Bearlake (P35) vs Eaglelake (P45)

[Chakka]

With the limited supply and ergo higher prices of penryns (yes wolfdales and yorkfields), it seems like it might be worth my wait until early Q2 to upgrade to the new Intel Eaglelake mobo. It seems to meet more of what I am looking for and gives more room for upgrading - like 2 videocards...or it will really make the p35 really, really cheap. Here are some statistics of the new chipset (if not posted before):

"Eaglelake will be the successor chipset to the G35 and P35 chipsets and targeted for mainstream consumers. Eaglelake will include PCI Express 2.0, a new ICH10 southbridge and be manufactured using a 65 nm process. The chipset will also include the built-in Danbury data protection engine which will provide hardware-based content encryption. PS/2 and LPT support is thought to be dropped. It will also have built-in HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI support with HDCP. The P45 will be mainstream chipset with support for either a single x16 PCIe 2.0 slot or dual x8 slots enabling CrossFireX.".

[Kougar]

If using PCIe 2.0 capable cards then I would say it is a safe bet that x8+x8 PCIe 2.0 configurations aren't going to bottleneck anything.

Still, remember that catch about waiting to upgrade... you can wait forever because there will always be something just about to launch around the corner. P45 isn't going to work with future released Intel processors, and Nehalem just under a year away. It'll be even less by the time G45/P45 is released and the supply of Penryns normalizes.

[darkorb]

so when would be the time to upgrade to a p35/x38/q6600/q9450 for me? on 939 :)

[Victor]

well, if you plan to go for the new system. then now would be a good time. The P35 woudl perform on par with the x38 and oc the same leve as well. I would say go for the Q6600 as well as it's cheaper than the Q9450 (which is not out yet).

[Kougar]

On April 20th Intel is planning to cut prices on the Q6600 to $229, and the Q6700 will drop by half price to $270.

P45 verses P35, there isn't much of a difference although P45 will overclock better (P35 but on a smaller nm process size).

So I would agree with Victor... can wait for the price cuts, but if you wait to much longer then that, then you're going to find your new hardware has become permanently outdated overnight as soon as Nehalem arrives.