Getting the right set of computer parts, whether for a brand new PC build or an upgrade, involves a good amount of research and most importantly, patience. It is wise to purchase individual PC parts over a period of time which can help you save some money. But as I mentioned, this requires a lot of patience especially if you have been planning to build a new PC for some time.
If I am being honest, there is never a good time to buy computer parts. You might get a new monitor today, but in a few years or even months, it will be replaced by a new model that will be brighter, sharper, have a higher resolution, or even a faster refresh rate.
Yearly sales
One can anticipate a potential drop in price during recurring yearly sales. Amazon hosts multiple sales throughout the year with the biggest one being Prime Day that is usually hosted in the month of June. Similarly, Newegg is also a good place to buy PC parts at discounted rates during their Supreme Tech, and clearance sales. Additionally, Newegg also has Shell Shocker exclusive deals where prices change every day on different types of products. There are also smaller sales on occasions like Valentine's Day, Labor Day, and of course right before the holiday season.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are your best bet if you are looking for the best deals on PC parts. These are the biggest electronic sales where you can expect discounts, deals and price drops on a large range of hardware, peripherals, and other small PC parts. Retailers and sellers often host pre-Black Friday sales for long periods and those are not to be missed.
Having said that, don’t expect price drops on every single component. A lot depends on what you want to buy especially if you are seeking a particular model or a brand. There is a good chance that some component is not even included in the sale or the discounted price is not marginally better than the original cost.
Amazon Prime Day - June 21-22, 2021
Black Friday - November 26, 2021
Cyber Monday - November 29, 2021
Generational upgrades
This can be very tricky for the layman. However, if you are a PC enthusiast you can potentially capitalize when a newer generation of product is released. For instance, the introduction of Intel’s new 11th-gen CPUs has led to a small drop in the price of the outgoing 10th-gen CPUs. So yeah, it is s good time to get your hands on Intel’s Comet Lake processors.
The most obvious thing to note here is that you are not getting the latest piece of hardware, potentially missing out on a new feature or two. But if you don’t mind using hardware that is only one generation old, then this is a good way to save some money.
This isn’t always the case though, as it was evident when NVIDIA introduced its new GeForce RTX 3000-series last year. The entire GPU market has fluctuated with older generation parts selling at a premium, almost double the cost of their original retail price.
Price trackers
A good way to stay updated with the changes in the pricing of PC parts is by visiting PCPartPicker if you live in the US and PriceSpy if you live in the UK. These websites offer a breakdown of prices for a particular product from a list of vendors. This helps in comparing components, especially older generation models where you can end up saving a significant amount.
There are various external factors that can affect the price of PC parts. The most recent one is the ongoing chipset crisis along with crypto mining that has lead to an increase in the prices of graphics cards all over the world. Today, getting a new graphics card has become next to impossible, let alone getting one at retail price.
With this general chip storage and mining requirements (RTX and hard drive), I would be glad to buy a piece of hardware at MSRP... Not many deals these days...
The best time to buy computer parts? When you can afford them.
There's a bad time?
Haha
After building many PC's over the years starting in the early '90's there is never a good time to buy PC parts. Every last one of them become obsolete before you drive home and start building. This is why I retired from build PC's as I was always in the hunt for the latest and greatest. I have a stack of MB, graphic cards, HDD's, sound cards etc. You can never keep up. The best advice I can give is to buy the most forward looking motherboard and hopefully you'll get a few years out of it.
The best time to buy anything is when you need it, or, when it's in season.
When it's in stock and on sale.
Depends You Planning To LULZ
I got lucky when I built my Mecha-Godzilla PC a year ago, especially for the video card. Turns out I didn't really need one after all but I thought I did at the time, and I feel lucky for paying less than $200 for an nVidia 1650 (overclocked). So video cards were already expensive but they jumped up even more right after that
kunalneo said:
Getting the right set of computer parts, whether for a brand new PC build or an upgrade, involves a good amount of research and most importantly, patience. It is wise to purchase individual PC parts over a period of time which can help you save some money. But as I mentioned, this requires a lot of patience especially if you have been planning to build a new PC for some time.
