I'm waiting for a compelling new core architecture before I make my next upgrade. I think all the pieces are there, but they haven't come together yet. PCI-E, SATA, BTX, DDR2, etc. are all beginning to make their way towards the mainstream and converge, but no particular solution has impressed me yet. Most disappointing of all, however, is Intel's lack of innovation in their processors over the past few years. I bought a 2.53GHz P4 in May of 2002 when they first came out, and I'm still running that processor in my main system. Fast forward to today, and the best Intel has to offer is 900 more MHz (on the Northwood core) and hyperthreading. 900MHz over two years!?! Does anyone else find that ridiculous? Where is the supposed scalability of the Netburst core? Prescott turned out to be a disappointment, too (much to my chagrin, I intended to get one).
So I'm looking forward to dual core processors now. I think 2005 is probably when an upgrade will happen for me, but it all depends. I multitask enough to make the performance benefit from dual core processors more than worth it. Here's my mental picture of how my next computer will look:
Next generation Intel or AMD dual core processor (maybe 2)
Dual PCI-E slot BTX motherboard
DDR2 (hopefully- if the performance is there)
Some form of an SLI setup
Dual monitor setup (will LCD's ever catch CRT's?)
PCI-E based sound card
2 (or more) drive RAID 0 setup with 10,000 RPM hard drives
As I said at the beginning of the post, most of the pieces are here (or close to it), but nothing has been able to bring them all together. Once that convergence happens, I'll plunk down some cash, but until then, I'm happy with my 2-1/2 year old computer that has yet to be upgraded (save for a 9800Pro I put in this summer).