Some Sager Questions: Is it a good time to buy now?

These are the two models I am looking at, and I have some questions:

#1) Is it a good time to buy this holiday season or am I better off waiting for a refresh? I know that intel will be coming with new processors soon but the increase is only 10% so I can definitely skip that.. but I haven't heard anything about video card?

#2) What is the difference between these two computers beside the screen size? They cost the same basically.

#3) Why doesn't xotic pc ship with Windows 8 and forces to pay for upgrade?

This is mostly for gaming and heavy duty work stuff. Thanks for any help guys!

 

Well...

1) When is a good time to buy technology? I would guess now is not bad at all, we get no new process node next gen so it will be incremental improvements most likely, but you can never be 100% sure.

2) The 17 inch officially supports overclocking the cpu (3720qm and higher), has an extra hard drive bay and the larger screen. Both the machine and power brick are heavier.

3) They don't force you to buy it, they give you a discount if you don't want it as opposed to forcing you to get windows.

 

Depending how long you can wait the 680MX which has been announced but you can't get them yet and the 690M could be just around the corner. The real question is when do you need/want a new one?

 

The 680mx is not even known to be coming to notebooks yet and its not going to be a night and day difference even if it does.

 

As Meaker mentioned there really isn't a better time then any to buy technology especially computers. There's always something better coming a few months down the road. The components and pricing right now are great so i'd make a purchase if you're ready for a new computer.

Sager computers don't come with Windows 7 or 8. This is great if you have your own copy ready to install so you dont have to pay for it. Other brands that have it preinstalled also have the price of Windows already into the price of the computer. Windows 7 and 8 cost the same so if you do need it on your configuration you're not being chargee more. The best deal right now is to get Windows 7, then take advantage of the cheap upgrade to Windows 8 Pro through Microsoft.

 

Thanks for all the responses guys! That was very fast.

I was referring to upgrade schedules.. for example it would have been pretty dumb to buy an iPhone 4 a few months ago with the iPhone 5 basically announced.. I just wanted to be sure this isnt the case for sager. Looks like I'll be going with the NP9150 since I don't need more hard disk bays and would prefer a smaller chassi!

 

OK, but you don't think Nvidia is going to only release it for the iMac do you? Seems like very little return on a product.

 

We're probably about half way through the current Ivy Bridge life span. Intel seems to release a new chipset close to once a year. Since the current one is already the smaller 22nm architecture there wont be as much of a change going to Ivy Bridge to Haswell as there was Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge.

 

Product development costs are virtually nill as it just needs a slight tweak to power components to work in a system designed fot it, so possibly as notebook manufacturers could potentialy have much higher costs to implement it (heatsinks, power circuitry, whole system validation etc.)

 

It's not a matter of nVidia releasing to iMac only, but selling to customers who will buy it.

And it's not little return on the product. 3.8 Million annual sales is not peanuts. Even if 680mx is 20% of that, it's still 700k units.

And as Meaker says, it's not like a brand new architecture, fab process, or anything. It's the same product just with a faster chip and likely higher voltage. And laptops will likely need modifications to accept it. Could some laptops be designed to accommodate it? Likely, but it's also likely not going to be a straight plug and play with current designs. Certain desktop cards can sell in only the tens of thousands of units compared to millions. Once a product is developed, then it's just smacking it on a PCB and cooling it.

 

The chip itself is at the same clocks so will likely use the same voltage, it just has more working units so draw a little more juice. The biggest difference is the standard voltage ram running at higher clocks.

 

Oops, you're right, I was thinking something else.

 

My point was it would seem a wasted opportunity to only sell them to Apple for the iMac. I'm sure there will be at least a few laptop manufacturers that release models with the 680MX.

 

No... It's Apple exclusive right now. There is no rumor or any indication it's coming to notebooks. The MXM isn't even compatible.

 

For the hardware and upgrades you can get RIGHT NOW it's a pretty good time to buy. Price/performance ratio has never been better in my opinion.

 

It usually does every generation

But with these things, wait until you NEED to buy and then use the budget you have to get the most bang/buck or to do what you need it to do.

Buying early will leave you spending more and getting less, waiting too long will leave you without a needed machine.

 

Right. Unless you know something is announced and just around the corner, waiting is just waiting for something that might or might not arrive. But if you are just waiting for the next best thing then you likely don't need a laptop. That being said, best time to buy is usually mid to late summer. New Intel CPU's come in the late spring early summer, and nVidia and AMD usually have a new offering around that time as well. Plus there's usually "back to school" savings. However, not everyone can wait six months to buy. I think the current crop of machines are great, and if you get one with a top end GPU will last you for a few years of gaming enjoyment.

And these laptops rarely ever go on "clearance" they just stop selling them and start selling the new models, or just refresh their upgrade offerings. So it's not like you'll get $500 off a 680m system in a few months when the 780m comes out (or whenever). They will just stop selling the 680m and start selling systems with the 780m.