When is the right time to buy a new computer?

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 25 Dec 2001 9:08 am

When the keyboard gets too dirty (like mine)?

When the tax refund arrives?

When the wife tells you to buy your own birthday present?

When you want to give your old one to your kid for college?

When the monitor picture has finally gone too squirly?

Because everybody else is in the gigihertz and you're still on a 66MHz 486?

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Bill (steel not out of the woodshed) | MSA Classic U12 | Email | My music | Steeler birthdays | Over 50?

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 25 Dec 2001 3:56 pm

Any and all of the above.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 25 Dec 2001 6:58 pm

The day after Christmas when everything goes on sale?

Mike Dennis · Post by **Mike Dennis** » 27 Dec 2001 5:46 am

Now is the time Bill.

Everybody here can load into and read every message on the forum, check their e-mails, do their electronic banking and completely check the markets on Wall Street...

in the time that old 486 yours takes just to boot up. :>))))))

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 30 Dec 2001 1:12 am

There's NO right time to buy a new computer, because WHATEVER date you buy it, in 6 months they'll be selling the same model for $500-$800 less than you paid, and all the new ones will be twice as fast! That said, I'd still rather have that than a 486.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 30 Dec 2001 8:55 am

Jim is correct. Computers depreciate only slightly slower than a Mexican dinner and 6-pack of beer.

The best time to buy a computer is whenever you need one to complete the task you're trying to accomplish. Forget about what it's going to be worth 6 months from now, or how many bells and whistles you'll get if you just wait a few months. You will always be disappointed, since its the nature of the game.

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Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 30 Dec 2001 9:58 am

My stock answer when someone asks me about what or how much computer they should buy. "Buy Overkill and as much as your pocketbook can stand". Or, try to buy the latest and greatest so it won't become obsolete as fast as a lesser model.

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 2 Jan 2002 5:24 pm

Good advice.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 3 Jan 2002 3:03 am

I usually buy about 6 or 8 months after the latest wave. If the current new products are over 1 gig hz P-4 ,I go after the leftover blow-out 900 MHZ P-3 or so machines. I have always been able to get a powefull machine jam packed with stuff at a very good deal, and I have found that the retailers will deal further if it is one of the last ones in their Inventory. I have bargained with Circuit City and Best Buy managers on further discounting succesfully. I currently have two HP Pavillion Pentium III PC's,I think a 700 and a 600.. CDR's DVD's , 40 gig HD , 128 ram, whatever..no complaints. This year I will may sell the oldest one and get another newer one. Just a thought
tp

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 5 Jan 2002 12:00 pm

Tony, my strategy exactly. I call it 'trailing edge' technology...

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Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 5 Jan 2002 12:56 pm

Tony
I'm with you. I had a old Compaq 233 mhz whose motherboard had died, but the drives, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and monitor were still perfectly functional. Since my dear wife was working on a 7 year old Mac

, I had my local computer nerd build a rockin' new tower with an 800mhz AMD Duron processor, 256k RAM, a Seagate 20 gig hard drive, and my old AWE64 sound card, CD-R and Zip drives. Cost me $450 and she's amazed at the relatively "blazing" speed she now has at her fingertips (compared to the 33mhz Mac she was laboring with).

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[This message was edited by Herb Steiner on 05 January 2002 at 01:17 PM.]