View: Motherboard costs are an issue
View: Motherboard costs are an issue
The costs for Z690 motherboards have definitely risen a lot recently. Back when I built my first system, I had something similar for around $150, but now the Z690 board is listed at $599. That’s more than an Xbox Series X or PS5 on its own. Even basic models without heatsinks and with poor design are selling for about $200. I ended up choosing a mid-range option with decent WiFi, which cost me $310. Still, it feels odd given the rapid price jumps. Processors haven’t doubled in price, and graphics cards don’t seem to have caught up either. If you’re after a top-tier board with all the latest features, these prices are quite steep. It seems like Alder Lake adoption might be slowed by this trend. The gap between what’s available and what people expect is starting to feel a bit excessive.
I remember Gamers Nexus discussing the steep price tags these days... almost every new generation of hardware comes with a hefty cost. For instance, a 32 GB setup would likely cost about $350.
It's really confusing, I don't get it at all. In every other reality I've imagined, I'd never pay more than 300 for a motherboard. Even the x570 Dark Hero from the previous generation costs 449, and it has some seriously impressive specs that would normally belong on a high-end board like an Evga Kingpin. It looks like the price jumped out of nowhere. A few years back, 300 dollars would cover top-tier power delivery, an aluminum backplate, post code, bios flashback, and all that. Now it seems $300 is only getting you the first boards with decent look, build quality, and heatsinks.
New generation low to mid-range boards match the cost of a top-tier or upgraded mid-range board from previous generations. That’s quite surprising. Probably the DDR5 support chipsets increase the price significantly.
The boards indeed offer strong performance, but the cost of PCIe 5 slots seems high compared to other sources. A jump of around $200 in one generation doesn’t seem reasonable.
They are indeed, which is why I avoided thinking the 12th generation was worth more than the 5th generation Ryzen. Although the CPUs are priced alike, a solid motherboard costs much more now than it did before. DDR5 doesn’t seem to provide better performance for the 12th gen yet, and it’s unlikely to do so for the 13th or beyond. After that, the LGA1700 will likely fade away, possibly replaced by something like the LGA1701 or a new variant.
DDR5 seems to limit Zen 4 and Raptor Lake significantly. Alder Lake offers the advantage of supporting DDR4. The latest DDR5 memory quality is quite poor. Meteor Lake is expected to be a modest upgrade. I believe building a new system will come sooner after Intel releases its 20A chip in late 2024, possibly by then if it doesn't face delays. That would be when Intel promises they'll reclaim CPU performance leadership over AMD and Apple.
I've also observed the cost rise since the Skylake period. Even first-gen Ryzen boards were pricier, yet each price range stayed fairly consistent over time. Some claim they're actually higher quality, but that's debatable. Many of my mobos weren't consistently stable for long sessions, often needing BIOS tweaks to improve performance. If power delivery isn't a priority, you're unlikely to overclock much, and second-tier boards are significantly cheaper. I'm sharing UK prices only, but before Skylake I'd pay roughly £100 for an entry-level OC board, £150 for something better like the Hero. The Z690 entry model sits around £150-200, though £200 seems reasonable. If you're not focused on overclocking, you probably won't need to spend much on OC boards. A solid B chipset with XMP support covers most needs now. Over to team red, the X570 is only marginally cheaper from £140 at the same place I checked earlier. I haven't verified if those examples matched the build quality closely, which could shift things.
The hero's value increased significantly, rising from 150 Euros to 500 Euros across several generations.