What new PC components are coming out relatively soon?

[Fardor]

So, what new things are we expecting to see that people will be putting into their rigs in the near future?

New processors? New RAM? Graphics cards? Anything. I don't really know anything about Athlon's Phenom processors or what advantages DDR3 has over DDR2, or what graphics cards will be coming out. I basically need a breakdown of the things a future midrange (~$1100) gaming PC builder might want to know about.

What things are expected to drop in price? How long should I wait until my first PC build (I've been wanting to build for so long but I just thought this summer wouldn't be the best). I was thinking around the very end of this year... does that look like a good time?

Oh, any links to articles on any of this stuff would be great. I'm not the best Googler.

 

[Cutthroat]

Welcome to the forums Fardor

By the end of this year there will likely be:

AMD Phenom and Intel Penryn processors
Cheaper DDR3 RAM
X38 Chipsets, and probably more
A new Nvidia video card
7200.11 Hard Drives

But with that said, you can't think about building a PC that far in the future, nobody knows what's going to happen, how parts will perform, or what prices they will be. All you can do is keep informed, browse these forums. When you're almost ready to build get some advice on parts to get.

Prices of current hardware (except video cards) are quite cheap, it's probably one of the best times to build right now. Current prices will continue to drop, but if you wait new hardware will come out that is more expensive and you will want more. For $1100 now you can build a very nice PC.

 

[Fardor]

Would the new hardware that is more expensive make current hardware go down a lot? $1100 would be my budget if I waited until the end of this year, but if it was right now, it would be more like $950.

 

[Cutthroat]

Originally posted by: Fardor
Would the new hardware that is more expensive make current hardware go down a lot? $1100 would be my budget if I waited until the end of this year, but if it was right now, it would be more like $950.

We won't know until benchmarks are available. As I said, you can't think about building a PC months in the future. If you don't have enough money to buy what you want that is available now, then keep waiting and watch to see what happens.