by hikaru » Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:13 am
Intel's current CPU architecture is called Nehalem, which is the direct successor of the Core 2 Duo generation and on the marked for about a year. The main advantages of Nehalem over Core 2 Duo is the GPU that is integrated into the CPU in the i3/i5 series and the selective built-in single-core overclocking feature in the i5/i7 series. Both bring advantages in power consumption and the latter will also improve performance in situations where you have no use for multiple cores.
The next generation will be Sandy Bridge and is expected to hit the market at the end of the first quarter of 2011. It will come with some improvements in performance and integrated graphics in all CPUs.
I can't tell you if you should wait for Sandy Bridge or not. Only you can decide that. If you're still fine with your current laptop, wait a while! Sandy Bridge will be superior to Nehalem, and if you think Nehalem will suffice for you Nehalem platforms will become cheaper once Sandy Bridge is out.
However, if you intend to use Linux in combination with a dedicated graphics card (especially NVIDIA) you should get a Nehalem i7 since all the others have NVIDIAs "Optimus" technology which is not supported by free operating systems so far (and most likely for a long time) and results in non-working dedicated graphics, giving you only the Intel GPU. Sandy Bridge will most likely suffer from the same problem.