Want to buy an HP probably.. anything new around the corner, any deals?

I know that if I buy one next week They're going to have some sweet ass deals either next month or in January..

I'm not worried about vista because I can probably get media center for free as part of a build..

And then with vista, I'm thinking the basic lappys will have non-crap graphics cards for once.

With PCs waiting is never a dumb idea, but I just got approved for a 6 months no payments card (I can easily clear the purchase with my tax refunds) so it's tempting basically, anyone been paying attention the last couple years? What can I expect to happen in the next 3 months? Thanks

Also, think the 2000 is worth the $35 more than the 6000?

 

.


The "next" wave of the Core Duo 2's will be 800mhz, instead of 667... and Vista premium machines are supposed to use HYBRID HARD DRIVES.... Also DX10 is comming out at some point, but know who's on that.


Google hybrid hard drives /Vista.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=hybrid+hard+drives+vista
(Not that Vista is the OS to get at this point... I project that "Vista" will be "buggy" for at least 2 years after it's released....based on previous OS's from MicroS..

If you "need" a pc, go ahead.... if you can wait... then wait. Longer you wait even if you decide to go with a current model the better as a "early" version of anything is going to have more "bugs", hardware problems than later versions in the production run.

Also as you know prices will drop further into the production run, and during the Holidays there will be sales...

 

The only problem I have with Hybrid HDDs are that they use flash...something brand new in a relatively stable device (that mostly has a low rate of failure). As long as the HDD can function without fully working flash I'm fine with it, but it needs to be able to operate with the "Hybrid" in case unforeseen problems with the flash tech rears it head.

I double WeAreNotAlone's post though...if you need a notebook, now is as good a time as any to get one.

Merom's successor will have a performance bump, but I'm guessing it will be a much smaller jump than the Pentium M -> Core Duo one (or P4->Core 2 Conroe). Most CPUs are too powerful, and only really shine in math, programming, rendering, and the like anyway. Since 64 bit processors are basically mainstream now, we don't even have to worry about hardware being rendered useless upon the arrival of Vista.

DX10 notebook cards are a little way away (too large of power requirements as of right now), but the tech is very promising. By the time I'm ready for a new notebook (and I just bought mine), DX10 tech will be in its 2nd or 3rd gen hardware (with many bugs worked out by then). I wouldn't touch Vista (and hence DX10) until at least Service Pack 1 though. Which means almost a year from now anyway. Most games aren't going to be DX10 exclusive, so your DX9 hardware is far from obsolete.

Hybrid HDDs are a REALLY good idea, but I want to see how they operate in the real world for a year or two before getting one myself.

 

Considering the kinds of battering flash cards go through in most people's digital cameras and PDAs and whatnot I don't really think failure is going to be a problem - they're solid-state, I'm thinking the HDD itself is much more likely to fail than the flash memory. And yeah, it's a really neat idea... specially for pagefile usage.

 

Doesn't flash have a fairly poor write rate though? I can't imagine it being good for flash. Critical OS components though, that could be good. But things may have changed since I last checked.

Having been a PC user since about DOS 3 days, I'm REALLY not concerned about Vista issues. I jumped right aboard Windows 2000, I got XP in the Beta stage and liked it all the way through the RCs and final. Hell, I even used Windows ME, so I know what true instability is. Vista shouldn't be a problem for me

As far as hardware upgrades go, I'm mostly wondering if they'll start to do 1GB standard instead of 256 or 512, maybe 60 or 80GB standard instead of 40, and maybe a low processor bump from the sempron 34 to the 35 as base. Just hoping

 

Saneless,

I hear you about being a long time PC user.... For you it sounds like Vista wouldn't be a problem.... For most average people I see a period of about 2 years till the OS, the hardware, and the apps all get to a mature state. I would think there's going to be a teething period in which the hardware guys blame a problem on the OS, the OS guys blame it on the hardware, the apps.

Have also heard rumors of more big-brother stuff in vista, and it sort of being priced a little "high".

I don't keep up on all what's Vista, as I'd rather stick with an OS that is largely mature, stable, and has a huge installed base of users , tips you can draw on.


Good luck on your "hunt",...

PS: Here's a system I recently bought to "tide me over" till the next gen machines come out and have been on the market for "a while"..

HOT DEAL !!!! $500 after $100 HP mail in rebate. This unit being priced normally at $975

RB526UT#ABA HP /Compaq nx6325 Notebook AMD Mobile Sempron 3400+ 1.8GHz -

15 inch screen
Magnesium alloy frames and display enclosures
HP Spill-resistant keyboard
HP Biometric Fingerprint Sensor
TPM 1.2 Embedded Security Chip
512 MB (667 MHz) DDR2 SDRAM (1 DIMM) - Note: Max RAM maximum 4GB
ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 (33% faster than a Xpress 200m), not good for "games"... but you get:
4-hours of battery life, up to 16 hours with the high cap battery.



http://www.notebookforums.com/thread176205.html

 

Not anymore... Sandisk Extreme IVs have minimum read/write rates upwards of 40MB/s these days.