This is going to be an ongoing thing. It has been the driving force of the entire market place since the advent of the color TV. Companies are striving to produce more products for cheaper prices and develop new products that are better than the last. Competition is rampant and is always based upon making something bigger, better , faster than another companies. When shopping for any commodity, I use the web, newspapers, TV and even talk to friends. I am not an impulse buyer and will spend months looking and comparing one manufacturers product against anothers before I decide which one I'll buy. My wife hates to shop with me, as I know what I want and if they don't have what I'm looking for, I'm out the door. Invariably whatever I buy will turn up a couple weeks later for a lower price. I will weigh the price against the mfgrs track record and reviews I've read. I don't think this will ever change as that's what drives the economy of the US.

Hi Themagain. Everyone has given you some very good advice. Please allow me to add my two cents. Technology will forever been ever-changing. There is nothing that anyone can do to hinder how fast technology advances. I equate the advancement of technology to Darwinism, in short, either lead, follow, or become extinct. Now please, I am not saying this to start up a big Discussion about the Evolution of life. I just feel it is a good comparison.

As Smax said, you can beat yourself up trying to keep up with how fast technology moves, but why? I guess advancements in technology is one of those things in life that just will always be there....life death and taxes.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself

Actually I tend to find the most frustrating thing about technology is how we get used to some bugs in the leading edge, sometimes called bleeding edge for a couple of reasons, which is supposed to be the best of the best. I would suggest buying at the second tier of technology so that some of the depreciation has already happened which I sometimes follow. Another point is that if what you have works well for you, that is what really matters.

Like I can remember buying my DVD player back in '99 and spending $400 on it and now there are players for 1/10th the price. Tis the deflationary nature of electronics in a sense. The other question is how often do you want to upgrade to keep up with the latest and greatest?

JB

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Home Desktop: VoodooPC Hexx. AMD Athlon FX-60, 2 GB RAM, 2 x 250 GB HD, 7900 GTX video card. Home Laptop: HP dv4000, Pentium M, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB HD, ATi 700 Radeon Mobility

To me, this is a good point. I RARELY buy "bleeding edge". Oh, I might drool over bleeding edge stuff, but I rarely go there. When I buy a new system, I deliberately do NOT get the fastest processor. You are typically paying disproportionately more for the fastest/top of the line processors relative to the amount of performance that you get. And I frankly don't do any thing where I REALLY need that little bit of extra speed.

Now, that is not to say that I don't enjoy getting new toys and that my electronics "habit" is more extensive than your typical person. I just don't feel the need to be at the bleeding edge.

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[soapbox] Backup good...no backup bad!! [/soap box]