I have saved up for a new PC and have a working budget of $1,200 to $1,500. I really need a second home PC because the kids with school work, plus my wife being a teacher, the time demand on my old but rock solid P3 is stretched, especially since my office is at home and thus it serves a triple purpose for work/research/gaming. The thing is I feel like I am in such a major transition period what with AGP going the way of the dinosaur and PCI Express the next champ; 32 bit CPUs going over to 64 bit app ready CPUs but NO motherboards that are 64 bit ready, and around the corner is coming Microsoft's new OS Vista that is going to be a hardware hog plus DX 10.

So fellow IWs, do you think I should take the plunge or bank the money and wait a few months? I think it is the whole Vista/DX 10 thing that has me most concerned, especially since Office will NOT be backwards compatible.

Thanks.

Ah, the age old question. Put it this way, you could spend your whole life waiting; PC technology is always changing, and you can never have the most up - to - date system.

PCI E has fully taken over AGP on new PC's really, and I would strongly advise against going the AGP route. Your best bet would likely be a socket 939 Athlon, either a Venice/Sandiego chip, or an X2 (dual core) depending on how much you can afford / the requirements of this PC.

What are your main uses for your PC, what sort of software do you run, what sort of games do you play? This will really depend on how much you spend on a components, for example you won't want to spend a chunk of your budget on the latest Graphics Card if you don't play demanding games. For the sort of thing I presume you will be doing, I would probably recommend a load of RAM (1 - 2gb) and a nice fast CPU, probably an X2 with an Asus A8N SLi Deluxe Edition motherboard. Then again, I don't really know American prices on hardware, so I don't know what exactly your budget allows.

Just think, in 6 months time something else new will be coming out, bite the bullet and splash the cash, it will certainly be worth it in the long run and you will be amazed at the difference between your P3 and your new PC.

[ 10-28-2005, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: RoSs_bg2_rox ]

I'd personally wait to see if Xram takes off. Then again, that's just for sound card. Go for it.

I'd go for it because I did the same 2 months ago using Newegg.com. Memory and Drives are at an all-time low, even those budget PCIX vidcards are terribly cheap, considering. Take the plunge, you won't look back!

Sooner or later.... a change, or upgrade is unavoidable. You can wait a while until the prices drop, or jump the wagon right from the start. Paying the current price for a fully up to date system would be insane, since it will inevitably drop to completely different standards within weeks.

[ 10-29-2005, 02:03 AM: Message edited by: johnny ]

What is X Ram?

I read on PCgamer it's what the new sound cards are using for games. Instead of using standard RAM for getting the sound, they use XRAM, theoritically improving the speed of your game.

The new MSOffice won't be backwardly compatible?! They've done it again?

Yeah, sham, I read it at Tom's Hardware site. Check out their Business Forum. I have Office 2003 and I can easily receive documents from Office '97 and 2000. Imagine what Vista/Office will do not only to the home market but also to businesses and schools.

2GB ram is more than you actually need right now, 1 GB will do (alternative 512MB), and it is easilty upgraded later.

You will probably be fine without dual core processors since it will take a while for all the games to use the several cores efficiently. Right now, it´ll only run faster if you use several programs at the same time.