Why is conroe board so expensive?

[hbui]

I'm not familiar with the current generation of conroe mobo. Why is it so much more expensive previous top of the line board from AMD? Is it much harder to produce? Much more complex design? etc?

 

[Superguy]

My guess would be because there's a lot of demand for them now. These processors perform very well and overclock very well, so people want them.

And if a lot of people want them, the price goes up.

 

[Conky]

Yep, it's supply and demand right now.

There are some cheaper alternatives like the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA($56 at Newegg) but it has limitations(marginal overclocker) although it has features like being able to use older DDR and AGP which makes it an even cheaper upgrade.

I'm gonna sit tight with my cheapo 775Dual-VSTA mobo and my E6400 and wait for the prices and selections of new motherboards to improve. And for RAM prices to drop... man, they have gone nuts lately.

 

[FreedomGUNDAM]

Just got my Asrock motherboard and E6400, I'm basically going to wait till prices on the Intel chipset motherboard and DDR2 drop before I change.

 

[Z33]

also, could be wrong, isnt the memory controller built on the intel boards? while AMD is built in the processor?

 

[Raider1284]

your right the memory controller is not integrated onto the new conroes cpus. But all AMDs since the Althon 64 have built on memory controllers.

 

[Z33]

soooo, wouldnt that be a good reason for the boards being more expensive......

 

[saymyname]

Expensive?

What board?

 

[imported_RedStar]

It seems to me that alot of the pricing has to do with more features and build quality crammed into the latest motherboards.

last year the asus a8n-sli deluxe cost 225$ canadian when it first came out.

the Asus pw5-dh costs 299$ canadian. 300$ is indeed sticker shock. But 225$ last year was also sticker shock. Next year will be....400$ ?

But look what you get for that extra 74$ -- a remote control! memory controller and some other bits.

Everything released for the high end..is naturally going to be expensive intially...regardless of conroe or not.

--It will be interesting to see if the nvidia chipset boards will be even more expensive than the intel ones.

 

[Skott]

ASUS mobos have gone up generally speaking. I would say its due to added features and such. Can add inflation and oil too if you wanted to look at every little thing that has to do with production costs but the high demand is making them even more expensive than than MSRP. I noticed in the last week prices of the P5W DH has come down some. Supply finally catching up to demand no doubt.

 

[imported_RedStar]

you are right..i just checked my store:

20$ instant rebate off the pw5 dh

 

[markymoo]

intel sell the conroes cheap and make up for it on the intel motherboards sell em high hehe

 

[Capt Caveman]

Intel charges an arm and a leg for their chipsets.

 

[Madellga]

High demand at the moment. DDR2 prices are on the rise also, almost 50% in the last month (at least in Europe).

 

[Xellos2099]

Kind of funny, won;t intel end up selling more conroe chip if they lower price of the board?

 

[hans007]

there are definitely cheaper conroe boards on the market. most of the g965 / p965 are in the $100 range. only the enthusiast ones are expensive and there arent that many out yet.

there are even $49 motherboards now that have a decent feature set http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135023, and frys practically gives away the ones with agp slots (the super el cheapo ones using the p4m800pro)

i think once the nforce 570 / 590 ones are more easily found, the prices for the higher end g965 board and even 975x boards will drop a bit.

 

[gi0rgi0]

That ecs $49 mobo looks good. Ive been wanting to upgrade to conroe but prices on mobos and ram are holding me back from doing it.
Using that board along with an e6300/6400 and the 2 gigs of ddr i already have might do till the better boards and ddr2 prices drop.

 

[imported_mystro]

Originally posted by: Skott
ASUS mobos have gone up generally speaking. I would say its due to added features and such.bt.

I suspect it's because Asus is not only the dominate maker but the field of mobo makers is fast dwindling.. eg:Gigabyte was just sold to Asus and others have just disappeared or were quietly absorbed.,it's going to get worse before better imo.

 

[Skott]

Yeah, I think each year the prices are going to keep going up generally speaking especially the high end mobos. Video card makers been making their flagship products(the high end cards) more and more expensive each year as well for a long while too. AMD and Intel have been doing the same with their products. Just something we have to live with I guess.

 

[Superguy]

Or not. If people don't pay their prices, they'll lower them to a point where people will.

They'll only charge what they can get away with. And if we keep letting them get away with murder ...

 

[Skott]

Well, thats not going to happen unfortunately. Sure, some models wont sell as well as others but people want these better performance mobos so they'll pay. Its competition that'll force companies to keep prices low but all the companies are in on it so until that changes no change in higher prices with each new higher quality mobo. Just my thoughts on it.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: mystro

Originally posted by: Skott
ASUS mobos have gone up generally speaking. I would say its due to added features and such.bt.

I suspect it's because Asus is not only the dominate maker but the field of mobo makers is fast dwindling.. eg:Gigabyte was just sold to Asus and others have just disappeared or were quietly absorbed.,it's going to get worse before better imo.

well not really. ecs actually makes nearly as many if not more boards than asus. not to mention some of the companies that used to be OEM only have started making their own boards such as foxconn , jetway etc.


the thing is, the boutique manufacturers are dying since they cant generate enough profits just selling to enthusiasts. gigabyte did have some oem sales, but that is generally a foxconn, ecs, fic, asus and msi place. maybe mitac too, but they dont make retail boards anymore just like fic.

there are plenty of manufacturers out there, just some of them dont think its a viable business anymore or just fell behind and had no oem sales (abit before that other company bailed them out)