Regarding the upcoming Haswell refresh

Hi all. Is it worth holding off buying a new laptop until the Haswell refresh line/Devil's Canyon hits resellers?

 

I think it is. Not only are they slightly faster, but they may even be cheaper depending on the actual cpu you're considering.

See:
AnandTech | The Intel Haswell Refresh Review: Core i7-4790, i5-4690 and i3-4360 Tested

If you can afford to wait, wait (i.e. you have a working system that is capable enough right now).

The latest platforms are always the best ones to consider first - no matter what the spec's or benchmarks might indicate otherwise.

A refresh to me has translated to: better thermals, better 'snap' if not higher actual performance and more than likely; the 'old' platform that I tend to keep the longest (the 'tick' in the Intel cadence).

I don't ignore the 'tocks' if I actually need a system at that point in time - they offer great performance and value when they're introduced - but the long term systems I've kept seem to be the optimized version of the new architectures (which the 'refresh' is).

I am still regularly using my U30Jc with an Arrandale processor (i3-350M) - the 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM, Windows 8.1 x64 Pro and the fact that it is two core/four threads with excellent battery life (still about 7 hours on the original battery) is what has kept it current and close by.

(Do note that I almost always blow away the original O/S install - bloatware is not just the third party trials that ought to be outlawed - but the Asus (and all other manufacturers) 'utilities' are almost guaranteed to be junk too).

 

Nope, not worth waiting. The refreshed processors are only 100 MHz faster than the ones they're replacing. Devil's Canyon is only on desktops.

 

Appreciate the insights, my current machine's pretty ancient, but I don't get the chance to upgrade very often so I'm looking to get the best bang for my buck this time around. For reference, I'm rocking a Core 2 Duo P8700, looking to step up to a 4800/4810mq most likely, assuming I pull the trigger before the refresh.

 

Devil's Canyon is only for desktops, mobile Haswell already had its refresh with +100 MHz core speeds.

 

Don't worry about the Haswell "refresh." It doesn't mean anything. I don't know why some people get so excited about it. It is just a slight tweak to the stratification of Intel's mobile Haswell processors.

 

If you're going to wait, wait for Skylake, which is well over a year away. Otherwise buy current Haswell or Haswell refresh, the difference will not be significant. Unless you absolutely *MUST* have the latest and greatest.

 

Waiting for Skylake, I think that is when I will move on from Ivy bridge.

 

It's never worth waiting for a CPU, if you are a gamer the GPU generation is far more important. This is of course unless the system manufacturer is making larger changes to the design (See 230WS vs 230SS, even without the GPU upgrade it gets longer battery life due to motherboard changes).