Sandy Bridge Launch Price Gouging?

[SaoFeng]

camp out time!

 

[RaistlinZ]

It's crazy the amount of CPU power that can be had for peanuts these days.

CPU's are cheap
HDD's are cheap
RAM is cheap

Nowadays even a "Grandma" rig for $500-600 can be among the fastest home computers around. Insane.

 

[Stosh68]

Micro Center is now advertising the 2500K for $179.99 and the 2600K for $269.99 (after instant in-store discounts), starting 1/9. Newegg better have some sort of sale or I know where I'll be Sunday morning!

I just looked at the Micro Center ad online and it was:

i5 2400 - $219.99 - $70 in store rebate for $149.99
i5 2500k - $249.99 - $70 in store rebate for $179.99
i7 2600 - $329.99 - $80 in store rebate for $249.99
i7 2600k - $369.99 - $90 in store rebate for $279.99

My nearest Micro Center is in Tustin, CA and is an 80 mile trip one way so by the time I factor in money for gas and 4ish hours round trip driving time, I'm not saving any money over driving 3 miles to Frys and paying $319 for the 2600k. Any Frys employees reading this know if Frys will price match Micro Center's prices? Frys has a sign saying they will price match any authorized dealer price, but my guess is that Frys will only look at the $369 price and not the $90 in store rebate.

 

[abaez]

You can buy a 2500k and a 2600k and sell the one you don't use for a nice $50+ profit, negating the gas. Hell, buy a non-K and sell it and you can make more. All depends if your time is worth that though.

 

[Hogan773]

Wow - I guess I'll be at Microcenter, although I gotta pay 10% tax too (prob on the pre-rebate price) so the discount isn't as large as it might seem.

I wonder if they have any mobo deals, or are they assuming they'll sell you a $150 mobo for $199?

Crazy that they will apply such a discount right out of the box, when there will be plenty of early adopters that would come in and pay full price anyway.