Argh, when are the i7 860's going to come down in price?

[SSUSeaWolf]

The i7 920 and 860 have been stuck at $300 since they were released. Seems like usually they would have come down a bit by now. No online vendor has dropped it more than a few bucks under MSRP that I know of.

I know some random deals pop up in some brick and mortar stores, but none of those seem to be near me.

Meanwhile the 5850 and 5870's are still very expensive, but hopefully nVidia's launch at the end of the month will help drop prices a bit.

I need to update my 6 year old computer, but it's just too expensive.

 

[thefreeaccount]

People have become too used to intense competition in the desktop CPU market. In the bad old days, most people couldn't afford a Pentium 3 because it was $350. Instead you had to buy a Celeron that was the exact same chip with slightly less cache and SSE3 disabled, for $150. The low-end processor had to compete, but the Pentium 3 did not because AMD had no answer for it.

When AMD came along with the Athlon, Intel "discovered" that it could price the Pentium 4 for the average user and still make a decent profit. Unfortunately that discovery was written only in ancient Greek, on papyrus, in a single scroll, by monks who "just happened" to begin playing with fire as soon as AMD started to fiddle. Then the Senate burst into flames, the People demanded bread and circuses, and the Empire became ungovernable, which was just Nature's way of pointing out that you haven't been paying attention to history.

It was a fun ride, but in the end, the consumer always looses.

 

[MJinZ]

I have 2x i7 920s.... bought at $200 each from MC. You'll be able to find someone to buy you one I'm sure and ship it to you.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I went with i7 860 in my latest build simply because the i7 920 would have required that I spend quite a bit more on the motherboard and even more on memory putting me over $200 higher than what I paid for my setup.

 

[somethingsketchy]

If you search around Ebay, you can find a processor for around $240-$250. Then again, you should seriously inquire with the seller, to make sure the sale is legit.

Worth a shot...

 

[lsv]

6 year old pc? You can't put away $300 a year for 6 years towards a PC fund? (I say this before even touching your living situation or age) teehee.

Anyway, if you don't have the $ why not get something slower? i3/i5 ?

 

[biostud]

check the xeon w3440 2.4Ghz - 4/8 cores/threads

 

[Athadeus]

You should be able to get a lot more value out of your computers by lowering your budget and shortening your upgrade cycle.

Where do you live anyways? If you have any friends or family that visit from near one of the Microcenter locations that would make things easier.

It is kind of astounding though that the ~$100 of savings you are hoping for is holding you back when your current rig is so old. I'm running a D975XBX, e6300, HD4770, 2gb 800mhz DDR2 system from Sept 2006, but it is the lack of sweet PC games alone that has me waiting.

 

[capeconsultant]

Micro Center has them for $229 every time I have checked. Trouble is, walk in only, what a PAIN.