When is the best time to buy?

[Dougx1317]

My laptop broke a few weeks back, and I bought a netbook to hold me over. But I would like to build myself a computer in the next couple of months. Since I'm not in a hurry to buy the parts right now, I want to wait for the best time to buy.

Are there any new releases or price cuts expected in the next 3 or 4 months? I've been trying to find out more about lynnfield and havendale. Any information or advice would help.

I was planning on going with Intel's Core i7 920 and ATI's 4850, but I'm open to AMD or Nvidia. Any info about video cards would be good too.

 

[dragonsprayer]

prices always go down, best time to buy is right before you need it - there are a few exceptions like mark down on high end rare parts

water cooled graphics card - gtx 295 is $800 you see it for $600 grab it!

GTX 280 could be had for $380 back to $500 - water cooled factory bfg

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new release cpu's - let say you want a 975 they are $999 today, they might go up if demand is high. unlikly but prices will fall again

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wait a few weeks to get D0 stepping cpu -- key here to make sure the pipe line in D0 in newegg reviews
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rest of the parts always go down!!!


look for hard drives on sale and combo deals or both!

 

[gkay09]

If you can hold for a couple of months, then its good as the new CPUs from intel are coming in a month or two(i5)
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3570

Newer CPUs, even from AMD will be launched by then...

But if you want to stick with i7, then the newer i7 930 would be available by then, which would cost the same as the 920...

 

[jamesgoddard]

prices always go down

Not so... When I got my Q6600 a year ago it cost me £103 - they now cost £149. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131823

 

[gkay09]

Not so... When I got my Q6600 a year ago it cost me £103 - they now cost £149. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131823

It doesnt imply to older components...
And why would you buy a older CPU, when you get the newer and better for less ?
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel-Core-2-Quad-Q8400-Yorkfield-Core-775-266-GHz-1333MHz-2MBx2-L2-Cache-95W-Retail
It is similar to the RAMs...
The DDR RAM is so costly now because the availability is low...
And now DDR2 RAM prices are slowly increasing as DDR3 is becoming more wide spread...

 

[blackhawk1928]

Best time to buy is when you see a good deal.
-I would wait until major holidays like the independence day or black friday or cyber monday for good sales, however its only if you live in U.S.
-The best part about the computer world is they only get cheaper with time, the longer you wait the cheaper it will be. Its like an equation: HARDWARE+TIME=CHEAPER

 

[Dougx1317]

Thanks for the replies.

What are the specs of the i7 930? When is it expected to come out?

Are the i5 processors going to be worth buying over the i7's?

Will the i7's get cheaper when the i5's come out?

 

[logainofhades]

i7 will not get cheaper than i5. i5 will be considered mainstream, i7 enthusiast. At some of the reported prices on the CPU's you would possibly be better off going i7 unless the motherboards are going to be really inexpensive. Another reason for i7 is better multi GPU support. i5 will have fewer PCI-E lanes than i7. If you have a micro center nearby you can get the i7 920 for much less than newegg usually.

 

[loneninja]

AMD is expected to switch entirely to 45nm production by Q3 and launch all new Athlon II X4/X3 although those will be budget and weaker than current Phenom II X4/X3 offerings.
Intel's I5 will be out by Q3, which is a budget oriented version of the I7 platform.

Rumor has it the Radeon HD 5XXX series will appear by the end of Q3 as well.

In other words I would wait a couple months since your not in a hurry, or at least watch for good sales or deals in the mean time since your not in a hurry. Personally I've been watching sales for my upgrading so far this year.

Got myself a Phenom 9850 on sale for $129 when the Phenom II 920 and 940 were still over $200. I also picked up a Phenom II X4 940 and motherboard for only $229 just after the Phenom II X4 955 was launched.

 

[Dustpuppy]

It depends on your price segment and exactly how long you can wait.

If you're at the low end then now is a great time to buy with the atlhon 550BE matching the e8400 for $60 less and the 4770 providing great performance.

If you're at the high end it'd be ideal to wait till the GTX 300 series is out. It's looking like it's going to be almost as revolutionary as when the original geforce was released ten years or so ago.

 

[Dougx1317]

Does anyone know the specs of the expected i7 930?

If I will only be using one GPU (probably 4850), does the i7 make sense for me?

