Curse

Mushroom · Mar 06, 2007, 11:26 PM // 23:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by dansamy

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Athlon 64 3200 CPU (It's ~2ghz proc)

I can upgrade my processor, RAM and video and keep the rest of my set-up for quite a while. I intend to buy a new processor, another gig of RAM and a new video card after the prices come down just a bit on the latest, greatest GPUs.

If you want to upgrade your CPU, you better do it fast.

AMD stopped manufacturing the 939 processor last year, and the supply is drying up fast. Because of this, the price is actually increasing in many areas.

We deal through wholesalers (I work for a computer store), and the Socket 939 3800 is actually $12-15 more expensive then the AM2 3800.

And for RAM, you will likely see the same thing. Because the DDR2 is now the "standard RAM", most of the manufacturing capacity is being shuffled into making those. This is making the DDR supply stagnante. And once the supply drops much more, expect those prices to start to climb as well.

This is fairly normal in the industry. Once the "new generation" takes over, the prices of the last generation tend to fix for 6-12 months. Then those prices tend to increase, as people scramble to buy up the shrinking supply of older chips (to upgrade or repair existing last-gen systems).

So if you have a socket 754 or 939, don't wait much longer to upgrade your CPU if you are planning on it. DDR RAM will still be good for a few more months, but expect it to start increasing in 3-6 months.

And with Vista now out, a lot of people are upgrading old systems. This is making the supplies shrink faster then they would normally.

dansamy · Mar 07, 2007, 01:00 AM // 01:00

Yup. It's on the "buy soon" list.