Should I wait until Turion X2 is released to buy a notebook?

[Questi4110]

Will prices greatly drop when Turion X2 is released...is it worth it to wait?

I heard that there will be a price war between AMD and Intel and that the Turion X2 will sell for around what the Turion sells for now?


THANKS

 

[Viditor]

Just because a chip is released doesn't mean that you can actually buy it...
I don't expect Turion X2 laptops for some time. I also doubt you'll be able to get Merom or Conroe when THEY'RE released either...

 

[Questi4110]

How much time do you think?

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: Questi4110
How much time do you think?

Well, laptops are a special case...they take a very long time and it depends on what time of year they are released.

For example, Yonah was released in Jan and we are just now starting to see a few smatterings of Yonah based laptops (Mac was a special case...). Most ODMs finalize their designs in the month of January, so we probably won't see much selection for either Turion X2 or Merom until early 2007. There will probably be a small few before then, but certainly not in time for the back to school season.

Edit: BTW, you'll note that Jan is also the timeframe for Vista's release...I don't think that's a coincidence (JMHO). As the laptop market is so large, I would bet that there will be a huge launch of 64 bit laptops (Turion X2 and Merom) with Vista on-board. Microsoft did the same with Windows 2k, even before it was launched (they shipped with the beta version of W2K and made it upgradeable).

 

[Questi4110]

I have read in quite a few places that products with the processor should be out by July. Does anyone else have any other input?

THANKS

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: Questi4110
I have read in quite a few places that products with the processor should be out by July. Does anyone else have any other input?

THANKS

Could you do me a favour please and post a link about products being out? I haven't seen anything like that and that would be most interesting!

 

[Questi4110]

I wasn't referring to actual product manufacturers commenting on the introduction of the processor in their notebooks...they would never do that. I was talking about other people in this forum and other forums speaking about the approximate release of products with the processor.

THANKS

 

[Marmion]

I'm starting to think that X2 and Merom will be in notebooks in quantities at the same time, and wouldn't be suprised if Merom comes out in quantities earlier than the X2.
My reasoning: Merom is simply a change in CPUs, you can take out a yonah and put in a merom in current yonah notebooks (might need a bios upgrade). The motherboard is still intel 945.
However, the X2 is a new socket, meaning new motherboards, and don't notebook manufacturers refresh their models mainly in January and August? Merom basically co-incides with this and is easier to bring it to market (just swapping the CPU basically), whereas with the X2 being released in June, then maybe (just maybe), because of the new socket and motherboards required for it, Turion X2 and Merom will be out around the same time, maybe end of August.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: Marmion
I'm starting to think that X2 and Merom will be in notebooks in quantities at the same time, and wouldn't be suprised if Merom comes out in quantities earlier than the X2.
My reasoning: Merom is simply a change in CPUs, you can take out a yonah and put in a merom in current yonah notebooks (might need a bios upgrade). The motherboard is still intel 945.
However, the X2 is a new socket, meaning new motherboards, and don't notebook manufacturers refresh their models mainly in January and August? Merom basically co-incides with this and is easier to bring it to market (just swapping the CPU basically), whereas with the X2 being released in June, then maybe (just maybe), because of the new socket and motherboards required for it, Turion X2 and Merom will be out around the same time, maybe end of August.

I don't think either chip will make it to the August refresh...
Even though Intel will be using the 945 chipset, they had to change the specs on the voltage. That means slightly new hardware and significant testing (always the case with a new architecture)...it is possible that they are doing this now, but they would have had to have received final silicon a few months ago for this to be the case.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Merom is 64 bit. All of the drivers for the 945 have been 32 bit (IIRC, they only have the storage driver for 64-bit so far), and this means even more testing.