Should i wait before upgrading?

[jimmaz69]

Morning all,

Ok, here's the deal; I am long overdue a rummage around in my case and a severe upgrade and would really appreciate some advice. I am planning to change my MOBO, Processor, Memory and GFX Card but am unsure whether this would be wise with the event of direcx 10 and Vista looming.

I planned to go to the Asus M2N32-SLI with a 64 X2 4600+, 2 gigs of the necessary RAM and a 7950 GX2 card. Do you think i should wait for all the new stuff to come out? Maybe i could get all the other kit bar the GFX card and then upgrade when DX10 cards are here? Spending large wads of cash always makes me nervous, especially if it will be obsolete in 6 months! Any advice gladly received.

Thanks

[mallett]

well form what iv learnt is that you can always wait for the next upgrade and the next best thing so it depends what you want to use the comp for and how long you want it to last for

afaik dx10 and vista are due around the same time and that early next year, so if you can wait till then then go for it, if not get the stuff now as it will still hold up for a while as you seem to have speced upo a very good system....

hope advise helps
mallett

[awm]

A better technique might be to spend half the money on a computer 75% as good then spend the other half in a year with a much better DX10-Vista computer. Think along the lines of a 3800+ a 7900GT and a cheeper mobo. For the reference what do you have now.

[chuckskull]

Get a E6300, which you can swap for a quad core in a years time and a X1900XT which are currently cheap as anything an offer massive performance.

The conroe will probably beat the 4600, and even if not it will clock like a monster.

[jimmaz69]

A better technique might be to spend half the money on a computer 75% as good then spend the other half in a year with a much better DX10-Vista computer. Think along the lines of a 3800+ a 7900GT and a cheeper mobo. For the reference what do you have now.

Currently I have an Asus A8nx Deluxe (i think!) with an Athlon 64 3200 and an 9800 pro + 1 gig ram. I have a new HD and Optical drives so only really need to change the holy trinity.

Correct me if i'm wrong but it would seem to make sense to go for top end MOBO and Processor as these will be enough to run Vista and DX10 and take a mid range GFX card then upgrade to a DX10 card when they get to a sensible(ish) price next year?

[awm]

There are price to preformace issues with the highest cards usually. Check you favorite e-tailer and take a look at something like Tom's Hardware's VGA charts and calulate cost/benchmarking unit of you favorite game. See if you can find a sweet spot. Any high-end processor should be enough to run Vista, the series makes more of a differnce than the clock speed. Think for example a 2.0 vs 2.4 ghz processor. The faster one may be 50% more expensive, but is only 20% faster. Unless you were benchmarking you would be unable to notice, and by extention justify, the price of a faster CPU. Nothing against many people on the forumn, but it is fairly common to pay significantly extra for a few more FPS and bragging rights. If bragging rights aren't important to you then be all means look for sweet spots and spend the money you save on a nice large TFT, which will make you 20,000 windows open happier.

[pak000]

awm has a point, unless you are loaded, then I think it is a waste of time buying the absolute top end spec's, they come at a price premium and for just a little less spec wise, you get a huge knock down on price. A few months later, that spec that you would have wanted will have crashed in price and what you saved originally can be used to mop up on those pieces.

People that want the top specs for bragging rights only have those rights for a brief while as the industry is so fast paced.

As to the question, should i upgrade now or wait....The industry as it is always has some new must have just around the corner...be it vista, 4x4, quad core. If you wait you will just be in a similar situation later with the question, well i've waited for vista, but quad core is only a few months away (or whatever).

To answer your question with another question....Is your current computer unable to do what you need it to do...if yes upgrade, if no, wait

[MSIC]

Upgrading is always slightly difficult to recommend (although we do enjoy putting across our opinions even when not so welcome!) because there are a bunch of factors that need to be taken into account, and to a degree are in constant fluctuation.
Money - how much do you have, and how flexible are you? Do you have girlfriends etc that might consider it better spent elsewhere? (ie dinner & flowers etc)
Performance - my own rule of thumb is to only upgrade if you can be reasonably sure of a measurable improvement in a given application (ie something that you actually use rather than artificial benchmarks).
Desire - the hardest one, and I suspect the trap that alot of people (guilty ) fall into - buying something because "everyone says it's great". As noted, the latest greatest thing is always around the corner.

That said, the Intel 'Core 2 Duo' is really the latest greatest thing, and even hardcore AMD fans struggle to recommend AMD chips now.

One question - you say you have an Athlon 64 3200+ with a gig of RAM - this is still quite a reasonable system to be fair. What particular aspect or application or game doesnt work so well?

[dangel]

I predict that in six months some things will be cheaper and some will be faster..

I also predict that this is always going to be the case.

Tough decision..

[awm]

What pak000 said was very import and need repeating. In fact proably should be quoted to eveyone asking about upgrades.

Is your current computer unable to do what you need it to do...if yes upgrade, if no, wait

And remember you computer is there to serve you, do not become a slave to upgrading it. For example think how much you want/need Vista DX10 before making plans to invest in them.

Edit: reason: complete stupidity, see below

[mallett]

And remember you computer is there to serve you, do not become a slave to upgrading it. For example think how much you want/need Vista DX10 before making plans to invest in them.

very agreed! its unlikely that vista and dx10 will be industry standards for a good while after there out so theres no point in planning for them now altho upgrading to vista may be a good idea in about a years time, you wont have to think about dx10 till after that imo, i cant see all the latest games being just dx10 compatible for a long while yet

[dangel]

Must obey computer... computer is god... computer brings porn..

[pak000]

What MSIC said was very import and need repeating. In fact proably should be quoted to eveyone asking about upgrades.

Is your current computer unable to do what you need it to do...if yes upgrade, if no, wait

And remember you computer is there to serve you, do not become a slave to upgrading it. For example think how much you want/need Vista DX10 before making plans to invest in them.

Am i msic?

[MSIC]

I was going to say, thanks for being nice to me but i dont remember writing that! LOL

[awm]

Very sorry. His name was nearer than yours (just below). I'll go edit that.

[DanceswithUnix]

Spending large wads of cash always makes me nervous, especially if it will be obsolete in 6 months! Any advice gladly received.

Thanks

That CPU will obsolete, or at least drop in value like a stone, when K8L comes out in around 12 months. Good news is that next gen CPUs should be able to plug into that motherboard when the time comes.

With a fresh new swarm of graphics cards every 6 months they will always be a moving target, so DX10 vs DX9 doesn't really change that equation.