting is always a good thing to do.

Second, when you finally do buy, you can buy as many items as possible from the same vendor, lowering your shipping costs and giving you some bargaining leverage. I would suggest attempting to call in a large order rather than do it online and asking for a discount. Even a 5% discount on $1500 worth of components is still $75.

Third, if you wait to buy then you reduce the risk of missing a new product. You can simply substitute the new component on your list of things you are going to buy all at once.

This advice is arrived at after I did the exact opposite - buying certain items from certain vendors at certain times, paying shipping for each item. I still have yet to build the system. I don't even want to know how much more I have paid than I needed to.

Good luck.
 
This is too early for you to plan for next year. In the mean time visit the hot deals forum.
 
In a thread about building pcs just to have the fastest everything for when new games, apps, etc come out, I remember someone said...build for the now, not the future. IMO just make minor upgrades, and a few months before you're off to college sell your upgrades on fleabay, and start from scratch with whatever new tech is available.
 
-paldo is right. Wait until about 4-6 weeks before you need your machine to buy. In the meantime, keep abreast of new technologies (as it looks like you are). All of my advice regarding purchasing still applies.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I think I'll wait until a few weeks before I leave to build it, because I really don't need a new comp. now...

The PC hardware scene is very interesting, and I've had an enjoyable and informative time researching...

🙂
 
I personally like to wait until things like new chipsets are released. Example: I thought about building a new system in the next couple months, but I decided to wait. Why? Because the AMD 760 is coming. It offers DDR RAM compatibility and SMP capability for Athlons/Durons, and that's a big enough performance increase to justify waiting to build, as opposed to building now.

I'd say spring is a good time to build if you can wait, because you'll have even faster processors, with motherboards based on a new chipset, and you can toss your NV20 in there. I'm personally going for a G800 myself though.
 
NEVER!!!!!

Computers are just the spoon use to fill Bill Gates pockets with more $$$$$!!!!

Just kiddin. I would consider waiting till after the motherboard companies have new boards taking advantage of the DDR (RAM).

Then again..... its only money..... and a heck of a lot of fun. 🙂
 
The best time to build a computer is early in the morning, when you are fresh and at your best. 😉
 
build it now. If you already know there is gonna be a big price cut in like 2 days, then i'd wait 2 days, but nothing more than a week worth of waiting. Build a duron or something now, and upgrade every 6-9 months, which is my plan.
 
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