Slowly upgrade, or save and build at once?

[HumorPalace]

Hi, i have a bit of a dilema with upgrading my current computer/building a new pc. As of right now, i have about enough money for a radeon 9800pro, but thats about it. I'm sure i'll be completly building a new pc in about 4 months or so when i have enough money (mainly for hl2 and future fps games), but i would like to get the card now, so i can enjoy playing current released games more, such as halo and whatnot. So heres where the dilema comes into play, right now i have a XP1600 (1.4 ghz), radeon 9000pro, 640sdr ram, with a ECS k7s5a mobo (old school one, not the newer pro models). So I'm not sure if i should wait until i have all the money in a few months and buy everything at once (in that case, il be able to get the same vid card cheaper, or vid cards released before then. So anyways, I'm not sure how much of an increase i would get with a 9800 pro with my other computer specs (slow ram, processor, and poor "preformance mb).

Could you guys give me a bit of insight of how much of an increase id be getting with a new vid card, and if youd think it'd be reasonable to get the vid card now, and rest later, or if the preformance increase wouldnt be worth the extra cost on vid card, or the posibiltiy that a better card would be released by ati/nvidia.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

[VHockey86]

Personally Id just wait if its only a few months.
Sure you'd get more performance out of the card... but Id just wait until you really need it, and hopefully it will be cheaper then. Also those new "XT" models are coming out, so u could get a better card for the same price if you wait.

If the games aren't Direct X 9, you wont see an enormous increase in performance (granted it will still be quite noticable).

Ive never been the kind that buys top of the line tho... I always buy mid-range b/c higher stuff is so inflated in price when it comes out... and I'm always on a tight budget.

If you have the money, I suppose you could go for it, but my honest opinion is just to wait.

[jmichna]

You have an interesting - but common - situation.

Unless you plan to do what VHockey86 suggest and wait till you can buy everything, here's what I'd advise:

Stuff that "ages" quickly are components like video cards and CPUs... faster, more powerful and sometimes cheaper versions turn up almost monthly it seems. Since money is a concern, these are the last things I would buy (get the latest and greatest for your dollar). Next quickest to get by-passed by technology would be stuff like motherboards and RAM.

Usually slow to become "out dated" are the storage devices and sound cards: hard drives keep getting bigger, but performance itself (i.e., data transfer rates) don't change very quickly. Same for CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc., they don't age too quickly. Heat sinks probably also fall into this category.

Power supplies, cases (get a good one), fans, cables, floppy drives change relatively slowly. I always opt to get the best case and power supply I can afford, since I know I can get at least two or three builds/upgrades from these components.

[noisedude]

for my money (and it often is) - wait! apart from anything else it's way more satisfying to put a whole new system together and migrate from your old one - changing one part at a time is a waste of money cos you won't get the best from your new stuff if you still have bottlenecks elsewhere in your set up.

i seem to have waited ages to get hold of my new machine but it's all worth it now it's set up in my recording studio making mincemeat of my VST plug-ins that floored my old Athlon 1Ghz...

[nukes]

You always get a better deal doing it all at once, and you get a better computer, rather than a graphics card that is a year old by the time you get that new mobo and cpu etc. I've upgraded my machine in bits and pieces. I really wished I'd just saved all my money up instead as I would have had an absolute killer box by now.