Technology cycles

You know how every few months there's a new release that makes the one before it seem obsolete? Does anyone know what's the general cycle of technology? Is there a single best month to buy a laptop that would put it as far away from the next cycle as possible?

 

Usually the bar is set when Intel releases their newest mobile chip. The next one is due on the 9th.

 

The thing about new releases though is that the manufacturers are already working on its successor before the new stuff is released.

This summer's release of Santa Rosa and DX10 GPUs would not be a bad time to buy. Next year when Montevina systems come out would be another (in keeping with what ZaZ said above).

 

Between Santa Rosa and Montevina there will be a Santa Rosa refresh with Penryn. It should come this year.

 

You can never have the perfect catch

however I think when I bought my machine last october with the core 2 duo was ideal.

For many years the only cpu upgrades are going to be speed. All hard drives will be sata, games will be dx9 compatible for 5 years because of the ps3 and xbox 360 upgrade.

The machines you could buy 6 months earlier with the pentium m and x700 or so will be obsolete much sooner... it was a convergence of a lot of long term technologies.

The dx 10 gpu is a good thing to invest in for your next machine.

 

The best way to equip your laptop after Santa Rosa comes out next Wednesday in order to avoid being obselete very quickly should be:

DX10 compatible video card (Nvidia Geforce Go 8 series)
New Santa Rosa processor (T7100, T7300, T7500, T7700)
2 GB RAM
802.11 n-compatible wireless
Windows Vista Home Premium or above

I would recommend a 160 GB 5400 RPM hard drive for storage needs, since it's almost as fast as a 100 GB 7200 RPM drive, but holds more stuff, but as long as the hard drive is larger than 100 GB it'll last you a long time. Hard drives aren't much of a concern because you can always buy an external hard drive if you need extra storage, or replace the one that came with your laptop.

 

Wow so many new processors coming out in such a short time. I don't remember it being taht fast 5-6 years ago.

Alright, well thanks.

 

ATI DX10 is on the 14th May... wikied it..
the 45nm might be another big upgrade for laptops since they claim that it uses even less energy than the current 65nm ones..