If I am being honest, there is never a good time to buy computer parts. You might get a new monitor today, but in a few years or even months, it will be replaced by a new model that will be brighter, sharper, have a higher resolution, or even a faster refresh rate.
Yearly sales
One can anticipate a potential drop in price during recurring yearly sales. Amazon hosts multiple sales throughout the year with the biggest one being Prime Day that is usually hosted in the month of June. Similarly, Newegg is also a good place to buy PC parts at discounted rates during their Supreme Tech, and clearance sales. Additionally, Newegg also has Shell Shocker exclusive deals where prices change every day on different types of products. There are also smaller sales on occasions like Valentine's Day, Labor Day, and of course right before the holiday season.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are your best bet if you are looking for the best deals on PC parts. These are the biggest electronic sales where you can expect discounts, deals and price drops on a large range of hardware, peripherals, and other small PC parts. Retailers and sellers often host pre-Black Friday sales for long periods and those are not to be missed.
Having said that, don’t expect price drops on every single component. A lot depends on what you want to buy especially if you are seeking a particular model or a brand. There is a good chance that some component is not even included in the sale or the discounted price is not marginally better than the original cost.
Amazon Prime Day - June 21-22, 2021
Black Friday - November 26, 2021
Cyber Monday - November 29, 2021
Generational upgrades
This can be very tricky for the layman. However, if you are a PC enthusiast you can potentially capitalize when a newer generation of product is released. For instance, the introduction of Intel’s new 11th-gen CPUs has led to a small drop in the price of the outgoing 10th-gen CPUs. So yeah, it is s good time to get your hands on Intel’s Comet Lake processors.
The most obvious thing to note here is that you are not getting the latest piece of hardware, potentially missing out on a new feature or two. But if you don’t mind using hardware that is only one generation old, then this is a good way to save some money.
This isn’t always the case though, as it was evident when NVIDIA introduced its new GeForce RTX 3000-series last year. The entire GPU market has fluctuated with older generation parts selling at a premium, almost double the cost of their original retail price.
Price trackers
A good way to stay updated with the changes in the pricing of PC parts is by visiting PCPartPicker if you live in the US and PriceSpy if you live in the UK. These websites offer a breakdown of prices for a particular product from a list of vendors. This helps in comparing components, especially older generation models where you can end up saving a significant amount.
There are various external factors that can affect the price of PC parts. The most recent one is the ongoing chipset crisis along with crypto mining that has lead to an increase in the prices of graphics cards all over the world. Today, getting a new graphics card has become next to impossible, let alone getting one at retail price.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a small note for Canadian aligned part seekers, in relation to pcpartpicker.com - specify ca.pcpartpicker.com or you will at some point forget to make the adjustment and start getting all excited and giddy with the amazing prices that are happening at a time that does not coincide with cyber monday, black friday or the news that quantum computing just rendered all compy tech that is not included in the quantumyummygoodness effectively.. ineffective, the amazing prices are actually in USD and you didnt realize your cache refreshed or you're using a different browser or device - which you will then at least consider smashing a la "Hulk mad" mode. Yes of course it seems sensible at the time. So does fighting Thor. But its not his fault, its yours. You're welcome for the disaster aversion assistance, and apologies for the shattering of ignorance's "bliss", at least in this regard anyways.
roirraW edor ehT said:
I got lucky when I built my Mecha-Godzilla PC a year ago, especially for the video card. Turns out I didn't really need one after all but I thought I did at the time, and I feel lucky for paying less than $200 for an nVidia 1650 (overclocked). So video cards were already expensive but they jumped up even more right after that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May all your future "rodes" be as bumpy as my life since my current upgrade which started on January 23rd, 2021 and ends at some point in the yet to be determined future, I friggen hope.
Why the glum chum?
