Good Time to buy computer?

[grape]

im looking to buy a good desktop, a solid system to play games, so it would have a pretty decent cpu, and mobo for futur upgrades. as for rams i can buy them separetly same with hd . now since xmas is around the corner, i was wondering wats a good time 2 buy. i know obvously there is gonna be some wicked deals at boxing day. but wats good time periods to buy computers for company like dell to thro out deals?

[itcareer]

New ati cards coming out within a month and again in January. But these are going be a bit expensive if they are flagship cards (more likely the Jan/feb release of the next card), but they will hopefully will drive current cards down in price that much more.

Dell might not be a good choice to overclock the FSB. I don't find their motherboard bios particularly robust. If you can find a windows based cpu overclocking utility (like MSI had) then you might be able to overclock most dells. jan/feb is what I'm looking for. Also I hear june is a slow month for sales.

I would build my own system from the info in the posts made on this subforum. There are many people asking "whats a good mb/cpu combo" etc so search the forum.

If you don't need the latest and greatest, I would stick to XP rather than VISTA for gaming...for a while longer. I've had too many game crashes on a friends new vista machine (dell) like HL2 EP2, UT3 demo. Then I use compatibility mode and all seems fine.

There is always newer stuff coming out. So buy when you can't wait any longer and enjoy it.

oh and quad core vs dual core for gaming, the debate continues so do your research first. imo i will stick to core2duo if it can save $ over a quad core.

[Smoked]

best months to get a computer is august/september, and december/janurary

[board123]

I would say that now is not a particularly good time to buy, since Christmas is right around the corner and some decent refresh cards from both Nvidia and ATI are coming out next month (supposedly).

[grape]

interesting.. should i go crazy on xmax or.. wait till jan for the new hardware release to drive down the old hardware... and wat can i get with bout 500$ ,dont really wanna get a top top notch gamin system , as it is for my mom, and we already got a lappy and a desky, so this would be an excuse for me 2 shop around for a new desky, but cant cross the line 2 high, so a system thats solid and i can sneak some games on it, like hl2 ep2(well i can run that on my lappy) but like company of heroes, the newer games comin out...whether i build it or its prebuild.. ne suggestions?

[felix]

Best time is whenever you see a hot deal for one on RFD.

[itcareer]

interesting.. should i go crazy on xmax or.. wait till jan for the new hardware release to drive down the old hardware... and wat can i get with bout 500$ ,dont really wanna get a top top notch gamin system , as it is for my mom, and we already got a lappy and a desky, so this would be an excuse for me 2 shop around for a new desky, but cant cross the line 2 high, so a system thats solid and i can sneak some games on it, like hl2 ep2(well i can run that on my lappy) but like company of heroes, the newer games comin out...whether i build it or its prebuild.. ne suggestions?

I was pleasantly surprised with a friends system: Vista with Core2 2160, 2gigs ram, and a 8600gt ran hl2 very smoothly, Call of duty 4 demo smoothly. Only UT3 demo was a bit choppy at times. I tried the games at 1280X1024 with most settings on high and 2xAA. So I hope you can use that as a gauge of what to expect. I'm sure bioshock won't run anywhere near as smoothly as the other games above.

[jolok]

boxing day, you can easily get cheap and outdated computer. But not a gamer computer for sure.

if you want to get gaming computer, you should stick with computer part store, which as sale all over the year.

[terrybear]

wait till dec ........ AMD/ati's RV670 cards, AMD790 motherboards & phenom quad core cpus are going to be out on the market then. Then look at either building a box on the newer amd stuff or the previous stuff. Also look at what intel puts out cpuwise & base a system on there latest as well as your options there.

I also agree with most posters your gonna get your best $'s worth hand building your pc, not to mention if it ever goes wrong you will know what to do for the most part.

[hightech]

The best time to buy is when you REALLY NEED to buy a system. There will always be sales of one sort or another. You just need to decide what your needs are and buy accordingly.

[TenzoR]

The best time to buy is when you REALLY NEED to buy a system. There will always be sales of one sort or another. You just need to decide what your needs are and buy accordingly.

:arrowu: I agree :)

[DirtyLude]

I generally think you should buy when you need it, but there are sometimes when a short wait will pay off, like with scheduled CPU price drops. I think, like mentioned, the only thing I would wait for is late November and possible video card price drops. Otherwise P35 Mobo's and CPU prices are pretty good right now without any revolutions on the horizon.

[carmaster]

I would wait until Dec/Jan now.