Bad time to buy a CPU?

soupcxan

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 10, 2010
Messages
286
I'm looking at upgrading my HTPC (i7-3770k) but not in a rush and I haven't really followed CPU developments the last couple of years...was looking at something like the i5-7500 or i7-7700 but with all the AMD competition, and the new Intel launch later this month, are we about to see a lot more discounting? Is it worth waiting a couple months?
 
I'm looking at upgrading my HTPC (i7-3770k) but not in a rush and I haven't really followed CPU developments the last couple of years...was looking at something like the i5-7500 or i7-7700 but with all the AMD competition, and the new Intel launch later this month, are we about to see a lot more discounting? Is it worth waiting a couple months?
You're right, it's a gamble. I myself am in a holding pattern waiting for 6+ months, hoping for minimum double the performance of my 6-core xeon for any upgrade.

I'd like to see what round 2 of competition comes out with, it's an exciting time.
 
If you want a 8700K at 350$ instead of a 7700K at 350$, wait a couple of weeks.
 
Normally, I would say just buy it. But we are just a couple weeks away from a major CPU launch. So I suggest wait.
 
I was going to build a new system this month but there are so many options that need to be tested that I can’t really come to a decision. If I absolutely had to buy right now, i’d be inclined to go with an x270 based system only because there are a lot of reviews and motherboard firmware has matured to the point where it’s pretty solid. I have decided that I’m going to give it til October and at that point I will build something. No real significance to October other than it gives me a couple months to watch reviews and it buts a deadline on the decision making process so I don’t just keep kicking the can down the line. Something new will always be around the corner so buy when you need to.
 
The best time to buy a CPU is going to be this black friday. I expect ALOT of discounts, cant wait!
 
Not quite right, coffee lake 8th gen is a paper launch on 8/21. The product itself wont be out until later this year.

Define later. Retail 8700K chips is already showing up, including full OEM systems from example Dell.
 
Define later. Retail 8700K chips is already showing up, including full OEM systems from example Dell.

Link

While the source could be very well wrong, they are saying the holiday season. Even *if* the cpu is ready doesn't mean you can buy a board for it. While I am not a break and fix tech anymore where I work, the dell motherboards are OEM's and not the retail stuff you find at newegg or amazon. Speaking of which, I work with a lot of dells. Matter of fact my work uses Dell business line exclusively. We use Dell as an end to end solution from our in-house certified techs to Dell KACE appliances to manage our 6,000 systems. Though, I guess I should say that KACE is now owned by QUEST.

I digress, I would happy to be wrong and see a retail product out on the 21st I just don't think we will. Also, when you have OEM's to small system builders soaking up product it leaves less avail product to retail. Guess we will see...
 
Link

While the source could be very well wrong, they are saying the holiday season. Even *if* the cpu is ready doesn't mean you can buy a board for it. While I am not a break and fix tech anymore where I work, the dell motherboards are OEM's and not the retail stuff you find at newegg or amazon. Speaking of which, I work with a lot of dells. Matter of fact my work uses Dell business line exclusively. We use Dell as an end to end solution from our in-house certified techs to Dell KACE appliances to manage our 6,000 systems. Though, I guess I should say that KACE is now owned by QUEST.

I digress, I would happy to be wrong and see a retail product out on the 21st I just don't think we will. Also, when you have OEM's to small system builders soaking up product it leaves less avail product to retail. Guess we will see...


Why would intel launch coffee lake in q3-q4 with and z370 chipset and te new z390 in q12018 if they will only be available at the holidays makes no sense, z370 already has a low life expectancy as it is they are not going to make it 14 days.

The main issue for the confusion of the coffee lake release is the fact that there will be 4 CPU's now(ish) and the rest of the line up in q1 2018 but I guess we will find out for sure in a couple days.
 
Why would intel launch coffee lake in q3-q4 with and z370 chipset and te new z390 in q12018

I think consensus is that the Cannon Lake chipset launching in Q1 2018 will be for mobile processors only, there won't be a new desktop chipset at that time.
 
I'd wait on coffelake cpus to drop fully. Right now AMD is not going to set price any lower if you ask me. They are the perfect balance of profit to cost to desire to pay from customers. I absolutely DO NOT anticipate a price drop on Threadripper if you want HEDT. Just not going to happen. The price is already devastating to Intel's X299 platform.

If anything I would just wait for someone to jump ship to Threadripper or something and then put their 7700K up on the site here for sale. Then get a kick ass bargain. Once my Threadripper is built this week I am posting my R7-1700x up for sale because I wont need it anymore to give you an idea of what to expect from folks on the site.
 
Link

While the source could be very well wrong, they are saying the holiday season. Even *if* the cpu is ready doesn't mean you can buy a board for it. While I am not a break and fix tech anymore where I work, the dell motherboards are OEM's and not the retail stuff you find at newegg or amazon. Speaking of which, I work with a lot of dells. Matter of fact my work uses Dell business line exclusively. We use Dell as an end to end solution from our in-house certified techs to Dell KACE appliances to manage our 6,000 systems. Though, I guess I should say that KACE is now owned by QUEST.

I digress, I would happy to be wrong and see a retail product out on the 21st I just don't think we will. Also, when you have OEM's to small system builders soaking up product it leaves less avail product to retail. Guess we will see...

The link cant even get specs right not to mention all the other parts that define common sense. And other named Z370 boards are already shown from Supermicro etc.

Including the ASRock lineup.