Amazon. Amazon is the reason for my bumpiness. Due 3x bad MSI B550 Carbon Wifi motherboards, followed by 2x altogether WRONG Gigabyte Wifi Elite z390 INTEL boards which were supposed to be Gigabyte Aorus Master x570 AMD boards, since I already had a Ryzen 5 3600 cpu waiting, and had also paid for at more than double the cost of the wrongfully delivered board - and this is where the inexplicable and nasty starts - at which point I was told that they would offer no other replacements, my only ootion being that once I returned the 5th board <as if I didn't return the first 4 promptly or notify them when they sent me 2 of the same product and returned the extra insulated water bottle as im an honest.. idiot>, they would send the 2 refunds.
They eventually sent back the refund for the Aorus <I had double paid for the first MSI board, and then upgraded to the Aorus Master with my tax return, so at one point was out $700ish to this mess>, but the initial 285.88 that I paid for the MSI Carbon board in January, which bank account by then had been closed for months, <an account that had been closed 3 months without my knowledge - after the first mb purchase made on Jan 23rd > - and this was now August 16th.
Amazon claims CIBC accepted the refund, CIBC said they didn't recieve it, <and still could not locate the refund with transaction codes given to me to take in to the bank so they could track it down>.
Then Amazon made a promise to rectify the issue within 72 hours after making me wait 15 more business days, after which they said 'too bad, we arent going to do anything'.
Thats not even bringing up the fact that I had explained to them that I had JUST been illegally evicted <after 5 years of residence> by the new landlord who wanted to jack the rent way up, like everywhere else during covid, and that I was living in my car <a Coupe no less> with my cat and dog for 2 months and was out of money. I also had a storage unit full of my things, costing me monthly until I could find another apartment.
So, I've had a brand new Phanteks white case, with aio rgb addressable liquid cooling, a new cpu still in box, new white 850 watt platinum plus ps fully modular, killer addressable rail rgbs, 2 sticks of white Crucial Ballistix RGB 3600mhz cl15 ram, new white grouped cables with rgb combs, m.2 512mb nvme pcie 4, corsair dark core rgb mouse, all gathering dust, until it was stolen while someone "helped" me move. I did talk to a buddy of mine, who is the right guy to know, and got it all back, BUT STILL WITHOUT A MB AMAZON. I started a new job, but by the time I backpay covid debt, and save up, itll be obsolete again. oh and i saved up the parts to build it, and did get to use it for a glorious 2 weeks before MSI Carbon board number 2 took a dump. All 3 had flashback bios issues. I spent days and weeks on them trying to get them going again. Never had bios flashing issues that i couldnt recover before those. Im 43, been building my whole life.
Oh, right, my point.. sorry didnt expect all that despite leaving out all kinds of details - I had to stick with my pair of MSI 970 GTXs 4MB Gaming gpus, selling one along with my old rig to afford the new parts because i couldnt find ANY that were anywhere NEAR affordable.
Hence the bumpy rode wishes, but not really obv just jerking around bro, seriously. Glad you got yours before things went full retard.
1st total upgrade in abour 12 years, after mb mods kept my Asus Crosshair V Formula Z relevant, even now. I have pictures of my gloriously short run, during the two weeks, if anyone is interested pm me. Sorry to detract from thread. All 3 24" Samsung monitors, also collecting that figuratively tear stained dust.
What? Fine. Not ALL figurative tears. Stupid covid. Hulk sad.
When the college/university midterm ends as students sell their desktops looking for laptops.
Right before a new hardware release comes out and there is a large amount of supply
Related
I am extremely disappointed in your company and the poor business practices.
I purchased a transformer prime based of the specs and supposed solid company making the unit. I read many articles about the issues the prime had but made a poor decision believing the delay in reaching retail was to fix the issues with the unit. After purchasing I found that the GPS is almost useless and our way to fix it was to remove the reference to GPS from the product sheet. This was very underhanded and shows a lack of standing behind your product. I have also lost a SD card because the SD slot was poorly implemented and results in them being easily springing out of the unit.
