is the time right for a conroe?

[MattM76]

I will be assembling a new desktop (E6600) within the next 1-2 months. Do people generally think that in this amt of time, prices/available hardware will improve- or will the situation basically be the same.

I'm basically trying to decide if it would be to my advantage to wait a month or 2 before purchase.

I do not OC/game/need SLI so improvements in these areas don't matter. I'm thinking about the Abit AB9 pro for the mobo and eVGA 7300 video card.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I went the other direction for a home office PC I ordered parts for this week:

AMD X2 3800+ socket 939, Biostar TForce microATX motherboard, Crucial PC3200, and a fanless Gigabyte 7300GS card. Antec NSK4400 case, though if it was in stock at newegg I'd probably have gotten a SLK3000 and a Seasonic S12 PSU instead.

The 3800+ is fast enough for my needs and socket 939 is stable and mature. Newegg reviews and threads here are filled with horror stories of people trying to get their AM2 and Core 2 systems running stable while socket 939 is by now just slap together and go.

 

[intogamer]

Hey man you should go with DaveSimmons


3000+ Venice could be had for $50 used
Value Ram.. $65?
Get a cheap mobo
Nec 3550A Burner

$50 Antec PSU

 

[w00t]

well the availabilty of conroe is pretty bad right now but if you can get your hands on one at a good price i'd say it's not a bad time to get your pc.

 

[nerdye]

I think a valid consideration when buying a conroe proc is to check out anandtech's recent article about the asrock mobo paired with a cheap conroe (6300) and ddr (1) memory. Ddr 400 was only a handful of percentage points behind ddr2 533 ( I believe like 6% overall), and was even less behind on ddr2 667 which would lead me to believe that you can have a more discount system and still have your conroe. Ddr 400 is very cheap these days while high end ddr2 is quite expensive. The real question I would like answered from my fellow geeks is would having ddr 400 really hinder you too much in overclocking a conroe compared to mid to high end ddr2? I'm looking for a budget upgrade to game on, I would appreciate what you guys think.

 

[MattM76]

Nerdye- I read that article- precisely why I posted. It seems as if technology is not likely to mature significantly within the timeframe I have. I could go for an AM2- but its not really that much cheaper ($200 maybe).

 

[HannibalX]

I am waiting myself. My current machine is fine until Conroe matures a little and the platform bugs are worked out. If P4 is any indication of how long Intel will be sticking with Conroe I think it is safe to say we have plenty of time to let the bugs be worked out and prices to drop.