Bought an i7 950, should I return it?

[AllWhacked]

Bought a pair of i7 950s for $280/each on Amazon. They come with Lost Planet 2 which I plan to hopefully flip for $20/piece, thus reducing my cost to $260/CPU.

I came on here to do some research about what motherboard to buy and started reading about the Sandy Bridge CPUs slated to come out in early January. I can probably wait till then since my current system is working fine. I only impulsively bought the i7 950 because I scored a MSI 470 and wanted to build a new machine around it. Anyway, I would have already cancelled the order but Amazon already shipped it. So do i keep it or return it?

 

[Vic Vega]

Buyer's remorse is not a valid return reason, at least in my book. YMMV.

 

[Arg Clin]

There's always going to be something great 'just around the corner'

SB isn't that big a gain in performance anyways over the current offerings anyway.

 

[AllWhacked]

If this was eBay and the seller had a no-return policy, that would be one thing. In Amazon's help section it says the following:

"What's Amazon.com's return policy?
Our return policies vary depending on the type of item you'd like to return. See our Product Return Policies Help pages for details.

Does Amazon.com have an extended return policy for the holidays?
Yes. Items shipped by Amazon.com between November 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010, may be returned until January 31, 2011, for a full refund, subject to our other return guidelines listed in our Product Return Policies Help pages.
How do I return an item shipped by Amazon.com?
Visit our Online Returns Center to get a mailing label to return your item. NOTE: Return shipping may be deducted from the amount of your refund if the reason for your return is not the result of Amazon error."

So according to Amazon, I have anywhere from 30 days to up to a January 31, 2011 to return these CPUs for a full refund. The only thing I can imagine them charging me for is return shipping (~$6) and I've heard mixed stories about that. So ignoring buyer's remorse, keep or return?

 

[M1A]

If you have a Microcenter near you they have them for 199 but you can only buy one. I would return and get one or just wait..........
Good luck with whatever you do. I just bought one from them last week though.

 

[AllWhacked]

If you have a Microcenter near you they have them for 199 but you can only buy one. I would return and get one or just wait..........
Good luck with whatever you do. I just bought one from them last week though.

Well, I sent an email to Amazon and the rep said I can either refuse to receive the order or to use their return shipping label and I would get a full refund and not incur shipping cost. So Amazon is pretty cool in that regard. On another front, they already emailed me the game code, so I'm wondering how I return that.

 

[sxr7171]

If this was eBay and the seller had a no-return policy, that would be one thing. In Amazon's help section it says the following:

"What's Amazon.com's return policy?
Our return policies vary depending on the type of item you'd like to return. See our Product Return Policies Help pages for details.

Does Amazon.com have an extended return policy for the holidays?
Yes. Items shipped by Amazon.com between November 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010, may be returned until January 31, 2011, for a full refund, subject to our other return guidelines listed in our Product Return Policies Help pages.
How do I return an item shipped by Amazon.com?
Visit our Online Returns Center to get a mailing label to return your item. NOTE: Return shipping may be deducted from the amount of your refund if the reason for your return is not the result of Amazon error."

So according to Amazon, I have anywhere from 30 days to up to a January 31, 2011 to return these CPUs for a full refund. The only thing I can imagine them charging me for is return shipping (~$6) and I've heard mixed stories about that. So ignoring buyer's remorse, keep or return?

What exactly are you planning to do with those CPUs between now and SB? Anything worthwhile? Anything that's absolutely necessary? If the answer to those questions is "no" then of course return it. When you buy a depreciating asset you have to justify its utility to you relative to its rate of loss of value. If you have a purpose in mind for them keep them.

 

[GR8Madmax]

What was the reason for getting 2 i7 950 chips? If you are building 2 systems, then you can always build one now with the i7 950.

Like M1A suggested, get a i7 950 from Microcenter if there is one near by.

 

[AllWhacked]

The closest Microcenter is a little over 50 miles round trip. With gas and tax I save $40/piece. If I can flip the games, it could be $20 piece price difference. As for what I plan to use them for, it's a bit complicated.

I currently have two e8400s (at home) and two Q6600s (at work). One e8400 is overclocked a 3.6Ghz and is paired up with a 4850 and serves as my home/game PC. The other e8400 runs at stock and is my dad's home PC and the two Q6600s are our work machines. My dad doesn't do much beside web browse, typing, and occasionally pirating a crap load of Chinese DVDs. Both of his machines are overkill for what he is doing, but I don't like to skimp out on performance for my dad so I usually get him something that is equal to what I have.

Anyway, the need for two new machines is because at work, we need 4 new computers to be used as diagnostic PCs/disk cloning machines. I have plenty of older systems that can handle PATA hard drives and SATA1 drives natively. But I only have 1 spare workstations (besides my two Q6600s) that can handle SATA2 drives and so that's becoming a bottleneck in the office as I am getting more SATA2 drives coming in (and I'm getting tired of trying to jumper them to SATA 1.5 mode or turning off my own work PC to clone a disk). I have two spare ECS boards that I bought as Frys combos when I bought the Q6600s and e8400s about 2 years ago. I am going to repurpose these boards into cheap workstations as I have a couple spare s775 CPUs I can use.