Now I find out that instead of fixing these issues you decide to scrap the Prime within weeks of release and ship a newer unit and leave us early adopters in the cold. On top of that not only are you releasing a fixed and fully functional unit you upgrade their screen resolution again leaving us out in the cold. I realize that there is always something new on the horizon but you clearly
released an untested unit that is a black eye on you company and instead of making it right you sweep it under the carpet and hope the new
launch will make everyone forget about the troubled prime. The pathetic thing is this will work but thousands of early adopters who spent there
money on your product are left in the corner crying that we have a product that was sold to us not fully functional.
Noted.
-Asus
Falhawk said:
Noted.
-Asus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Asus only read the thread title and moved on. They are feeling pretty good right now. High fives all around the office.
L3rry said:
High fives all around the office.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lmao
but the army of betatesters who actually paid for being betatesters are waiting outside with razorblade thin TF201s in their hands
You're just wasting bandwidth
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
The new one isn't coming til q2 and it costs more.
Also is asus only allowed to release one product a year or something? Newer better stuff comes out every couple of months.
Sent from my Galaxy S2
Wow, the new features are:
1. Back design change to enhance GPS/Wifi
2. Higher resolution screen
3. 2MP front camera.
This is certainly a bug fix release. How do you sell the current Prime along side the newer one with a $100 different in price for higher res screen and modest increase in MP for front camera? The current prime will be quietly phased out shortly after the release and the price for the new one will drop to the current Prime price. I kind of feel dry fu**** now.
keitht said:
I kind of feel dry fu**** now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
would sir like some vaseline?
new hardware is always coming out. do you want to wait another six months and then another six months and then another six months when new hardware keeps getting announced. you pick your point and you dive in the river.
it's just like buying a new car, it depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot.
lancer3397 said:
would sir like some vaseline?
new hardware is always coming out. do you want to wait another six months and then another six months and then another six months when new hardware keeps getting announced. you pick your point and you dive in the river.
it's just like buying a new car, it depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only problem is that there is not much new hardware here and it is releasing before they even have stock in retail. It is a bug fix release period.
Wow, people are impatient. This whole GPS thing just happened. Why does anyone expect ASUS to have already decided how they're going to handle it?
If we're in the same place at the end of January, beginning of February, then maybe it'll be time to pull out the pitchforks. Until then, hows about we relax a little?
lancer3397 said:
would sir like some vaseline?
new hardware is always coming out. do you want to wait another six months and then another six months and then another six months when new hardware keeps getting announced. you pick your point and you dive in the river.
it's just like buying a new car, it depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you buy a 2011 car in July, you know that the 2012's are coming out in the Fall. If you buy a 2012 car in the Fall, you'd assume it'll be "new" until the 2013's come out. How would you feel if they announced a 2012.5 immediately after you purchased? And that the dealer knew and even had the brochures in his desk and didn't show them to you? You may still buy the 2012 but at least you'd have had the option of waiting. Kind of a clunky analogy but it makes the point.
On the plus side Prime owners, all the smug cnuts rubbing our faces in it will get the shaft from Asus in about 6 months so we piss all over them too at that time. And they will have paid more to get screwed over.
The people saying to calm down because new tech comes out often are missing the point. The issue here is that it's pretty clear that the new Prime is coming out to address defects of the current one. It's not a "new" product in the traditional sense.
keitht said:
Only problem is that there is not much new hardware here and it is releasing before they even have stock in retail. It is a bug fix release period.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how are they releasing it before there is stock of the tf201? this thing is slated to be out in q2, and with the delays that surrounded the prime and tf101, it probably won't hit stores before fall.
as to the lack of new hardware,
remember the iphone 3gs, 4s?
the droid 3/4/x2?
a plethora of HTC devices?
many companies offer slightly refreshed versions of hardware as "new" versions, it's nothing new and since they are charging more for the new tablet AND it won't be out before june most likely i don't really see the problem.
