When to buy a new PC - any advantage to waiting?

cagenuts wrote in post #13175728
So you're saying my ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro will not be a good choice when I upgrade my system? Shall I rather go with the on-board graphics of the Z68?

I don't know how much difference it would make. Can you borrow a card from someone to try it?

tim wrote in post #13173576
Moppie - any idea what a working Q6600 PC, 4GB RAM, basic graphics card, and a single medium sized spinning disk should sell for? It's still relatively quick for regular stuff like email and web.

It's more than relatively quick.

But, also not worth very much, with a single disc and basic graphics card it might be worth about $400

Yeah that's what i've worked out, $300-$400 at most I think. A brand new entry level machine with similar specs but a better graphics card goes for about $800.

tim wrote in post #13172129
That video card fails two of my requirements - 1GB RAM and nVidia based. But i'll keep poking around. Suggestions for what's best are still appreciated.

still not sure why you need a GB of RAM on your graphics card and why it needs to be nVidia based..

I was told nVidia cards work better with nVidia based cards, plus i've always used them. 1GB is because my culling tool uses lots vRam for caching.

There is never, repeat, NEVER an advantage to waiting to buy computer components. There are many reasons for this, some of them covered in this thread, but the easiest example is HOW components are released.

AMD, Intel, and Nvidia all do the same thing--they release their flagship CPUs for a new generation first. Over time they basically crop out or disable features of these products so they can market and sell them to a wide range of consumers. They can make some improvements, such as keeping transistor counts and putting the architecture on smaller dies, but the overall performance is not dramatically altered.

So why buy now? Well if you are at the beginning of a technology cycle, good for you. You can drop the cash on the top end chips or buy the last generation for cheaper. If you want to wait a month or so the mid range chips will come out and you can buy those. If you want to wait even more the lower end chips will be out and if that is what you are waiting for...why not purchase the top end of the last generation? Five months will roll by and the next generation architecture will be appearing in enthusiast's rigs.

Buy what you need now. No matter how long you wait, it will be technically outdated in just a few months. Lifespan? Heck, the Q6600 is still a great chip almost five years later...

Also, the Z68 on die graphics is much, much better than the an HD2400...

Bananapie wrote in post #13185360
T<snip>

Also, the Z68 on die graphics is much, much better than the an HD2400...

Thanks. I've decided to go with the Z68 board and dump my old graphics card.

Shot!

tim wrote in post #13185094
I was told nVidia cards work better with nVidia based cards, plus i've always used them. 1GB is because my culling tool uses lots vRam for caching.

i didn't find any speed advantage with your culling app with acceleration on or off - with everything on max or on minimum - everything was instant. pretty much like any other culling app i've used..

Bananapie wrote in post #13185360
Heck, the Q6600 is still a great chip almost five years later...

Sure, but my i5 as it stands atm is twice the speed of my old Q8400 which was OC'd to 3GHz

Bobster wrote in post #13186525
i didn't find any speed advantage with your culling app with acceleration on or off - with everything on max or on minimum - everything was instant. pretty much like any other culling app i've used..

What acceleration did you turn on and off? I don't think it uses the GPU much, just having plenty of video ram helps apparently.

I was talking about photoshop working better with nVidia cards. It's just what i've heard, not 100% sure about it, but since it makes little practical difference and i've used them for years I might as well stick with nVidia.

I have all the parts other than the power supply, I just have to get around to putting it together now. It's a bit of a pita to do, so many wires and parts. I've done it a few times before.

The CPU cooler I got doesn't fit in my case Shame, it's cheap and one of the best performers.

After HOURS of research I splashed out on the Noctuna C14... small enough and very effective. They cost $200 in NZ (US$150), compared with costing $86.50 at newegg... wow we get ripped off here.

I considered water cooling, but reports of odd chiller noises and put me off.

How's the build going?
Some (very) early reports on the Sandy-E are in, at least on the video side w/CS5x: http://forums.adobe.co​m/thread/912654?tstart​=0 . Go 2600k, go! lol (But I'm biased... and realistically, it will get trounced soon enough. But in the real world, and right now, the 2600k is pretty sweet.)

Ouch on the Noctua price tag- but it is an awesome cooler.

Does that Antec power supply fit okay? I was away at VIFF and doing family stuff and didn't see your build list or I would have mentioned that some of the Antec PSUs are specific to the 1200 and DF-85 (and perhaps some Performance cases).

The power supply fits fine, I just wish i'd gone modular so there weren't so many cables in there!

The machine works really well, I posted some benchmarks on this thread.

Congrats on your build Tim. Very methodical and your test results are impressive. Hope to be there in a few weeks. Will continue to research. Did you post up a final build list? Not looking to copy you as we all have different needs; just trying to get a baseline. Thanks.

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