Will Nehalem bring crazy Price Drops in current Intel Quads?

[omar954]

Making a new build with e8400 (for gaming, photoshop, 3d, modeling, some video also) and I instead decided to go witha quad. Q9550 look like the best, but Q6600 will OC 1333fsb and 3ghz on P45 with after market cooler, right? So it came down to Q9550 or Q6600. I don't care about Nehalem, but should I wait for price drops in current quads when Nehalem comes out or what?


Moderator Edit - No need for all the Caps in thread titles - so stop it guys!

 

[jay_l_a]

I sure hope so, I'd like a Q9xxx at some point.

 

[wgdz]

yes you will see price drop but I doubt it'll be crazy.

Q6600 my guess will be around $160 Q9xxx would probably be in the range of $200-$250. I heard when Core i7 comes out those will be freakish expensive. Therefore wouldn't make sense to have a huge price price on the older gen, else everyone will rush to buy the insanely cheap cpu and no market for the i7.

 

[omar954]

Man that means Ill have to wait till spring, but w/e i can do it got other thing to keep me busy with

 

[omar954]

Unless I got with a cheap E8400 for now and get a Q9550 later right? But I'd have to build a whole nother system for that spare e8400... I guess Ill ust wait =(

 

[rags_20]

When you get a 2.66 GHz Nehalem for sub 300$, why go for a Q9xxx for 250+$ ?

 

[rags_20]

As in Wikipedia:
In the Super PI 1M test, a Core i7 920 running at 2.66 Ghz finished the test in 15.36 seconds, while a QX9770 (3.2 Ghz) did the test in 14.42 seconds.

 

[godmode]

When you get a 2.66 GHz Nehalem for sub 300$, why go for a Q9xxx for 250+$ ?

don't forget he'll have to buy a new MB and DDR3 memory if he goes i7

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

i7 seems like it will be a lot like the 939 to AM2 switch. They'll probably say they're cutting back on 775 processor production, which will drive up price and demand at the same time for no justifiable reason. I remember AMD had said they weren't making anymore 939 processors despite newegg being able to sell out and restock a good dozen times by a year later. Though things probably wont be quite as bad with Nehalem. It will at least provide some clock for clock advantage, AM2 was actually slower than equivalent 939 setups.

 

[4745454b]

Seeing as the Q9550 is just above $300, I would expect this chip to fall to just under $300. (anywhere from $250 to $300, but probably like $280 for a 10%ish price drop.) The Q9550 is a great chip, and will probably out perform the lowest i7 for desktop users. (or possibly just tie.) I don't think the Q6600 will see much lower prices, its already rather cheap.

The i7 will be ~$300, the X58 will be another $250+, while the tri pack of DDR3 will be another $80ish. You'll be looking at ~$600+ just for those three things. If I am right, you won't be saving much by waiting. Because the 9550 performs so well, I don't think you'll see much in the line of price dropping. The 8200 and 9300 will probably see a bigger overall price drop. If you have the money now and need/want a new computer, might as well do it now.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

The title of this topic has been edited by Jake_Barnes

Moderator Edit - No need for all the Caps in thread titles - so stop it guys!

 

[omar954]

OK I will sadly probably wait till summer/spring and then build my PC =(

 

[NewLCD123]

What's wrong with e8400 if you are a gamer? There needs to be games that can take advantage of quad cores!

 

[spathotan]

I wouldnt be suprised if the Q6600 dissapears after i7 launches.

As far as the topic goes, I say wait for price cuts.

 

[bobbknight]

Me I'll just wait and see. Got me a good system right now and it might just wait until SP1 of Windows 7 before I really need to upgrade.

 

[one-shot]

I wouldnt be suprised if the Q6600 dissapears after i7 launches.

As far as the topic goes, I say wait for price cuts.

Actually the Q6600 is reaching its EOL. Research on here in the last week about new Intel CPU's. I'm pretty sure it mentions EOL on a few cpus...e6750, 6850, 6700 and 660 and i think a few others.

 

[aznguy0028]

yea i don't think a big price drop will happen. i agree with 474 on maybe a 10% price drop but nothing too drastic.

the average pc consumer isn't rich enough to go straight from one gen. to the next when they already have a viable computer. imo, if you do want to get an i7, go with a E8400 right now as a pitstop. wait for the first few waves of i7 to come out so all the bugs and stability issues to be fixed.

not to mention, by the time you want to upgrade from your E8400, a new stepping might be available. same goes with the possible drop prices of DDR3, new mobo, etc.

 

[DXRick]

I think that if you want the Q9550, you should just go ahead and get it now. Right now the difference is $155 (319 - 164) on NewEgg. If you pay the $164 now and wait to get the Q9550 at say $280 later, you will save only $39 on the Q9550. But you will still have spent $164 on the E8400, and $164 + $280 = $444 spent on both. S0, even if you could sell your used E8400 for $100 later, you are still out $344. So in the end, waiting costs you more than the current $319 price.

 

[antiacid]

I doubt that the Q9550 will drop in price more than 10-30$ in the next month. Maybe we'll get to see another decrease after christmas but Intel said they were already happy with their aggressive pricing.
Some numbers to compare (from pricewatch, for non-extreme quad core)
type speed cost (CAD$) mhz/$
q6600 2400 177 13.56
q6700 2660 213.52 12.46
q6800 2930 901 3.25
q8200 2330 196.88 11.83
q9300 2500 237.5 10.53
q9400 2660 269 9.89
q9450 2660 327.99 8.11
q9550 2830 312 9.07
q9650 3000 537.91 5.58

So you see that you get extremely good value on q6600, q6700, q8200 and q9300. Those are already beating AMD's offer in the budget-minded section and the enthusiasts are also very satisfied with the q9550. The top performance chips often stay at a very high price (all the QX9xxx) because there is such a small demand for them (and those demanding powerful chips often have a deep pocket).
Most likely you'll see Q6xxx chips getting phased out, Q9xxx chips taking over that coveted budget market and i7 chips filling in the mid/upper market with similarly priced chips. Remember, phasing out a technology means that it gets more expensive to produce...demand and offer!

TLDR conclusion:
Don't expect much more than 10% rebate on medium priced chips and MAYBE 10% on higher priced chips.

 

[omar954]

OK Im thinking about getting Q9550 in about a month, How good of an OCer is it?

 

[omar954]

Oh n if I got a Q6600 could I get it to maybe 1600mhz fsb (so it will be on par with dual channel 800mhz ram) or at least 1333? And is at least 3ghz possible? Could u guys recommend a good cpu cooler? Also is it harder to OC quads then duals?

 

[spathotan]

3ghz on a Q6600 is a walk in the part for even the most pathetic motherboards basically. 3.6ghz is easy as well as long as you can keep temps under control.

 

[omar954]

what about the fsb tho? I want a 1:1 ration of fsb to dual channel ddr2 800mhz

 

[spathotan]

Thats 3.2ghz then for the Q6600. Also easy. I have mine running at 3.2ghz for the 1:1 ratio. Also because I have temperature issues. Its running 100% stable at 3.2ghz with the voltage 1 step below the proc's VID.

 

[omar954]

OK so:
Q6600 at 3.2ghz is easy w/ a good after market cooler
at 3.2ghz it will automatically have a 1:1 ratio in cpu clock : dual channel 800
(i have never OC'd b4 and this is my 1st build)

So at 3.2ghz it will pretty much run at a stock e8400 speed for non-quad apps, right?
and with that 1:1 ratio, the accessing the RAM takes the same amount of time as accesing the cache?

now can u recommend me a good after market cooler