Neowin Suggestions: Should I build now or wait it out?


Recommended Posts

Hello All,

 

First I would like to say thank you very much, for all those who will help in my decision (I'm even open to criticism as long as it's constructive  :laugh: )

 

I've been trying to hold out on building a new PC until Skylake (which now looks to be nowhere in site) or even Broadwell releases to the public.

 

Should I just go ahead and buy now or wait it out?

 

This is what I'm currently eye-balling this combo (or a variation of it) from NewEgg:

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2332202

 

 

My current build:

 

Core i7 920 (Bloomfield)

Gigabyte ex58 MoBo

16GB of DDR3 GSkill RAM

Corsair 240GB SSD

850w Power Supply

GTX 260 (yes I know it's old)

All nicely tucked away in a  NZXT PHANTOM ATX Full Tower Case, White PHAN-001WT

 

 

Like I said, I would love to wait it out until SkyLake (or even Broadwell for that matter) releases, but I want a newer PC.  Seems like Windows 10 is the right time for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

why i7 and 16GB of RAM?

I second this question

 

what do you use your computer for? as in a lot of cases that setup is overkill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

why i7 and 16GB of RAM?

 

 

As you can see with my current set up, that I tend to keep my PC's around for a longer period of time.  And upgrading along the way.

 

My current PC didn't start with 16GB of memory (only started with 3GB when I first built it).

 

 

This will probably be my last build (from my own hands) for the next 7+ years.

 

The i7 will allow me to not worry about the CPU (for the most part) for several years, and 16GB memory is what came in the kit (i could probably save a few $$ by starting with 8GB)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Using same computer for 7 years makes no sense..  Buy something decent now but not overkill, and plan on getting new one in say 3+ years..  Computer gets to be 5 years old and its just JUNK no matter how bleeding edge you buy, etc..

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Computer gets to be 5 years old and its just JUNK no matter how bleeding edge you buy, etc..

 

astropheed covers his Computers Ears, "sssh, you're not junk... you're not junk my sweet angel".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My computers are older than 5 years it depends on where in the world you live & if you can afford to build new ones (not every one lives in USA) and has access to cheap parts

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I second this question

 

what do you use your computer for? as in a lot of cases that setup is overkill

 

I have an i7 4700MQ with 16 GB ram expandeable to 32GB. gaming laptop. ;)

 

go for an i7 and 16-32GB ram. go with your gut instinct. always works for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't seen an i5 do less than a i7 in gaming.... And 16GB is overkill by a large margin, unless you are doing CAD or Video editing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If your income or you happen to live in a less affluent area of the world..  Why would you be looking at top of the line 6 core processors in the first place ;)

 

The user has not given any sort of type of usage this machine will see..  But I can pretty much bet he could get something very nice that would more than exceed the requirements of windows 10 for half that cost.. 

 

My machine is right around the 3 year old mark, and would love nothing better to get a new one..  But with a bump in the video card and upgrade to ram and SSD, it does everything I need it too do..  None of which was purchased when it was bleeding edge stuff, video card was less than $100 but a huge bump in what the original machine came with.  Ram was also cheap to give it a bit more, which prob didn't even need for what I do.  SSD was the biggest night and day change.  But I sure an the hell  don't see using it for another 3 even.. 

 

While I will agree not all places and people are able to replace every 3 years or so..  And sure you can do some amazing things with older stuff - but i would much rather buy something less than bleeding at cost savings then spend premium and have it be pretty much just as dated 6 months longer down the road then less bleeding edge purchase.

 

There is one fact about tech, it gets faster/better/cheaper ever couple of months.  That combo he is looking at now for 700+ will be less than 500 in 3 months most likely because something newer is out.

 

I would rather spend less and refresh to new generation every few years than try and get something you think can last multiple generations in computer tech..

 

Just my 2 cents - if the user can afford it..  I say go for it!!!  Its your money - but mentioning that he wants to keep it for 7+ years is not something that makes sense to me..  Shoot in 6 months that tech will be OLD as well ;)  You always get more bang for your buck on last cycles hot stuff vs current cycle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd personally tone down the i7 for an i5 as the extra costs really don't give you much performance gain, and I'd go for a long PC life. My main PC is 6GB RAM q6700 system from 7 odd years ago - it still does everything I need it to on a daily basis and plays games fines. I generally run it in extreme power saving mode (asus EPU) with the CPU at 7w, it does make some things struggle (notably flash player which crashes when you switch to full screen because its a steaming pile of ######) but does fine for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If your income or you happen to live in a less affluent area of the world..  Why would you be looking at top of the line 6 core processors in the first place ;)

 

The user has not given any sort of type of usage this machine will see..  But I can pretty much bet he could get something very nice that would more than exceed the requirements of windows 10 for half that cost.. 

