Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/676



Introduction

It's Friday, and that means that the weekly price guide is here. This is the 4th edition, and this week we will concentrate on memory and motherboards prices.

The basic goal is to provide you with the best deals, and follow price trends of the listed products. We have selected a leading team of on-line vendors, and will be tracking their progress on weekly basis. Please note that all vendors were selected according to their best price offered. Some vendors may ask that you place a phone-order to make sure that you receive our listed price; others simply ask that you mention where you found the price (in this case AnandTech). We have tried to eliminate vendors with low feedback rating, but we do encourage you to do some sort of a rating research before purchasing any product from this list.

If you encounter any problems with a vendor on our list, please email us, and we will take appropriate action. Remember that we will only list vendors with positive customer feedback. If you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to let me know.

Also be sure to check out AnandTech's Hot Deals Forum for even more great CPU, video card and other technology buys.

Disclamer

AnandTech does not endorse any vendor listed in the following price guide. AnandTech does not receive any advertising fees and/or sponsorship from the listed vendors. All views expressed by listed vendors do not reflect the opinions of AnandTech.

AnandTech, nor any of the vendors mentioned guarantee that the prices listed in this guide are accurate.

This week

The memory market has been a bit shaky for the past two weeks, and many feared that memory prices would skyrocket once again. Fortunately most prices didn't go up, and only a few models have dropped in price - at least for now.

Intel is currently dragging a well-known company by the name of Rambus behind them. Most readers are familiar with the fact that the new Intel Pentium 4 is currently only available with dual-channel PC800 RDRAM that is the brainchild of Rambus, Inc. At this point all Pentium 4 systems will be based on the RDRAM memory subsystem, which is bad news for the end user. RDRAM has significantly dropped in price within the past eight months - if you remember; there was a time when a stick of 128MB PC800 RDRAM cost up to $1200! Fortunately, it's no where near that expensive today, albeit still more expensive than SDRAM.

AMD is comfortably enjoying the fact that they are the only platform that supports DDR SDRAM for the time being. SDRAM is currently their key to success with value chipset configurations, while the newer DDR chipsets provide higher performance and the latest technology to the high-end market. DDR SDRAM should be widely available very soon, but we don't expect it to be very cheap, on par with CAS2 PC150 SDRAM prices at best. Eventually, it will reach virtual price parity with SDR SDRAM, but there's no telling how long that will be at the moment.



Memory



AnandTech Weekly Memory Prices
Memory Type - Size Price Change Vendor Shipping Promotion
PC2100 DDR - 256MB NA $0 NA
PC2100 DDR - 128MB $111 $0 Crucial $5.50 Limited Quantity
PC2100 DDR - 64MB $61 $0 Crucial $5.50 Limited Quantity
PC1600 DDR - 256MB NA $0 NA
PC1600 DDR - 128MB $100 $0 Crucial $5.50 Limited Quantity
PC1600 DDR - 64MB $53 $0 Crucial $5.50 Limited Quantity
PC800 RDRAM - 256MB $425 $54 StarComponents $11.00 Lifetime Warranty
PC800 RDRAM - 128MB $172 $27 StarComponents $11.00 Lifetime Warranty
PC800 RDRAM - 64MB $89 $74 StarComponents $11.00 Lifetime Warranty
VC133 - 128MB $106 $0 MWave $8.00 Priority Shipping
VC133 - 64MB $53 $0 MWave $8.00 Priority Shipping
PC150 CAS2 - 128MB $85 $5 MWave $8.00 Priority Shipping
PC133 CAS3 - 512MB $377 $12 StarComponents $11.00 ECC or Non-ECC
PC133 CAS3 - 256MB $103 $13 UpgradePlanet $9.70 Non-ECC
PC133 CAS3 - 128MB $54 $9 UpgradePlanet $9.70 Non-ECC
PC133 CAS3 - 64MB $25 $0 UpgradePlanet $9.70 Non-ECC
PC133 CAS2 - 256MB $212 $0 Crucial $5.50 Priority Shipping
PC133 CAS2 - 128MB $105 $0 Crucial $5.50 Priority Shipping
PC133 CAS2 - 64MB $58 $0 Crucial $5.50 Priority Shipping
PC100 ECC 128MB $76 $0 StarComponents $11.00
PC100 ECC 64MB $38 $1 StarComponents $11.00
PC100 512MB $347 $6 MemoryToGo $6.00 UPS Ground
PC100 256MB $94 $9 UpgradePlanet $9.70 UPS Ground
PC100 128MB $52 $8 UpgradePlanet $9.70 UPS Ground
PC100 64MB $26 $2 UpgradePlanet $9.70 UPS Ground

RDRAM has dropped in price by more than 25%; this of course is the result of the official Pentium 4 launch. RDRAM is slowly becoming more available to the end user, and we hope that this trend will continue in the near future. Eventually RDRAM might be able to compete with DDR SDRAM in terms of prices and value, but for now it's still a little pricey for most consumers. One interesting thing to note is that Intel is actually bundling two 64MB RDRAM RIMM's with retail boxed Pentium 4 CPU's.

