And it's a much cheaper gold digger than the PS3 anyway. 

lol@ps3
its not out yet and already beaten by 8800 performance
nextgen... my ass

wii has no interesting games so far (except zelda maybe) 

The point of a next-gen console is not to have games that look better then its possible on the PCs. The point is to have GREAT looking games at a pricepoint noticably lower then what you would have to pay for it in the PC world.

In the PC world, 600 euro gets you a PS3 and 650 euro gets you a 8800GTX. But with the latter, you also need a case with a 450W PSU, a motherboard, a fast CPU, RAM, a dvd drive, a harddrive, keyboard and mouse and finally a monitor.

With the PS3, you just need a TV. 

especialy for the PS3 are much more expensive. But then again video rental/trade in stores solve that problem ;) 

Netflix-style video game renting might drastically change how many games I buy. 

I think they do have something like that. I see commercials for something called GameFly... and there's GameTap... I think one of those actually mails you a game disc netflix-style. Not certain, though. 

I also saw one online a couple years ago, but I don't remember if it was one of those. It was the same setup as Netflix, but I think it was more like $30 a month. It might still be worth it, though; especially for someone like me who generally only plays a game once. 

Speeds, no not lazy, just ignorant. I'm asking here because people might actually make sense here.

Like,

Daz, I take your point. At the moment I am playing stuff like Prey, Dark Messiah, etc fine. I don't think I'd have problems with anything released about now, except Morrowind2/Gothic3. So it is more for forthcoming games, Crysis etc. But having a 3 year old PC, oh the shame!!

But, how long do you think it will be before DX10 cards and Quad Core CPUs are reasonably affordable??

Also, if it's going to be a while, but it is definitely worth waiting for that, are there any intermediate simple upgrades I could do? More ram? GFX?

Jago, cheers for that, will bear that in mind, subject to the waiting/not waiting option. 

something to think about could be to get a SLI compatible motherboard and have 2 gfx cards going. 

Hmmmm....

Wouldn't that be a bit much?? 

how much gfx cards are over in england. I wouldnt consider it here in oz, but it seems things are cheaper overseas. 

more ram always helps, its dirt cheap for a 1gb stick these days.

Thats about the only quick fix I can think of, as all the new GPU's coming out are PCI-E as apposed to AGP (you have AGP shamb??) then even something like a graphics card upgrade would mean buying a new motherboard at the least.

as for quad-core and dx10, its very close. Christmas / Q1-2007 will be the liftoff point I think, with prices coming down soon after, worth the wait imo, as none of the next-gen games are due until after then (crysis, hl2 ep2, bioshock, ut2007 etc) so may as well hang onto the cash and get a nice system just before these games hit. 

Yeah I see it's making sense. Q1 2007, okay, so delayed until Q2 2007, and becoming affordable in Q3 2007....I play more games in the winter anyway.

I presume I have AGP....is there any sense in getting a good AGP GFX card, over sticking with the 9800 Pro?? 

No. Why would you invest money is a new video card now, if eventually getting a new CPU/mobo is going to force you get a new one anyway? Most (95%) of new motherboards do not even have AGP slot at all. 

what jago said, PCI-E mobo's dont have agp slots so it would be a waste. HOLD TIGHT SON 

I do have to mention that there are mobos that do indeed have both, it's just that they are rare. My current motherboard AsRock 775-DUALVSTA has both AGP and PCI-E slots. But if you definately do want to upgrade your AGP card now, be prepared that you might have to hunt for a specific motherboard when the upgrade time for CPU/mobo/ram comes. 

sli - bs
quadcore- bs
dx10 - vista only. long way to go

tho 8800 is a killer and its great if u have huge moni with insane resolution and money to waste

again. for a new sys
_any_ core2duo and any 7900 (whatever money u are willing to spend)
if u want AGP upgrade - 7600gs is prolly the best u get - 150$ here. maybe u can find 7600gt, not sure. ~200 bux

Jago: 600EU would get me PS3 NOT. its just not being sold in EU\RU. Strong point, isnt it?
"just need a TV" - u mean HD TV that would cost more than entire _reasonable_ gaming system.
(what is plasma/LCD TV response time btw? )

at ps1 launch PCs were crap for 3d games
at ps2 launch PCs were much weaker (gf256 ddr was the absolute top card then)
prior to its launch ps3 is already behind PC

to me, the strongest point of consoles is that they have very good exclusive games. but I dont see many of those... yet 

See, it's worth me asking on here ;).

So, what do people say in response to Quadcore and DX10 being "bs"?? 

I said to the people saying dual-core and dx9 was bs...

"SHUT UP" 

If you just played some games from time to time I would say just grab yourself a new agp card and be happy for a year or so (I have an AGP 7800gs and am very happy with it) but given that you have stated that you want a new pc primarily to satisfy an urge to just have new shiny things, I'd say wait until vista comes on the market.

Like you said, you can play the games you are playing at the moment perfectly well, so any upgrade now is unneccesary for your present needs, and just means that in a few months time when games come out that you would need an upgrade for, your computer will not be able to play them as well as if you had waited.

For comparison, I have a p4 3ghz, 1 gig of ram and an agp 7800gs and I'm planning on holding off on any further upgrades (except for getting an extra gig of ram in the near future) for 12-18 months. 

Okay yeah....except I don't have any urge to have shiny new things!! Just to make sure I'm getting the balance right with upgrading.

What 7800 Gs do you have?? 

order yourself a quake logo bling-bling! 

XFX 7800GS EXTREME 8X AGP

On current generation games I haven't had any problems with anything, I run Doom3 and Prey at 1440*900 with the settings maxed and it's still nice and smooth. 

What Meg is that??

I need to find some benchmarks for these things, ugh.

Basically I think it might be an idea to do as you're doing, spend �250 or so now getting a decent card and extra gig of ram, then not have to upgrade until next winter.

Lusting after Gothic3 has nothing to do with my decision of course... 

It's 256mb.

I like it, and got it cheap AUS$350 off ebay. If you can get ram that you can transfer over into your new machine when you do upgrade in a year or so it could be a good idea, just keep in mind that you are going to be buying a videocard that in a year no-one will want. :) If the ram will still be usable though it's not a bad deal.