Buy a LGA 1156 i7 now, or wait 1-2 months for clarkdale to bring prices down?

[aleex]

Well the title sums it up.
I've been reading a lot about this clarkdale coming up in Q1 2010 so if anyonecan shed some light here it would be great!
Is it better to wait 1-2 months for the clarkdale introduction so the rest of the prices will fall a little bit?

 

[andy5174]

By Q1 2010, i7-8xx might become cheaper but it might become even cheaper in Q2 2010.

You will never be able to get anything if you keep waiting for cheaper stuffs.

Wait only if there's something NEW to be released for better price.

For example, it was wise to wait for i5 in Q2 2009.

 

[aleex]

That was my initial thought aswell, but if a new release is only a month away it would seem wise to wait for it to bring prices down right?
This question is based around the fact that I have little idea as what's coming soon.
But thanks for your response, perhaps I should get going to the store today after all.

 

[andy5174]

There won't be new LGA1156 i7 CPU in Q1 2010, so I don't think the price is going to drop.

Even there is a price drop, the amount is definitely not going to worth 2-month wait.

As I said previously, wait only if you are getting not yet released new products that are going to be released soon.

However, there's nothing wrong for you to wait if you don't need a new system urgently.

 

[logainofhades]

Depending on your ram needs, you might be better off going with a 1366 i7 and 6gb ddr3. Especially if you have a microcenter nearby.

 

[aleex]

Well it's not really that urgent, currently running an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.21ghz) with 1gb ram (on win xp) but it's christmas and the system is starting to feel a little less "top of the line" now.

I found the i7-860 for about 350-360$ and the i7-920 is about 10-20$ more expensive (here in sweden), so i though I might as well go with the 860 since the ram tests here on TH didn't show any significant performance increase between 3-6-12 gb. Found 2x2gb fast 1600mhz memory-sticks with 7-7-7-24 timings for about 215$ for my new win7 (64bit).

Probably going to the store tommorrow to shop, the total cost of the system I planned to buy is about 1100$. And that's only 2 hdd, cpu,motherboard & memory. Remember when I went to the states a year ago, really made me jealous of your prices on components over there.

 

[logainofhades]

1366 has the advantage of future 6 core support, 1156 does not. I mentioned ram usage because for me, 4gb is not enough but 8gb, I have found, is more than I really need. It generally costs more to go the 1156/8gb route than the 1366/6gb route. Everyone has different needs though.

 

[andy5174]

1366 has the advantage of future 6 core support, 1156 does not. I mentioned ram usage because for me, 4gb is not enough but 8gb, I have found, is more than I really need. It generally costs more to go the 1156/8gb route than the 1366/6gb route. Everyone has different needs though.

4GB is more than sufficient for 99.99% of the users and peoples who have LGA1366 and get 3x 2GB simply because 3x 1GB is a little tight and overpriced.

I believe that 99% of the LGA1366 owners can't afford 6-core CPU in the NEAR future, because it is EXTREMELY expensive($999USD).

By the time the 6-core price drop to the level you can afford, the motherboard will be EXTREMELY outdated and won't support any new BETTER 6-core CPUs.

 

[logainofhades]

I am also not a fan of the limited number of PCI-E lanes for graphics either on 1156. The price to get a decent board with at least dual x8 for sli/cf edges close to that of some of the budget X58 boards.

 

[andy5174]

I am also not a fan of the limited number of PCI-E lanes for graphics either on 1156. The price to get a decent board with at least dual x8 for sli/cf edges close to that of some of the budget X58 boards.

Maybe you should read the performance difference between 8x and 16x at Anandtech before saying this.

The difference between 8x and 16x is minimal for any graphic card worse than the current top, the HD5970.

How many peoples there can afford 2x HD5970?

BTW, the majority owns merely ONE video card which will enable 16x PCI Express.

 

[andy5174]

Most of us can afford "Gulftown" but we're not willing to pay it. This is the reason why i went with 1156. I'm not stupid enough to pay 999 for a processor. I'm dumb enough to pay 700 for a video card but not a grand for a processor. :lol:

I thought the reason you skip i7-980x was that your wife will cut sex with you. ROFL

 

[logainofhades]

Maybe you should read the performance difference between 8x and 16x at Anandtech before saying this.

The difference between 8x and 16x is minimal for any graphic card worse than the current top, the HD5970.

How many peoples there can afford 2x HD5970?

BTW, the majority owns merely ONE video card which will enable 16x PCI Express.

I fully agree about the performance difference between dual 8x and dual 16x. My current board is dual 8x. My problem is with the price of the boards to get that dual 8x not the dual 8x itself. Most 1156 boards have a 4x slot for the second graphics slot until around the $150+ mark which is getting very close to budget 1366 boards.

