NewEgg's prices getting worse?

[Tostada]

I like to keep track of the best system I can build (without monitor/keyboard/mouse/software) at various price points. The cheapest good system is a $400 office machine, but just for fun I also have a $250 bottom-of-the-barrel system.

I am very strict about getting all parts needed -- cabling, heatsink, at least one case fan, etc, without going a penny over the budget (I also refuse to get a case with a built-in floppy slot if I'm not going to purchase a floppy drive ... that would look too stupid). What I have noticed is that NewEgg's prices have steadily been going up in the past month. I used to be able to make this system for $250:

AMD Athlon 2000+ T-bred Retail
ASRock SiS741 board
Maxtor 40G drive
256MB Mushkin PC3200
Sony 52X CD-RW
Pro Source 917BREEZE with 350W PSU and case fan

I was pretty impressed that I could build an OK little machine. The mobo has great reviews and even comes with a modem. The hard drive went up $2. The ASRock boards (even the Intel versions) have all gone up about $10. Shipping on most cheap cases has gone from $10-12 to $15. Ram has all gone up. CD-RW's have gone up. Today, the system you can build is much different:

$39 AMD Athlon 1.33 T-Bird OEM
$4.99 + $5.00 Speeze heatsink
$43 PC Chips SiS741 board
$51.75 Maxtor 40GB
$41.00 256MB Mushkin PC2700
$27 OptoRite 52X CD-RW
$24 + $12 Dynapower D58-SL 430W

$247.74 delivered

It is simply not possible to build a system around the retail Athlon XP 2000+ anymore unless you remove the CD-RW or cut the RAM down to 128MB. I could never actually build this system. Besides using a PC Chips board, it's not even really a new system. That CPU is an outdated item that NewEgg still happens to carry.

Building the original system is only $17.76 more, but that's not really my point. Many things are going up. Some of my favorite boards, the Biostar M7NCG and Shuttle AN35N-Ultra have both gone up.

Just wondering if other people were noticing this.

 

[Acanthus]

Thats the trend lately, but its not isolated to newegg... memory prices are more than double last years lows.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Why not get a 1.6 GHz Duron for 46 rather than a regular Athlon? I've ehard you can unlock the L2 cache on it.

 

[mrwxyz]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
Why not get a 1.6 GHz Duron for 46 rather than a regular Athlon? I've ehard you can unlock the L2 cache on it.

that would seem like a big waste of money for amd to have cache on a chip but leave it locked.....cache costs lots of money

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: mrwxyz

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
Why not get a 1.6 GHz Duron for 46 rather than a regular Athlon? I've ehard you can unlock the L2 cache on it.

that would seem like a big waste of money for amd to have cache on a chip but leave it locked.....cache costs lots of money

prolly chips that failed cache testing, so they just call em durons.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Not like it matters, they don't produce Durons anymore, here's a link to the processor tho, for your enjoyment Duron!

EDIT: And Nicks prolly right, but they still beat the pants off the Celerons

 

[Tostada]

That Duron 1.8 is $48, which makes it $57.99 with the heatsink, which seems a bit silly when the Retail XP 2000+ T-Bred is $57.00.

 

[astroview]

Perhaps it is inflation....

Some economists say the Fed hasn't been battling Inflation properly. And China is raising the cost of a lot of metals and other goods, but who knows the real reason?

It might not be newegg afterall, to do a fair comparison you should look at other companies and see if they have raised prices or not. If not, then someone will take away newegg's preffered nerd buyer status.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Originally posted by: Tostada
That Duron 1.8 is $48, which makes it $57.99 with the heatsink, which seems a bit silly when the Retail XP 2000+ T-Bred is $57.00.

haha you sure dont miss a beat!

 

[Safeway]

Although this is affecting more stores than just Newegg, I have seen NewEgg raise prices alot recently. And as you said "It might be inflation" ... what about the fact that new computer items are coming out daily? The older an item gets, the cheaper it gets!!! I know that PC2700 is increasing because of demand - people with systems that support that are now in a need to upgrade memory so the demand increases. Still, on old things like that, it just isn't right.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The older an item gets, the cheaper it gets!!!

Usually only for items above the cheapest price level. Once prices bottom out for something it often stops falling and is instead replaced by something faster / better at the same price.

For example, a budget hard drive that isn't a closeout or rebate deal may still be $80, but it is now 120 GB when a couple of years ago it was 40 GB.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Oh come on system builders....you all know that computer parts go up in prices seasonally because of the demand:
1. mid to late summer because of the upcoming school year
2. fall to early winter because of the holiday shopping

 

[RanDum72]

Newegg probably has a high turnaround rate so they get newer products/batches sooner. Unfortunately, the newer batches may have already been affected by newer, higher prices.

 

[Paratus]

After watching prices on Newegg since April I've noticed that Newegg prices rise at the beginning of the month and drop at the end, but overall several of the compents I've picked have either trended lower or maintained there month to month price average.

EX:

My Mobo P4P800 E was down to ~$107 at the end of June now its back up in the ~115. It did the same thing in May as well.

The CPUs and PSU seem to stay pretty constant.

Cases seem to be dropping. The Coolermaster Praetorian I bought started at $128 back in april. When I bought it at the end of June it was $88. It's now back up in the $90s

Memory however just sucks right now.

I suggested buying from Newegg at the end of the month as if the price is going to drop thats when it happens.