Is there a "best time" to buy?

Hi all,

I'm considering a P775TM/i7-8700k/GTX 1070 for a price point of around $3k, is there any reason to wait (or conversely, buy now)? What's the typical market cycle like?

My old laptop still works fine, I've taken good care of it so there's no urgent need to upgrade. But it has been 6 years, new stuff is going to be increasingly tough on it, and it supports older protocols so I'm missing some functionality that is pretty standard these days. So I'd prefer not to wait until I encounter a situation that would force me to upgrade, although that is a valid suggestion.

Should I buy this month? In January? Spring?

Thanks

 

Technically the longest life comes from buying at the start of a graphics generation but boy are there a lot of factors at play currently. First you have the relative cost/power of the current chips, potential 7nm lead time after that.

 

Where would you say we are right now? Or, would it only really matter if I intended to get P870TM/i9-9900k/GTX 1080?

 

I'd say wait until Feb/March 2019 and see if the next-gen laptop GPUs are announced by then.

 

It's not that easy, part of it is if you care about the features in the RTX chips.

 

Yeah...but there's also performance improvements, such as

2080 being close to 1080Ti
2070 being around 1080
Maybe we'll see 2060 around 1070?

But also if price increases then yeah doesn't even matter unless you need RTX/tensor cores.

 

There's always something new right around the corner. IMO there's never a "bad" time, but depending on what hardware and use you need out of it, waiting until a newer product if it's close may be a good idea. If you need something ASAP because your current system is dead/dying, then that doesn't matter so much.

 

Its always a lot easier to say with hindsight!

 

It's technology. There's gonna be 3 new generations by the time the laptop you order hits your doorstep. Just find which setup has the best price/performance ratio for you and then start hunting for deals.

 

The 10xx series and 9xx series early adopters did very well but conditions were a bit different.

 

It's the hardest choice when buying a new computer. I agree with @Support.3@XOTIC PC about deciding if you can wait or need one ASAP. Keep in mind it's not that long until Jan./Feb. when next gens might come out.

Here's my experience: I started looking for my new laptop in October 2016. I knew I needed to replace my laptop, but I could still use it. I researched a ton and asked numerous questions, until I figured out which laptop I specifically wanted to buy. I intended to buy on BF/CM 2016; but ultimately, I didn't. (Due to financial stuff, I had to put it off.) I ended up waiting (realizing it wasn't urgent) and decided to purchase it on BF/CM 2017. I planned to buy it on BF for about $1600 with the most basic specs (what I could afford.) Just before BF, I found it from another store for $1300 with much better specs! My waiting paid off. I was super happy. I got it $300 cheaper that what I was going to buy it for. Plus, it was configured with specs equal to $1800+ On a side note: If I had waited another month, I would've gotten it from that store for $1200. If I had waited until March/April 2018, I would've gotten it for $1100. (After that, it went back up to it's regular price.)

That's the nature of the game. There's risk with every buy and always something better coming out.

 

For a while it was pretty easy to predict (5,6,7,8,9 and 10 series) it's just a little less sure now.