tech bleg
So I’m the kind to always build my own PCs from parts, cause I hate paying a premium, tend to build higher-end systems (where the economic advantage is highest), don’t want to pay for bundled software, cannibalize my old system for fans, optical drives and hard drives, network cards, etc. Anyway I’m looking at stuff on NewEgg.com (not that I’ll be able to afford to upgrade this year), and despite my efforts to stay on top of hardware, I still have questions.
Here’s one: CPU’s with very similar speeds, cores, and cache memory often have very different price points. I’m seeing for example dual-core processors with similar amounts of cache in the 2.5 Ghz range, where one processor costs over a hundred dollars more. Why? Sometimes this is between AMD and Intel chips, but sometimes chips from the same company have that wide of a difference. I’m trying to think of what could account for that kind of difference in price if not total power/speed (some of them have different FSBs or multipliers, but it doesn’t really matter if the ultimate speed of the chip is the same, right?); number of cores; or amount of cache memory. Can someone explain what I’m missing?
I’m not really sure but I think you can at least get a sense of the power from the comparable bench testing that gets done on sites like Anandtech, Tom’s Hardware of perhaps a few I don’t know of. In the absence of an explanation from a techie, that could help.
I’m the same way about computers. I’ve never built the system myself but I’ve picked out the components and will never buy a pre-made. You save at least $1,000 with higher end parts.Report
Sometimes it’s simply because one chip was more cost effective to produce (smaller) and sometimes it’s because one can overclock a lot higher and they know they can charge more for it (i.e. the whole “extreme” thing) and sometimes it’s because prices simply haven’t caught up with reality (competition). I think, also, there’s the idea that people will pay a lot more for a very small performance gain…
…but I’m rusty on all of this. I built a bunch of pc’s a while back, including my own, spent WAY too much money, and I now I avoid NewEgg like the plague…Report
I’ve found that the Pentium Duo processors are fine for most applications, as the Core 2 duos are significantly more expensive for marginal performance benefits (at best).
I built a cheap mid-end entertainment center from a Shuttle K45 (now discontinued). This required accepting an integrated graphics card and only one PCI port, but the thing is tiny, takes 70 watts to run and I don’t play video games.Report