Extreme edition price drops

[AD-15]

hello,

In the past, rougly how much do the prices of Intel extreme edition CPUs drop when a new generation of CPUs arrive?

[Crevan]

I'd say by about nothing. The "ancient" Intel QX6x00 series are still in the half-thousand-quid+ bracket, just like 2 years ago if my memory doesn't fail me.

[Lanky123]

They don't. They introduce a non-extreme variant at the same clockspeed, just without the unlocked mulitiplier. For example they released a Q9650 to replace the QX9650, which was the extreme Yorkfield at launch, but now superseded by the QX9770. The Q9650 is about half the price of the QX9650 (still a bit crazy at ~£360 lol).

If you want an extreme edition (don't really see why you would) your only chance of finding one cheaply (well, comparatively) would be someone flogging one on eBay after realising how silly their purchase was come price cut time. They'd probably still try and get several hundred for it mind you.

[Tetras]

Aye, aside from the fact they are somewhat of a pointless CPU (at the ridiculous prices and with the ease of FSB-based overclocking) they rarely (if ever) get reduced by much (only replaced by multiplier-locked versions).

If you have always wanted an "extreme" CPU with an unlocked-multiplier to play around with, may I suggest the AMD "Black Edition" CPUs (note that the 6400+ is NOT upwards unlocked and has little headroom to play with, go for Brisbane or Phenom based). They are very similar prices to the desktop variants but the X2 5000+ BE has been replaced by the X2 5400+ BE which isn't yet available in (the UK in) any great quantity.

If you want a CPU with more grunt you'll often find Intel Extreme CPUs for sale second-hand at massively reduced prices on new but personally I'd not want to buy second-hand hardware that is the price of a new PC.

The choice is yours