Mobo makers: i845PE overclocking or Springdale?
In the near future the market of Intel Pentium 4 motherboards is to suffer an unpleasant "skew": as none of Taiwanese chipset makers has been granted the license for 800MHz FSB, Intel with its i865 (Springdale) and i875 (Canterwood) novelties will become the exclusive provider of solutions for the new corresponding processors. [I guess ATI is not that serious in this market for now]. Naturally, as any monopoly implies, wholesale prices for Springdale and Canterwood chipsets have been set rather high — $33-53, exceeding i845 average prices by about $10.
Initially, when announcements of new 845PE boards with claimed 800MHz FSB support started to arrive, I hadn’t related it to pricing for newer and older chipsets. But, according to Taiwanese mass media, this price difference between 845PE and Springdale forced makers to overclock 845PE to support 800MHz FSB. Of course, these solutions will lack some features of newer solutions, like for example dual-channel DDR support. But they’ll offer a rather important advantage – their price. Still, a buyer wishing to have a new Pentium 4 with 800MHz FSB, which will be significantly more expensive than 533MHz FSB systems, will hardly refuse to invest additional dollars into an expensive Springdale/Canterwood board. From this point the future of overclocked i845PE boards seems cloudy. However, those making their choice now might as well be interested in such cheaper solutions that give some hope for a cheaper upgrade. These "overclocked" solutions are offered by at least MSI, ABIT and Albatron at the moment.
| P4 chipsets wholesale prices, $ | |
| December 29 | March 30 | May 20 |
| 875P (RAID) |
- | — |
53 | | 875P |
- | — |
50 | | 850E |
40 | 40 |
40 | | 850 |
38 | 38 |
40 | | 865PE (RAID) |
- | — |
39 | | 865PE |
- | — |
36 | | 865P (RAID) |
- | — |
36 | | 865P |
- | — |
33 | | 845PE |
30 | 28 |
28 | | 845E |
26 | 25 |
25 | | 865G (RAID) |
- | — |
44 | | 865G |
- | — |
41 | | 845GE |
35 | 35 |
35 | | 845G |
35 | 35 |
35 | | 845GV |
25 | 24 |
24 | | 845GL |
24 | 23 |
23 | | 845 |
21 | 21 |
21 |
As for the future price cut for Pentium 4 processors and prices at the moment of availability, Taiwanese The DigiTimes posted these again. We do the same, but note that the current situation, including a seat of war and cloudy political prospects, any release dates are even more approximate and can be moved depending on the situation.
| Desktop P4 prices, $ |
Clock speed, GHz | February 23 | May 11 | Change, % |
400/533MHz FSB | 400/533MHz FSB | 800MHz FSB | | 3.2 |
- | — |
637 | — |
| 3.0/3.06 |
589 | 401 |
417 | (31.9) |
| 2.8 |
375 | 262 |
278 | (30.1) |
| 2.6/2.66 |
241 | 193 |
218 | (19.9) |
| 2.53/2.5 |
193 | 193 |
- | 0 |
| 2.4 |
163 | 163 |
178 | 0 |
| 2.26/2.2 |
163 | — |
- | — |
| 2.0 |
163 | — |
- | — |
Source: The DigiTimes
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