Time for an upgrade?

[Patrickz0rs]

Glad that you have a crystal ball because I don't. But really if you have that extra 100$ to spend by all means spend it. If you don't then he's better off spending on video. But the 100$ is deceiving because p55 or x58 motherboards are much more expensive than am3 for similar feature sets. That and AM3 is probably not going to be a dead platform at this time next year unlike intel sockets. Now the main disadvantage is lack of sli but unless you listen to the FG marketing drones its no big deal at all.

AM3 > any Intel board available. Think of it this way:

1. AM3 builders most likely built a budget system with a 550BE or a 720BE or something similar. No mobo upgrade needed in the future.

2. Intel builders went the expensive route with the i7 and mobos expecting not to upgrade in a long time. Most likely will need a mobo upgrade in the future.

When an AM3 chip is released that will outperform an i7, the AMD builders can upgrade and still be right around the same price that the Intel people originally spent, and have better hardware.

 

[edplayer]

all that depends on whether Bulldozer will work on current motherboards. If it does, that is a big plus for AMD

 

[RussianSensation]

When an AM3 chip is released that will outperform an i7, the AMD builders can upgrade and still be right around the same price that the Intel people originally spent, and have better hardware.

That's a great point. Bulldozer is shaping up quite well. However, Intel users can sell their Core i7s + Mobos and reuse the DDR3-1600 ram that Sandy Bridge will be compatible with.

Bulldozer is not competing with Core i7, but with SB. I do agree with you that the total upgrade cost of selling i7 + mobo and going to SB + new mobo is going to be higher than simply upgrading to a Bulldozer on AM3. However, is Bulldozer going to be faster than SB? Are new Intel mobos going to offer more features than current AM3 mobos?