Is this a bad time to buy a notebook?

I've been wanting to purchase a notebook for quite some time now. But I never know when is a good time. I am interested in the dv6500tse based on build quality and aesthetics. Is HP releasing new models soon? People complain about the hard drive placement in HP notebooks. But I thought that the HDD underneath the left palm rest was standard. Does this differ from other brands? And do you think HP will change the HDD placement in the new models?

 

New series across the board due out in June or so because of Intel's Montevina platform and AMD's Puma platform. Current chipset is Santa Rosa. A few new bells and whistles will go along with that too.

If you can wait a few months, I would. In fact, I am. If you need it now, buy in a few weeks as you'll get more options for your dollar as HP tries to pair down their inventories before the pahse out of current models. Hey, you might even find a coupon code to get some more off.

 

But if you think about it, is there really a good time to buy a notebook? 65nm to 45nm? Christmas? Summer? Merom to Penryn?

 

Depending on what you know and your reason for buying a notebook, buying before a major platform update usually makes you wish you had waited a little bit. Buying before a CPU refresh is usually no biggie since there's no marked improvement in performance nor additional features added to the notebook as a whole. But this summer comes not only new platforms, but new GPUS, new memory type (DDR3-800), etc.

I'll give you two examples of imprudent impatience:

Sager 5790 (Clevo MR57u) and Dell XPS 1730. Late last summer and early fall people bought it with the 8700M GT. Plenty of news reports first alluded to the fact that Nvidia was going to come out with a mobile version of their top card, the 8800. It should have been obvious irrespective of news reports that they would and that the 8700GT wasn't the top card but an interim card until the top card came out.

Well, by late fall it was confirmed. Early winter shipped for Sager, Mid winter for Dell.

The 8800M is a marked improvement over the 8700GT.

It's just an example though.

 

...good example! 8800's are head and shoulders above the 8700's.
So much so I believe they're commanding a $1500 price on eBay just for the cards alone! (That's OTT in my opinion - but hey its a free market!)

72oo

 

Yeah! I saw that one Ebay. I couldn't believe it. I'm still trying to figure out how that one person got his/her hands on the 8800M SLI card. That price is OTT. Criminal. But then again, Dell selling it as a $1000 is a bit close to being OTT. Especially considering that 2 cards in SLI doesn't double performance. But, where else can you go to get the build quality of a Dell XPS?

Don't get me wrong, Sager 9260/Clevo build quality is up there. But the looks are kind of Spartan.

 

That's an excellent reason - I don't really mind the current technology and if I can get existing, and proven, performance cheaper, I am cool with that. I was configuring a dv9700t tonight. Think I'll wait at least another month.