Upgrade now or later

[eriwik]

Hi all,

My current computer is quite exactly 4 years old now and I'm starting to thing about getting a new one, mostly to be able to run Vista and play Neverwinter Nights 2 when it's released. However I'm not sure that now is a good time to upgrade or not, I remember buying a mid-range P3 Slot 1 processor thinking that I could upgrade when it became too slow only to have Intel drop Slot 1 in favor for Socket 478 the next month .

My biggest concern is that my GPU is AGP, which means that if I uppgrade I'd have to get a new GPU no matter what, and it might be better to wait a few months and get a DX10 card instead. I should point out that I'm not much of a gamer but I'd like to be able to play a game once in a while and have it looking good while I'm at it.

I've haven't keept a close watch on the hardware market for the last couple of years, are there any other new stuff (except the DX10 cards) comming up soon that might be worth waiting for?

 

[myocardia]

Yes, there's always something new on the horizon. There has been since the first 8088's hit the scene. If there wasn't, then computer technology would cease to advance. If you've got the money, now's as good of a time to upgrade as any. It doesn't matter what you buy, it will be considered slow in 6 months, anyway.

 

[lobbyone]

Originally posted by: myocardia
Yes, there's always something new on the horizon. There has been since the first 8088's hit the scene. If there wasn't, then computer technology would cease to advance. If you've got the money, now's as good of a time to upgrade as any. It doesn't matter what you buy, it will be considered slow in 6 months, anyway.

true, whats fast now, will be considered slow in 6 months. Heck stuff from 12 months ago is still considered fast for me though!
buy now, think later hehe!

 

[Boyo]

Now is a good time to upgrade. If you want speed, obviously Intel is king of the hill right now, but AMD is always a good buy. Especially if you stick with a 939 set up....There is always something that is going to come out that will be better. Soon the quad CPU's will be released, but do you really need one? Might as well build a system and then bite the bullet for DX10. I wouldn't get Vista right away anyway. There will be a ton of bugs.

 

[DiverDave]

I can see not getting Vista for ~ 1year until they get it debugged and therefore not getting DX10 cards since my understanding is DX10 will only work with Vista.

However, what about RAM prices? THey recently spiked and it would be nice to see them come back down.

 

[lucasorion]

If you've already got 1gb of ddr400 Ram, you can use that with an AMD X2 socket 939 solution - though in my case I'm probably going to get another gig.