Upgrade now or later?

[MrCodeDude]

I have two spare comps lying around my room. My mom complains of her computer being slow, so she wants one of my spare ones. No problem, except the one I'm planning on giving her doesn't have a video-card. I can't give her the other computer because I use it for testing my main components and it really isn't 'all' assembled within the case 😉

Anyway, I have to get a video-card. I can either get:
1. New and expensive card, probably a 9800 (non-pro)
2. Cheap card, some $20 card that I'll find on eBay and just put that in the computer.

I'm going to have to get a new video-card, my mom will pay up to $50. If the card costs less, I get the difference. I can either just get her a cheap card and bag the $30 or I can upgrade right now and give her the videocard in my other spare computer. Is now the time to upgrade or should I wait until Half-Life 2 and HALO come out? And that is like what, a month?
-- mrcodedude

 

[AndrewKu]

Upgrade now or later will be a perpetual question... I am not sure about the timeline for those two software titles, but it really depends what you want. Product cycles are getting longer, so components such as video cards don't tend to get as obsolete as fast.

If you buy something like a 9800 now, you will still have to face the fact that faster cards will appear down the line. If you wait, you may just get a cheaper 9800 when something more powerful comes out (or buy the current most powerful thing at a similar price point the 9800 is at now), but even then you will still have to face faster vid cards down the line.

It really depends on how long you want to wait, and your personal perferences.