Buying a CPU:
Playing the Waiting Game
So, I've been planning a little more. Intel's new Yorkfield processors are coming out in January. It'll probably be April before I am ready to buy my new system because I have to save up and it all needs to be done at once (CPU, MB, RAM). The budget is something like this: CPU: $300, MB: $200, RAM: $200 = Total: $700 Perhaps that's a bit steep but I want something to tie me over until Nehalem changes the game again (it will replace Core). So I want this computer to last 18-24 months with no upgrades (additions, sure, but no replacements) and considering the intensity of my computer usage, I don't think it's unreasonable.
I had been looking at the Q6600, which got brutally slashed from $851 in January to a mere $266 only six months later (and a 10W drop). The lineup for this coming January appears to understand that quad is going mainstream and maybe in 2010, eight-way cores will be common. The gigahertz race is definitely over ~ the Q6600 at 2.4GHz will beat the pants off of a P4 at 3.0GHz+ and with much less energy usage and heat.
AMD has been dead in the water lately. I've always been a fan because they were significantly cheaper and well, who doesn't want to root for the underdog? Phenom, on all accounts, has been very disappointing. The best you can say is that AMD beats the low-end Intel chips in the same price range (e.g. <$100). To me, it's not worth even buying an AMD motherboard.
So, my new choice is the Q9450. The Q9300 is being released at the same price as the slashed Q6600 ($266) but with only 6MB L2 instead of 8MB (2.4GHz -> 2.5, 1066FSB -> 1333). However, the Q9450 is only $50 more expensive and features a slight increase in frequency (2.6GHz) but more importantly 12MB of L2 cache. The bulk price is currently set to be $316.
So, I figure a $300 CPU, while expensive, is not too much to pay for 12MB L2 and four cores. There seems to be no reason to buy the Q9550 for $530 (2.8GHz). I figure when the Q9450 is released in January, it'll probably cost around $350-375 retail but in a few months maybe it will settle down under $300. On the other hand, the release of a new series of CPUs may force the Q6600 even cheaper. We will wait and see...
1 comment:
i'm getting scared... i really don't understand most of what you're talking about, even if i do manage to get the overall picture... but then, i'm not much into building my machines. (though, i'll really look into that nehalem thing...seems to be something interesting, even for one not really into the engineering of the stuff)
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