if anyone is unhappy with this development, everyone here is still in their return windows, no one is holding a gun to anyones head and forcing them to keep the prime.
now what i do find issue with is them not offering to replace the back cover for prime owners who want the better functioning gps/wifi, but since the dimensions seem to be the same (since the docks are compatible) they still could offer something like that for us.
nyijedi said:
The people saying to calm down because new tech comes out often are missing the point. The issue here is that it's pretty clear that the new Prime is coming out to address defects of the current one. It's not a "new" product in the traditional sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. The Asus execs all sat in a room and said, how can we fix our design flaw issue here so it doesn't haunt us all year? Let's fix the back plate design flaw and add a couple of small new things so that it appears to be a new product and slap a new model number on it. Once released, we will quietly phase out the original prime and blame poor sales on the decision. Then we drop the price of the newer prime and all is fixed.
Which is my issue. I understand new tech comes out quickly. I had a Xoom day 1 and in less then a year upgraded it. My issue is that they are being very unethical in how they are handling the design flaws. When did it become acceptable to sell a product that is advertised with certain abilities and then saying later that because you removed it from the spec sheet after launch they are no longer accountable. And when has any company announced an upgrade before the original is truly sitting on shelves.
ogar1978 said:
Which is my issue. I understand new tech comes out quickly. I had a Xoom day 1 and in less then a year upgraded it. My issue is that they are being very unethical in how they are handling the design flaws. When did it become acceptable to sell a product that is advertised with certain abilities and then saying later that because you removed it from the spec sheet after launch they are no longer accountable. And when has any company announced an upgrade before the original is truly sitting on shelves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Regardless of whether I decide to keep my Prime or not (I'm leaning towards keeping it, as I want a tablet now and don't see any other suitable alternatives currently available), I will never be buying another product from Asus again. There are plenty of other companies that make similar products. I'll 100% be using them over Asus in the future.
whoopde do. When it comes out in six months i'll sell my prime for $250 or $300 and buy one.
I am not within my window to return it as once you opened the unit many companies will not return them. Best Buy only allows a 14 day window on tablets which is also past for many of us.
adiliyo said:
how are they releasing it before there is stock of the tf201? this thing is slated to be out in q2, and with the delays that surrounded the prime and tf101, it probably won't hit stores before fall.
as to the lack of new hardware,
remember the iphone 3gs, 4s?
the droid 3/4/x2?
a plethora of HTC devices?
many companies offer slightly refreshed versions of hardware as "new" versions, it's nothing new and since they are charging more for the new tablet AND it won't be out before june most likely i don't really see the problem.
if anyone is unhappy with this development, everyone here is still in their return windows, no one is holding a gun to anyones head and forcing them to keep the prime.
now what i do find issue with is them not offering to replace the back cover for prime owners who want the better functioning gps/wifi, but since the dimensions seem to be the same (since the docks are compatible) they still could offer something like that for us.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nexus tablet
This is when a Nexus tablet is needed. We know it will be updated by google and if history holds true it will work properly.
Just wondered how much of an impact this new device was having on pre order cancellations.
I've been looking forward to this device for over 6 months. We've essentially ended up with a broken/prototype device whilst Asus promote a *fixed* version.
This is disgusting as far as customer relations go. I'm almost certainly cancelling my pre order tomorrow. Hoping to hear a statement from Asus regarding this complete mess!
Please post screens of your cancelled orders. May be if we can get some numbers regarding impact Asus may listen.
Regards,
One pi55ed off potential customer
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Ive owned my prime for 4 days now, the announcement was the last straw though.
GPS dead, wifi crippled, and now asus is pretty much jumping ship to their new prime 2.0..
Im working on returning it for a refund right now.
I wish I had preordered just to be able to go in and cancel, I'd hope that the store would be left with lots on the shelf. That's the only way we could expect our voices to be heard.
There are far too many people willing to ignore this situation that nothing is going to be done about it.
