When to buy a laptop for College in 2012-13?

Well, I'll be going to college this fall, intending to major in Computer Science, and I'm finding it quite hard to settle on the perfect time to buy a laptop for myself. The Ivy Bridge has just been launched; Windows 8 is set to launch around October. But my classes start in August-September.

August/September: I feel the market would be flooded with Ivy Bridge based models by this time. Moreover, I hope problems like the SATA controller degradation in early Sandy Bridge chipsets, will be weeded out by that time. The premium prices for Ivy Bridge would have reduced a bit. Windows 7 prices should be at their lowest, prior to the Windows 8 launch. And I am not a huge fan of Windows 8. (Moreover, some vendors may offer free upgrade to Windows 8.) This may seem to be the best time to go shopping. But wait...

October/November/December: Windows 8 launch is the big thing this year - most vendors will be focusing their efforts on preparing for Windows 8 launch - they will optimize the new models for Windows 8 + Ivy Bridge, neglecting Windows 7 + Ivy Bridge. The products available in August, may very well be inferior. Also, by now, HDD prices would have normalized.

Next April/May/June: Haswell (the "tock" in Intel's tick-tock cycle) is set to launch next year. By then Windows 8 would have matured.

Now my situation: I would require a laptop as soon as possible, but I am ready to wait if it offers "significant" advantage to do so. I'm not keen on gaming, but I want a powerful, fast and portable machine that would last 4+ years. I have a budget of $1000-2000. When should I go shopping, for the most cost-effective, yet "reasonably" future-safe product.

I say in august so by the time school starts your prepared with your materials to do your college work

To profdlp and M1GU31: Thanks for you replies! I take it that you mean it won't harm to just go ahead with my purchase, before the classes begin, since there would not be as much of a difference as to warrant going without a laptop to college. I too feel so, but, I wanted to confirm.

To profdlp: I did try Windows 8 Consumer Preview using Virtualbox, but I wasn't too pleased. Of course, I'll try it again in June when the Release Preview is released.