ASRock Z370 Fatal1ty Professional Gaming i7
ASRock Z370 Fatal1ty Gaming K6
ASRock Z370 Extreme4
ASRock Z370 Killer SLI/ac
ASRock Z370 Pro4
ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac
ASRock Z370M Pro4
 
I think consensus is that the Cannon Lake chipset launching in Q1 2018 will be for mobile processors only, there won't be a new desktop chipset at that time.

This is incorrect. The CNL-PCH is for desktop and mobile.
 
This is incorrect. The CNL-PCH is for desktop and mobile.

Do you have a source for that? I'm not arguing I'm actually curious, because I've heard it both ways and I haven't seen any official news on it either way.
 
Do you have a source for that? I'm not arguing I'm actually curious, because I've heard it both ways and I haven't seen any official news on it either way.

The entire 300 series chipset, minus Z370 is CNL-PCH. -S on a CPU=Desktop.

Intel-Coffee-Lake-S-Coffee-Lake-H-Cannonlake-300-Series-PCH.jpg

 
im waiting for 10 nm anyway.. as it's not far off. and cpu have a prety long life today compared to before where it was outdated next year almost lol :p thougt cannon lake is for early next year?
 
im waiting for 10 nm anyway.. as it's not far off. and cpu have a prety long life today compared to before where it was outdated next year almost lol :p thougt cannon lake is for early next year?

Cannon Lake CPUs are mobile only. Its Coffee Lake on the desktop. Ice Lake is a Q4ish 2018 product.
 
Yeah the surprising thing is that my i7-3770K is almost five years old and still holds up well for what I use it for. I wish the argument for upgrading were more compelling.
 
The link cant even get specs right not to mention all the other parts that define common sense. And other named Z370 boards are already shown from Supermicro etc.

Including the ASRock lineup.

ASRock Z370 Fatal1ty Professional Gaming i7
ASRock Z370 Fatal1ty Gaming K6
ASRock Z370 Extreme4
ASRock Z370 Killer SLI/ac
ASRock Z370 Pro4
ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac
ASRock Z370M Pro4

I could not find any of those boards on supermicro. The only reference I found was from here: https://videocardz.com/newz/upcoming-asrock-z370-motherboards-no-pics Then again you never provide sources or links....

We will see Aug 21st, till then take care.


Yeah the surprising thing is that my i7-3770K is almost five years old and still holds up well for what I use it for. I wish the argument for upgrading were more compelling.

I am ready and want to use M2 slots. Other than that I was pretty happy with my 3570 for the last 5 years.
 
just wait a week and grab a coffee lake brah. get some cigars and single malt too & have some fun.
 
I'm looking at upgrading my HTPC (i7-3770k) but not in a rush and I haven't really followed CPU developments the last couple of years...was looking at something like the i5-7500 or i7-7700 but with all the AMD competition, and the new Intel launch later this month, are we about to see a lot more discounting? Is it worth waiting a couple months?

What are you doing with the CPU? Are you limited by it in anyway? Is the CPU OCed?
 
Cannon Lake CPUs are mobile only. Its Coffee Lake on the desktop. Ice Lake is a Q4ish 2018 product.
ok i see. well guess im waiting for that then. im at 1440p aswell so makes little difference to me anyway.
 
I haven't been following the CPU "scene" for a while but I thought AMD was second tier. Maybe not anymore?

It depends on your usage, but for the most part AMD is still second tier unless perf/$ is all you care about. Top performance is still Intel.
 
It depends on your usage, but for the most part AMD is still second tier unless perf/$ is all you care about. Top performance is still Intel.

Lately, I would not call AMD second tier. Sure, Intel tends to win with single threaded programs but they both trade blows. However, it has been all AMD when it come to multi threaded programs.

According to the 8700k leaks your only looking at a 11% increase in single threaded programs (these are Intel tests not real world). They are also claiming 50% increase in multi threaded programs, I want to see real world testing on this claim. I wonder how long the z370 chipset will last?

For me, next week or so is a wait and see approach. However, I really do not believe coffee lake or supported boards will be avail on the 21st . Which leads me into looking at AMD's Threadripper 1900x platform. Problem(s) I have with Threadripper is that it's an expensive platform with picky ram options and limited aftermarket cooling (that cover the entire CPU lid).
 
However, it has been all AMD when it come to multi threaded programs.

Welcome to 2011 and even before.

8700K is a 1700X/1800X in MT and completely out of range in sub 6 threads and more for AMD. So unless the OP does nothing but non real time tasks that's heavily MTed then CFL is the way.

Not to mention the issues with bugs in Zen because someone skipped 9-12 months of QA.
 
Define later. Retail 8700K chips is already showing up, including full OEM systems from example Dell.

Well, I cannot define later because even Intel cannot give one yet.

"What makes these processors a little confusing is the fact that these are based on a refresh of the Kaby Lake architecture and are what Intel is calling ‘Kaby Lake Refresh’. These are not the ‘coffee lake’ or ‘cannon lake’ processors that so many desktop users have been waiting for. Those will be coming out later this fall and the exact date has not been revealed yet."

https://techreport.com/review/32425...core-with-four-cores-and-eight-threads-in-15w
 
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I'm more confused than ever now. First I read that coffee lake chips are going to require a new motherboard. Then I read later today that the first CL chips will actually just be tweaked Kaby Lake.

wtf
 
I'm more confused than ever now. First I read that coffee lake chips are going to require a new motherboard. Then I read later today that the first CL chips will actually just be tweaked Kaby Lake.

wtf

Skylake=14nm
Kaby Lake=14nm+ (Improved decode in IGP)
Coffee Lake=14nm++ (Possible VRM change).

Same core design. Besides CFL supports up to 6 cores.
 
New architecture is coming out soon, not to mention the sweet deals during Black Friday (well hopefully).
 
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