The TF700 announcement made up my mind
Once Asus started pushing the new model, the message came to me loud and clear.
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: Amazon.com - Your Cancellation (104-6829271-3232250)
Date: Mon 01/09/12 10:04 AM
Attachments
Name Type Save View
Message text/plain Save
Dear Tedr44,
Your order has been successfully canceled. For your reference, here's a
summary of your order:
You just canceled order #104-6829271-3232250 placed on December 21,
2011.
Status: CANCELED
_____________________________________________________________________
1 of ASUS Transformer Prime TF201-C1-GR 10.1-Inch 64GB Tablet (Amethyst
Gray)
Sold by: Amazon.com LLC
_____________________________________________________________________
In most cases, you pay for items when we ship them to you, so you won't
be charged for items that you cancel. In some cases (e.g., you use a
gift card or your debit card is processed as a PIN-less transaction),
you may see a charge for a cancelled item. If you are charged for a
cancelled item, we will refund you within 1-2 business days.
Thank you for visiting Amazon.com!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon.com
Earth's Biggest Selection
http://www.amazon.com
-----------------------
Well, I didn't cancel a pre-order but mine was RMA'd for replacement. I switched that to a refund...not too sure if I'm going to bother with ASUS or just wait to see what else is available.
I talked with an agent so I haven't got an email confirmation yet but I'll post when I do.
Here's an announcement for a tab with 1.7 ghz Tegra 3, DDR3 memory and SRS sound.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/08/lenovo-lepad-k2010-ideatab-k2-hands-on/
I would be very angry if the TF700T was priced closer to TF201. Now that would really make me send it back with a nasty letter to Asus. But the fact that it's $100 more for both 32 and 64GB, that tells me Asus didn't just "jump ship". The learned from their stupid mistakes, made a new one and are selling it right alongside with the current one. That means the best bang for your buck tablet is still a Transformer Prime that's only $600 with a 64GB storage.
What bothers me though is the fact that Asus could barely meet demands with this whole pre-order fiasco and has the ****ing balls to go ahead and actually spent time (time that should have been focused on getting me my goddamned Prime) to come out with another product to sell. That tells me either they have A.D.D. or they have A.D.D. and all they want is money. How can they leave the people who pre-ordered left hanging to dry? That, to me, is a piece of **** company.
At this point though I have no choice but to stick to my Prime (TF201) pre-order because my Xoom has been hijacked by my 2-year old and I need a tablet badly --meaning waiting isn't an option and buying another Tegra 2 would be going backwards at this point. FML.
I deal mostly with media and games, the office work belongs to Windows. The TF700 is ideal for streaming hd video specially now that I've upgraded to 6 mbps on my dsl to watch the Netflix hd movies. The new res standards are out and I will let the dust settle before deciding.
As the trend indicates, one thing is for sure, Asus moves faster than other tablet manufacturers.
The new TF700T feels like a "filler". By Q4 and the 2012 holidays, they will have the true 3rd gen Transformer. So whoever pays the extra $100 for the TF700T model, might be in for some serious buyer's remorse. Think about it.
TF1 -> TF2 -> TF2.5 -> (only a few months from the summer) and you've got TF3. Like I said in another thread. The TF700T are for those who badly need the GPS. The higher resolution at a premium of $100 more is baloney. As for the 2MP front-facing camera? That's a gimmick. From 1.3MP to 2MP means nothing. Take it from a photographer and someone who has an 8MP webcam that's supposedly "HD" and "1080p". Skyping still looks crappy.
I'm not knocking on the TF700T, but if you guys want to drop the TF201 for it, think about it really hard. Like I said before, the best bang for your buck is still the TF201. Line up all the Android tablets and you will see all the specs are similar except for the fact that for the same price in a Galaxy Tab 10.1 or a Xoom/Xoom 2, you can have an Asus with double the storage. That to me is very important as I sync my DSLR wirelessly to my tablet to show clients my shots in real time... and RAW files eat storage space like no one's business.
