Buy at "Tick" or "Tock"?

[lwcoffer2]

Given Intel's roadmap, which is the best time to buy? I'm leaning towards tock...

 

[CanadaRAM]

Tock about obscure posts. I'm Ticked off.

 

[WildCowboy]

For those who aren't familiar with Intel's "tick-tock" strategy, here is a detailed discussion of it, while here is a much briefer summary.

 

[lwcoffer2]

Tock about obscure posts. I'm Ticked off.

Thanks for the Expert advice

 

[Sun Baked]

All depends on when you need the machine ...

Waiting 2-3 months for the next machine revision is one thing, waiting a year or more for the next architecture change may be silly.

 

[lwcoffer2]

All depends on when you need the machine ...

Waiting 2-3 months for the next machine revision is one thing, waiting a year or more for the next architecture change may be silly.

I'm not saying wait for more than a year. For example Santa Rosa just came out for the MBP and Penryn is expected in January. I think the SR (tock) would be the better buy over waiting a couple more months. Fast forward. Now if Penryn was out and Nehalem due in 4 months. I would say wait till Nehalem. I am just asking if you all feel the same? Or different?

 

[Vidd]

Penryn-based Macs in January? Sure...
Anyway, I got fed up playing the waiting game. Buy whenever suits you.
If you wait 4 months, you've lost 4 months of use and you've pushed your next purchase further away too.

 

[chrmjenkins]

Both have their merits. I think it's worth it to upgrade at both if they're going to be soon available in comparison to when you buy. A die shrink means less power and heat, which means more clock speed headroom (and this isn't all, the penryn has SSE4 additions), while the tock provides you with a more powerful architecture at the same process size. Nehalem is going to kick butt with its integrated memory controller, but it's much too long to wait for.

 

[Mundy]

I voted "tock," and probably won't upgrade again until a couple more rounds of "tick-tock" (i.e. sometime well after Nehalem). But even then, after reading the Tom's Hardware review of Penryn, I can easily understand why some people might decide to upgrade on this "tick." The power savings are incredible, especially when you consider that the transistor count has gone up by several hundred million.

So even though I say "tock," I can see why some people will be jumping on the Penryn bandwagon.