How long should we let the bugs clear out?

[CMH]

I've been catching up with the latest developments lately, after 2 years of slumber.

This topic should be relevant to quite alot of people who wants the fastest, but afraid of paying top dollar to debug new hardware/software.

New hardware/software comtain plenty of minor bugs and a couple of major ones (Windows: I don't have to start on that). I love top end equip, and ever since I started building my own comps, I always insisted on top end stuff. However, being a cautious person, I always do plenty of research before jumping into the pool, and therefore by the time I'm done researching, I'd know what to look out for and what to avoid. Or maybe the bugs have ironed themselves out.

The main question is here: How long should we let new hardware/software mellow out before we go out and buy them?

I remember the time when P4s were first introduced. I stuck with a P3 800mhz solely on the reason that P4s were really new, and were supposed to be very unstable. Not sure if that was a good choice.

The only time I didn't do any research and jumped onto the newest stuff was the introduction of the RD RAM. Got badly burnt there, didn't catch on, expensive, and Dual Channel memory was introduced not too long after.

I was thinking a waiting period of a minimum of 4 months, enough for the major bugs to be ironed out and the prices to drop a little. What do you guys think?

 

[MrGaribaldi]

It depends from part to part.
You did right in waiting to move to the P4 platform, as it had bad performance early on.
But you should mostly be able to find out if the part is mature enough or not, by reading up on reviews and tech articles on the net.
The P4 didn't get a warm welcome afaicr in many reviews, compare to the P3 and Athlons. The "king" nv30/GeForce FX that everyone was waiting for when the Radeon 9700pro was launched was quickly shown to be the less performing part of the two.
All the driver trouble with creative on the other hand is more or less ignored, which means it's still often problematic getting it to work as it should...

I tend to buy graphics card when they're launched (ie. available in the retail channel), or thereabout (1 - 1 1/2 month later), as I've been able to read up on specs and previews, if not even a few reviews. I'm more careful about chipsets, as I've had some bad experiences with them in the past, meaning that I'll wait for more reviews to make sure that it's worth the upgrade...


My point is that there is no correct time to wait. You'll have to decide when you feel enough reviews have looked at the product from enough sides to make sure it's worth buying (or not worth it as it may be)...

As for software, it's much harder to say. I've experienced bugs in games which are bug-free, but that somehow crash with my system. And I've had no problems with bug-ridden software that everyone else was having trouble with.
So if there is something you feel you can do without for the time being, sure wait. The first batch of bugs will probably be fixed in a month or so. But if there is a game you've been itching to play, then sure go ahead and buy it. If there are show stopping bugs, they will (probably) be sorted really quick...