5/21    Is it worth buying a new wintel PC right now or should I wait until
        the Pentium4/Athlon prices drop more? I looking into buying a 1GHz
        Pentium3 or similar system, I just went and configured a Dell Dimension
        with 933MHz CPU, 256MB RAM (SDRAM) 32MB GeForce2. No monitor, with
        RedHat Linux, no windows. Came out at like $985
        \_ Sounds about right, you can probably save $100 or $200 if you
           build it yourself.
           build it yourself. I'd wait though, prices are dropping and
           AMD and Intel are bound to make drastic cuts as thier markets
        \_ I would get it now, nothing too interesting on the immediate
           horizon.
           evaporate.
        \_ how bad do you want it? i would wait a couple months. depends
           what you have now and what you need to do.
           \_ This is always the answer to "Should I upgrade now or wait?"
              It's just common sense.  Upgrade when you need to and the price
              is right.  Only you can know when the price/time is right for
              you.
           \_ Definitely buy before the end of the summer, after that
              you'll get reamed.  After the summer Micro$oft will begin
              it's marketing rollout of Windows XP which will create a huge
              spike in demand for PCs and upgrade components.  I remember
              right before Win95 came out the PC makers were in a slump and
              95 created a huge demand for PCs right after it was released.
              Believe me, buy now or pay later, I saw it before and it
              will happen again especially since M$ is spending even more on
              marketing this time than in 95.
              \_ nah, XP isn't that big a deal. i don't think people will
                 care much. certainly not businesses. and home users aren't
                 gonna go rushing out for it either. just the vibes i'm diggin.
                 \_ yeah, but MS is spending twice as much on advertising!
                    \_ fuck that; the reason ppl will switch is that they lease
                       computers from dell, and have little sayso about the OS
                       on those leased machines.  Hence, secretaries and other
                       non-tech staff will use XP, <DEAD>office.net<DEAD>, etc, and of
                       course, this makes the IT dept have to deal with XP.
              \_ Only because win3.1 was such total trash that even win95 was
                 looking great in comparison.  The same thing did *not* happen
                     \_ this is true. win95 was microsoft's first OS that
                        looked and behaved like more than just a slow MS-DOS
                        shell.  [restored.  erikred, don't modify other
                        people's posts.  just add your own comments. thanks]
                 with win98, winme, nt4.0, or win2k.  I grabbed win95 asap and
                 did the same for win2k.  The rest was just bug fix crap.  XP
                 doesn't add anything new either.  Oh ya, it does.  It adds
                 MS's new mandatory registration and user tracking system.
                 I'm sure that's a big feature the people and IT depts. badly
                 want.  You should wait to buy a new machine until you need
           \_ What are you talking about?  The P3 isn't being shelved.  You'll
              still be able to buy a P3 a year from now.  Get off the motd.
                 one.  Then go get the best for your money.  Prices *always*
                 drop over time.
                 \_ I skipped win98, me and nt, but I really liked w2k,
                    which makes w95 feels like crap especially if you are
                    doing any sort of networking.
                        \_ I did win98 for games until win2k came out.  I
                           still have a win98/win2k multiboot setup but haven't
                           booted in 98 in almost a year for anything.  Disk
                           is cheap and I'm too lazy to delete it.
                           \_ The only game I've been playing for the past
                              2 years is aoe (and I kick arse at it).  It
                              runs fine on w2k so I am happy.
                 \_ IT departments won't care, because corporate versions of
                    XP will not have the activation crap.  Of course, home
                    users would just end up pirating corporate versions.  And
                    as far as I can tell, piracy helps Microsoft in the long
        \_ Buy now.  Pentium 4's suck.  Athlons + mobos still need work.
           Pentium 3's have topped out at 1 GHz (and at that speed they
           suck), and the next Pentium 3's (1.13, 1.2 GHz - 0.13um process)
           out in a couple months will probably be $$.  Get a Pentium 3 866
           or 933 system.  If you wait you'll be paying 15% more for
           a Pentium 4 system or a 1.13 MHz Pentium 3 that no one has
           any clue how it'll perform. -jctwu
           \_ This is clueless crap.  Where'd you get the idea you won't be
              able to get an older P3 in 6 months or a year or that the 1.13
              Ghz (not Mhz) P3 will perform poorly compared to current P3's?
              There is no reason to buy now unless you *need* a new computer
              now.
                    run.  Would Windows and Office be such mainstream apps if
                    it weren't for piracy?
                    \_ I'd *never* let users pirate the XP stuff for home use.
                       The last thing I want is MS combing their databases and
                       deciding my company needs a BSA jackboot software
                       licensing audit.  You *really* think the corp versions
                       won't be tagged and trackable?  I wouldn't bet my job
                       on it.  -- IT Manager for my company
                       \_ So what do you think is going to stop the people
                          in your office from pirating XP? Surely you don't
                          think that its your disapproval.
                          \_ The fact that I don't provide access to the
                             install media for any apps.  No one here is
                             insane enough to try to zip up all the files and
                             the registry tree changes and hope it works the
                             same at home.  If they really needed it at home,
                             they're either using a company laptop with all
                             software pre-installed or we buy them a copy.
                             Where did you get the idea they could do anything
                             they wanted all willy-nilly without my approval?
                             \_ Obviously the users at your coporation are less
                                creative than at mine. Most software ends up at
                                home in less than one month and that is without
                                the install cds.
        \_ Yes, buy now.  Nothing interesting coming out on the immediate
           horizon anyway.  The 4100 series and the 815E chipset is good,
           and is at a good price point in its life cycle.
           \_ I second recommendation for 4100.  The case is a pleasure
              to work with, the PC is well-built.  As for prices -- do you
              need SMP?  If yes, wait for dual Athlon.  If not, go with
              Ghz P3 -- it won't get too much cheaper.  Don't get memory
              from Dell -- get it from Curcial, save money.
                                       \_ Or http://memorytogo.com, they have
                                          pretty good RAM prices.
              \_ But Dell is having "double your memory" sale these days.
              \_ hahaha. "won't get too much cheaper" ...i like the "too"
                 qualifier. that way you can say, no matter how much it
                 drops, well it wasn't "too much".
           \_ No.  Don't buy now unless you need it.