But that still leaves me short 2 more workstations. I can either go the less expensive route and buy a low-end CPU with an updated mobo or I can use the same money and spend a bit more and upgrade our two existing home PCs and repurpose my two e8400s systems to serve that purpose while upgrading to something new. Plus when SATA3 drives becomes more common, I will repeat this process in about 2 years from now.

I don't have to do this upgrading just now so I can wait a few months. I was only prompted because I got swept up in a buying frenzy because of black friday and wanted to start building a new machine around the GTX 470 I bought, but I can stick that in my current setup right now and do the other upgrades later.

 

[M1A]

I drove 100 miles and just Love this thing........

 

[edplayer]

Buyer's remorse is not a valid return reason, at least in my book. YMMV.

Did you read the return policy at Amazon?

There's always going to be something great 'just around the corner'

Wrong.

Next choice is "down the block" (S2011 or Bulldozer) followed by "the next city over" (Ivy Bridge)...

 

[Rifter]

i would keep it, SB does not offer much better performance than current i7's. Will need to wait for 2011 for the next intel high end socket upgrades.

 

[AllWhacked]

Thanks everyone for their advice. I'm not against keeping these guys due to the performance that SB brings, but mainly because SB will move to a new socket LGA1155 & LGA2011. If i go this route and buy a quality board, I'm pretty much stuck in a dead-end for any future upgrading. At least with S775, I was able to keep my eVGA 680i and use it from when I had an e6300/e6400/e6600/Q6600 and to my final e8400.

As a side note, I asked Amazon what they wanted me to do about the digital download games they emailed me. They said there policy is that they don't accept returns on digital games and I have to keep the games and the price of them would be deducted. I think the rep didn't understand that the games were free. So until I get things clarified, I might have gotten two copies of Lost Planet 2 for free.

 

[Arg Clin]

Did you read the return policy at Amazon?





Wrong.

Next choice is "down the block" (S2011 or Bulldozer) followed by "the next city over" (Ivy Bridge)...

There are always going to be something exciting on the roadmap ahead. It's been like that for as long as I can remember. Once Sandy Bridge is here, you'd might as well wait for BD. And once BD is here, you might as well wait for S2011... and so on.. and so on.

I suspect that we don't share the same perception of the term "just around the corner"

 

[nyker96]

I think sandy will be 10-15% faster in some apps, but won't be like earth shattering difference compare to what you got. however, if you can return the why not, sandy is just around the corner.

 

[Hogan773]

There are always going to be something exciting on the roadmap ahead. It's been like that for as long as I can remember. Once Sandy Bridge is here, you'd might as well wait for BD. And once BD is here, you might as well wait for S2011... and so on.. and so on.

I suspect that we don't share the same perception of the term "just around the corner"

SB IS just around the corner, and if the pricing rumors hold true, it will be no more expensive. And you'll be buying the newer socket so there is A CHANCE that you might get a future upgrade path (although knowing Intel they'll probably invent the socket 1154 next round.....) You know on a current 1156 or 1366 you're buying end of line.....

At the price you paid, I'd return it all day long. Worst case, you should be able to get the same thing from Microcenter or elsewhere in January for less than the current $200 price that MC sells for. I do acknowlege the "you'll always be waiting for the next thing in tech" angle but we're talking about 5 weeks folks, and there is some decent visibility into both price and performance. Absent someone who NEEDS a new PC today (because their old one blew up) I can't find a great reason to be buying a current generation CPU vs waiting 5 weeks to see what the landscape looks like then....

 

[Arg Clin]

SB IS just around the corner, and if the pricing rumors hold true, it will be no more expensive. And you'll be buying the newer socket so there is A CHANCE that you might get a future upgrade path (although knowing Intel they'll probably invent the socket 1154 next round.....) You know on a current 1156 or 1366 you're buying end of line.....

At the price you paid, I'd return it all day long. Worst case, you should be able to get the same thing from Microcenter or elsewhere in January for less than the current $200 price that MC sells for. I do acknowlege the "you'll always be waiting for the next thing in tech" angle but we're talking about 5 weeks folks, and there is some decent visibility into both price and performance. Absent someone who NEEDS a new PC today (because their old one blew up) I can't find a great reason to be buying a current generation CPU vs waiting 5 weeks to see what the landscape looks like then....

Absent of someone who needs a new rig I cant find any reason to buy a new CPU period! I doubt anyone doesn't need a new cpu now, will suddenly need a SB. The difference isn't all that great.

In my point of view SB doesn't offer a difference even worth waiting 5 weeks for, but to each their own. Having the latest and greatest means nothing to me, running apps to my satisfaction is the only thing that counts in my book.

As for upgrade path - again to each their own - I've found myself doing this rarely. Usually there's a new and better platform/chipset anyway that I'd wanna get in on when I upgrade anyway.

My point stands though - once SB is out there's only going to be what 8-10 weeks to BullDozer? (And so on...)

 

[Vic Vega]

Did you read the return policy at Amazon?

Did you read the part where I said "for me"?