It looks as if AMD did a price cut as well

[blackpanther26]

The Phenom II 920 sells for $195 now and the Phenom II 940 sells for $235 on Newegg.com.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010340343 1050746347&name=Phenom II X4

 

[jamesgoddard]

Also there are some great mobo / CPU combo bundles on offer - you can get a PhII 940 and your selection of top mobo's for under $340 - like to see i7 come close to that

 

[powerbaselx]

The Phenom II 920 sells for $195 now and the Phenom II 940 sells for $235 on Newegg.com.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010340343 1050746347&name=Phenom II X4

I was going to buy an upgrade now with Intel i7 or C2Q but with this price cut i'll have to reconsider again if the price reduction is worth to loose some performance but reduce also the upgrade cost. Another thing is that the i7 motherboard costs are too high.

 

[jamesgoddard]

I was going to buy an upgrade now with Intel i7 or C2Q but with this price cut i'll have to reconsider again if the price reduction is worth to loose some performance but reduce also the upgrade cost. Another thing is that the i7 motherboard costs are too high.

Go on... You know this combo makes sense... http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.155922

 

[pr2thej]

Also there are some great mobo / CPU combo bundles on offer - you can get a PhII 940 and your selection of top mobo's for under $340 - like to see i7 come close to that

Wonder how those AM3 boards will fare.

 

[jamesgoddard]

Wonder how those AM3 boards will fare.

I don't see there being a price primium for AM3 boards - because most of the current chipsets that support AM2+ will support AM3...

i7 costs because Intel charge a huge premium for the x58 setup - it's not due to mobo makers - there will never be 'cheap' i7 platforms due to this...

 

[pr2thej]

There is the whole DDR3 business though, surely thats going to pump the price of the AM3 mobos? Or is DDR3 just not a necessity for PII?

 

[jamesgoddard]

It's not going to affect the mobo price, at all, as the only differences between an AM2+ and an AM3 mobo is a different memory socket, and slightly different voltage and memory traces between CPU and memory..

The reason i7 mobos are expensive (really expensive) is more do do with Intel milking the profit out of x58.

And also - DDR3 prices are coming down all the time - I believe DDR3 1066 spot prices are at parity with DDR2 800 now...

 

[jamesgoddard]

Oh and - as we can see from all the current PhII systems running happy on DDR2 - no DDR3 is not a necessity... But it will probably bring 5% or so performance.

 

[salem80]

that's great news ..

 

[spud]

The Phenom II 920 sells for $195 now and the Phenom II 940 sells for $235 on Newegg.com.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010340343 1050746347&name=Phenom II X4

Pretty slim margins there.

Word, Playa.

 

[BadTrip]

It's not going to affect the mobo price, at all, as the only differences between an AM2+ and an AM3 mobo is a different memory socket, and slightly different voltage and memory traces between CPU and memory..

The reason i7 mobos are expensive (really expensive) is more do do with Intel milking the profit out of x58.

And also - DDR3 prices are coming down all the time - I believe DDR3 1066 spot prices are at parity with DDR2 800 now...

link please?

 

[pr2thej]

DDR3 is looking damn pricey in the UK, i just checked it out.
6GB DDR3, £130 odd....same brand / range @ DDR2 just happens to be on a £34 special today, reduced from £40. For arguments sake, 4GB DDR3 £95ish.


So....AM3 comes out, x58 margins get slimmed?

 

[jamesgoddard]

link please?

To what part are you looking for?

 

[nerdic]

good find! thanks for sharing.

I was going to build a new gaming system, and I might have to have a second look at AMD.


Thanks again.

 

[runmymouth]

Why is everyone comparing phenom II with icore7? It really should be compared to the ~Q9550. This is a similar price point and what it really is competing at.

 

[medjohnson77]

Given the fact of the price drops I wish I would of waited a two weeks to get the 940 Dragon. Oh well still a good processor, I am at 3.6ghz @ 1.38 volts stable...

 

[jamesgoddard]

Why is everyone comparing phenom II with icore7? It really should be compared to the ~Q9550. This is a similar price point and what it really is competing at.

Because performance is close enough to make the price differencial between a i7 and PhII important

 

[runmymouth]

I am just saying that the same comparison can be made with the Q9550 which costs the same as the low end icore, and the phII. The Icore is way ahead of both in many areas but where a lot of hardware fanatics are, gaming, there is not much benefit to icore7, so that makes people look at the E8600 or Q9550 which is related in price and performance to the phII.

