Expected CPU Price Drops?

[jkj]

Guys when are the next amd and intel drops? And do we have an expected time frame for the next socket for amd 64? Its 939 right?

 

[myocardia]

Intel has already dropped their prices, so don't be expecting another price drop from them anytime soon. And AMD isn't going to be dropping prices on anything, at least until they start shipping their new socket 939 chips, and maybe not even then.

 

[bdjohnson]

probably when the new pci express boards become popular and people start needing to upgrade.

 

[Schnieds]

From what I understand AMD is supposed to release the Althon64 3700+ (socket 754) at the end of April, which should drop the rest of the Athlon64 line a little (especially the 3400+.) I am personally waiting until the end of the month and then I am going to take my first forey into the 64-bit realm cause I am sick of waiting.

Schnieds

 

[Dufrane]

That is what I thought. Can anyone else confirm it.

 

[Abzstrak]

Originally posted by: Schnieds
From what I understand AMD is supposed to release the Althon64 3700+ (socket 754) at the end of April, which should drop the rest of the Athlon64 line a little (especially the 3400+.) I am personally waiting until the end of the month and then I am going to take my first forey into the 64-bit realm cause I am sick of waiting.

Schnieds

I heard they werent releasing it until july/august time frame... can't remember or find where I saw that now though.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Abzstrak

Originally posted by: Schnieds
From what I understand AMD is supposed to release the Althon64 3700+ (socket 754) at the end of April, which should drop the rest of the Athlon64 line a little (especially the 3400+.) I am personally waiting until the end of the month and then I am going to take my first forey into the 64-bit realm cause I am sick of waiting.

Schnieds

I heard they werent releasing it until july/august time frame... can't remember or find where I saw that now though.

Yeah, that's been the problem so far, every website seems to have differing opinions on when it's going to happen. I remember a few months back, a couple of sites were saying they thought it would actually be early. Well, they weren't right. I do know one thing for sure, whenever they finally release them, they are going to be in extremely short supply, so expect prices to be quite high. Why, you ask? Because nearly everyone I've heard of so far that's considering making the jump to an A64 has said that they're going to wait until socket 939 is released. Anytime their are ten people standing in line for each available product, prices always seem to skyrocket. Anyone remember when the first of the "new" VW Beatles were in such high demand, and were selling for upwards of $28,000-30,000 (and that's about a $22,000 car).

 

[Jrcaddie]

Is it really worth it to wait for socket 939? How large of a speed difference do you think there will be? Also, is there any kind of release date for the socket 939?

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: Jrcaddie
Is it really worth it to wait for socket 939? How large of a speed difference do you think there will be? Also, is there any kind of release date for the socket 939?

These are the golden questions right now... is there going to really be a speed improvement with socket 939 over socket 754? Socket 939 chips are going to have half the cache of most socket 754 chips, however they will use dual channel ram. No one really knows what that is going to translate to performance wise between the two types of chips. However, based on the AMD performance ratings that have been speculated at, it looks like the 939 chips will be slightly faster than their 754 counterparts running at the same speed. For example, the 2.4 GHz socket 939 part is reported as being called the 3800+ while the 2.4 GHz socket 754 part is reportedly going to be the 3700+.

However, all of this is just speculation as nothing has been officially released. I am pulling this information from Anand's AMD roadmap that is a few weeks old AMD Roadmap

There are three other large factors in my mind against waiting for the socket 939 chips:

1) They will be in short supply until fall or later this year reportedly. If this is the case, the price will be significantly higher than the socket 754 counterparts and may demand a premium price already because AMD wants to target the enthusiast market with 939. Check out this XBit Labs article for more info

2) Like most other new products the socket 939 chips and motherboards will probably go through some growing pains. Most likely there are going to be some bugs and issues and if you adopt the 939 platform right away you are going to have to deal with those issues until they are resolved.

3) Once the 939 chips come out there will be PCI-XPress coming out right around the corner as well as BTX and a bunch of other new technologies. If you are waiting to upgrade until 939 comes out because you want to keep the same motherboard for years, chances are even if you wait for socket 939 you will want to upgrade your motherboard and chip in the next year anyway for all of the other new technologies.

I have been waiting since December of last year for the NForce 250 chipset to come out to hop into Althon64. At this point I am sick of waiting and am planning on making my purchase at the end of the month. Hopefully the MSI NForce 250 board will be in retail by then, the 3700+ will be released and I can get a cheaper 3400+ to go along with that.

I personally feel that waiting for the 939 isn't going to yield any tangible benefits, however if someone else can tell me why I am mistaken in that thought I would love to hear their reasoning. In the world of computer technology there is always something better a few months away, if you keep waiting for whats next you never end up enjoying anything. :beer:

Schnieds

 

[myocardia]

Schnieds, here are my arguments against why someone who wants a fast 32-bit gaming performer with 64-bit capability should wait:



















All of the above reasons apply to those who are waiting for socket 939 to make it's appearance, also.

 

[Jrcaddie]

I was feeling the same way as you Schnieds. I have waited for a bit before getting an athlon 64 but if I keep on waiting for the next best thing to come out then I will never get anything. My current computer just started having some heating issues so that sort of sped up my buying decisions. I was just trying to figure out if waiting for s939 was worth it because I had read that it was slated for a may release, however, I have heard differing reports. One thing I was wondering though is if the nforce 250 board is not available when you make your purchase, what is your second pick? I was planningon going with the Asus K8V Deluxe if the nforce 3 was not available.

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: Jrcaddie
I was feeling the same way as you Schnieds. I have waited for a bit before getting an athlon 64 but if I keep on waiting for the next best thing to come out then I will never get anything. My current computer just started having some heating issues so that sort of sped up my buying decisions. I was just trying to figure out if waiting for s939 was worth it because I had read that it was slated for a may release, however, I have heard differing reports. One thing I was wondering though is if the nforce 250 board is not available when you make your purchase, what is your second pick? I was planning on going with the Asus K8V Deluxe if the nforce 3 was not available.


</P>

Here is what I plan to get (NForce 250 and Via K8T800 options included):

AMD Athlon64 3400+
MSI K8N NForce 250 MB (if available)
-or-
MSI K8T Neo FISR2 (Or possibly Asus K8V deluxe)
Zalman CNPS7000-Cu CPU Cooler
1GB Mushkin Level One 3500 Memory
2x74GB Western Digital Raptors (RAID 0)
ATI 9700TX (Have it already and will upgrade to new gen. cards in a few months)
Sound Blaster Audigy ZS Platinum (Have it already)
Lian-Li PC 6070B Ultra Quiet Aluminum Case
Enermax 475 Noisetaker PSU
Lite-On 8X DVD+-RW Burner
Windows XP Pro

 

[Jrcaddie]

Looks expensive. After reading a few more reviews I actually decided to go with the MSI K8T Neo also. It just seems like there are a lot of people that have had problems with their Asus K8V and from the reviews I read the K8T performed better then the K8V for the most part.

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: Jrcaddie
Looks expensive. After reading a few more reviews I actually decided to go with the MSI K8T Neo also. It just seems like there are a lot of people that have had problems with their Asus K8V and from the reviews I read the K8T performed better then the K8V for the most part.</P>

Yeah... I plan to drop about $2K on it.