Weekly CPU Prices - Week of November 3, 2008
November 6, 2008
Welcome to the Sharky Extreme Weekly CPU Prices. This is a weekly update on CPU prices we find around the net.
We have several different tables to help you find what you are looking for, sorted by manufacturer; (AMD or Intel) sorted by price; tables showing only high-end or low-end CPUs, all to make your research and subsequent buying decision a bit easier. Use our handy "jump to" feature at the bottom of each page to quickly get where you need to go.
If you are new to this feature and are wondering just exactly how we get these prices, and how YOU can get them, the last page of this guide describes our search methods. Please note that most prices listed were found using PriceWatch and are only for phone orders, requiring that you call the vendors and tell them you found a specific price on PriceWatch or "on Sharky Extreme's Weekly CPU Price Guide, which uses PriceWatch." Also please note that prices change daily, while our guide is only updated weekly; so you will need to get an updated price.
So without further ado here is the Weekly CPU Pricing Guide...
Once again, there is little in the way of price changes to report in this week's AMD charts. A couple of $1 and $4 drops are all we see in the way of lower prices, with one of the other processors we track moving upwards by $5. The rest of the AMD listings, meanwhile, held right where they have been for weeks.
As in the AMD charts, the overwhelming majority of the Intel prices we track continued to hold steady in this week's guide. One notable exception is the 3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo E6850, which fell $26 from its price last week. But whether this drop is a sign of things to come or just an anomaly caused by one vendor's aggressive pricing, is something only time will tell.
As yet another week of mostly stagnant CPU prices passes by, all we can do is hope that we'll see additional price drops in the coming weeks. If nothing else, though, we're hopeful that the impending real-world release of the new Core i7 processors, expected by month's end, will help to refresh the charts and keep things interesting for CPU shoppers.
The High-End processor market is made up of the fastest and most expensive CPUs that you can buy. This is also an area where money talks and money walks, especially at the top-end of the scale, where the budget-minded definitely fear to tread. To help select the right high-end CPU for your own specific configuration, we've sorted these based on model, speed and then split the CPUs into retail and OEM sections if required. This is an excellent method of gauging where the high-end "best buys" may be, especially between the OEM and Retail versions.
The Entry-Level processor selection is comprised of both Intel and AMD value CPUs, which combine a lower overall cost with slightly less robust performance. It's still a great place to get some serious bang for your processor buck, and many gamers love the cost savings that these entry-level processors allow. The following chart groups the Intel and AMD value processor by model and line, and then sorts each of these sections by retail price. While a bit shorter than the High-End price chart, it still gives a very good view of the overall price structure, and eagle-eyed readers will pick out the best buys with little effort.
Tracking processor price levels is just one facet of our guide. We also track price changes, from one week to the next, outlining where the best CPU deals may exist at a specific point in time. In the following chart, we've tried to make it even easier on you by sorting the data using the price change column and ranking the largest drops right at the top. This type of chart can really help buyers who track processor prices closely, watching for any opening to purchase. This listing, along with the forthcoming one that is sorted by price, should be invaluable tools in any buying decision. Just remember to keep your eye on both sides of the equation, as the biggest price drop may be indicative of a good deal, but the overall price and its competitive position still needs to be evaluated.
High-End or Low-End, it's all the same in the following CPU price chart. This is the big one, the grand-daddy price list gathering all the previous CPU prices and combining them into one monster chart. To top it off, we also sort based on price, starting with the low-cost processors, and moving up to the most expensive, cutting-edge performance models. This gives an incredible view of the overall CPU market, not only comparing the basic Intel vs. AMD processors against each other, but allowing a closer look at how the different processor lines match up as well.
