Good time to buy? Opinions please.

[asdftt123]

Hello, everyone! I'm new to anandtech.

This is something I've been debating with myself for quite some time. How would you rate our current technology and would you say this is a good time to purchase a new homebuilt system? For those who are thinking of building a new system, are you going to build soon, or wait till later (around christmas, or after new years) to purchase the newest parts or take advantage of cheaper parts? For me, there are advantages and disadvantages of both. If I decide to purchase now I'll save myself the unbearable task of waiting and I'll have a new computer to get myself through the fall semester in college since I have a horrible laptop that overheats constantly. If I wait however, I feel that I could reap the benefits of newer and better parts... I feel extremely torn as to what to do. As for me, no matter if I wait or not I'll probably be purchasing the best parts I can find since I want to avoid purchasing a new system for quite awhile.


Also, what do you think would cost more? Buying a system in late august/early sept with Q6600, x38, 4gb DDR2, 8800 GTX/Ultra or buying a system around december/january with penryn series, G90, DDR3 (if it becomes cheaper with better cost-performance)? I'll appreciate any insight...thanks.

 

[jkresh]

Well ddr3 and penryn aren't like to make that much of a difference for most users in the near future and the q6600 will be more then enough processor, but g90 will likely make a big difference in dx10 games so if gaming is important you may want to wait (or by an evga card and hope g90 comes out within the 90 day step up program). This is always the issue with computer parts, if you wait till December then it will only be a few months to r700 and to the next itnel upgrade (which will have an integrated memory controller) and if you wait the few months to a year for that then something else will be there. Basically you can either completely rebuild every 6 months or just decide that you current system isint enough, upgrade now then wait till you need to upgrade. Sure Penryn might be 10-20% faster for some tasks then the q6600 and might overclock higher but will that matter for you.

 

[zero2dash]

I'm in the same boat, and I've basically decided to just go for it now and start buying parts.

DDR2 800 is incredibly cheap right now. You can get 2x1g kits for under $100, so 4 gigs of ram for $200 is a bargain. DDR3 is very very high priced and not worth it IMO. The minimal performance gain you may achieve is not worth the sticker price; I'd rather have double the memory (albeit a little slower) for the same price.

P35 motherboards seem the best to get right now. On current cpus that run a 1066 frontside bus, you can use the FSB timing in the P35 to bump it to 1333mhz, giving you a free 25% speed increase on a 1066 cpu (like the Q6600) for free, with no voltage increase whatsoever.

Q6600 is the way to go. They're going for around $280-$290 from most places (except NewEgg where they are still ripping people off with price gouging due to demand). Some people are waiting for G0 stepping Q6600s in the hopes they'll overclock better and run cooler. I'm ok with getting a (current) B3 stepping with my free 25% FSB overclock because that's all I'm doing with it in terms of overclocking (though I am planning on buying a Tuniq Tower HSF, mainly to cut down on noise that the stock HSF must have). By the time I buy the cpu though, I'm sure they'll all be G0.

Most people are buying SATA interface devices these days since IDE is on the way out. I just (within the last year) purchased my first SATA HD, and my new system will house a 2nd SATA HD as well as dual SATA dvd burners. Smaller cables in your case/greater airflow = cooler components. 😉

On power supplies...I chose a 500 watt Seasonic modular that is also 80+ certified, meaning at all times, it is 80% or greater at efficiency, which helps cut down on your electric bill as well as help on global warming. Modular power supplies are great because you choose what cables you need and set aside the rest and leave them out of the case. Great idea...wish they thought of it 3-4 years ago when I built my P4 3.0C system. 🙂

Cases - pick what you like. I just bought a Lian Li PC-A05B case for $99 from NewEgg with free shipping (on sale...$20 off). I wanted a quieter case, no 80mm fans, no door, and room for the Tuniq. This case fits the bill. (My P4 is in a Chieftec case with 5 80mm fans and it's noisy. Runs cool...but very noisy. And I'm sick of having to deal with the door on it.)

Well hopefully there's some ideas for you to go on and get started.
Like jkresh said - if you wait for the next thing to build...you'll never build. 😀

 

[Cutthroat]

I think it's a great time to build, everything is really cheap. Basically you can build a system twice as fast for half the price as this time last year, unprecedented IMO.

 

[LightningRider]

I'm also on this boat. And I've also decided I'm gonna get an upgrade now. I figure if I wait for Penryn this year then I will be paying 999$ for the extreme edition. I don't want to do that. I think when buying computers, it's much smarter to buy something cheap and just a little behind the best (like the Q6600) than get the absolute best. DDR3 is just ridiculously expensive right now and it's not really much better, if at all with the current timings.

I'm going to wait for X38 motherboards to pop out, then I will buy my system. When 9800GTX comes out, I will buy that though, and maybe when affordable Penryns are out I will get one too since the X38 will support them, and PCI-e 2.0.

I'm also looking at the Auzentech Prelude if the drivers will be better than Creative's trash.

 

[JustaGeek]

Any time is a good time to build.

I am running my E6600 oveclocked to (almost) the level of new E6850 - ~3.0 GHz.

I purchased my CPU in September 2006, and my MB is still one of the most popular overclocking MB's around (purchased in December 2006).

 

[corkyg]

I would indorse that this is a good time to buy. So much of what you buy is made in China. If the current political/conomic objectives of those currently controlling Congress are met, pressure will be put on China to correctly value the Yuan in relation to other currencies, and that would have an immediate effect of raising prices at the source a significant amount.