When is the GTX 300 series expected to come out?

Will the ATI 5XXX series be worth waiting for?

 

[Dustpuppy]

Does anyone know the specs of the expected i7 930?

If I will only be using one GPU (probably 4850), does the i7 make sense for me?

When is the GTX 300 series expected to come out?

Will the ATI 5XXX series be worth waiting for?

The ATI 5xxx series is going to be released awhile before the GTX 300 series. Guessing from the listed specs the top end x2 will be within +-15% of the top end gtx 300 performance. However the GTX 300 will be utilized by windows 7 itself and not just video games.

The i7 makes sense depending on what you're doing. If you make heavy use of any encoding, photoshop , 3dsmax and other professional applications the i7 is a no brainer. If you just want games / internet / word processing etc then your rig would be fine with a C2Q, Phenom II or i5 when it's out.

I wasn't aware there was going to be a i7 930? Thought it was just 950 & 975ex?

 

[Dougx1317]

gkay09 is the one who put the idea of i7 930 in my head. What are the expected prices of the 950 and 975?

 

[Dustpuppy]

The 950 is going to be priced about $600 with the 975 coming in at around a grand. The i7 920 price slot will be filled by the i5 chips. Apparently Intel doesn't like kiddies overclocking the 920 more than the 965 extreme for a quarter of the price . They want people to pay a premium for i7.

However, it'll really just depend on how heavily AMD is breathing down their necks. If AMD can pull a rabbit out of its hat sometime then we'll see a wonderful price war.

 

[Dougx1317]

The i7 920 price slot will be filled by the i5 chips. Apparently Intel doesn't like kiddies overclocking the 920 more than the 965 extreme for a quarter of the price . They want people to pay a premium for i7.

Are you saying that it would be a good idea to buy a i7 920 before they discontinue it? I want a powerful processor, but I don't want to spend $500+. When will i7 920's become scarce?

 

[Dustpuppy]

I don't know an exact date on when the 920's will become scarce. But if you want a really powerful processor just buy the i7 plus a Xigamatek Dark night $40 and read up on how to overclock. (you'll also need some artic silver, read the instructions before applying the thermal paste)

 

[croc]

To (very loosely) paraphrase Dustin Hoffman in 'Little Big Man':

"I have seen the magic smoke. It is a good day to buy".

 

[gkay09]

@ Dougx1317 There were initial updates about the i7 930...
But when I searched more about it, it doubtful that intel would not release the alternative for the i7 920...And the reason for that is clearly what Dustpuppy has said...
"The 950 is going to be priced about $600 with the 975 coming in at around a grand. The i7 920 price slot will be filled by the i5 chips. Apparently Intel doesn't like kiddies overclocking the 920 more than the 965 extreme for a quarter of the price . They want people to pay a premium for i7." - Very true

And the performance of those high-end i5 chips is comparable to the i7 920, as indicated in the Anandtech's article...

So I guess if you want to go with the LGA 1366 route, then now is the best time...

+1 croc

 

[fazers_on_stun]

@ Dougx1317 There were initial updates about the i7 930...
But when I searched more about it, it doubtful that intel would not release the alternative for the i7 920...And the reason for that is clearly what Dustpuppy has said...
"The 950 is going to be priced about $600 with the 975 coming in at around a grand. The i7 920 price slot will be filled by the i5 chips. Apparently Intel doesn't like kiddies overclocking the 920 more than the 965 extreme for a quarter of the price . They want people to pay a premium for i7." - Very true

And the performance of those high-end i5 chips is comparable to the i7 920, as indicated in the Anandtech's article...

So I guess if you want to go with the LGA 1366 route, then now is the best time...

+1 croc

I haven't seen any news of the discontinuance of the i920 anywhere, except for the story from the unnamed Taiwanese mobo manufacturer. You'd think DT or Tom's or somebody would have done some investigating by now and confirm or deny the rumor. And the other rumor is that it'll be replaced by the i930. Looking at the chart (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3574) in the Anandtech article, there seems to be room at 2.8GHz for an "i930", since the i950 comes in at 3.06 and the i975 at 3.33. However this is all just speculation IMO.

 

[gkay09]

^ Yes...but if you check the article about the i5, then you can see that the high-end i5 performs similar to the i7 920...So intel might not want that.