Tips for saving for a new PC?

[CRTGAMER]

Right now I have in mind for components:
ASRock 990FX Professional (Motherboard)
AMD Phenom X6 1100t Black Edition 3.3 GHZ (CPU)
Saphire Radeon 6850 (GPU)
Corsair 6GB RAM and Corsair 800 Watts Power Supply
And a cool Mid tower case I found for 70 dollars.

I know those aren't everything I need, for example I still need a harddrive and sound card.

Wait a year or even six months and buy the PC with similar specs, it will be cheaper. There is some merit in this if you can be patient. Its crazy how PCs are always improving and getting cheaper.

[BoringSupreez]

Right now I have in mind for components:
ASRock 990FX Professional (Motherboard)
AMD Phenom X6 1100t Black Edition 3.3 GHZ (CPU)
Saphire Radeon 6850 (GPU)
Corsair 6GB RAM and Corsair 800 Watts Power Supply
And a cool Mid tower case I found for 70 dollars.

I know those aren't everything I need, for example I still need a harddrive and sound card.

Wait a year or even six months and buy the PC with similar specs, it will be cheaper. There is some merit in this if you can be patient. Its crazy how PCs are always improving and getting cheaper.

Yes it is, but it's not as bad as it was 10 or 15 years ago.

[sabrage]

It's not bad at all... The cutting-edge PC market has stagnated to a small handful of games that can still run on older hardware because this console generation is much longer than any previous. Like I said, my computer was built in 2007 and the only games I can't MAX are the ones that came out in the past year or so with only new RAM and a new video card. Buying cutting-edge is ridiculous when mid-range PC can last four and a half years.

As for the build... 800 watts is probably more than you'll ever need. My personal preference is Intel over AMD, and I've had enough problems with my ATI drivers that I'm never buying one of their graphics cards again. And make sure the tower you found has proper airflow.

[BoringSupreez]

My personal preference is Intel over AMD, and I've had enough problems with my ATI drivers that I'm never buying one of their graphics cards again.

I can tell you've been using PCs for a while. I learned long ago to stick with NVidia and Intel if I want proper support and drivers.

[isiolia]

My personal preference is Intel over AMD, and I've had enough problems with my ATI drivers that I'm never buying one of their graphics cards again.

I can tell you've been using PCs for a while. I learned long ago to stick with NVidia and Intel if I want proper support and drivers.

I've had problems with both graphics vendors, so I tend to go for whichever has better bang for the buck when I'm shopping >_> AMD has happened to have the better deal the past couple times, and they've been great cards (4850 then 6870).

Admittedly, some of my nVidia issues were more the fault of the card manufacturer (or at least partly). For example, my 6800 stopped getting recognized by newer driver revisions. The reason being that the product ID in the card's BIOS was only used in early production models, and not in the majority of 6800s out there. At some point, that product ID was removed from the supported devices list, despite drivers technically supporting the card.
I fixed it by flashing a modified BIOS to the card, but still


CPU-wise, I have had more issues with AMD based systems, but more with the chipsets than the CPU itself. Intel on Intel just tends to be solid. That said, AMD's chipsets have been far better than the half-baked VIA garbage we used to see, or the mostly-better nVidia offerings.

Still, I'd not build with AMD right now purely for performance reasons. Currently, Intel just does better for the money outside of very specific niches.

[BananaXX]

I've been using AMD / ATI for the past 5 years, never had a single issue with hardware or drivers. AMD has treated me right.

[sabrage]

I was an Intel/Nvidia man for years... Having played the other side I'm going to keep it that way. I'm sure there's tons of people who've never had a problem with AMD, but I also know I'm not the only one who hates their drivers.

[MrPopo]

It's not bad at all... The cutting-edge PC market has stagnated to a small handful of games that can still run on older hardware because this console generation is much longer than any previous. Like I said, my computer was built in 2007 and the only games I can't MAX are the ones that came out in the past year or so with only new RAM and a new video card. Buying cutting-edge is ridiculous when mid-range PC can last four and a half years.

As for the build... 800 watts is probably more than you'll ever need. My personal preference is Intel over AMD, and I've had enough problems with my ATI drivers that I'm never buying one of their graphics cards again. And make sure the tower you found has proper airflow.

It's not just the console market that's caused the stagnation. We've also hit severe diminishing returns with regards to how much more graphical fidelity you can get vs. the work required from your artists.

[BoringSupreez]

It's not bad at all... The cutting-edge PC market has stagnated to a small handful of games that can still run on older hardware because this console generation is much longer than any previous. Like I said, my computer was built in 2007 and the only games I can't MAX are the ones that came out in the past year or so with only new RAM and a new video card. Buying cutting-edge is ridiculous when mid-range PC can last four and a half years.

As for the build... 800 watts is probably more than you'll ever need. My personal preference is Intel over AMD, and I've had enough problems with my ATI drivers that I'm never buying one of their graphics cards again. And make sure the tower you found has proper airflow.

It's not just the console market that's caused the stagnation. We've also hit severe diminishing returns with regards to how much more graphical fidelity you can get vs. the work required from your artists.

Ever since the 32-bit generation, each new round of consoles is a smaller and smaller jump than before. I'm guessing most next-gen games for the first year or two are going to look like current-gen games.

[sabrage]

It's not just the console market that's caused the stagnation. We've also hit severe diminishing returns with regards to how much more graphical fidelity you can get vs. the work required from your artists.

Either way, it's not to the developer's credit that they aren't pushing hardware in any other way either. I'd love to see a procedurally-generated Zelda clone.