Intel vs AMD. But what about price?

[HellToµpée]

Honestly, it all comes down to what you do and how much you can spend. I plan on going to a 940 Phenom II because for the price of the i7 920 I could get the proc and board for the 940 AMD. Considering I personally just play games, watch HD movies, listen to music, and browse the net, an i7 would be overkill. If I had the money, and ran a business/website, basically anything lucritive I could use a computer for, then I'd go with an i7 no questions asked.

 

[jww20]

Not everyone has a Microcenter by them. The nearest one to me is about a three hour drive. I will easily spend the difference in gas going to get it. Unless you would be willing to go get one and ship it to us have-nots.

Microcenters is pricing the i7 920 because they are either discontinued or on clearance sale. Newegg prices the 920 at $280, while the AMD 955 has a price cut to around $215.
The people who are pushing discontinued/clearance items without disclosing their actual status are a little dishonest and should be noted.

By Intel's own sales figures, the i7 comprises about 1% of all sales and they project it will drop to 0.5% by the beginning of 2010. By the end of 2009, AMD will start selling GPGPU capable video cards that will crush the i7 in most apps that utilize multimedia/scientific parallel processing, so it best to save on the CPU and buy the best video card at the end of the year.

 

[vengence]

Microcenters is pricing the i7 920 because they are either discontinued or on clearance sale. Newegg prices the 920 at $280, while the AMD 955 has a price cut to around $215.
The people who are pushing discontinued/clearance items without disclosing their actual status are a little dishonest and should be noted.

By Intel's own sales figures, the i7 comprises about 1% of all sales and they project it will drop to 0.5% by the beginning of 2010. By the end of 2009, AMD will start selling GPGPU capable video cards that will crush the i7 in most apps that utilize multimedia/scientific parallel processing, so it best to save on the CPU and buy the best video card at the end of the year.

They've got over 200 of them in stock at my local store which is up from when the went on sale a while back. Furthermore, they also have deals on a lot of other processors including E8400s and Q8200s. It's not a discountinued or clearance sell, it is a loss leader.

 

[GreenMonkey]

Well, the 775 socket has been around forever so it was due for an upgrade. But I'll be honest, I'm not sure I've EVER upgraded a CPU and not upgraded the motherboard at the same time. I've said I would a few times, but by the time I did the socket was always dead. But this was my first intel CPU in since before the K6-2 days.

My current C2D is the first Intel chip I've ever owned in my main desktop rig.

I've upgraded chip only, only rarely. I upgraded my Socket A KT133 board from a 750mhz to a 1.1ghz for $25 or so back in the day. My dad was still using the box until a few months ago.

I'll probably also upgrade my current C2D e4500 rig with a new CPU when (if) they go under $100. With 2 kids now and most of my online play being Gears 1 with my XBL buddies, I don't game much on the PC anymore and I don't need a whole lot of CPU/GPU. I've been playing Baldur's Gate II and some DOS games lately. The only game I could use more CPU for is Civ IV.

Speaking of K6, this is actually back to the same situation as the K6-2 era. Intel = faster, AMD = more bang for buck. My K6-2 350 wasn't as fast as a P2 of the same speed, but I could only afford have afforded P2-233 or so with the cash I spent on the 350.

 

[jww20]

They've got over 200 of them in stock at my local store which is up from when the went on sale a while back. Furthermore, they also have deals on a lot of other processors including E8400s and Q8200s. It's not a discountinued or clearance sell, it is a loss leader.

If someone at Microcenter told you that the i7 920 was a "loss leader" then their managment probably will take them out of business. A loss leader item almost by definition is a very high volume product that initiates other sales. The i7 920 is not high volume or medium volume or even low volume, by Intel's own figures it is nearly statistically insignificant to no volume.

On top of that, Microcenter is not like Radio Shack with thousands of stores around the country, they don't even have two dozen stores in the entire US. If that wasn't enough they explicitly prohibit orders online to the 70-80% of the population who aren't near their stores.


Every aspect of the sale along with the fact that Intel stated discontinuation of the i7 920 effectively makes it a clearance sale of a discontinued item.

 

[Roland00]

If someone at Microcenter told you that the i7 920 was a "loss leader" then their managment probably will take them out of business. A loss leader item almost by definition is a very high volume product that initiates other sales. The i7 920 is not high volume or medium volume or even low volume, by Intel's own figures it is nearly statistically insignificant to no volume.

On top of that, Microcenter is not like Radio Shack with thousands of stores around the country, they don't even have two dozen stores in the entire US. If that wasn't enough they explicitly prohibit orders online to the 70-80% of the population who aren't near their stores.


Every aspect of the sale along with the fact that Intel stated discontinuation of the i7 920 effectively makes it a clearance sale of a discontinued item.

The i7 920 has been 229 for several times (at microcenter and frys) since january of last year, the i7 was released in November. Microcenter additionally has had the i7 for 199 for several times since March.

Furthermore Microcenter has always been matching newegg for their processor prices every week, in addition to their sale items (including processors). The processor is the loss leader they expect to make their money off the other components in the store

 

[vengence]

If someone at Microcenter told you that the i7 920 was a "loss leader" then their managment probably will take them out of business. A loss leader item almost by definition is a very high volume product that initiates other sales. The i7 920 is not high volume or medium volume or even low volume, by Intel's own figures it is nearly statistically insignificant to no volume.

On top of that, Microcenter is not like Radio Shack with thousands of stores around the country, they don't even have two dozen stores in the entire US. If that wasn't enough they explicitly prohibit orders online to the 70-80% of the population who aren't near their stores.


Every aspect of the sale along with the fact that Intel stated discontinuation of the i7 920 effectively makes it a clearance sale of a discontinued item.

1) last I saw in whole sale lots of 1000, the 920 was still over 250$.
2) Intels own figures pertain to all of thier chips from the atom up. Microcenter is not dell, they don't sale hundreds of thousands of 2 Ghz Core 2 Duos. I would venture 920s make up at least 25% of thier Retail CPU sales.
3) The specifically prohibit orders of the CPU online to keep people from buying just the CPU. They are forcing people to come into the store so they can sell them other stuff. This is the very definition of a loss leader. If they were making any profit on it at all they would not stop people from buying it online, that would be moronic.