special pricing | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Sat, 08 Sep 2012 05:51:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png special pricing | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 How little money is there in games hardware? https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/mouse/harrison/how-little-money-is-there-in-games-hardware/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/mouse/harrison/how-little-money-is-there-in-games-hardware/#respond Sat, 08 Sep 2012 05:26:51 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=107486 We keep a pretty good eye on the way the channel operates. Specifically, looking for the deals that are being offered into stores – against what we know the stores sell the products for to customers (i.e. KitGuru readers). One offer in the trade press got us wondering, so we investigated and now want to …

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We keep a pretty good eye on the way the channel operates. Specifically, looking for the deals that are being offered into stores – against what we know the stores sell the products for to customers (i.e. KitGuru readers). One offer in the trade press got us wondering, so we investigated and now want to share the numbers with you. KitGuru grabs hold of a controller and hollahs “How much?”

Anyone who questioned how long an XBox 360 could survive in the market, powered by nothing much more than a custom-built 500-MHz ATI Graphics card with 10 MB of embedded DRAM, would probably have been taken by surprise at the answer, “7 years and counting”.

While the initial base units did experience some failures due to overheating, those issues have been ironed out over the years and the modern version of the internal processor is not only half the size, it also uses around 60% less electricity.

That leaves the controller. Your interface with the machine, which will – as a matter of course – take a beating.

As a result, there is a healthy business in supplying the market with replacement controllers, but how much money does anyone make from doing this?

Specialist distributor Click Entertainment has gone on record in MCV to say that they will deliver official Microsoft XBox 360 controllers for just £16 each. That's for an order of around 500 units. The company's head of business development, Jake Wright, has been quoted as saying “We're pleased to offer this top-selling product at these exclusive prices…”.

The indication is that a price of £16 is some kind of special deal. Probably the kind of deal that someone like eBuyer would be able to take advantage of. So let's check eBuyer's price and see how much money people can make with Microsoft hardware.

£18.86 less VAT at 20% is just £15.71, so even if eBuyer were to take stock at 'Click Entertainment's special bulk price', it would still lose 29p on each unit sold. There really is no money in Microsoft hardware.

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KitGuru says:  We're sure that (a) eBuyer is not a registered charity and (b) that they can buy these controllers for a better price than £16 each, but our look at Microsoft hardware pricing does raise a serious question about the survivability of this market space. Whenever you saw a queue of people heading into Game on the high street, spending loads of money, how much of that was actually retained as net profit by the store itself?

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

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Overclockers react quickly to AMD price drop https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jules/overclockers-react-quickly-to-amd-price-drop/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jules/overclockers-react-quickly-to-amd-price-drop/#comments Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:20:35 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=105155 Yesterday, KitGuru carried the news that AMD was making some strong price moves. Naturally, these tend to be in dollars, so it's always nice to see how they translate into local currency before we celebrate too much. Checking the latest postings in their forum, it looks like OcUK were quick off the mark. KitGuru pulls …

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Yesterday, KitGuru carried the news that AMD was making some strong price moves. Naturally, these tend to be in dollars, so it's always nice to see how they translate into local currency before we celebrate too much. Checking the latest postings in their forum, it looks like OcUK were quick off the mark. KitGuru pulls out a calculator to check for ‘reasonability'.

According to our sources in the channel, AMD prepared a significant price move yesterday, which reported exclusively here.

To summarise our report, it looked like the reaction to nVidia's launch of the GTX660 would line up as follows:-

  • 1GB 7850 down $40 to $190
  • 2GB 7850 also drops $40 to $210
  • 2GB 7870 down $50 to $250
  • 3GB 7950 down $30 to $320

We've done a quick calculation based on the available $-to-£ exchange rate with 20% VAT added. On that basis, these cards should be around £165 for the 2GB version of the 7850 with the 2GB 7870 under £200 and the 3GB 7950 around £250.

So, in the 24 hours since KitGuru's announcement, what have Overclockers (OcUK) managed?

Case King ladies seen here refreshing the graphics prices a little quicker and harder than those around them

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KitGuru says: It's good that graphics companies are willing to fight for your hard-earned cash. It's also nice to know that when price cuts are announced, that they are made available in the market almost instantly. We're still a little disappointed that AMD did not move the price down just before the new cards launched from nVidia – but now it's happened, all eyes will be on nVidia's GTX660 price to see if it drops in reaction.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

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2500k set to become the new Q6600 as prices drop? https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/faith/2500k-set-to-become-the-new-q6600-as-prices-drop/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/faith/2500k-set-to-become-the-new-q6600-as-prices-drop/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2012 05:30:21 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=89502 As the new Intel processors sweep through the publications and channel, we find ourselves in that twilight world where the new king is putting on its crown, while there's still a few heatbeats left in the old one. KitGuru does a quick scan of the on line retail offers and makes an overclocking judgement call. …

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As the new Intel processors sweep through the publications and channel, we find ourselves in that twilight world where the new king is putting on its crown, while there's still a few heatbeats left in the old one. KitGuru does a quick scan of the on line retail offers and makes an overclocking judgement call.

While Intel pushed, shoved and otherwise bullied the market into a new world where new Core goodness awaited all those who entered, wise heads across the planet spent a little longer contemplating the options and – in many cases – decided that the Q6600 was still the OC chip of choice.

Although there were faster chips in the Kentsfield range, none resonated with overclockers like the Q6600. Even today, you can still put ‘Q6600' as a search team into Google and get around 17 million hits. Not only was the core technology amazing (no pun intended), but the various improvements to the process used over time, created even better versions. You could almost feel the swarms of OC enthusiasts across the globe being drawn to reseller sites who announced ‘D Zero stepping chips now in stock'.

Finally, however, the teat was finally pulled away and everyone went off to suck on something else. Eventually, other chips would take top spot, but the Q6600 was a special moment.

Q6600 is bathed in gold, but how will history remember the 2500k? Will it be another Ali Vs Tyson moment?

Now, we're looking at the 2500k and wondering if there is another Q6600 in the making.

While the new 3570k ships at a stock speed of 3.4GHz, there is a lot of discussion about exactly how far the early production samples will actually clock. Sure, there is an average of 7% advantage available in the tank, but if heat issues mean that you cannot push these initial Ivy Bridge chips past 4.4GHz – then would a system with a 2500k at 4.8GHz, be more appealing?

With the 3570k rumoured to be closer to £190 inc vat, pushing the 2500k out at just £146 is enough to make you double-take

KitGuru says: The arguments for 2500k are strong – but we don't feel that they are as as strong as those for the Q6600 back in the day. Intel may well have some small process issues at the start, but the 3570k processors will no doubt start to regularly pass 4.4GHz – at which point they become the de facto choice.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

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