The true cost of having a high-end processor

[uOpt]

I was curious what the true cost of trying to always have a high-end processor is.

Personally, I would have the $1000 to spend if I decide it is worth it. But I am not after a short adrenaline flash. If I decide to do this I make a decision to continuously upgrade the CPU to keep up-to-date.

So what really interests me is the true cost per year.

Thanks to anandtech's lab and the historical pricing in it I came up with the following numbers:

FX-53:
820 sep2004
740 feb2005
630 aug2005

380 ebay used aug2005

FX-55:
860 dec2004
1030 feb2005
860 apr2005
800 aug2005

650 ebay used aug2005

FX-57:
1100 jul2005
1020 aug2005
same ebay prices equal labs.anandtech new prices

That means that the high-end FX-55 only lost 210 dollars or 25% of its value in 9 months, and that is even while the successor has been on the market for 2 months and a new core (San Diego) for the FX-55 is out. Projected to a year that is 33%.

For a $1000 processor we are talking about $333/year.

However, if you buy the second in line (FX-53 while FX-55 is available) new you lose $440 or 54% of the value, for having saved $200 when buying it.

Now, all this won't work if somebody comes out with a new socket or something else that makes people lose interest in the chip. You could also expect that dual-cores are more attractive than single-cores pretty soon.

%%

So it is:
- $1000 pay once
- then $333 per year
- plus risk (destroying chip in freak accident, getting scammed when selling or buying it, too busy to sell it at the right time)
- plus ebay fees or slightly lower prices on forums
- if you want add interest on the $1000 you parked and can't invest in real estate

So you end up with $35 - 40 / month for having a top-of-the-line CPU.

 

[uOpt]

Same for Intel.


Pentium-4 570(J):
731 feb2005
600 aug2005

400 ebay aug2005

Pentium-4 EE 3.2 GHz
- 840 sep2004
- 890 aug2005

320 ebay aug2005

Pentium-4 EE 3.4 GHz
- 840 sep2004
- 890 aug2005

400 ebay aug2005

Pentium4 EE 3.46/1066 EE
- 1050 jan2005
- 970 aug2005

580 ebay aug2005 (rare)
(45% in 8 months)

Pentium4 EE 3.73/1066 EE
- 1030 jun2005
- 1000 aug2005

820 ebay aug2005 (rare)
(20% in two months)

Pentium4 XE 3.2 dual-core + HT
- 1200 jun2005
- 1000 aug2005

1100 ebay aug2005
(some ebayers are insane)



That really doesn't look as good as riding the FX insanity wave.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Opteron 875 = >1200$
Intel Xeon MP 3.33GHz = >1200$

Now that's high end. 😛

 

[Bona Fide]

The FX-53 is only going down at such a rate because it's a socket-940 part...that's exclusively reserved for Opteron's now. And the 939-pin replacement, the 4000+ San Diego, is having phenomenal results in the enthusiast community.

 

[IeraseU]

Yes, but ebaying is a job which requires time and effort. The time and effort required is a commodity who's value differs depending on the individual. As such, while we can safely say that is not a static value (it will differ among individuals), I do not think it would be fair to think of this commodity (in this case, the time and effort required to sell/ebay these particular components) as being free. However I think we can agree that if you put forth the time and effort required, you can decrease the amount of monetary finances required to aquire top end components (in this case, computer processors).

 

[uOpt]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
The FX-53 is only going down at such a rate because it's a socket-940 part...that's exclusively reserved for Opteron's now. And the 939-pin replacement, the 4000+ San Diego, is having phenomenal results in the enthusiast community.

No, the FX-51 is the 940 only part.

The FX-53 is available in 940 and 939.

The 4000+ doesn't have the unlocked multiplier. But you are right. Because many people don't know this detail FX-53 used sales are hurt by the 4000+ having the same surface specs. The real lesson however is that buying a FX-55 while the FX-57 is available is very very costly. Either you buy top-of-the-line or you buy for half of the top price. Nothing in between.

I just did the same thing for video cards and things look pretty ugly.

