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Desktops: is it the right time to buy a computer or should i wait ?
I also agree! The "right time" is *any time* it's needed!
by twyrick - 2/24/06 7:09 AM In reply to: The right time to buy a new computer is ''when you need it!' by LorneGThe fact is, a computer is a tool. If you had a home improvement project to undertake and you needed a new electric drill, would you wait around to get one with better battery life, quicker charging time, more torque, etc. - or would you just go out and buy one? It's the same idea, really. There will *always* be something better right around the corner. But the "value" in a computer lies in the usefulness you get out of it while using it.
I've been in the computer field for around 15 years now, and truthfully, I haven't seen any real correlation between what a customer initially purchased and how long that customer kept using it. People keep saying they're "waiting for technology X" to arrive so their purchase will "last them a couple more years" before they need to upgrade again. Still others try to justify buying "more computer than they really need" with the same idea in mind. But after a few years go by, you see the same thing happening. The "power user" types (and those who just have to own the latest thing for the "bragging rights" of it) feel like it's time for another upgrade in 2-3 years anyway. Most of the others just get by with whatever they bought for LONG after other people keep telling them it's "way out of date".
Yes the right time is when you need it.
by ncfarthing - 2/27/06 11:01 AM In reply to: I also agree! The "right time" is *any time* it's needed! by twyrickThe main thing is that you are the only one who can decide what you need and when you need it. I just purchased a new computer by walking into our local "you build it shop" and told the owner what I wanted to do with it and let him make suggestions to see if we were on the same page. I will pick it up this Wed. after he checks it out. I wanted a graphics oriented computer that could handle the things I wanted to do without me growing grayer in the process. I had been debating a bare bones and me doing the work but with a 3 yr old in the house I decided to let someone else put it together this time. By the way, this new computer is not a "need" but an "I want".
IF YOU NEED IT ITS PROBABLY TOO LATE
by TCALLDAY - 3/3/06 10:10 AM In reply to: The right time to buy a new computer is ''when you need it!' by LorneGDONT WAIT TIL YOURS IS DEAD TO REPLACE IT ITS 5 YEARS OLD AND PAST ITS PRIME IT MAY DIE ANY DAY AND THE DATA ON IT COULD POTENTIALY BE LOST TO MAGNETICS OF THE EARTH. YOU DONT HAVE TO HAVE AS THE SAY BLEEDING EDGE TECHNOLOGY IF YOU HAVE A MACHINE 5 YEARS OLD 6-9 MONTH OLD TECHNOLOGY IS GOING TO BLOW YOU AWAY AND SAVE YOU SOME CASH AS WELL. I LIKE AMD IT KICKS INTELS BUTT ALL OVER THE PLACE ESPECIALLY IN VALUE SOMETHING WITH A 1600MGHZ FSB AND DDR OR DDR2 WILL SUFICE THINK ABOUT PCI EXPRESS BUT ON A BUDGET YOU MIGHT STICK WITH AGP 8X IT STILL THRILLS ME MOST OF THE TIME. I’M IN A SIMILAR PLACE MINES 3 YEAR OLD TECH, I BOUGHT 2.5 YEARS AGO. I’M TORN BETWEEN THE UPGRADE ABILITY OF 939 VS. VALUE OF 754 SOCKETS. PERFORMANCE ON BOTH WILL SMOKE MY XP2500 . WHAT EVER YOU BUY IT’LL BE OBSOLETE IN 18 MONTHS OR 24 MONTHS. SO ENJOY IT TODAY
Not necessarily so
by Claptrap - 3/3/06 3:11 PM In reply to: IF YOU NEED IT ITS PROBABLY TOO LATE by TCALLDAYMy friend bought a computer when 600MHz was the fastest CPU you could get. Apart from one of his two 9GB HDDs dying, the only other thing that has failed is a modem that got fried during lightning. His family is still using the computer happily for homework and surfing the Internet. I myself bought a second hand 486 PC for my business and used it untill three years ago, because I found it too hard to find compatible ink ribbon to the Epson printer and newer printers didn't have backwards compatible drivers. I still sometimes boot up the old pc to play old DOS games: I prefer old games because the gameplay is king and not the pretty graphics. The 486, which was made sometime in early to mid mineties, is still working as perfectly as the day it was bought.
