While not as powerful as the newly released item(s), previous generation hardware does have its advantages. As I just mentioned, it is much cheaper than the latest and greatest. Also, since the hardware is at the end of its production cycle, odds are that all of the bugs and kinks have been taken care of in previous revisions. And perhaps most importantly, the hardware has been in the community for a while which means it is well documented on tech sites and forums across the net, so you will have a good idea of what to expect in terms of performance and overclocking before buying.