Picking the right time to buy a P4

[Samjham]

I've noticed over the last several days that the P4 prices have been gradually dropping. The 2.4B in particular is the CPU that I'm looking at buying. I was wondering if anyone knows about where these price drops are going to bottom out. The 2.4B is now down to $202 at newegg. Should I go for it now, or is it going to drop significantly more in the next couple of weeks?

[Samjham]

Originally posted by Samjham
I've noticed over the last several days that the P4 prices have been gradually dropping. The 2.4B in particular is the CPU that I'm looking at buying. I was wondering if anyone knows about where these price drops are going to bottom out. The 2.4B is now down to $202 at newegg. Should I go for it now, or is it going to drop significantly more in the next couple of weeks?

Nevermind, since this morning it's now dropped to $197 at newegg. I think I'll wait until the price drops level off before I buy it.

[Arcadian]

Originally posted by Samjham
Nevermind, since this morning it's now dropped to $197 at newegg. I think I'll wait until the price drops level off before I buy it.

According to the official pricelist, lots of 1000 of the 2.4GHz parts are $193 each.

http://www.intel.com/intel/finance/pricelist/

The best deal on Pricewatch isn't likely to get far below this point. FWIW.

Arcadian

[Belial]

You can wait till it's made with the C1 stepping also. Should overclock better and would be a little faster.

[Samjham]

Thanks for both of your replies. When can I expect a C1 stepping of the 2.4B to be available and at what cost? I'm not in a rush to build a new PC yet.

[WildWeasel]

i would say buy now.

as i understand it, theres no way of knowing which stepping you're buying when the 2.4B is switches to the new one

[Samjham]

Originally posted by WildWeasel
i would say buy now.

as i understand it, theres no way of knowing which stepping you're buying when the 2.4B is switches to the new one

Well according to another thread these are the C1 steppings:

http://www.sharkyforums.com/showthre...hreadid=152265

Originally posted by Belial:
C1 stepping

1.8A SL6LA
2A SL6GQ
2.20 SL6GR
2.26 SL6DU
2.40 SL6GS
2.40B SL6DV
2.53 SL6DW
2.66 SL6DX
2.80 SL6DY(?)

So I looked at newegg to see if they had these steppings and this is what they say about the two 2.4GHz P4's:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...tby=14&order=1
Intel Pentium 4 / 2.4BGHz Northwood 512K Socket 478 Processor 533MHz Processor Bus OEM
Specifications:
CPU: 2.4 GHz
Type: Pentium 4
Cache: 512K
BUS: 533MHz
Socket: 478 OEM (Processor Only) -(CPU ONLY NO RAMBUS RAM) Model#: BX80532PC2400D

Intel Pentium 4 / 2.4GHz Northwood 512K Socket 478 Processor 400MHz Retail box
Specifications:
CPU: 2.4 GHz
Type: Pentium 4 Northwood
Cache: 512K
BUS: 400 MHz
Socket: 478 Retail (Box with Heatsink and fan) (CPU ONLY NO RAMBUS RAM) Model#: BX80532PC2400DSL67R

Nothing in those model numbers seem to match the codes for the C1 stepping CPU's. So it looks as though at least newegg doesn't have them. Do you know of any other vendor that is selling them?

[azns_kickass]

You will have to wait for current B0 inventories to clear before you can buy C1 stepping 2.4Bs.

Latest news from www.overclockers.com

"Intel Delays Early C-1 Stepping for 2.40B, 2.53GHz CPUs Back to early October like all the others, which probably means really November.
What does this mean? Might indicate a few technical/yield problems, more likely, too much current inventory.

This means a change in strategy for some overclockers. If all these are supposed to show up at the same time, including the 1.8A, might as well buy the 1.8A."

Hope this helps.

[Samjham]

Originally posted by azns_kickass
You will have to wait for current B0 inventories to clear before you can buy C1 stepping 2.4Bs.

Latest news from www.overclockers.com

"Intel Delays Early C-1 Stepping for 2.40B, 2.53GHz CPUs Back to early October like all the others, which probably means really November.
What does this mean? Might indicate a few technical/yield problems, more likely, too much current inventory.

This means a change in strategy for some overclockers. If all these are supposed to show up at the same time, including the 1.8A, might as well buy the 1.8A."

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the link. I have one question...the article gives the impression that the 1.8A is going to be the one to buy (which is what I would have guessed), what would you speculate that a 1.8A C1 would be able to hit on average for an OC?

I tend to think that there won't be much difference, if any at all, between the 1.8A C1 and the 2.6 or 2.8C1's and I wouldn't be surprised to see 1.8A C1's hitting almost the same frequency as the 2.6/2.8's with a higher FSB to boot, making the 1.8A C1 the CPU to get.

[deeznuts]

that seems to be the case. that all cpu's of same stepping hit very close to each other. but nobody can tell what they will hit by then. C1 then might be a lot higher than C1 now. just gotta wait.

[azns_kickass]

OC.com speculates that the C1 1.8As should hit 3GHz+ without too many problems.

I would personally get the C1 with the lowest multiplier, which would be the P4 2.26, with a multiplier of 17.

The next best choice would be the 1.8A/2.4B with multipliers of 18. Of course, if the 1.8A hits the same speeds as the 2.4B then it makes little sense to buy the 2.4B. We will just have to wait and see on that.