Whenever a deal comes together, you can look at the component parts and make some kind of guess as to how the reduction was made possible. KitGuru gets tons of emailed offers every day, but this one grabbed our attention. Here's why.

The deal itself is for a CPU with a mainboard and memory, more about the detail later. First, let's do a quick once-over on the component types.

Mainboards
Mainboards are horribly complicated things. Often, they sell for the same money as a simple product like a chassis. Engineering on a chassis is a frame with a skin and some LEDs. Engineering on a mainboard is something altogether more complex. Given a choice, would you rather manufacture metal boxes or multi-layer printer circuit boards with loads of sensitive components and a constant need for driver updates? You see our point.

RAM
Memory is at once complex and simple. The first one can cost a fortune, but every module after that is produced commodity style. This stuff is well tested, reliable and – if it works well – pretty dull. It's one of the components you NEVER want to notice in your PC. Price wise, it is traded globally in huge volume and the patterns for this trading are well known. Normal movement is in the +/- 10% range.

Windows
Pricing on the OS is stable. There are no dodgy copies on sale from the major retailers and you're unlikely to install it only to find a Compaq/HP logo on the boot screen. Windows 7 Home Premium is a known product with a known price.

Processors
Now we're into the land of significant movements. Intel decided to can the i7 920 and 930 chips, so it simply repositioned the 950 into the exactly the same price bracket. Deals on CPUs are always great value, because they involve larger movements in one go. AMD's Phenom II X6 1055 processor has been a popular choice for enthusiasts looking for a 3.7GHz OC, and the pricing has been pretty stable.

OK, enough background, what do we think we're seeing with this Dabs deal?

Well, the offer is for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium,  mainboard, memory and AMD Phenom II X6 processor and offers £70 off.  KitGuru is no maths genius, but we know that you can't easily lose that money from a mainboard. operating system or memory.

So, there you have it. KitGuru suspects that the Phenom II X6 processors are becoming more competitively priced in time for Xmas. We might be wrong, but it seems hard to lose £70 on the other stuff.

KitGuru says: Evaluate each deal as you find it, regardless of components being offered or the store with the sale. If it suits your purpose and wallet, then it's a deal. Savings on things you don't need are not what we call economy. Just ask yourself if you're in the mood/market for an overclockable 6 core machine with Windows 7.

If you know of any other AMD processor deals right now that might back up this price drop, then please comment below or in the KitGuru forum.

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