Don't Buy That New PC Just Yet...

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116402,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116402,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"If you're thinking about buying or building a new PC soon, you should wait. Seriously, wait another month or so: Some very cool new technology is on the way. That's not the type of advice I typically give. After all, there's always some sweet new technology just around the corner. If you keep waiting for the "next big thing," you'll never get that new PC. But this is different. This time we're talking about some fundamental improvements to the PC platform itself. Yes, I'm excited about a chip set..."</i><br /><br />This is some good advice! There are several technologies that are being introduced this year that will dwarf the changes from previous years. Worth a read if you're getting ready to buy a new PC.

[Kent Pribbernow]

Good advice indeed. Right now the PC industry is in the midst of a significant transition period, with new technology on the horizon.

Until 64bit computing, PCI Express, and faster internal bandwidth become standard...I have no intention of ever buying a new PC until 2005 at the earliest. Most likely I'll wait for Longhorn to roll out. As it is now, today's 32bit PCs are antiques.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Ah, I just performed an upgrade. Oh well, it was a necessary one.

[piperpilot]

Ah, I just performed an upgrade. Oh well, it was a necessary one.

Ditto here. The old PC just upped and died. Refused to turn off unless I unplugged it. Refused to boot up when I turned it on. It was either buy a new computer or try to rely solely on my H5455 iPAQ for several months, and as much as I love my iPAQ, it's a pain to use for web surfing on non-mobile formatted sites.

[SassKwatch]

...I have no intention of ever buying a new PC until 2005 at the earliest. Most likely I'll wait for Longhorn to roll out.
That's exactly what I've been thinking. If Longhorn is *the* big change in OS that everyone seems to be suggesting, chances are I'll need a new one then anyway, so why not just wait until that day arrives. Or at until the beta process is far enough along that we'll at least have a good idea what the resource needs will be.

Of course, if the LH ship date slips significantly, there may have to be an interim upgrad.

[sundown]

I wish I had the budget to buy this stuff shortly after it first comes out but over the years I've saved a bundle waiting a little while and picking up products that are "less-new". For this reason, I think I'll be safe doing some upgrades now and waiting a while on the new stuff. But it all sounds very cool and I'm glad the bottlenecks are being addressed.

[SassKwatch]

I wish I had the budget to buy this stuff shortly after it first comes out but over the years I've saved a bundle waiting a little while and picking up products that are "less-new".
Ditto. I never buy a system with the latest/greatest cpu or vid card. Always opt for that which is one or maybe 2 models removed from the latest.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Indeed, I got quite a few bargains while upgrading the current computer. Runs plenty fast and well too!

[brianchris]

I am curious: Of those in this thread that said they are waiting (and recomend others do too), what are the basic specs of your current system?

Me? I run a PIII 800 MHz desktop, and was *just* getting ready to replace it with a P4 HT 2.8 GHz system with 800 MHz FSB. I thought that was going to quite a jump. But then I read this article and am in limbo. I was going to canabalize a lot of gear from my old system.....something I apparently won't be able to do with the new chipsets. Decisions, decisions.

[Jason Dunn]

I am curious: Of those in this thread that said they are waiting (and recomend others do too), what are the basic specs of your current system?

I'm running a system I built last fall: 2.8 Ghz P4 HT, 1 GB RAM, twin 160 GB hard drives (I was told the Shuttle I bought had RAID, it didn't, so I ended up with twice the hard drive space I wanted it to have).

If your needs aren't that complicated, you can go out and get an entry-level Dell for $500 and be much happier with it than the 800 mhz machine you have now. :-)

[SassKwatch]

I am curious: Of those in this thread that said they are waiting (and recomend others do too), what are the basic specs of your current system?

I have 2 machines...The desktop is an old Dell 733mhz PIII w/ 512mb RAM and XP Pro. And an HP laptop 1.7ghz (1.8?) AMD cpu w/ 256mb RAM and XP Home.

The one resource hungry app I run is Photoshop CS......and it runs better on the desktop than it does the 'faster' laptop....suggesting RAM is much more important for it than cpu speed. Other than that, it's mostly email and surfing activity, Quicken, a smidgeon of Access developement, and the occasional Word doc or Excel spreadsheet. Those all run fine on the current equipt.

Would an Excel spreadsheet or Access db development run faster on newer stuff? Sure, but we're talking a difference of maybe seconds, so there's no *real* productivity gain by moving up. There wouldn't even be *that* big a gain in PS. OTOH, If I were doing heavy code slinging or video editing or some such, I'm sure my sentiments would be different. But for the time being, as long as one flavor of XP or the other run on these machines.......and as long as they don't flake out mechanically, I just see no reason to throw $$ at newer pc hardware until Longhorn arrives. Rather throw those $$ in the photography money sinkhole. :)