My point is that there is no reason to panic, as long as you have backed up all the important files and have the necessary disks to re-install software - a habit you should adopt regardless of the age of your computer. If something does fail, it is not usually all of the components at once but you are quite justified to upgrade at least the failed component and anything that is closely dependent on it. The rest is up to your desire and the size of your wallet. 
Please don't type all in Caps!
by Dave Konkel [Moderator]
- 3/20/06 5:38 AM
In reply to: IF YOU NEED IT ITS PROBABLY TOO LATE by TCALLDAY
it's MUCH harder to read, and people think you're SHOUTING at them!
-- Dave K.
Buy Now
by rwhodgson - 2/24/06 7:04 AM In reply to: is it the right time to buy a computer or should i wait ? by jacnet347Ive bought several computers over a 20 year period. If you think youre only going to buy once, your kidding yourself. Buy the most bang for the buck. Technology changes and with that comes demand. If you wait, youll never buy, and then give up on the chance of the computing world as we know it. Like email phishing, viruses, hackers etc...Just kidding.
Regards,
Bob
I agree
by 350ZMO - 2/24/06 9:28 AM In reply to: Buy Now by rwhodgsonBuy now. The most important thing to remember about aiming at a moving target is to take a shot. The PC market will always be in flux and the next great shiny new thing will always be around the corner. You can continue to lead it forever until it’s gone. But if you had taken that shot you’d probably be enjoying a feast today. And yes the bright new shiny technologies will have their flaws, they always do. Only time in the hands of millions of consumers and hopefully feedback and fixes will improve any new toys maturity. In your case, I'd say take that shot now. There is nothing magical about the new processor or OS that should make you wait. They will not be an end all. They will simply be another stepping stone in this endless flow. Whether those stepping stones will be short lived or not cannot be known until they come out and are in the hands of millions. This is more so for the OS than the CPU. But given what you have today, I'd say its past time to make that leap.
If you do choose to wait to buy the new stuff, I'd say wait a good 6 months after the processor is released and a good 18 months after the OS is released. Alternatively, you can wait until they are released to drive down the cost of today’s bright new shiny toys.
I always assume that when I buy the latest and greatest I am going to essentially be a beta tester. Sometimes I want to and sometimes I don't. If you are feeling like you want to pay through the nose for the privilege of being an unpaid beta tester for these new technologies, then by all means wait and buy the new toys when they first come out. In this case, I don’t think they offer that much for me to pay for that privilege. I’d buy now, let the new stuff mature and buy later.
Am in the same boat....
by Bad Tom - 2/24/06 7:07 AM In reply to: is it the right time to buy a computer or should i wait ? by jacnet347However, I have decided to wait until VISTA comes out before purchasing a new one..Having an older operating system does make your new computer seem obsolete much faster! Mr. Gates has enough money, I am NOT gonna pay for XP now and then upgrade to VISTA later on! Have 2 older computers that still function, in about a year I will buy a new AMD machine of some sort..
Observe then pounce
by Willy - 2/24/06 7:11 AM In reply to: is it the right time to buy a computer or should i wait ? by jacnet347Heck, if you need the system then buy what suits you. Things are going to change soon enough once MS Vista becomes available and h/w, etc will need to change over or adapt to it. It will be the next driving force of the windoze based systems. Though you can skip along to keep up it maybe a waste to buy a budget system when Vista will practically demand higher end componets and/or resources, so it may well pay to wait until it is available. As i see it a decent XP system is pretty awful to leave just to get the next new OS. Alot depends on your needs so decide. If this isn't a critial time then wait otherwise buy. Understand also things change relativly quickly in computers now, so buy what you truly "need" and alittle to grow on.
tada -----Willy
Whatever decision you make will be wrong
by Technojunkie3 - 2/24/06 7:12 AM In reply to: is it the right time to buy a computer or should i wait ? by jacnet347Accept that and buy what you want today. If you keep your computers for several years most of the parts will be different/incompatible regardless of whether you wait a bit. If you want a faster Socket AM2 CPU in a year or two you'll probably want a new motherboard with the latest chipset to go with it, along with higher-grade RAM that'll be much cheaper by then.
I'd get an Athlon 64 X2 CPU, 1GB or 2GB of RAM, preferably a nVidia chipset (Gateway's new retail store machines look interesting), and should integrated graphics prove inadequate drop in a GeForce 7600 PCIe card in a month or two when they come out (should be a good midrange card, or go straight to the 7900 if your power supply can handle it). Get a good 19" or larger LCD monitor. Gateway's 21" widescreen LCD looks very interesting. If you ever buy a HDTV tuner, or even just play DVDs, you'll appreciate widescreens.