No changes on the Virtual Channel or DDR fronts, however we expect DDR SDRAM to drop in price as availability improves. Note that Crucial is our only provider of DDR SDRAM at this time, and you would have to be pretty convincing in order to buy DDR SDRAM from them due to the fact that they currently have reserved limited quantities for hardware developers.


Related Reviews

Make sure you check out our latest Memory and Chipset reviews for more information.

Memory Reviews Publication Date
PC133 SDRAM Roundup - April 2000 April 3rd, 2000

 

Chipset Reviews Publication Date
DDR SDRAM on the AMD Athlon September 14th, 2000
AMD's 760 Chipset: DDR for the Athlon is here October 30th, 2000
ALi MAGiK 1: The Athlon gets a second DDR platform November 29th, 2000


i815(E) FC-PGA Socket-370 Motherboards



AnandTech Weekly Motherboard Prices - Intel Socket-370
Motherboard Model Price Change Vendor Shipping Promotion
ASUS CUSL2 $119 $9 Atacom $10.50 UPS Ground
ABIT SE6 $124 $0 Neutron $13.70 UPS Ground
ABIT SA6R $149 $0 Neutron $13.70
Transcend TS-ASL3 $129 $0 Components $12.00 UPS Ground
Microstar 815E Pro $109 $0 MWave $9.50 Check for Rebate
AOpen AX3S Pro $144 $0 Axion $7.50
Chaintech 6AJ $89 $0 PCBoost $16.00 Limited Quantity


The ASUS CUSL2 is still our favoriate board for an Intel Pentium III system and we are happy to report that its price has dropped by $9, which should cover shipping costs. The ASUS CUSL2 and the ABIT SA6R are our choices for a high-end system; both boards are prepared for anything you can throw at them. The ASUS CUSL2 was rock solid in our testing and has quite a few very useful features, while the ABIT SA6R features ABIT's popular SoftMenu III and Ultra ATA 100 RAID support.

The Chaintech 6AJ is our choice for a budget i815 motherboard. Don't be turned off by its low price, because this board packs a great deal for most end users who don't need the extra stability and features when it comes to tweaking and overclocking.

Related Reviews

Make sure you check out our latest i815 Socket-370 Motherboard reviews for more information.

Socket-370 Motherboard Reviews Publication Date
ASUS CUSL2 Socket-370 i815E ATX
July 9th, 2000
ABIT SE6 Socket-370 i815E ATX
October 25th, 2000
Transcend TS-ASL3 Socket-370 i815E ATX
October 27th, 2000
ABIT SA6R Socket-370 i815E + RAID ATX November 13th, 2000
Intel 815 Chipset
June 27th, 2000
Intel i815 / i815E Motherboard Roundup - August 2000
August 3rd, 2000


KT133 Socket-A Motherboards

AnandTech Weekly Motherboard Prices - AMD Socket-A
Motherboard Model Price Change Vendor Shipping Promotion
ASUS A7V (Non-RAID) $133 $3 PCBoost $15.85 Limited Quantity
ABIT KT7-RAID $143 $0 Neutron $13.85 UPS Ground
ABIT KT7 $124 $6 Neutron $13.85 UPS Ground
Microstar K7T Pro $99 $0 MWave $9.50
Chaintech 7AJA $95 $0 PCBoost $15.85 Limited Quantity
Chaintech CT-7AIA $95 $0 Openlinx $7.00 UPS Flat Rate
EPoX EP-8KTA2 $116 $0 MWave $9.50
FIC AZ11 $91 $0 PeachPC $10.00 UPS Ground
Gigabyte GA-7ZX $105 $7 PeachPC $10.00 UPS Ground


KT133 motherboards remain at the same price levels despite the eminent availability of 760 boards. ASUS and ABIT change a bit in price, which keeps things slightly interesting. At this point, we recommend two options if you want an AMD processor; either upgrade to newer DDR-based motherboards as soon as they become available, or wait until the prices drops even further for current SDR-based motherboards

Check out our recent KT133 Motherboard Roundup to find our picks for the best Socket-A boards.

Related Reviews

Make sure you check out our latest KT133 Socket-A Motherboard reviews for more information.

Socket-A Motherboard Reviews Publication Date
ASUS A7V Socket-A KT133 ATX
August 22nd, 2000
ABIT KT7-RAID Socket-A KT133 ATX
August 12th, 2000
Microstar K7T Pro Socket-A KT133 ATX
July 23rd, 2000
Microstar K7T Pro2 Socket-A KT133 ATX
October 16th, 2000
Chaintech CT-7AIV2 Socket-A KT133 microATX
October 5th, 2000
FIC AZ-11 Socket-A KT133 ATX
July 8th, 2000
FIC AZ-11E Socket-A KT133 ATX
November 15th , 2000
EPoX EP-8KTA2 Socket-A KT133 (686B) ATX
November 14th, 2000
Gigabyte GA-7ZX Socket-A KT133 ATX
July 15th, 2000
VIA KX133 Athlon Chipset - Guide
February 7th, 2000
Socket-A VIA KT133 Motherboard Roundup - November 2000 August 9th, 2000

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