 

My machine is right around the 3 year old mark, and would love nothing better to get a new one..  But with a bump in the video card and upgrade to ram and SSD, it does everything I need it too do..  None of which was purchased when it was bleeding edge stuff, video card was less than $100 but a huge bump in what the original machine came with.  Ram was also cheap to give it a bit more, which prob didn't even need for what I do.  SSD was the biggest night and day change.  But I sure an the hell  don't see using it for another 3 even.. 

 

While I will agree not all places and people are able to replace every 3 years or so..  And sure you can do some amazing things with older stuff - but i would much rather buy something less than bleeding at cost savings then spend premium and have it be pretty much just as dated 6 months longer down the road then less bleeding edge purchase.

 

There is one fact about tech, it gets faster/better/cheaper ever couple of months.  That combo he is looking at now for 700+ will be less than 500 in 3 months most likely because something newer is out.

 

I would rather spend less and refresh to new generation every few years than try and get something you think can last multiple generations in computer tech..

 

Just my 2 cents - if the user can afford it..  I say go for it!!!  Its your money - but mentioning that he wants to keep it for 7+ years is not something that makes sense to me..  Shoot in 6 months that tech will be OLD as well ;)  You always get more bang for your buck on last cycles hot stuff vs current cycle.

 

I want a PC that I can game on, work on (when I work from home), which will also serve as my Media Server as well.

As I said, this will more than likely be the last PC I build, as I just kinda fade to Surface Pro(s) as I get older.

 

My PC is doing okay for a 6 1/2yr old box as I saw nothing from Intel (or AMD for that matter) that warranted an upgrade over the past 3-4yrs.

 

But even with a SSD my PC is showing its age.

 

Maybe I will look at a i5 build, I've always usually went for the i7 and figured it would last me longer.

 

It may well be overkill from what I use to do back in the days (video encoding and such), I guess its a mental thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I will look at a i5 build, I've always usually went for the i7 and figured it would last me longer.

 

 

That's a dead wrong conception.... i7, i5, and i3 have their own lifetime. They can all fail at the same time. An i7 won't last you longer than an i3....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a dead wrong conception.... i7, i5, and i3 have their own lifetime. They can all fail at the same time. An i7 won't last you longer than an i3....

 

But the i3 couldn't give me the performance of an i7 either.

 

If an i5 could give me the same performance of an i7 and last me 6-8yrs, ill consider it.

)

I built t my current PC (i7-920 Bloomfield) in January 2009.  I wanted to wait to see if Skylake (or even Broadwell) would give me any significant performance gains... but my patience is wearing thin waiting on Intel.

 

I'm gonna check amazon to see if the have a kit that's equal to the one on newegg.  I have about $280 in gift cards to amazon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I make my PCs last 6-7 years as well, but my old i3 530 (OC'd at 3.6GHz), 8GB RAM build wasn't good enough to do what I was doing, even with an SSD added to it. About one month ago I built a new one with an i5 4690k and it made quite a lot of difference compared to what I previously had. The reason I went with the i5 and not the i7 was the difference compared to the price, and reviews. From what I saw, for gaming and rendering in most programs, the i5 did as good as the i7. This is why I got the i5, getting the i7 wasn't worth the price over what the i5 cost.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I disagree with everyone and say go for the i7/16 GB. If you keep your PC's for a long period (5-10 years), it makes sense to have the best for a long time, and it will slowly degrade in terms of performance. You can always add more RAM in the future, a better GPU, a faster SSD, etc. CPU upgrades often tend to be limited, very expensive, and don't offer good value (if you're upgrading within Intel sockets). If you're doing out of socket upgrade, you're buying at the very least a motherboard, a CPU, and even potentially RAM (DDR3 vs. DDR4).

 

If you upgrade your CPU/motherboard every 2-4 years, then I'd say get an i5.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I disagree with everyone and say go for the i7/16 GB. If you keep your PC's for a long period (5-10 years), it makes sense to have the best for a long time, and it will slowly degrade in terms of performance. You can always add more RAM in the future, a better GPU, a faster SSD, etc. CPU upgrades often tend to be limited, very expensive, and don't offer good value (if you're upgrading within Intel sockets). If you're doing out of socket upgrade, you're buying at the very least a motherboard, a CPU, and even potentially RAM (DDR3 vs. DDR4).

 

If you upgrade your CPU/motherboard every 2-4 years, then I'd say get an i5.

 

My current i7 in an origial i7-920 Bloomfield.  I built it 1/2009 started w/ 3GB of OCZ RAM.  Now this same rig has a 240GB SSD, and 16GB of RAM.  It's holding up somewhat, but age is starting to show, even w/SSD.

 

I know if I go the 6core Haswell-E, that it's going to be pricey, but I'm also going in with the mindset that this PC won't be replace (if at all) until 2022 or so

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm in the same boat, old PC @6yrs old. I've come to the conclusion to buy now (or soon actually) and here's why.