I understand that Asus is pushing products out the order ahead of the others but in their haste the product design and performance turned out faulty. I'm looking forward to the 700 simply because it appears the problem is fixed and the specs are better although I'd like to see a faster clock to handle the higher res.
I just got shafted, Mediamarkt said no returns on licensed products, whatever the phuck that means.
So I guess the dead GPS and shoddy Wifi are "on me".
Asus issued the warranty so you should contact them next to present your case, good luck!
tedr44 said:
I understand that Asus is pushing products out the order ahead of the others but in their haste the product design and performance turned out faulty. I'm looking forward to the 700 simply because it appears the problem is fixed and the specs are better although I'd like to see a faster clock to handle the higher res.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can rely on devs here to bring that to you in due time, regarding the faster clock speeds. The CPU and GPU will be the same. So it doesn't matter what the clock speeds are set at since you can always change it later on anyway.
I can't blame Asus for designing the aluminum back the way they did. I'm pretty sure their R&D department felt the pressure from higher up to make it so that it pretty much sells as a bundle with the dock. Meaning, they probably said something along the line as "Design the tablet so that people would definitely feel compelled to buy the dock." Hence the designers made it look all aluminum so that when it's shut close with the dock, it looks sexier than a MacBook Air. Remember how Asus was bragging about the swirled brush aluminum design? It was a decision to make a chic looking ultra portable device. I don't think it was in haste, but I do believe the GPS flaw as a result was in hindsight.
As for the TF700T, let's face it. People who will buy that will definitely say "What an ugly netbook this makes!" It looks like two separate devices that clicks into one with the top bit looking really out of place. I have never seen a laptop, in all the years of owning laptops, with a black bar on top like that. That was what Asus wanted to avoid with the TF201 --the matching color, material and texture so that when you buy the dock, you gawk in awe at the handsome "transforming" device.
so whos pissed they cancelled before ICS came out and fixed a majority of the issues?
Sokonomi said:
I just got shafted, Mediamarkt said no returns on licensed products, whatever the phuck that means.
So I guess the dead GPS and shoddy Wifi are "on me".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, Asus will and should cover you. No worries. Get their international toll-free number and give them a call.
Also emphasize the fact that the metal case affects not just gps but wifi and bt as well though not as pronounced is still below par.
DroidHam said:
so whos pissed they cancelled before ICS came out and fixed a majority of the issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As someone who has had ICS on my Xoom for about a month now, not to mention waking up to CM9 this morning, I am definitely looking forward to the development on the TF201 Prime. I, for one, am contemplating getting back into devving for the Prime.
Though I like and appreciate the artwork, it is not a prime consideration for me. It can be as rugged and ugly as a military grade laptop as long as the specs are working as advertised. I'm starting to like the 700 because of the new specs that will function without any mods. In that respect, no mod will come up with the 1080p res without slowng it down.
tedr44 said:
Also emphasize the fact that the metal case affects not just gps but wifi and bt as well though not as pronounced is still below par.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The WiFi and BT issue is software, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong. The slower WiFi and shoddy BT due to the aluminum backing is a myth started by paranoid early Prime adaptors. Apple has been making aluminum and magnesium unibodies with no WiFi or BT problems. Concrete or whatever your house has are bigger factors. GPS is a different story.
These wireless devices work on rf with differing frequencies and that affects their ability to pass through or penetrate barries. It could be a combination hw/sw, I'm not exactly sure until they put it on a bench and run a battery of tests. That's what really irritates me about Asus, they've done nothing but cover up the problems.
I've been a Nexus phone user for a long time, and now I own a Nexus 7 tablet. My wife just got a Galaxy S2 (work provided) and I find what Samsung has done to the software of that phone appalling. Especially since Ice Cream Sandwich Android has become minimalistically beautiful. I love my stock "Google Experience". Everything is so simple and beautiful.