That will be enough for 64-bit Windows Vista late this year (2GB RAM preferably, RAM is cheap, easy to upgrade later though). You'll want the dualcore X2 CPU.
There's a lot to be said for custom-building your own PC but these days it's cheaper to buy a prebuilt machine at the big box retailers when they're on sale. I custom build because I'm constantly upgrading components. YMMV.
Waiting for Vista
by john55440 - 2/24/06 7:14 AM In reply to: is it the right time to buy a computer or should i wait ? by jacnet347I'm hopeing that my 2002 computer keeps going until I can replace it with a Vista Preinstalled system. I don't want another computer with WinXP preinstalled, because it seems to be a fundementally insecure operating system.
(And no, I don't want an Apple computer, and I don't want to change to Linux.)
You must love OS's with security holes............
by nycboy0156 - 2/24/06 8:14 AM In reply to: Waiting for Vista by john55440What makes you think that Vista will be any safer than XP was after it was initially released???
buy now and later
by Jagular - 2/24/06 8:20 AM In reply to: is it the right time to buy a computer or should i wait ? by jacnet347I like to upgrade every 2-3 years, at least my box. I seem to be able to get a monitor to last longer...
My approach is to buy last years technology that is closing out at good prices today. The advantage for me is that I'm upgrading steadily, but not at the cost of buying today's latest and greatest machines. Also, I'm not the guinea pig having to discover and work out the bugs on the "latest and greatest". I like to watch the forums and reviews and see what others' experiences are, so I can make an educated choice when I DO purchase something. I like the reviews from regular users, in addtion to the "official" reviewers. I'm not so sure about the new operating system that's coming... (I hear there may be some tradeoffs) but I know what to expect from XP and it works great as far as I'm concerned. Is the new operating system something really good for us users? or is it just another way for companies to make a ton more money?
I think waiting a long time and trying to get the "perfect" machine is like torture, and puts too much weight on the decision. I don't need my decision to last 5 or 10 years. I know I'm going to be upgrading again in a couple of years, or maybe sooner if it turns out one of the newer machines has a feature I really like. The reality for me has been that the newer machines have some gains but also some losses, like you mentioned... losing the use of some old software that you like, but the new systems don't support. Gains in processing speed and storage space can be irrelevant if your favorite software won't even run on the system.
As others have mentioned, it really depends on what you want to accomplish. How much money do you have to spend? I figure on about around $300/year keeps me moving forward technologically at what feels like a cost I'm willing to pay. At that rate, I don't feel so bad if the system I get isn't "perfect", plus, I know it's temporary.
Right now, I have my eye on the Emachines AMD64 3500+ machine. It packs a lot of power for the price. It was being demonstrated at Best Buy one day, running one of the most popular war games with ease. This machine, with a meg of ram was available for around $500. For my money, that's a LOT of computing power. If money were no object, I'd shoot for a more advanced gamers machine with the specialty graphics card etc. I'd expect to spend over a $1000 for such a machine. But I wouldn't expect to upgrade this type of machine every other year like I do with the less expensive ones I buy.
By the way, Emachines have had some challenges with reliability in the past, but they have gotten a lot better in recent years. Personally, I've owned a couple with only minor problems with heavy usage. I have no problem buying that brand if it's great value. If HP has a machine that matches up and it's only slightly more..... I would go with HP. I like HP. My current box is a Compaq, my 3rd Compaq, and it's fine, too.
Finally, I wouldn't ever buy used when there are such great deals on excellent systems being closed out to make way for the "latest and greatest".
Happy hunting!
Your recommendation....
by metsfan421 - 3/3/06 10:42 PM In reply to: buy now and later by JagularBeing that you recommended an EMachine and that it has a meg of ram I wouldn't agree with your recommendation. EMachines always have issues, so buy a warranty if you do want to purchase one.
eMachines
by OmegaGeek - 3/4/06 3:16 AM In reply to: Your recommendation.... by metsfan421I bought an eMachine (to save a few $$$) and I don't know how they did it, but they installed a screwed up copy of XP. Didn't have a CD to erase and start over. What a mess!
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