First time buying ThinkPad, question about product refresh

[daniel0731ex]

Hello everyone, I will be buying my first laptop sometime this summer and I have decided to get a ThinkPad L430. As I'm quite ignorant of computer products, I have a few questions related to the upcoming Intel Haswell release:

1. Are new processors only introduced on new models, or do they add them as an option in the current model before the new one comes out?

2. Would there be some form of clearance price drop after the new model (or just the processor?) is announced, or would they be immediately taken off the shelf? I live in Canada, so I do not have access to the outlet.

3. Let's say I changed my mind and wants to buy the new model, is it possible to get the mid-range processor from the previous generation? When I look at the customization option on the website, I could only find the last-gen Core-i3, the Core-i5 option is only available as the newest gen processor.

4. I intend to use this laptop for quite a while without replacing or upgrading. Do you think touch- would become a prominent part of computing in the relevant years?


Thanks a lot for your help.

[ZaZ]

Typically when Intel releases their new platform, the next one will be Haswell, the ThinkPad line up gets refreshed with the new CPUs.

There might be some good deals on older ThinkPads, but it's hard if so at this point in time.

They might continue to offer older CPUs, they offered Sandy Bridge i3 CPUs on newer ThinkPads when Ivy Bridge was released, but again it's hard to say right now. Honestly, unless you've got a specific need to push the CPU frequently, almost any recent CPU should offer more than enough performance. My seven year old R60e is perfectly fine as a every day notebook. Your best bet for better performance is adding a SSD as the boot drive.

I personally have never had the desire to touch the screen on my notebook. If you think you might use it, it might be worth considering.

[phr]

Haswell will apparently bring a big boost in battery runtime due to much lower idle power consumption. When running flat out it's somewhat more efficient than Ivy Bridge, but not radically so. Haswell also will have some new concurrency features (TSX) that are promising for future software. I'm going back and forth about waiting for it.

[daniel0731ex]

Thanks for the advices; I think I'll simply buy the current models, since it will be some time before the new major refresh comes up I suppose? The Edge E430/530 was recently replaced by the 431/531, but still with the same processors. I'm assuming the new processor refresh will be the (*)40 models.