Price cuts

[JogaBonito1502]

With the release of the nVidia 9 series and the soon-to-come price-cuts from Intel, I plan on building a new rig. The thing is that my friend needs a computer and I want a new comp soon, so I told him I'd sell this current one to him ASA these events happen. What I'm assuming is that w/ the new video cards, the 8 series is gonna drop in price. So what I want to know is when are these events predicted to happen?

 

[worshipme]

The 8800GTs have already gone below the $250 standard. They're now available for around $220 for the 512MB version. My advice would be to wait until the Wolfdales are readily available and the prices have settled down.

 

[JogaBonito1502]

Hum...question: I'm assuming Wolfdales is the name for the new processors but I may be wrong. I'm not to familiar with the names Intel gives to their processors. So what exactly is it?

 

[worshipme]

Yes, it's the codename of the new 45nm Core 2 Duos. The older Core 2 Duos (E6750, E4500...) are built using the 65nm process. The new 45nms are more power efficient, which means lower temps and they can also do more in a clock cycle. Oh, I forgot to mention that they have 6MB L2 caches compared to the 4MB of the E6750 and E6850. Here's an article with some benchmarks and info on the E8xxx series (Wolfdales): http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/intel-wolfdale.html

 

[JogaBonito1502]

Thanks man. So, I heard about this Q9450. Is this quad core worth it? I mean with the price drop it should go down to 250 if I'm not mistaken. Idk, but it's something like that.

 

[worshipme]

The Q9450 is a 45nm part. It's the 65nm parts that are getting the price drops. I would imagine the Q9450 would be available for around $300, maybe more (rough estimate). You may have noticed that I have said in a lot of other threads that a quad core CPU is only worth it if you're doing video/audio editing or encoding. If the PC is for gaming then a dual core will give better performance in most games plus it's cheaper and more power efficient. If you really want a quad core then there is a cheaper 45nm part. It's called the Q9300 and costs around $266. The reason is because it has 6MB of L2 cache as opposed to the 12MB of the Q9450. L2 cache makes a difference mainly in encoding and when you're doing some serious multi tasking.

 

[JogaBonito1502]

Yeah, I was just educating myself a little better on them and then I read your post on a thread called "Quad-Core" and it did check. Well, this new rig I'm wanting to build has to be efficient for a couple different things.

1. Programming - I plan on learning Torque later this year and using implemented OpenGL/DirectX on C++ and Torque to build an RPG. I'm not sure how much of programming you know. But the problem isn't here, the problem is going to come when I compile this massive beast. So I want a rig to be able to handle it.
2. Gaming - I will game on the machine, but not anything hard core. CZ and WarCraft 3 mostly. Maybe later in the future a newer game
3. 3D Studio Max. But this last part is so insignificant that there's really no need for explanation.

So yeah. I'm not sure how much a quad-core would help on compiling, so maybe the dual-core would be a best option in my situation.

 

[worshipme]

Just see what the prices are like when you come to build your rig.

 

[JogaBonito1502]

Maybe I'll do that. But I was trying to figure out these price cut dates so I can make a deal with my dad as his gonna help out with the cost a little bit. Think it will be ready by May?

 

[worshipme]

The prices of the 45nm parts should have settled by May I think. So you can choose from one of those then.