Now a good time to buy?

Hi all,

So my Ti4200 graphics card, which was the most advanced component on my
elderly machine, apparently got smoked by a freak blue-sky power surge a few
weeks ago. Or maybe the card just died. Could possibly have been the AGP
slot that died? Machine was on when something popped, I switched off,
removed the card, switched back on and rebooted, the onboard graphics took
over, and I've been chugging slowly away ever since.

Given the age of everything else on the machine, I am thinking that now
might be as good a time as any to look at putting together a whole new rig.

So my basic question is: Apart from the usual seasonal dynamics, are there
eleventy twelve new developments scheduled to appear in the next few weeks
or months that will completely change the landscape of the PC market? I
keep up with the news to some extent, but Lord knows I miss a lot. I'm not
looking at anything bleeding edge, but I'm curious.

The path of least resistance is PC/Windows, which is the path I'm going to
take.

I've been happy with AMD in the past, and their present performance looks
good, so I'm leaning that way for the processor. Looks like a socket 939
motherboard is likely to allow the best upgrade path? Is PCI-e worth the
extra $50-$60 or so it seems to add to the motherboard? My other concern is
stability, for want of a better word. An A64 processor on a 939 board would
be a newer configuration (in terms of the time it has been on the market)
than I'm used to, but so far the general consensus seems to be positive.

In terms of use, I do a fair amount of gaming, but I'm usually at least a
year behind the curve, and I tend to find ones that I like and stick with
them -- I'm playing Thief II again, now, for example. I'm looking forward
to Morrowind, Oblivion, and the Gothics. All things considered, the games
are probably going to be what taxes the new machine the most.

Any thoughts appreciated.

The new version of Windows, called Vista, will replace XP in 12 months. It
has much higher hardware requirements than XP, so you may want to look into
getting a machine that will meet the new requirements.

--
DaveW
__________

"Dom Powell" <> wrote in message
news:dioqcl$ld3$...
> Hi all,
>
> So my Ti4200 graphics card, which was the most advanced component on my
> elderly machine, apparently got smoked by a freak blue-sky power surge a
> few weeks ago. Or maybe the card just died. Could possibly have been the
> AGP slot that died? Machine was on when something popped, I switched off,
> removed the card, switched back on and rebooted, the onboard graphics took
> over, and I've been chugging slowly away ever since.
>
> Given the age of everything else on the machine, I am thinking that now
> might be as good a time as any to look at putting together a whole new
> rig.
>
> So my basic question is: Apart from the usual seasonal dynamics, are there
> eleventy twelve new developments scheduled to appear in the next few weeks
> or months that will completely change the landscape of the PC market? I
> keep up with the news to some extent, but Lord knows I miss a lot. I'm
> not looking at anything bleeding edge, but I'm curious.
>
> The path of least resistance is PC/Windows, which is the path I'm going to
> take.
>
> I've been happy with AMD in the past, and their present performance looks
> good, so I'm leaning that way for the processor. Looks like a socket 939
> motherboard is likely to allow the best upgrade path? Is PCI-e worth the
> extra $50-$60 or so it seems to add to the motherboard? My other concern
> is stability, for want of a better word. An A64 processor on a 939 board
> would be a newer configuration (in terms of the time it has been on the
> market) than I'm used to, but so far the general consensus seems to be
> positive.
>
> In terms of use, I do a fair amount of gaming, but I'm usually at least a
> year behind the curve, and I tend to find ones that I like and stick with
> them -- I'm playing Thief II again, now, for example. I'm looking forward
> to Morrowind, Oblivion, and the Gothics. All things considered, the games
> are probably going to be what taxes the new machine the most.
>
> Any thoughts appreciated.
>

DaveW wrote:

> The new version of Windows, called Vista, will replace XP in 12 months. It
> has much higher hardware requirements than XP, so you may want to look into
> getting a machine that will meet the new requirements.
>

Or switch to Linux and get a cheaper machine that'll perform better.

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