 

1) Any new port takes time to become mainstream. You can get most of USB 3.1 type C stuff now via add-in cards. You might miss thunderbolt 2 and some USB 3.1 Type C stuff (power).. but that's YEARS away from mainstream and even then, who says you'd use it? 

2) Games. It not like they are going to start making games only 1% of the PCs can play. So waiting for Skylake, etc.. might yield a faster pc, but it won't mean you can play games a PC bought today couldn't. And even once Skylake is here, some new tech will be on the horizon. So you really just need to jump aboard somewhere. 

 

So then the big deal, for me at least, came down to graphics cards.. and why I am still waiting. When AMD Fury X hits the market, prices will either go up or down for all other graphics cards. It's also new tech that could be big. I'm willing to wait to see how it affects the market before I purchase. That is coming VERY soon though.. so I am piecing together the PC now. 

 

As for the i5 or i7... I am going i7 myself too. It isn't a HUGE price difference, I'd never upgrade later if I did get an i5.. and I do enough stuff that would benefit from an i7 that it is worth the difference to me.

 

Oh, and let me add.. indications are that Skylake will be much more expensive. So you have that...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Using same computer for 7 years makes no sense..  Buy something decent now but not overkill, and plan on getting new one in say 3+ years..  Computer gets to be 5 years old and its just JUNK no matter how bleeding edge you buy, etc..

surely I'm not a gamer anymore, but I'm still rocking a 2.4ghz E6600 from 9 years ago!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

surely I'm not a gamer anymore, but I'm still rocking a 2.4ghz E6600 from 9 years ago!!

BTDT - my Q6600 is the same age, and my notebooks are older than that.  (The notebooks get away with it by not being the primary hardware - however, the newer notebook supports Hyper-V, which my desktop lacks.)

The bigger issue is that Real Life keeps getting in the way of my upgrading my desktop (as in more critical expenses/bills needing to be paid) - the cost of necessities (such as food and even public transit) keep going up, and the state of GPUs remains in flux.

 

I'm looking at - at worst - a three-item upgrade (CPU, motherboard, GPU - I have two 4 GB sticks of DDR3 already that I snagged when it was really dirt-cheap).  The CPU was, in fact, the easiest choice - PentiumG 3258.  Yes - it's a dual-core.  Still, few of the games I play - and none of the applications I use - take any significant advantage of quads; also, if the money situation improves, i5-K is a drop-in upgrade.  The one feature I AM looking to add to an upgraded desktop IS supported by the G - which is more than I can say abut Q6600 - or any other CPU in LGA775.

 

The semi-squeeze comes in terms of the motherboard itself - unless you look at refurbs, Z97 (the chipset of choice in terms of features - even if overclocking isn't on the table) has held value well - where have prices gone since launch?  From low end to high, it's still $100USD/$150USD/$200USD, even a few years after launch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your GPU is very slow and your CPU is somewhat slow but far from terrible. The rest is perfectly fine. I recommend upgrading your GPU and then reevaluating based on that if you want a faster CPU as well. If you do upgrade the CPU, choose a chipset that supports DDR3 so you can keep your RAM.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

this question comes up all the time - wait or not?

 

honestly, it doesnt matter these days. That 920 is still fast for daily tasks. Sure, you're missing out on the lastest tech like USB3.0/3.1, PCI-E 3.0. If youre going to buy today, just do it. if you want to wait for Skylake, sure, why not?

 

imo, i think you should wait for Skylake. That computer is fast enough, but that GPU is slow.

 

Also, people were questioning how you had 16GB on a motherboard w/ a 920... it's triple channel RAM, so you'd have 3-6-12-18GB... am i wrong?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

this question comes up all the time - wait or not?

 

honestly, it doesnt matter these days. That 920 is still fast for daily tasks. Sure, you're missing out on the lastest tech like USB3.0/3.1, PCI-E 3.0. If youre going to buy today, just do it. if you want to wait for Skylake, sure, why not?

 

imo, i think you should wait for Skylake. That computer is fast enough, but that GPU is slow.

 

Also, people were questioning how you had 16GB on a motherboard w/ a 920... it's triple channel RAM, so you'd have 3-6-12-18GB... am i wrong?

 

you don't have to use the Trip-Channel if you don't want to.

 

I started with a Triple channel kit when I first built it (3x) 1GB OCZ sticks in Trip-Channel

 

Then about 3-4yrs ago, I came across G-Skill (4x) 4GB sticks of RAM for dirt cheap on NewEgg so I said why not.  Not running in triple channel but it's ok considering it's 16GB

 

I know that my GPU is my weakest link, Just waiting out for a native DX12 card.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you don't have to use the Trip-Channel if you don't want to.

 

I know that my GPU is my weakest link, Just waiting out for a native DX12 card.

ah ha. i didnt know that. i thought those chipsets required triple-channel.

 

sounds like you need to just wait it out and perhaps save up a bit more for that 'ultimate build'

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.