AMD Phenom II X3 720 price spike - I'm surprised, should I be?

[rivethead]

Unfortunately for me, prudence demanded that I wait until after all the Christmas bills were paid before starting to purchase the components for my new build.

Before Christmas, I had decided on the CPU - the AMD Phenom II X3 720. I was hoping to unlock the 4th core which, in my opinion, would give me the best bang for the buck CPU.

At Christmas this chip was $119 at NE, TG, ZZF, MWave.

Now, if you can find it, it's $135!

A 14% price spike in two weeks. I'm surprised. Should I be, or was I just naive in thinking that prices would remain stable (or even fall given the new Intel offerings on the horizon)?

Have all CPU prices followed the same track (I've only paid attention to this one since it's what I want)?

Is this just supply/demand or are their other factors (which I should have forseen) causing this?

Thanks!

 

[nyker96]

i have a feeling if you wait a little longer the price will have to drop now the i3s out at the same price point. this might just be temporary.

 

[Soleron]

They seem to have discontinued the 720, it's not on AMD's price list any more. If anything, other AMD CPUs have fallen in price. It got replaced by the cheaper Athlon II tri/quad-cores.

Look at the 2.9GHz Athlon II X3 435 at $87, the 2.8GHz Athlon II X4 630 at $112 or the 2.8GHz Phenom II X4 925 at $141. That last one is the same as the X3 with one more core enabled, so makes the X3 720 unattractive at only $5 less.

There's probably some Intel alternatives around that price but the cheapest non-dual core is $150...

 

[dook43]

That 925 is not a BE, which means the multiplier is not unlocked. X3 720 BE > X4 925

 

[soccerballtux]

I recall the price going back and forth when I bought mine back in June. $119, jumped up $15 or 20, that made me sad, then it fell back to $119, so I immediately bought it.
Probably a marketing tactic.

 

[Fox5]

Well, computer prices on the whole seem to be up right now.

But the x3's seem to have almost been entirely discontinued. I'd assume the phenom II lines are getting reliable enough not to need triple cores (though there's still a good amount of dual cores, so perhaps there's some outer boundary where quality drops off significantly), and the athlon II lines have negated the need for AMD to artificially crop phenom II's into triple cores.

The phenom II's with reduced/defective cache didn't last very long at all, guess it's the triple core's time to go. Give a few more months, and I wouldn't be surprised to see all Phenom II's under $150 disappear and be replaced by Athlon II's.

 

[rivethead]

Yeah, that seems to be the thing.....fewer people have it in stock now. So I'm not so confident that the prices will fall again.

Shoot.

I have to start all over with my research. Can someone point me to a good discussion of the difference between the Athlon IIs and the Phenom IIs?

I had it my mind that Phenom IIs > Athlon IIs although I couldn't tell you why.

 

[rivethead]

This helped me: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/phenom-athlon-ii-x2_16.html

I'm thinking I need to just go with the Phenom II X2 and hope and pray I can unlock a 3rd or 3rd AND 4th core.

 

[happy medium]

I was looking at that cpu YESTERDAY and it was still 119$ shipped?
Crazy! Now it's 140$!

 

[heyheybooboo]

I was looking at that cpu YESTERDAY and it was still 119$ shipped?
Crazy! Now it's 140$!

I believe The Egg has inventory management software that jacks up the cost when numbers are down.

And, I suppose, preparations are being made for the launch of the Phenom 740BE at 3GHz and whatever C3 variations that might follow.

The OEM Phenom 720BE is still $110 so clearly the Egg is playing with your mind




LOL





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[Jovec]

I suspect the demand for the 720s was so high they were shipping a lot of perfectly good quads as 720s. Add in a more mature manufacturing process resulting in less defects. Now with the Athlon tris/quads in full swing, it's cheaper for them to sell Athlon IIs in that price range and sell Phenom IIs as quads.

 

[rivethead]

Ok, so let's say the Phenom II X3's never come down in price. And let's say they also eventually disappear (limited stock at the moment seems to indicate this direction).

What would be better for the average home user (web surfing, iTunes, light gaming, spreadsheets and video streaming)?

A quad core Athlon II 620 at $99

OR

A dual core Phenom II X2 550 at $99?

Asked another way, what is likely to be more important: the L3 cache or the two extra cores (this assumes I don't get luck and unlock cores with the Phenom II)?

Thanks for the input!

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Thae Athlon II would be better.

 

[douglasb]

Ok, so let's say the Phenom II X3's never come down in price. And let's say they also eventually disappear (limited stock at the moment seems to indicate this direction).

What would be better for the average home user (web surfing, iTunes, light gaming, spreadsheets and video streaming)?

A quad core Athlon II 620 at $99

OR

A dual core Phenom II X2 550 at $99?

Asked another way, what is likely to be more important: the L3 cache or the two extra cores (this assumes I don't get luck and unlock cores with the Phenom II)?

Thanks for the input!

The 2 extra cores will definitely be a more noticeable upgrade than the L3 cache. Assuming that the 550 unlocks to a quad, though, it would be a bit faster than the 620.

 

[tuan209]

Why not just purchase the OEM 720 at newegg for 110? Its a few dollars more than 550BE. It doesnt include the stock fan, but who uses those anyway?

 

[Fox5]

This helped me: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/phenom-athlon-ii-x2_16.html

I'm thinking I need to just go with the Phenom II X2 and hope and pray I can unlock a 3rd or 3rd AND 4th core.

Zipzoomfly has a variety of Phenom II's in price at pretty good prices.

Oh, and the phenom II is the same as the athlon II, except it has 6MB of L3 cache which means it scales better in multi core applications, and single threaded performance is much better in cache heavy applications. For the average consumer, this comes down to basically games.

 

[Jester666]

Superbiiz/eWiz currently has the retail Phenom II X3 720 for $130. They also have a 15% off order (max $15) coupon till 1/10. Throw in Bing CB of 5% and your net price is $109.

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

Keep in mind that even though the price went up, if you're trying to overclock its still not a bad deal. That CPU is going to be the cheapest way to get an unlocked multiplier, and with the right motherboard can unlock to a 4th core. I don't know what your budget looks like, but I wouldn't write off the idea of purchasing one entirely.

 

[Uppsala9496]

The Athlon II X3 425 for $76 is a good bang for the buck processor. Easy to unlock the 4th core if your mobo has the ACC feature.

 

[BD231]

Forget the value and spend the $150 for a quad Phenom II, that's really pretty cheap in itself. I'm running a 3.73ghz x3 720 (got it at $119 when it first came out) and had I waited for quad prices to drop I'd of been out a new computer all these months. The x4s were all $170 or more when I got my x3 so it was an easier choice then. My fourth core on the x3 was a dud so no luck there, it's a 50/50 chance (closer to 30/70 if you ask me).

I'm not a fan of the Athlon II's at this point as its so cheap to max out the AM3 platform these days that anything less is really quite pointless. More cores for less is not exactly anything to get excited about considering your options.

The I3 is pretty impressive, but its not exactly destroying Phenom II x4's entirely and you'll have no choice but to pay $150 going that route. I myself prefer the memory controler/cache setup on the phenoms to the I3 after reading about it.