How low could CPU / mobo / RAM prices go?

[VirtualLarry]

If the industry stagnates, and lessens / stops R&D?

Would we see CPUs sold in "dollar stores"? Along with mobos and RAM?

How cheaply could they make CPUs and mobos, if they didn't have to pay R&D expenses?

 

[frozentundra123456]

You will be able to find them sitting on desks in abandoned buildings after you come out of the vault. Just watch out for raiders and supermutants.

Edit: this will be after President Trump calls the leader of china or North Korea "an ugly idiot" or some such and initiates a nuclear exchange.

 

[ShintaiDK]

If we assume no new foundry nodes, no R&D.

Quite cheap for CPUs. Sub 100$ 6700K.

Motherboards I doubt there is as much to save. Unless they keep making the same. 50-60$ for a Z170 perhaps. And 50$ for 16GB.

So maybe if you are lucky, 200$ for 6700K+Z170+16GB. Cooler price may still be ~20$.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9984/logitech-exits-oem-mouse-market

Here's an example of when a market stagnates.

Also, consider the case of outdated chipsets, being still (?) fabricated on a long-depreciated node, for peanuts.

I figure, if the industry stagnates, that CPUs could end up the same way.

And Shintai, I think that your estimates are still a bit high, I think that they could go cheaper. (I was thinking, honestly, dollar-store type cheaper.)

Heck, another example, is the emergence of dirt-cheap DDR2 memory for sale, brand-new, with branded OEM labels.
$23.50 shipped, for 4x4GB DDR2-800 high-density RAM, name-brand sticks. (Micron and Samsung.)

Sure, it's trailing-edge tech, but it's dirt cheap!

 

[ShintaiDK]

Well remember, if its all stagnated. You are going to get "snobbers". Because the lifespan will be 10-20 years or more. And requirements for software will mimmick it. Any PC game will pretty much have a 6700K for example as the standard. It will be like consoles.

They all want DDR4-veryfast, 6700Ks and Z170 boards with ultra this and that. The only parts you are going to sell will be close to if not top bins. Nobody is going to buy Celerons, Pentiums, DDR4 2133 etc.