Buy now or sit tight?

[LocKStocK]

I'm in the market for a new PC and am looking to spend over £1000.
It will be for games mostly (CS:S, HL2, Battlefield, etc....)

Question is, should I buy now or wait a month or two for something better?

Heres what I'm considering:

E6600
Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066 2GB
XFX 8800 GTX
Asus Striker - E
Antec 900
Coolmaster ixtreme 850w

Some of these parts have been around for nearly a year now, that is why I'm a little sceptical about buying an expensive computer only to be practically worthless 6 months down the line.

More questions!:

DDR2 or DDR3? Any real differences apart from price? =/
Also 2GB will be fine for running XP, won't it? Not bothered about Vista.

8800gtx? Is there anything better coming out soon before I fork out £300? I know about the ultra and superclocked models, but I can overclock a stock gtx myself right?

Any advise will be greatly appriciated!!!

 

[Petros]

Those are the two schools of thought, and they both have valid points. However, these days I lean more toward "buy it now", because it will always do what you every single thing you need it to do (besides play the most cutting edge games that come out a year from now). GPGPUS are still a year or two from being mainstream, assuming they catch on, and PC gaming is in a slump so nobody is innovating a whole lot in the near future.

You'll be happy with that system for quite a while; I say do it.

 

[LocKStocK]

Thanks for the input Petros, chances are I will be buying very soon. Just wanted to be sure before spending that sort of dollar.

 

[Sazar]

There are some major price drops coming next month or so.

Quad core procs should be down below 300 bucks for the Q6600.

Wait.

 

[Petros]

There are some major price drops coming next month or so.

Quad core procs should be down below 300 bucks for the Q6600.

Wait.

Ooo very nice. I want one of those for running servers on my machine.

 

[LeeJend]

Aside from the planned quad core drops there has been a major drop in USA ddr2 pricing (DDR2 6400 was $150 for 2 gig a few months ago and is now at ~$80, 1066 RAM is dropping also).

That DDR2 price drop has not reached the UK yet as far as I've heard.

The prices for 1066 compatible MB's is still fairly high so that is worht waiting on.

But as Petros said, that system will last you quite a while, even with VISTA...

 

[epk]

id say go 4 it... i dont know about price drops, but you wont see new tech in the next months
good quad cores are not that near (month or two)

oh, and right now ddr3 isn't needed.. maybe next year
2gb is perfect if u wanna play battlefield in xp

about the gpu, are u sure u want the gtx version? the gts is waaay cheaper
also, dont expect anything new before september (the sooner)

 

[LocKStocK]

This is great guys, thanks very much for your help!
I think I'm gonna go with my list.
Interested in those quad cores though. Will quad be better for games?
Also is there any difference between the Q and QX series of the quad core CPU's? (Apart from clock speeds lol)

 

[epk]

apparently its just the clock speeds...


about the games, new ones (like anythin with unreal engine 3) will benefit, but the improvement isn't certain since there aren't a lot of benchmarks comparing this
the only game i know that's being built with quad cpu's in mind (it will still work on 2 tough) is alan wake... but it's release is at least a year away

 

[Tuffgong4]

I would say go for it...except for the fact that June is almost over and there are like Sazar said imminent price drops coming. I would wait for the Q6600 to drop below to I think about 280 next month in july and get that.

I'm not one to say wait but with this price drop a fact I would wait just one month.

here is a source on the prices from PCstats

Intel’s Prices Drop Drastically on July 22

to add, in everyday use you probably won't see much of a difference but if waiting just less than one month getting as future proof as possible is nice.
I'm running a E6600 and might be looking into the Q6600 just because of the motherboard I have P965 (1066 FSB) and ram ddr2 matches well with that and not the newer p35 and x38 motherboards with support for 1333 FSB

 

[LocKStocK]

lol I'm not one to wait either :lick:
Q6600 sounds pretty good to me, Scan.co.uk sells them pretty cheap. Does it O/C as well as the E6600 did?

btw guys this is great stuff, keep it comin!

 

[_kC_]

That DDR2 price drop has not reached the UK yet as far as I've heard.

DDR2 price drop has been and gone here in the uk
2 weeks ago 1gb bog standard DDR2 trade = £16
CURRENTLY = £22

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

I say go for it ...

 

[LocKStocK]

Thanks guys, I'm ordering it this sunday
Defo goin quad! Will let you all know when it arrives.

tom

 

[LocKStocK]

ordered! Omfg! pics 2 come.

 

[Sazar]

Dude, the thing should drop to half the price this month

I'll probably snag one soon, be a modest upgrade from before

 

[Sazar]

So yah.

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5101696

 

[rotjong]

Buying memory right now would be smart but as far as CPUs... I'd hold back a little and watch the prices drop noticeably.

 

[Tuffgong4]

So yah.

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5101696

it will even go down from there.

 

[indyjones]

ordered! Omfg! pics 2 come.

Any pics or updates? Very interested on what you have got as its nearly identical to what I plan on buying at the end of the month! Still its hard do I wait for the intel x38........