Price Guides October 2003: CPU and Memory
by Kristopher Kubicki & Larry Barber on October 13, 2003 11:50 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Welcome back to another fun filled Price Guide. As you may know, we took a couple weeks off for Computex and midterms, but we are back in full swing. Of course, many of you probably recall the particular processor launch from late September, but what changes did we see on pricing? This week we look back again at CPU, Motherboards and Video Cards to see what surprises this week holds. As always, don’t forget you can check prices on our Hard Drives, Memory, CPU, Motherboards and Video Cards at anytime through our price engine. Furthermore, all of our price guide tables are reflective of real time prices, so don’t expect any outdated information in our tables.
AMD CPU
It appears with the release of the AMD Athlon 64 product line the prices of the Athlon XP line was negatively effected. With the exeption of the already over priced Athlon XP 3200+ all XP chips increased in price 5-10%. Fortunately, the Athlon 64 3200+ dipped way under its debut price to $404. Athlon 64 FX prices also dropped, but only slightly. If you need a 64 bit chip for whatever reason, the 3200+ is the better processor.
Before Computex, we also saw the fairly uneventful launch of the 1.6GHz Duron processor. AMD was supposed to phase this component out, but our guess is that Asian markets have continually spurred a demand for the processor. The Opteron line did not fluctuate in price at all since last week, although for the month the processors have dropped in price about 8%. As we predicted about a month ago, the Opteron line is set to begin undercutting the Athlon 2800+ MP and 2600+ MP lines by this time next month.
In our opinion it is not a particularly great time to buy an AMD system. Unstable XP prices coupled with Athlon 64 launch mean poor deals for at least 6 weeks until things calm down. Furthermore, the upcoming holidays usually bring several deals, so sit tight!
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Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
#8 I can understand if people are cautious about early motherboards, but I find people using the Athlon 64 core as their sole excuse not to purchase just naive.Since the basic core of the Athlon 64 has been on the market for over 6 months in the form of the Opteron I have to ask how old should this "1st generation processor" be before it can be safely recommended?
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
As for spending 400 bucks on a 1st generation processor, I could never recommend that. I would never recommend the 3.2GHz P4 either!Kristopher
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
The main reason I did not recommend an AMD system over an Intel system this time is because AMD prices are on the rise. I personally would have bought a 2500+ myself, but it is my opinion to wait a couple weeks for the prices to stabilize.Kristopher
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
#3 recommending a 2.4 GHz P4 at more than twice the price of a AXP 2500+ as a "bargain" stinks also - how comes? Aces used to be a reliable source, but i do not get their reasoning this time.Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
2.6c has a $30.50 premium over the 2.4c, not a $20 one.Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
#3 I second that. Now is a great time to build an amd system. The athlon 64 for $404 that is a great price the 3.2ghz p4 is $600 and that's only 32bits. The reviewer dropped the ball here.Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
they say it's not a good time to build an amd system on the first page when you can get the barton 2500+ for $85 which is an awesome overclocker and awesome processor in general....then they say the celeron line is looking attractive with a 2.6ghz celeron at $85-90....is it just me or is that a load of crap....who would buy a celeron over a 2500+ barton? Somewhere I missed the logicAnonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
Hi, just want to let you know that the word "effected" on the front page should be "affected" instead. No biggie, just a common mistake!Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
would it be possible to put a price per megabyte column for the ram?