Motherboard Prices Going Up
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Remember when you could buy a high-end AMD motherboard for around a C-note? You have to think all the way back to the Barton glory days, when the Asus A7N8X Deluxe and Abit NF7-S v2 dominated any talk of bang-for-buck ratios. But that was a long time ago, and if you want a top-of-the-line motherboard today, you're looking at spending north of $200, particularly if you're invested with Intel. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like mobo prices are coming down anytime soon, and in fact they may be on the rise.
Citing a Chinese-language Economic Daily News report, DigiTimes says the big three have all raised their motherboard prices. The big 3, or course, are Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. Reasons for the price hikes are because of rising labor costs and higher costs for parts like the all-important printed circuit board (PCB).
How much extra motherboards might cost isn't yet known. According to the paper, MSI raised its board prices by around 5-10 percent at the beginning of March. In reality, this will probably only add a few bucks at retail, which you could argue is offset by still rock bottom RAM pricing.
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PCWizards
March 12, 2011 at 6:02pm
It really doesn't surprise me. Prices on individual "build-your-own" components have risen sharply in the past two years. We used to build a lot of systems both for ourselves and our clients. Now you can get a decent unit for around $400 that is comparable in specs to a low to mid-range custom build. RAM has practically doubled. I've also noticed accesories such as speakers, wireless keyboards/mice, etc. nearly triple in cost. Most of our business is now migrating users to Windows 7 boxes. Finding great deals starting at $350. It's sad to see prices for do-it-yourselfers get out of hand.
Greg Hostiuck
www.pcwizardsrepair.com
pcwizards@rocketmail.com
drcrazyrich
March 04, 2011 at 4:05pm
l ld say its cuz of low ram prices but they dont really cross over tht way
but what about the board retailers already have in stock that paid the lower price ?
ah well as l ve looked at prices over the yrs we re paying less for stuff then 3 yrs ago and way better stuff too !! just look at videocards under $200 gets u some thing faster than 2 8800gt s
gotta like that :)
Eoraptor
March 04, 2011 at 11:23am
Yeah, this is what happens when the Chinese start getting uppity. Damned rare earths.
I think I paid... $86 for the Shuttle MN31/n that is still in daily use in my desktop box? despite being a microATX board, it had pretty much everything you could want on a motherboard except RAID (including dual VGA headers and dual channel memory) back in 2003. If I wanted a board, micro or full, with comparably advanced features today, I'd be easily looking north of $220US
Fecal Face
March 04, 2011 at 10:24am
Psh, who needs a PCB?
I say get rid of the PCB to cut the prices. Sounds like a good idea to me.
SilverSurferNHS
March 04, 2011 at 10:23am
I'm not a paid columnist, article writer or editor. Go "facepalm" yourself.
EchoFive
March 04, 2011 at 11:18am
You also forgot a comma after writer.
http://lolpics.se/pics/482.jpg
EchoFive
March 06, 2011 at 10:13am
While the comma is not required, in this case it would be reccomended to clarify the ambiguity created by the noun phrase, "aritcle writer."
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/02/lists-part-2-commas-and-semicolons.html
Do you realize how dumb you make yourself look?
I guess you could be going by the British style guide. LMFAO
SilverSurferNHS
March 06, 2011 at 12:10pm
I look dumb?
You're insecure enough about it, that you looked it up and said it your self, "not required" (regardless of whether or not its recommended in its context, which isn't that confusing of a list that it would need a "recommended" clarification through a pause). Then proceed to insult me. How much lower will you go to disprove someone of something so petty if you're willing to try and outright insult them, after trying underhandedly multiple previous times?
So go ahead and be petty, make fun of this as well. Your pretty good at that (you must think you're witty).
By the way, it was a missing word and not a grammar or spelling issue i had with the article ("not").
pastorbob
March 04, 2011 at 9:20am
Motherboard prices have held fairly stable for the last couple of years. With everything else on the rise it isn't really surprising that they are following suit. With the recent increases in gasoline prices I suspect we will continue to see tech items go up throughout this year.
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