QOTD: Do You Think CPUs are Overpriced?

By Tuan An Nguyen
published

Technology has a way of advancing while reducing the cost of consumption over time.

Typically, this also brings down high-end technology rather quickly, and for less and better than what you could have bought a year or two before. There has been much debate about CPU prices recently, even though today you can get a pretty kick-ass processor for far less than just a few short years ago.

Today's QOTD is quick and simple:

Do you think CPUs are overpriced? Either way, why?

Got a QOTD idea to send to us? Email us at qotd at bestofmedia.com!

Tuan An Nguyen
86 Comments Comment from the forums
  • The_Blood_Raven
    Lets see an $80 E5200 can be overclocked to up to 4.2 Ghz while a Phenom II 920 can be had for as little as $150. Add in that the top performing chip is $300 and I'm going to go with no, we are actually quite spoiled right now.
    Reply
  • doomtomb
    For enthusiast and gamers, yes. I don't think they are way overpriced but the Core i7 920 has been out for over 6 months now and is still $280, about a $20 decrease which is nothing. $300 for a processor is a lot. The Core i7 965 and all other extreme intel processors are wayyyy overpriced, especially since I see people taking a 2.66GHz i7 920 and overclocking it to higher speeds than the guy with the 3.2GHz i7 965 that costs 3 times as much. Another example: Core 2 Quad Q6600 which has been out for almost forever is still $200-215! Just because it sells well, they are keeping the price up. But I guess this is what we have AMD for! Their prices are reasonable.
    Reply
  • squatchman
    Prices have gotten cheaper in comparison to the increase in capabilities.


    Try to buy what is equivalent to a Core i7 920 10 years ago and see how many tens of thousands of dollars you would have to spend.
    Reply
  • scook9
    yes and no. They are usually the first or second most expensive thing in my system, after graphics, my current build is the first where the graphcis cost more, because there are 2 cards. I currently have an i7 920 that I paid $229.99 for (courtesy of Micro Center) and I can't argue with that price, it replaced a Q9550 that was $300. What I can complain about is motherboard prices, the Asus Rampage II Gene that my 920 sits on, cost more that then the dam CPU did at $249. This was never a problem with socket 775. SO yes, they are overpriced, but not yet to the point where I will skimp on them.

    And of course, overclocking adds ALOT of value to a CPU, I can run mine at 4 GHz (50% overclock) and still be under the Intel specified voltage (we wont discuss temperatures right now ;))
    Reply
  • tpi2007
    In general, no. If you made the question a few years ago, I might have said yes. But now there are so many options, that it is really hard to be ripped off in a deal.

    Of course, top model CPU's are overpriced, but I wouldn't advise anybody who doesn't absolutely need the performance to buy one. And even then I would tell them: do you need Core i7 performance ? Ok, but the entry level model at 2.66 Ghz. See if that satisfies your needs. Need more ? Overclock it to 2.8, 3.0 or even 3.2. Most should be able to handle that efortlessly.

    Buying a top model CPU makes no economic sense otherwise. You gain too little by spending too much.

    If you're a home user you can get a very decent processor for gaming and otehr applications like a E8400, E8500, or a triple core Phenom at very competitive prices.

    If you need a Quad Core you can also get it cheaply. Starting with the Q6600, quad cores are becoming increasinsgly mainstream, and the Phenom II has a very competitive price.

    If you don't game much, and just need a general purpose PC, why not go for a Pentium E5300. powerful enough for games, and most applications, paired with a decent GPU, and you can overclock. And then you have lots of other models from AMD and Intel at various price points.

    Nowadays the CPU market is like the Cellphone market: there's one for every need and every wallet.
    Reply
  • cryogenic
    My biggest issue with CPU's is not their prices right now, you can get a decent CPU for 200$, which is fine, my issue with CPU's is their power consumtion :), I really like if max wattage would stay bellow 65 Watt and not up to 125 Watt, like it's happening right now.

    Prices are fine, wattages are bit high.
    Reply
  • powerbaselx
    It depends...

    Extreme+Top editions overpriced.
    i7 920 cpu price ok, good performance, BUT motherboard+DDR3 overpriced.
    Q9550+Q9650 good performance but overpriced after i7 in market.
    Q6600+Q6700 overpriced now in comparison with 45nm CPUs.
    Low-end ok, Pentium Dual Core E5x00 excelent prices.

    AMD CPUs ok for now. AMD should have a CPU with performance similar to i7...
    Reply
  • hellwig
    In general I think average CPU prices are reasonable, at least from AMds side. New fresh-off the line technology will always be more expensive (sorry if you paid $600 for a first-gen iPhone). That's just how it works, and why the new Core i7 is so expensive.

    However, maintaining those high prices on older and inferior processors (like the Core 2s) seems to be inexcusable. I can buy a faster and newer Phenom II for the same price or cheaper as a Core 2 Quad. I can buy an Athlon for cheaper than a Celeron or Pentium.

    Also, Extreme and FX-edition processors are ridiculous ($1k for a couple hundred MHz?). However, those processors in general are aimed at the enthusiast market, and as long as they stay that way, we can just ignore them. Both Intel and AMD were guilty of this, though AMD learned their lesson when their processors couldn't compete.
    Reply
  • tester3000
    Current gen CPU prices are great. And they are always falling. Core i7 is a little pricy right not,, but the 920 should be down to $250 by x-mas. Intel's prices are more than reasonable for such good performance.
    Reply
  • chripuck
    CryogenicMy biggest issue with CPU's is not their prices right now, you can get a decent CPU for 200$, which is fine, my issue with CPU's is their power consumtion , I really like if max wattage would stay bellow 65 Watt and not up to 125 Watt, like it's happening right now.Prices are fine, wattages are bit high.Just on the new i7's. The core 2's had gotten down to that much as part of their design specification.... Wait a couple of years, it'll come back down.
    Reply