How much will the Core 2 Duo systems drop?

Well with Santa Rosa practically close enough to reach out and poke at, I was wondering how much longer I should wait before going for a dv6000t with a core 2 duo based on the current Napa platform (945 chipset).


Now, I am thinking I should wait until mid-March because my reasoning is this (please let me know if I am right or wrong ) :

1. The current Napa 945 platform with a C2D processor is the top of the line bleeding edge as far as mobile computing goes.. right? And the plain old Core Duo's (like the T2350) are about midrange??

2. Once Santa Rosa comes out with the 965 chipset (or 'crestline'.. whatever you wanna call it...) along with the new 800MHz FSB's, etc. etc., it will be the newest, hottest, most expensive thing, therefore it will cause intel and PC manufacturers to shove Napa & the 945 chipset/C2D processors to the "midrange" category even though they are still on the cutting edge... right?


So, my main question is: How much will the current C2D processors (without santa rosa) drop in price after Santa Rosa is released? Or, will they decrease in price at all? 10%? 25%? 50%?



Also, when do you think manufacturers like HP & Dell will have the lowest price on current C2D systems? In other words, will there be bigger sales/price cuts immediately after santa rosa is released, as a way to get rid of the "old" leftover systems? Or will the C2D's gradually drop in price.

 

oops! Just Realized i said Mid-March... I meant Mid-MAY sorry about that.

Also, I'm hoping that people with years of experience with buying computers will be able to shed some light on the trends and cycles that these sorts of things go through... It always seems like the greatest sale ever is happening.. when is the right time to just go and buy it... I feel like I'm always waiting for the better sale that's always around the corner..

 

do note take my word for anything, but what I believe will happen is like the cpus have cost ranks. Thereforce once santa rosa comes out and lets say 1 new cpu is introduced. This means that a C2D T7200 will cost the same as what is now C2D T5600. Again I don't know, but I think thats how it works.

 

What usually happens is when the new goes into production the old is phased out until the parts are no longer available. So if you wait too long after the new is released you are less apt to customize and old one the way you want because only off the shelf units will be available.
They usually wait until a large majority of the old CPU's are sold before they release the new or they get stuck with them.

 

This is correct.

 

Just as an example...the day that Dell released Merom processors into their laptops, not a single Dell machine was available with a Pentium M soon after. If you wait, you do risk loosing out...

I don't think that the prices will go down much at all, they'll just disappear.

 

Some review sites do regular reports of CPU pricing (for desktop components). Looking at some of those might give you an idea of what will happen, especially when looking at an Interesting one like must before and as a new processor gets released.

However Santa Rosa is a new platform, so there is a chance it might continue along side Napa for a while --- the naming of Santa Rosa "Centrino Pro" suggests that to me.

The Pentium-M died off fairly quickly in part because the Core processor was much more impressive than it AND entirely uncompatible with Pentium-M. However, you can still buy a Core system even though Core 2 has been around for a while.

So don't count on a massive price drop when Santa Rosa comes out -- there will probably be a modest decrease to make room for Santa Rosa on the top end, maybe you'll see Core processors disappear completely. But nothing all that drastic.

 

Ok those answers helped a lot

So here's a new question then..

Will it be likely that HP will introduce a brand new line of pavilion's (like lenovo is about to do with the new thinkpad T61/R61) that is similar to the dv6000/dv9000/dv2000 series?

OR

Will HP just stick Santa Rosa inside of the existing dvXXXX models and totally convert everything to "Centrino Pro" as Intel has named santa rosa, totally phasing out the current Core (2) Duo's?

If HP does the latter, then I am guessing that prices of new Centrino Pro systems will still be about the same as they currently are?? Will Centrino Pro have a line of lower-end budget processors like the T2350 and T5200? I heard that it will include the T7100, T7300, AND T7500 but I cannot find anywhere what speed those chips run at.. :/

oooo and one more.. What do you think will happen with graphics cards? Will HP keep the Go 7xxx series or will they offer new cards??

 

I totally piggy back on your graphics card question. I want to know too.