Alright, so I'm thinking about getting a new PC pretty damn soon. Ive had this PIII 500MHz for long enugh.... my question (probably a stupid one) is, should i buy a pc w/ a p4 cpu now...or wait a bit longer. Cause I dont wanna buy one now and have Intel come up with a brand spankin new pentium 5 or something like that a month later. Is that likely at all (a pentium 5, i mean...)?

There is always something new in the pipeline.

at 500mzh it's well over due for a new system. As for waiting there is always something new going to come out. P5, P6 etc it's all coming. You could be waiting for ever.
I build my own and I usually wait for a hot deal then I start buying what I need.

Buy it only if you need it. Intel/ AMD is not gonna stop. Truly speaking you don't need even P3-500 for your day-to-day requirements.

It's your choice and a good point is the rates are bit down for the time being.

Well there is never a good time to buy any new PC hardware. But Intel just lowered their prices, and in a very very short time they will lower them again when they finally release the 800 mhz FSB p4's......

So wait a week or so, a month at tops, then buy it. It will save you $$$$

k, thanks for all your replies.

My advice is to buy a motherboard that can allow upgrades one maybe even two years down the road.

The worst thing that happens is that you have to replace the whole system just because you didn't think about its future upgradability. That way, you can plan ahead and get a new CPU after the current one feels slow.

As soon as computer parts are released, they are obsolete as there is always something even better 'just around the corner'.

If you wait for the best then you'll be waiting forever.

BTW, my brother took over my old P2 333 win 98 (o/c to 375). He surfs the net (ADSL), burns CD's, watches DVD's, VCD's etc..., plays SNES, Megadrive, Gameboy advance games and plays some of the older 3D games (Geforce 2 card in there). I optimized it to hell and it's still a pretty good system considering the speed of the processor.

My point is it does everything he needs it to do so he has no wish to upgrade it - if your's does eveything you want it to do then do you really need to upgrade?

I believe we'd just about fully answered your question. You might want to have a look at Insider Secrets for PC Buyers (http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,109365,00.asp) from PCWorld.com. It was posted by ps2wiz in the Consumer's Opinion forum and is now a sticky there. I think the most important thing to remember is your ability to upgrade in the future as some members have stated. If you have any more specific questions, please post them in the Consumer's Opinion forum. :)