Sandy/Ivy Bridge, Larrabee, DX11... worth waiting?

The newest and greatest technology is always around the corner and just about to be released. As soon as you buy something it becomes old. The best thing to do is just buy when you are ready for something new and get what is available at that time. Buying just behind the latest technology curve will get you the most for your money.

Yea that's what my friend at school told me.

C2D's and C2Q's have been out a fairly long time, and people are still buying the old q6600's. The C2's were like a wave of future-proof stuff. They came and PCIE and DDR2 rolled out, kind of like a wave of future-proof technologies for the next 4 years. I'm asking, when is the next wave of technology coming, and when will it drop in price? I haven't been an enthusiast that long, since I'm only 14, so I pretty much have the slightist idea of how the earlier C2D's performed.

It looks like the next wave is coming in 2010/2011 depending on if we're buying when just released or during price drop (Sandy Bridge, Larrabee, 32nm/22nm chips and new interfaces) Am I right, or do I have the completely wrong idea?

My dad bought a P4 3.0ghz just before the gigantic roll to C2D and new interfaces DDR2 PCIE, so I don't want to make the same (gigantic) mistake he made.

I'd say summer to fall of 2010 might be a decent time to think about buying if you want to be just behind the technology curve of new stuff that is coming out now. Hopefully prices of the i7 and such will be dropping a little by then, and maybe AMD will have a competitive offering as well.

That's pretty much what I had in my head, just wasn't sure if it's true. Now I'm thinking "so that's why my friend wants to buy a new computer in q4 2010!" Yea, he was a nerd when he was building his computer a year ago, now he stopped researching and keeps arguing with me that there's no such thing as an HD4770 lol. He's like "I'm not gonna keep up with technology, are you going to keep up with it? Good, I'm probably buying a new computer in fall 2010, so tell me everything you know about computers next year or else I'll kick your ass soooooo hard. I swear, I'll kick your ass sooooooooo hard." lol.

Then again, there will be the 22nm Ivy Bridge shrink of the 32nm Sandy Bridge in 2011... Is it true that 1nm is 1 atom wide? Sorry, too lazy to google. If it is 1 atom wide, I don't think I'd be comfortable going under 32nm anyways lol. That same friend of mine told me it was 1 atom per nm, and 1nm would be the limit, so I'm thinking wtf how are they going to do 1nm, 5nm is already unstable if it's really 1 atom wide.

I have a c2q q9450 and I am happy with how it has held up against the i7's. It was perfect I never had to question or consider ever upgrading as the difference for the new processors has always been quite minimal for gaming. For most original c2q owners I have met they all feel the same, upgrading just didn't feel necessary. Now Sandybridge can seem a bit tempting. It is the first processor where the architecture compared to the core 2 series is totally new. Unlike the I7s where they released the QPI techonology the entire architecture for sandybridge will be new. Intel said themselves the I7's are just an introduction. The problem is the first sandybridge processors is really just for mainstream users. They are only approximately 10% faster comparing ghz to ghz from i7's, and for buck for buck you should see about a 25% gain compared to what you can get with an I5. I can tell you no sandybridge will last sufficiently for the future generations. Mainly because they are mainstream and they are still quad cores, which have been out as a standard for almost 3 years. Intel is trying to advertise that you should buy right at their tick (beginning of a new architecture revolution, sandybridge, core2, pentium III, celeron), but indeed its really at their tock(end of an architecture revolution ivybridge, core2quad, pentium IV). i7/sandy bridge is really still their tick. it will be comparable to the core2duo and core2quad 6000 series. There tock will really be the ivy bridge and its what you want to get if you want longevity like c2q 9000 series. It has all the same changes, the c2q brought, its got a new architecture like the core2 brought against the pentium D's, its got a die shrink from 32nm to 22nm, like core2quads 65nm to 45nm, finally it will be the beginning of the 8-core intel standard. I recommend buying yourself a substantial computer either i3-i5 series or amd athlon/phenom for about like 600 bucks and then wait for ivy bridge and save up for like a good 1500-2000 dollar computer. You will see at the timing your computer should last like 4-5 years if it works out how my c2q is going which is almost 3 years old already. This is how I predict.

sandybridge quad cores first release (i5 and i7s) (comming up in a couple of weeks) = core 2 duo E4000-E8000 series

sandybridge hex cores and oct cores q3 2011 release for high end desktop gaming = core 2 quad q6000-q8000 series

ivybridge oct cores (most likely 2012) = core 2 quad q9000 series (I find buying here is the sweet spot. Buying this is best not at the begining of the release but at the end when the prices are cheap the best time. Because from top end ivybridge to haswell there will be very little to no improvement in performance between these two releases, haswell will just make processors at ivybridge performance more affordable. The advantage is if you get this performance before the haswell is released you will have a comparable computer to the next generation while having an extra year of being top end. Also notice this is right in the middle of the new architecture haswell and rockwell will not be a new architecture just an architecture improvement like the i5's and i7's were compared to core2duo's and quads they will not be as big of a jump as highend sandybridge are going to be from i7's. I7's are the pentium D's right now and the 8 core sandybridge in q3 2011 will put all of them to shame except for maybe the i7-980x which really this processor is ahead of its time compared to past releases (no wonder its 1000 dollars).

haswell oct cores (? release date)= i5 quad cores (not a bad choice.)

rockwell oct cores (? release date)= i7 quad cores

rockwell 16 cores (? release date)= i7 8 core extreme edition

This is all speaking where as if history repeats with intel.

ok so now its 2011. almost 2012. what did you do and what did you learn? What are you going to do know. Ivy is about to come out.

if you are going to spend your dad's money at least get HIS monies worth and learn something from all this so you don't have to keep spending HIS money.

Ha ha my fathers money I wish I was so lucky to have a father that could afford all this. Nope no luck here.

Just get a phenom II x4 build.

the future processors will be made of graphene instead of silica making them stable well below 1nm