 

[andy5174]

I fully agree about the performance difference between dual 8x and dual 16x. My current board is dual 8x. My problem is with the price of the boards to get that dual 8x not the dual 8x itself. Most 1156 boards have a 4x slot for the second graphics slot until around the $150+ mark which is getting very close to budget 1366 boards.

What is your location? The price difference between LGA1156 and LGA1366 is substantial at least in the US, AUS and NZ.

 

[andy5174]

BTW, you can't compare the top LGA1156 with the worst LGA1366 which is not fair.

 

[logainofhades]

I am in the Midwest USA. I was not talking top LGA1156, more like midrange. For a 920 with 6gb ram with an Evga X58 SLI LE vs an 860 with 8gb ram and an Evga P55 SLI the difference was less than $10 in favor of the 1366. This was a mix of MicroCenter and newegg. At the time I looked, the boards were cheaper than newegg @ MC as are the CPU's. This is why in my first post I asked about ram usage.

 

[andy5174]

I am in the Midwest USA. I was not talking top LGA1156, more like midrange. For a 920 with 6gb ram with an Evga X58 SLI LE vs an 860 with 8gb ram and an Evga P55 SLI the difference was less than $10 in favor of the 1366. This was a mix of MicroCenter and newegg. At the time I looked, the boards were cheaper than newegg @ MC as are the CPU's. This is why in my first post I asked about ram usage.

This is the worst LGA1366 at Newegg: $188.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375

This is the worst LGA1156 at Newegg: $104.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128406

They are all from the bottom line of Gigabyte, the UD3 series.

The difference is $84 dollars

 

[andy5174]

This is from another member

cadder wrote :

I just built an i5 for my office. I didn't want to get into elaborate overclocking but I did some quick and dirty tests just for grins. I got it to 3.9GHz at 72 degrees without worrying about increasing voltages or working with memory settings. Of course if someone worked with it they could do a little better. It will be run 24/7 and I didn't want to run it at high temps like that so for actual use I will step it back down to about 3.5GHz. I had intended to build an i7-920 machine for the same use, but that would have cost at least $300 more. The i7 does have some advantages but considering the cost difference I think the i5-750 has a better ratio of speed to cost.

This is what I built:
i5-750 $200
Gigabyte P55-UD3R $140
G.Skill Ram- 8GB x 1600 $195
total- $535

my other option:
i7-920 $290
ASUS P6T $240
OCZ Ram- 12GB x 1333 $287
total- $817

difference $282

It shows that i7-920 system is 52.7% more than i5-750 system!

BTW, P6T is the bottom line x58 from ASUS.

 

[logainofhades]

This is the worst LGA1366 at Newegg: $188.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375

This is the worst LGA1156 at Newegg: $104.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128406

They are all from the bottom line of Gigabyte, the UD3 series.

The difference is $84 dollars

Again I was not going worst of 1156. I said decent 1156 motherboards/midrange with dual 8x slots edge close to lower end X58. Actually the Evga X58 SLI LE and the Evga P55 FTW are the same exact price on MC and features are fairly similar when compared. Also the OP said 1156 i7 not i5.....

 

[andy5174]

Again I was not going worst of 1156. I said decent 1156 motherboards/midrange with dual 8x slots edge close to lower end X58. Actually the Evga X58 SLI LE and the Evga P55 FTW are the same exact price on MC and features are fairly similar when compared. Also the OP said 1156 i7 not i5.....

Decent/Mid Range

P55A-UD4P(Advance: USB3+SATA3): $184.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128409

X58-UD5(USB2+SATA2): $268.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128362

Difference: $84

High End

P55A-UD6(Best P55 from Gigabyte): $249.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128410

X58A-UD7(Best X58 from Gigabyte): $339.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128413

Difference: $90

 

[logainofhades]

Similar features, same price. I will let the OP decide.

http://www.microcenter.com/search/compare_products.phtml?search_id=bec02b11ed3eed4ea36def7273107c42

 

[outboxes]

I would wait. The i7-8xx should come out in March, and it is expected to be $999 -- the same price as the 4 x 3.33 ghz i7 now (and the 4 x 3.2 ghz i7 I believe). So if you were looking for what is now, the highest end cpus, THOSE are likely to drop in price in March.

I'd guess in March you could get the current top of the line cpu out there for a very nice and noticeable discount over the $999 it is today (the 4 x 3.33 i7)

And if you're wanting to get an nvidia graphics card, the same thing might happen with some of the higher end nvidia cards with fermi coming out at the same general time.