Moore's law and when to buy

Pjungg

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Jan 2, 2012
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TL;DR : How much can I expect today's computer prices to drop by say March-June?
This laptop is on sale until tomorrow http://shop.lenovo.com/us/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y470. Is it way too good to pass up because it's on a new years sale?

With constant innovation and modern technology being sold as door busters to make room for new upgrades on CPU, graphics cards, and the likes of it all, how's a person to decide when to buy a laptop??
Putting things like moore's law http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law into consideration just gives me headaches but a little food for thought now is way better than paying too much for something i don't need now.

Reasons to buy now:
Lenovo's door busters sale ends in two days (get real, Lenovo, but still u got me antsy)
Black Fridays over, All the major sales are done for the next few months
SOPA.. Not saying I'm going to download movies I've already seen at theatres or listen to a whole album before I buy it instead of just the radio single.. Or that I'm always that honorable, but if this bill passes before i get some of my files on the hdd, there will be little to no point in having lots of storage space.

Reasons to wait:
I'm going to play diablo3. Diablo3 won't be released for several months(my opinion).Price drops in several months?
Price drops
 
Solution
Lenovo's IdeaPads are ALWAYS on sale man... I would wait the several months and get an ivy bridge laptop when they come out... I bought my wife a Y570 a few months back for like 700 when they were on sale and I'm sure they're on sale again... I don't know if you'll necessarily see bigger price drops in the time frame you referenced but you will likely see at least similar price drops...

and Ivy bridge laptops running quad core with 35/45W TDP will be sweet

slhpss

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Lenovo's IdeaPads are ALWAYS on sale man... I would wait the several months and get an ivy bridge laptop when they come out... I bought my wife a Y570 a few months back for like 700 when they were on sale and I'm sure they're on sale again... I don't know if you'll necessarily see bigger price drops in the time frame you referenced but you will likely see at least similar price drops...

and Ivy bridge laptops running quad core with 35/45W TDP will be sweet
 
Solution

duxducis

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in reality prices don't drop overall, you simply get more bang for your buck (of course there there few exceptions (not comparing 1990 and 2011)
but for example i got dual core 4gb ram laptop 2 years ago on black Friday for 300$, 2011 black Friday they had quad core 8gb laptop for same 300$ price remain the same thou laptop specs doubled.
There items that factory will newer lower in price because they won't make any money, but you will get better deals as time goes on.

Some reasons to wait??? like release of new video card or new CPU (AMD 7000 series for example)
 

tlmck

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Jun 12, 2007
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I basically buy when my computer no longer does what I need it to do. I am beyond the "gotta have it now" stage.

Whether you buy today, tomorrow, or the next day, the day after that something will go on sale or some new must have tech will come out. It is how those folks stay in business.

All you can hope for is that you get a good product at the best available price for that day. Many stores do have a price guarantee for 30 days or something, so you might look for those.

Having said all that, Lenovo makes very good stuff, and that laptop should play Diablo just fine albeit with some video settings lowered. The Core i5 model also seems to be the best "deal".

While I was at the site just now, an ad popped up saying to sign up and get 10% off. Might make it even more attractive.
 

wiyosaya

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Agreed. For my recent builds, I have used "last year's" technology in many areas and have gotten what I think is a great value for my money; it avoids paying $1K for that top-of-the-line CPU that is only 20-percent faster than the CPU that costs half as much. One can always wait for the latest to go on the market and spend a lot of money for that, however, in my opinion, it is better to buy something that fits your needs rather than buy something for bragging rights.
 

Pjungg

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Jan 2, 2012
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Thank you everyone!!;for sharing your expertise and helping a noob out. Picked best answer cause it took away the pressure of dropping almost 800 on a laptop by tonight.
I used to think that with new CPUs, gpus etc that older models became cheaper to acquire but come to think of it I've never seen a laptop with more than intel hd 3000 be sold for less than 500. I'm not looking for the newest tech, but now I can take a second to adjust the specs I need to play d3 at like medium-high resolution

Thought the i7 lenovo was the best deal but going to look into it