 

[Bona Fide]

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
The FX-53 is only going down at such a rate because it's a socket-940 part...that's exclusively reserved for Opteron's now. And the 939-pin replacement, the 4000+ San Diego, is having phenomenal results in the enthusiast community.

No, the FX-51 is the 940 only part.

The FX-53 is available in 940 and 939.

The 4000+ doesn't have the unlocked multiplier. But you are right. Because many people don't know this detail FX-53 used sales are hurt by the 4000+ having the same surface specs. The real lesson however is that buying a FX-55 while the FX-57 is available is very very costly. Either you buy top-of-the-line or you buy for half of the top price. Nothing in between.

I just did the same thing for video cards and things look pretty ugly.

I would call the FX line a waste regardless. A 3700+ San Diego can overclock to 2.6GHz with minimal effort, and can touch 2.8Ghz with some nice cooling and patience. A 4000+ San Diego can get 2.8Ghz without breaking a sweat, and many people have gotten past the 3GHz mark, while maintaining 100% stability.

FX is to AMD as EE is to Intel. Unnecessarily expensive.

 

[Markfw]

The only advantage of the FX is the unlocked multiplier, which can help overclocks.

 

[uOpt]

I don't want this to degrade into a generic pro/anti FX discussion. I think those who need the unlocked multiiplier or want the base frequency of 2.8 GHz know it.

The lesson of this thread applies equally to other high-end CPUs, in particular to the X2s. It is entirely realistic to expect that the best currently available X2, while being expensive to buy now, will offer a yearly upgrade cost that is not that much higher than the cheaper X2 CPUs.

 

[Amplifier]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
The only advantage of the FX is the unlocked multiplier, which can help overclocks.

Is the unlocked multiplier a benifit in overclocking solely when the memory is bottlenecking the results?

I bring that up because I rarely see the FX overclockers on Futuremark moving their multiplier above 13 or 14.

 

[xTYBALTx]

Stop it. You're making me want to purchase an FX-57, and that's bad.

New chip or 3 weeks in Spain. New chip or 3 weeks in Spain. New chip or 3 weeks in Spain. 😕

 

[JEDIYoda]

New chip and eating top ramen for a year or vacation in Spain??
Whata choice...heheee

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: xTYBALTx
Stop it. You're making me want to purchase an FX-57, and that's bad.

New chip or 3 weeks in Spain. New chip or 3 weeks in Spain. New chip or 3 weeks in Spain. 😕

You already have a good chip, you dont need to spend $1000 to gain 10% performance.

Id get a graphics card long before id go with a higher cpu in that rig.

 

[RichUK]

well the fx57 has unlocked multi's, but the major benefit that you receive is from the better yields from the chip.. a 3700+ san diego with the same core will have worse yeilds on most occasions and will just about reach 2.8Ghz, whereas the fx57 will be able to reach 3.0/3.1Ghz on air, so the premium you are paying for is the better yields and obviously the default 2.8Ghz out of the box

 

[uOpt]

Originally posted by: Amplifier

Originally posted by: Markfw900
The only advantage of the FX is the unlocked multiplier, which can help overclocks.

Is the unlocked multiplier a benifit in overclocking solely when the memory is bottlenecking the results?

I bring that up because I rarely see the FX overclockers on Futuremark moving their multiplier above 13 or 14.

You have a slight misunderstanding there. You must drive up the HTT to overclock a locked Anthlon-64, but that does not mean that you will overdrive your RAM. There is a divider between HTT and RAM which you can use to bring your RAM back to its normal frequency, or even lower.

The advantage of the unlocked multiplier is that you don't have to mess with three parameters at once. You can run HTT and RAM at their nominal frequencies. All this makes overclocking easier and safer. It does not neccessarily mean that you can overclock higher. It also means that you can overclock safely in a motherboard with no working AGP/PCI lock.

And of course with the FX-55 and FX-57 you start out at 2.6 and 2.8 GHz respectively, something that is not available for socket 939 otherwise, and even Opterons only go to 2.6 GHz.

People often compare an overclocked 4000+ to a non-overclocked FX which doesn't really cut the mustard 🙂