Has anyone got any estimates, or preferably some worked out calculations on how much computers are changing in their prices over the years?

I just want to know that the computer I buy wont be half price by the next year, thats exaggerated, but you get what i'm saying.

Any websites would also be appreciated =D.

Thanks..

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yes....yes it probably will....well, probably 2 years....

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“There are some people in this world who don’t love their fellow man, and I HATE people like that!”

er, nope, i think it will be half price within a year.
thats why i always build my own, so i can design in a bit of redundency

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Cheers, anyone know when prices will go down dramatically? Sure I heard someone mention that soonish they should drop loads because of something new..?

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its hard to define a timeframe, but for example,
Say you have 1 model down from top of the range, then when it appears that a new model will be released to replace the top of the range, then the model you had will probably drop in price, but there isnt always a steady timeframe between releases.
ie the 7800gtx is now starting to drop in price a lot as there are a few higher models now available, but how big a price drop will depend on availability and pricing of the newer models,

Of the top of my head, i would say the price would be halved withing 9 to 12 months.

but for some components such as sound cards which are released much less often then it can take mabey 18 months or more for prices to half.

and for complete systems it would be about a year to 18 months to see the price drop that much, but thats only based on rough trends.

if there is a dramatic hardware change such as going from agp to pci ex systems then the price can drop much quicker, ie how cheap are formally high spec agp systems now, even though pci express isnt that old

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well AMD prices have just sunk....but i can't see graphics doing the same for a while....£170 for a top range (not luxury) graphics card isn't going to drop untill a few months after the next gen....

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“There are some people in this world who don’t love their fellow man, and I HATE people like that!”

mate, I worked in the PC business for a long time, theres always been 3 price brackets (ie when talking about pre built) :

£1500 + : For the box that has everything, will play the latest games at top res for about a year
£800 - £1499 : For the box that will do but will need some sort of upgrade by 8 months to play the latest games at top res
Below £800 : Standard box, will do but dates very quickly.

Over time the technologies and components increase in complexity but the average pricebanding will stay the same.

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"I wish my lawn was emo, so it would cut itself...."

Well talking from a self employed point of few the Taxman writes off pc in 3 years because they are classed as out of date. so I have another 11 months before I can go out and buy a new uber pc as a tax write off

The trick really is to be constantly upgrading, but most cba. IMO graphics and CPU's are the most competitive, and so move fastest. A good mobo will last a long time as long as there isnt a socket change etc.

I should have upgraded my 6600gt to a 6800, then a 7600 etc, but I havnt bothered and I've still got the 6600, worth about 25% of its original price

Same with my AMD 3000, although I'm trying to keep up, I bought an AM2 motherboard but only had enough for a 3800. Should really upgrade it again to a 4400 or something.

That method costs alot of money and is completely unessicery.

I choose to buy high spec base components and then tweak them to allow for optimum playing ability. started with

1gb ram
64 bit 3700+
x850xt

added another gig of ram, if I find my comp is struggling graphically *ping* in goes a crossfire setup.

Spending money when needed not when wanted.

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In theory, if you do it well in the end you lose the least amount of money. Buy the component from the cheapest possible place, sell it just before/when a new range come out for the most you can on ebay. But the newer component. and on and on.....

I sold my old motherboard for £65, whereas you could buy them new for £60 lol. I bought it for £100 a year ago though. So the closer it is, the less money you'll lose, unless you do this for the rest of your life and spend about 800 grand

Not that I do this of course, I normally upgrade once year, and its always an upgrade to medium-low range components. :/