Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1907
Introduction
In this weeks price guide, we'll take a look at AMD's and Intel's pricing trends and like always, suggest a few processors to look into. First off, we would like to remind you to explore the RTPE before you drop your hard earned cash on what your heart desires.
We're seeing the socket 939 Opterons in stock at the moment, going for incredible prices! We'd suggest you get your hands on one of those ASAP while they are priced fairly low if you have been waiting around to get one.
If you are looking for an inexpensive yet decent system, the AMD Sempron's and Intel Celeron D's are great budget based processors to build your office system around, while the dual core processors are holding their price points fairly steadily.
We will start this week's CPU guide with the dual core processors.
Dual Core Desktops
The AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Toledo core) [RTPE: ADA3800CDBOX] has seen a great price decrease of approximately $46, bringing its price down to a total of $335 shipped. While the Toledo core has seen a decrease in price, the X2 3800+ Manchester core [RTPE: ADA3800BVBOX] has been at the same price point for well over one month, currently at $322.
We are expecting AMD to release a new series of processors in the very near future, but at the moment, we will not be able to discuss any of this information any further. As the time period approaches, expect us to make some comment about this.
As you can see from the price chart below, Intel's Pentium D processors have also been at the same price point since our last price guide about one month ago. This chart right below show Intel's budget based Pentium D 820 [RTPE: BX80551PG2800FN] at roughly the same price since September.
Intel Pentium D (775) 820 800FSB
2x1MB
As with AMD, we are also expecting Intel to be releasing a new line of processors, but again, we cannot comment on this information at the moment. Please stay tuned....
AMD Single Core
As it appears, we are seeing some sort of activity in AMD's single core lineup. It's nothing really significant, but there are some price fluctuations, roughly $6.00 up or down. One of the most commonly purchased processors in the lower-end of AMD's single core series is the Athlon 64 3200+ Venice [RTPE: ADA3200BPBOX] going for about $160.
We don't suggest you go for one of the high-end options of AMD's single core processors because price-wise, they are very close to the X2 lineup. The highest we would suggest to go with would probably be the AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 1MB San Diego [RTPE: ADA3700BNBOX] going for about $210. If you're planning on spending about $100 more, the X2 processors are what you will want to consider.
For something at about midway in the socket 754 lineup, the AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512KB Newcastle [RTPE: ADA3000AXBOX] is on sale for about $120. If you're into the mobile processors, the Athlon 64 DTR 3000+ 1MB Hammer [RTPE: AMA3000BEX5AR] is a great buy at $117.
If you're an AMD fan, their Sempron lineup is a great alternative to Intel's Celeron processors. Both are excellent for their price and do as would be expected. For a low budget based build, something along the lines of the Sempron 64 (754) 2500+ 256KB Palermo [RPTE: SDA2500BXBOX] appears to be a great deal at just under $70. Save your $5 and go with the 2500+ rather than the 2800+ as there is only a 200MHz clock speed difference. You can easily overclock your 2500+ those extra 200MHz to reach the 2800+ speeds.
We can see the AMD Turion MT-30 1MB [RTPE: TMSMT30BQX5LD] is at a decent price of about $160. Most of the other prices of the Turion processors haven't changed much, but we are seeing a slight decrease of about $9.00 with the AMD Turion MT-28 512KB [RTPE: TMSMT28BQX4LD] going for a grand total of about $180 shipped.
Intel Pentium 4
Intel's Extreme Edition CPUs are still outrageously high, and we don't see any signs of price reductions any time soon. There really isn't anything here that we would recommend you look into from this line-up.
Between the 5xx and 6xx series, we must recommend you go with the newer 6xx lineup. For roughly $164, the Intel Pentium 4 630 800FSB 2MB [RTPE: BX80547PG3000F] looks like a decent deal. Just like with the Sempron 2500+ case, we suggest you stick with the 630 over the 640 as the only difference is the 200MHz clock speed which is not worth the $40 extra.
Intel Celeron D & Pentium M
Intel's Celeron D CPUs are excellent processors for light office work and the like. You can find them in both socket 478 and socket 775 flavors. From the socket 478 category, we suggest you look into the Intel Celeron D (478) 335 [RTPE: BX80546RE2800C] on sale for $80. For something even lower in the budget spectrum, the Intel Celeron D (478) 310 [RTPE: BX80546RE2130C] is going for an even cheaper $57 shipped. From the socket 775 category, the Intel Celeron D (775) 331 [RTPE: BX80547RE2667CN] is a great buy going for a mere $73 shipped.
We are keeping an eye out on the Pentium M line of processors, and the only one we are seeing any type of reduction in its price is the Intel Pentium M (479) 760 533FSB 2MB [RTPE: BX80536GE2000F] down about $14. At the moment, it is going for $327 shipped.
Opteron & Xeon
Both the Opteron 144 and 146 are still going like rice cakes, and with both experiencing a great decrease in price, we can't see this deal getting much better (although we still hope it does). You can find the AMD Opteron (939) 146 Venus [RTPE: OSA146BNBOX] down $65, making it a grand total of $174 shipped. The AMD Opteron (939) 144 Venus [RTPE: OSA144BNBOX] is down $34, bringing its total price down to $153. Get 'em while they're hot!
To finish off this weeks CPU price guide, we will take a look at Intel's Xeon Processors. Many of the Xeon CPUs have remained at the last price we had seen them at, while a few have significantly gone up. We are seeing significant price increases anywhere from $26 to $50.
For instance, the Intel Xeon 2.4GHz 533FSB 512KB [RTPE: BX80532KE2400D] has increased another $50 and is now at $310 shipped. Your best bet is to go with the Intel Xeon 2.8GHz 800FSB 2MB [RTPE: BX80546KG2800F] going for $240.
This concludes this week's CPU Price Guide. Please join us next week when we take a look at what's going on in the motherboard marketplace! Thanks for reading.