 

[roofus]

Because performance is close enough to make the price differencial between a i7 and PhII important

Actually, the P2 is closer in performance to the Yorkies than the i7's. i7 is thrown out there often to underscore what a great deal it is but in truth, it is competing with the Yorkfield, not the i7. You compare the Yorkie and the P2 side by side price wise, it doesn't have that "dramatic" effect as comparing it to the niche market CPU.

 

[nsimo86]

@ runmymouth

Stop calling the core i7 an "icore7", its not made by Apple!

 

[runmymouth]

@ runmymouth

Stop calling the core i7 an "icore7", its not made by Apple!

isnt everything i-name? Just how I remember it but you are correct sir.

 

[jimmysmitty]

To what part are you looking for?

The part where you somehow know exactally how much Intel is charging for the X58 chipsets since you seem to have the inside knowledge that no one else does....

BTW, $200 bucks for a X58 mobo thats still pretty damn new with full 2x PCIe 2.0 slots is not that bad. And thats the price all high end mobos come out at. Look at the X48 mobos. They came out pretty high priced too (about $300) but some now are sub $200.

I am just saying that the same comparison can be made with the Q9550 which costs the same as the low end icore, and the phII. The Icore is way ahead of both in many areas but where a lot of hardware fanatics are, gaming, there is not much benefit to icore7, so that makes people look at the E8600 or Q9550 which is related in price and performance to the phII.

I will agree with you in single card gaming but multi card gaming is a whole nother realm.

As for the comparison, not sure why people don't take the Q9550 into account. Its shown it easily performs on par if not better than a Ph II 940 and thats with a lower clock too.

@ runmymouth

Stop calling the core i7 an "icore7", its not made by Apple!

Apple only wishes they made a product that could actually compete against their competitor.

Sorrry. Just had to take the shot at Apple.

BTW.... what ever happened to the bitten Apple symbol? Seems to be hiding these days.

 

[jj463rd]

Apple only wishes they made a product that could actually compete against their competitor.

Sorrry. Just had to take the shot at Apple.

BTW.... what ever happened to the bitten Apple symbol? Seems to be hiding these days.

Apple seems to be having a few problems.
You probably saw this
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Apple-Display-Port-DVI-Distortion,news-3322.html

and then of course is the problem with Steve Jobs leaving because of health problems.
Plus Apple got hit with a few lawsuits about the displays in their iMac line.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/05/apple_sued_over_defective_imac_displays.html

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/31/apple_hit_with_another_millions_of_colors_lawsuit.html

On the bright side for Apple are the Mac fanatics who will pay ANYTHING at ANY PRICE for Apple products and accessories.

This is one area in which AMD could take quite an advantage with their graphic card line.
See this Apple fanatic who has paid $210 for a Mac version of an ATI 3870 card
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFWjNJjCD6A
IF AMD made a Mac version of a ATI 4870X2 they could sell it at a huge profit to MacPro users.

 

[weinheimer]

intel has always charged a premium for their premium chipset. Their are hundreds of reports, articles even quotes from motherboard manufacturers to verify this.

here's one.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2635

another

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/7702-intel-reveals-p43-chipset-sets-series-4-chipset-pricing/

another

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/30/intel_chipset_price_cuts/



My cursory example shows that intel does charge a premium for its newer chipsets, but I was surprised to learn that they are only a small part of the price difference. The combination of "new", features such as included e-sata controllers, raid controllers, firewire, triple and quad 16 / 8X pci-e leads me to believe that the motherboard makers, marketing and intel marketing altogether result in the high priced new tech motherboard prices.

I personally cannot justify $250 to $300 for a motherboard when a P45 with all the features I need and a Q9550 cost hundreds less and comes with performance 10 to 20% of the i7 and is still VERY FAST!

Unless you are running a workstation for video editing, modeling, engineering, science etc., the absolute cutting edge system is simply not the best performance for the dollar.

Even then, you are probably better of with that Q9550 or Phenom II 940 and getting a render farm for the video editing, or sharing a CAD system for heavy crunching with other engineers and then run your own stuff on the main stream hardware.

Hey, I'm just glad we have such powerful machines at such reasonable prices! Can you imagine running an HD Media center PC on a $39 dual core AM2 X2 cpu on integrated 790G video for $80 without AMD? intel would never have gotten there without them. We would be running 4 Ghz PIV's or worse Itanium derivatives that use 300 watts each had AMD not been there to push intel.

Buy the good AMD tech when you can to keep them alive, but just like me, you have to do what's best for your household, business, employer etc. I run both and I'm pleasantly surprised with values from both companies.