Before you go and buy a new PC in the January sales:

PCs to change radically in 2004!
“IT’S ALL CHANGE on the PC front during 2004, and practically everything that defines a “new” computer is set to change over 12 months, with many happening during the next six months. How often do things like this happen all at once? We probably will not see this many changes in as short a time for many years to come.”

I cant wait!!!

Changes to expect:
• Intel and AMD are changing their socket designs to fit more pins. Both will change processes from 130nm to 90nm.
• In the middle of the year, DDR will be replaced with DDR-II and a new DIMM format. At its introduction, DDR-II will have a cost as little as US$10-$15 per module for 512MB modules.
• Motherboards will also have a total makeover, driven by Intel, and the BTX form factor will come to dominate. That will have better cooling, better power distribution, better mounting, and some new surprises.
• New power supplies to support higher watt CPUs, higher draw GPUs, lower voltage CPUs, and more sensitive electronics.
• New sexier cases for the new power supplies, CPUs and BTX spec.
• PCI Express – PCI and AGP finally go away – a more modern bus long overdue for graphics cards.
• Obviously all the cards you plug in will change, mainly because the bus they plug into is going to be different with evolutionary changes to support this newfound bandwidth, and many will have a complete redo.
• Non-HD devices to move to S-ATA. Similarly, SCSI will move from Ultra320 to SAS.
• Graphics cards will undergo a makeover, with the NV40 and the R400 class chips due in the spring.

What wont change:
• USB 2.0 is pretty much set in stone
• Ethernet.
• The same is true for drives. S-ATA is here, but S-ATA 2.0 might sneak in this year.