Clock speeds will only double, triple in next 15 years
 

THERE ARE two fundamental silicon and product trends which are affecting system on chips and semiconductos, said Chris Rowen, CEO of Tensilica. The theme of his talk here in Antwerp was whether SOCs can be made to run smaller, faster, cooler and more profitably.

He said that it’s clear that there’s a requirement for smaller products with longer battery life, and Moore’s Law is changing in a fundamental way. He said: "We’re reaching scaling limits at both speeds of transistors and the density of transistors".

http://theinquirer.net/?article=27669

buying a high end motherboard&cpu now will last you longer then it did in the past. Only the video card scene seems to enjoy larger speed bumps every other year.

In reality anyone holding -

AXP @2.0 Ghz or above
P4 @3 Ghz or above
+ R9700 or above
+ 512 MB memory or above

Using 17- 19" LCD/Monitor (1280 x 1024)will be just fine.

no videocards need replacement more often, R9700 Pro is not "fine" for recent games at 1024x768, even with medium/low detail :/

My video card upgrades -

Used R9800 pro + volt mod (never get too extreme):)
Used 6600 or 6200 + soft mod where applicable :D

6800LE whenever available in used market. Practice my games; when I am good enough ....... cross that road then.

Quake 4 / FEAR / Serious Sam 2 / FarCry and Call of Duty might not run very smooth at 1024x768 with anything higher then medium detail.