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Taxes; Networking; NiCDs; Basics; Problem; Amusing; Upgrade

A useful hardware site I somehow never mentioned. I thought I had, then I spent an hour searching my own site for it and couldn't find it. Bookmark The Red Hill Guide to Computer Hardware . Hard drive reviews, motherboard reviews--and we're talking current hardware to golden oldies, from a straight-talking dealer that's actually built PCs using these things, rather than a few hours' impressions from a lab. Useful viewpoint. If you're about to buy something off eBay, get these guys' impressions of it first. If you're looking for new hardware but want more than just a gamer's impression, visit here first.

CPU prices. There are people who believe this won't be the only price cut this month, but regardless of what happens, it's a buyer's market. Some of these chips are already selling for less than these prices (thanks to gray market dumping), but check out the OEM prices on CPUs:

AMD

Athlon
1.3 GHz: $265
1.2 GHz: $223
1.1 GHz: $201
1.0 GHz: $170
950 MHz: $143
900 MHz: $125

Duron
900 MHz: $99
850 MHz: $79
800 MHz: $65
750 MHz: $55

 
Intel
 
Pentium 4
1.7 GHz: $701
1.5 GHz: $519
1.4 GHz: $375
1.3 GHz: $268

Pentium III
1.0 GHz: $225
933 MHz: $193
866 MHz: $163
850 MHz: $163

Celeron
850 MHz: $138
800 MHz: $93
766 MHz: $79
733 MHz: $76
700 MHz: $73
667 MHz: $69
 
But supposedly, the 1.5 GHz P4 will be selling for $256 at the end of the month. Guess what that means? Intel will have to cut their lower-clocked chips to even lower levels, and since AMD has to compete on clock speed, they'll have to follow. This may also force AMD's hand to finally release a 1.5 GHz Athlon, which they've supposedly been ready to do for several weeks now. AMD would rather not sell that chip for $250, but they'll have to price it comparably to Intel, and they'll need that chip to keep their average selling price up.

It's scary how much CPU $99 will get you. Remember, a year ago 1 GHz was the absolute state of the art. Today, you can be knocking at the door for just a Benjamin. But at the end of the month that Benjamin should get you even more. LCD. Speaking of price wars, I read speculation yesterday that the average price of a 15" LCD flat panel (equivalent to a 17" CRT monitor) will be $449 by July. A 17-incher will hit the $1,000 mark. Pricing will remain low throughout most of the year, then possibly inch back up as demand for PCs, particularly laptops, starts climbing. I'm not certain we'll see the rebound in demand at the end of the year some are predicting, however--an awful lot of PCs were bought the past couple of years due to Y2K fear more than anything else. It may be 2002, when those PCs bought in 1999 hit age 3, before we start seeing much of a rebound. I know none of my clients have any interest at all in buying PCs right now, and they'll do absolutely anything to avoid doing it. I'm thinking if we retitled my book and put a "Squeeze another year out of your Pentium-200!" cover blurb on it, we'd have a best-seller. Dumbest spam ever. Check this: Removal instructions below.

I saw your listing on the internet.

I work for a company that specializes
in getting clients web sites listed
as close to the top of the major
search engines as possible.

Our fee is only $29.95 per month to
submit your site at least twice a
month to over 350 search engines
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To get started and put your web site
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To be removed call: 888-800-6339 X1377 I called the 888 number yesterday and got an answering machine. I'll have to call again today. Maybe a few times.

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Taxes; Networking; NiCDs; Basics; Problem; Amusing; Upgrade