Platform longevity?

[cawt]

I've been using a Presario laptop for the past couple of years and now I think the time has come to build a nice, fast yet silent, pixel-pushing, shader crunching, brand new computer. I've built a couple of machines a while back, but I have to admit I don't know the first thing about hardware these days.

So I have this really basic question. Intel or AMD?
Ok, what I really want to know is which platform will allow minimal upgrade (cpu) costs within a year or maybe one and a half year. I figured it comes down to two questions (I'll start buying stuff sometime next week):

1) Is there an available Pentium motherboard that is compatible with the upcoming conroe or is it still to early?

2)Will AMD's next cpu (K8L?) run on current AM2 hardware?


My previous experiences tell me not to hope too much though...

TIA for any piece of advice! Any at all! Please! Come on! Don't let me down!

cawt

 

[ElFenix]

AM2 may last quite a while. then again, everyone thinks AMD will move to DDR3 as soon as the stuff comes out, so AM2 might be a very short lived platform.

K8L looks like a mostly server oriented revision

iirc, some of the current intel mobos will run core 2 duo just fine, but i'm not much of an intel guy so i don't know.

in short, future proofing is impossible, and for the money spent you'd be better off with a new or significantly upgraded rig every year rather than trying to last 2 years or longer on the same rig

 

[cawt]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
in short, future proofing is impossible, and for the money spent you'd be better off with a new or significantly upgraded rig every year rather than trying to last 2 years or longer on the same rig

Duly noted, thanks!

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
in short, future proofing is impossible, and for the money spent you'd be better off with a new or significantly upgraded rig every year rather than trying to last 2 years or longer on the same rig

QFT. I see people drop $3k on a system and then use it for 3 years. I prefer the route of $1k per system per year. Sure I start out with a "slower" system, but we all know that at the higher end it takes a lot more money to gain only a little more speed. By year 2 I'm pretty even with the $3k system and by year 3 I'm ahead in performance.