How long till Core 2's days are numbered?

[mallett]

Or more specifically the Core 2 quads.

I recently got a new 775 motherboard when I filed my last one in a deep dark hole due to it screwing with my hard drives.

So my question is with a whole new set of Intel processors on the near horizon how long do I have to upgrade to a top dog Core 2 Quad and keep my computer happy for the next few years?

I'm guessing not very, but what do the informed of you think?

[Terbinator]

Well, people still run S939 Athlons so quite a bit yet.

[Agent]

Depends what you're doing with it.

For most people on Earth, any Core2 based chip is going to be above their needs, with other components being the bottleneck anyway.

Unless you're into very high-end gaming, game development, high end video encoding etc...then there isn't a huge difference between the i5/i7 range and Core2 for most general day to day use.

[mallett]

Oh I fully understand that a Core 2 will satisfy my needs a-plenty and it wont be till some many years down the line till I build a whole new comp that I will look at something more powerful but I'm finding now that things can get a bit sluggish on my E6200 (iirc) when I have AutoCAD, SketchUp, Foxit, Firefox and others all running at the same time and would like a bit of a speed boost.

So really it comes down this. I have limited moneys and a pretty decent motherboard and plenty of ram that I don't want to upgrade, which leaves me wanting to pocket myself a shiny new Q8400.

I guess what I didn't make clear in the op is I want to know how long these are going to be on sale, not how long they will last.

[Saracen]

I'd predict they'll be available for quite a while, if you're prepared to buy second-hand.

If you mean how long will Intel be selling new s775 chips, well, that's entirely different. I haven't looked at their roadmap recently, but my guess would be that your nervousness is justified, and that as the i-series range fills out and addresses all segments, the s775 range will die off. If you want a brand new one, keep your eyes open for signs of them ending, because I doubt it will be too much longer. Already, I think it's hard to argue for s775 if you're buying mobo, chip and RAM, so really, it's a market for upgraders that don't want to replace the rest of the core of the system.

[barker967]

Keep an eye on ebay, i`ve noticed Q9550`s are going for about the £150 mark, which is a good price.

[Skulltrail]

I think the Q8xxx series, especially in the latest stepping are better than people generally give them credit for. On a Gigabyte P45 board I got a Q8300 to easily run at 3.6GHz (1920MHz FSB) at 1.25V, which for a little over £100 I thought was very impressive.

[Pob255]

Desktop will probably go before laptops, atm the Pentium Dual core is still very common as it's a good chunk cheaper than i3

Some of the older E4xxx Allendale as are the early pentium dual core E21xx "Allendale", the sub 2.4ghz cpu and esp the sub 2ghz cpu.

ps mallett are you overclocking at all? if you're not and you've got the original Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe then it's only 1.8ghz at stock so I'm not surprised it's feeling a bit sluggish.

[Blitzen]

Or more specifically the Core 2 quads.

I recently got a new 775 motherboard when I filed my last one in a deep dark hole due to it screwing with my hard drives.

So my question is with a whole new set of Intel processors on the near horizon how long do I have to upgrade to a top dog Core 2 Quad and keep my computer happy for the next few years?

I'm guessing not very, but what do the informed of you think?

Look at it this way, the Q6600 imho, is THE BEST processor to be released for years.
Its usability, even now, is incredible, and still cuts through everything at an alarming rate. I am happy to keep mine indefintely, and i am sure therte are lots of others here aswell that cant think of any good reason to upgrade when its still an amazing chip.