Introduction
Welcome back to another edition of our CPU price guide. Overall, we're noticing many processors have actually decreased in price and this is obviously a great occurrence. The recent addition to the FX line, the dual-core Athlon 64 FX-60, has been introduced into our RTPE. Price-wise, this processor is up there with the Intel Extreme Edition CPUs, so it's not something for everyone. Check out Anand's FX-60 write-up for more info regarding this.
Intel's new additions to the dual-core line-up, the Presler 9xx, are fairly impressive. They are currently competing very nicely with AMD's variants, and this is an exceptional stand to see Intel take.
And lastly, don't forget to check out our RTPE at http://labs.anandtech.com/ for your hardware buying needs.
Starting off the guide, we would like to take a look at AMD's dual-core line-up.
Dual-Core Desktops
This week, we're noticing that all of the AMD X2 processors have seen some sort of price adjustment; most have decreased in price, although a couple of which have gone up. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester [RTPE: ADA4200BVBOX] has seen a slight price decrease of $24, bringing it down to $365 shipped, the lowest we've seen this processor sell for.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 (939) 4200+ 2x512KB Manchester
If you're looking for a cheaper alternative, the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester [RTPE: ADA3800BVBOX] is still an excellent option. Down about $20, the X2 3800+ is on sale for $300. We would also like to mention that the highest available AMD X2, the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo [RTPE: ADA4800CDBOX], has come down by an impressive $147, bringing the total cost down to an even $640 shipped (the lowest price we've seen it go for).
The newly released Athlon 64 FX-60 [RTPE: ADAFX60CDBOX] has actually come down about $100 in the couple weeks it has been out. Currently, the dual-core FX-60 is priced at about $1,109 shipped.
Just as well as the dual-core AMD CPUs, a few of the dual-core Intel processors have also seen a decent reduction in price, ranging from about $20 to $50. The newly released Presler (9xx) processors are in stock and at fairly reasonable prices. Going for $339, the Intel Pentium D 930 [RTPE: HH80553PG0804M] is down about $37. Clocked at 3.4GHz, the Intel Pentium D 950 [RTPE: HH80553PG0964M] is the fastest dual-core Intel CPU available at the moment. It is currently priced at $689 shipped.
With the miniscule price difference of about $20 between the lowest Presler (Pentium D 920) and lowest Smithfield (Pentium D 820), we recommend going with the Intel Pentium D 920 (Presler) [RTPE: HH80553PG0724M] for $266 rather than the Intel Pentium D 820 [RTPE: HH80551PG0722MN].
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JarredWalton - Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - link
I personally don't believe in "guaranteed 2.8+ GHz on air!" claims for most Opterons. I've got a 165 that does 2.56 GHz with the retail HSF, and that seems about typical. A bit better air cooler might get 2.65 to 2.70 GHz, and water might get 2.80+ GHz. For single core chips, you can add about 200 MHz to the estimates. So, all told, the Opteron chips are still reasonable, and they include good retail HSFs. If you're just looking for 2.6 to 2.8 GHz you won't be disappointed; if you want 2.8+ GHz, though, water cooling is about the only way I would say it's anywhere near "guaranteed".TowerShield - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
Pretty large drop.I'm guessing the FX-60 showing up a second time under AMD single-cores is a typo?
rrcn - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
Yeah, the FX-60 is also showing up under the single-core page because I haven't been able to figure out the code to get it to disappear. :p