My question is this, would it be feasible to crowd source an open sourced hardware project to design and build an android phone? I've developed software for years but don't know anything about developing hardware outside of my arduino kit. Hardware vendors are failing by trying to focus on software (like Samsung and HTC) as the differentiator, seemingly forgetting that thy are hardware manufacturers and great hardware should be enough.
My thought is to design a fairly cheap (at or under $500), hopefully high quality phone that is compatible with stock Android. Think something like the Nexus 7 only at 4-4.3 inches and with a cell radio. If its compatible with stock Android then we wouldn't have to spend time like Samsung does making our software compatible with the newest Android release before making it available to the public.
Are there any hardware engineers out there who might be able to tell me what this would take? I'm sure it would take a lot of people and a lot of time, and might not be possible without billions in the bank, but I'd like to know if the necessary skills exist in the community and if we can pull them together.
I doubt it will be possible just because of the amount of funds necessary to begin such a project. OEM's can make their devices because they order components in mass quantities so they get wholesale pricing and I just don't see the demand for such a device being enough to crowd-source it.
I think that the phone hardware should be a mid-low quality one in order to get the funds needed to slowly start making them. And even with that, it's not an easy task, since you will be selling a mid-low quality device for the price of a high quality one. You would have to offer something more.
But it's an interesting idea.
I am an electrical engineer that specialized in digital design and computer software, and made some custom boards for a small company. So, I'm speaking from some experience, not just blowing smoke out my ***.
Is it possible to design a phone? Sure.
I would guess the processor would have to come from TI, and Qualcomm and NVIDIA have such bad support reputations.
We would need a team of engineers on par with the size of the CyanogenMod community. We need electrical engineers from digital, RF, analog, power... and probably other EE specializations. Then some mechanical and probably other engineers.
For under $500? No.
As previously noted, the manufacturers are buying LARGE quantities, probably with lots of legal agreements, to get better prices than we could asking for 1,000 (if we're lucky) at a time... IF we could get enough priority to get our hands on that many.
The printed circuit boards alone are going to be expensive, not counting the cost of adding the components to it/them. The board(s) in your phone are (complete guess here) 6 or more layers, divided into digital, analog, and RF sections, with internal vias (connections from one layer to another that do not pass clear through the whole stack of layers.) They've been simulated in expensive CAD software, prototyped and tested in a $nnn,000 test chamber, possibly sent back for a design tweak one ore more times, THEN sent to the FCC
+equivalents for their OK. In other words, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Adding to the previous point, these are tiny, MANY pin, surface mount components, that cannot be soldered by hand. So, you've got to find a custom board assembly company, and pay to have the parts added.
Alternatively, it could be a little cheaper, but it would be the size of one or more of the Harry Potter books... in hardback.
Then get your hands on: batteries, charger, display, Gorilla glass, and a case to hold it all.
The only reason why we see phones at $500, or $200 with contract, is because the carriers are going to get a huge amount of money from you when you pay for service. I guessing here, but those prices are both subsidized by the carrier. That $500 price has already reduced from the manufacturer's price using money sucked from the customers under contract.
Haraldr Blaatand said:
I am an electrical engineer that specialized in digital design and computer software, and made some custom boards for a small company. So, I'm speaking from some experience, not just blowing smoke out my ***.
Is it possible to design a phone? Sure.
I would guess the processor would have to come from TI, and Qualcomm and NVIDIA have such bad support reputations.
We would need a team of engineers on par with the size of the CyanogenMod community. We need electrical engineers from digital, RF, analog, power... and probably other EE specializations. Then some mechanical and probably other engineers.
For under $500? No.
As previously noted, the manufacturers are buying LARGE quantities, probably with lots of legal agreements, to get better prices than we could asking for 1,000 (if we're lucky) at a time... IF we could get enough priority to get our hands on that many.
The printed circuit boards alone are going to be expensive, not counting the cost of adding the components to it/them. The board(s) in your phone are (complete guess here) 6 or more layers, divided into digital, analog, and RF sections, with internal vias (connections from one layer to another that do not pass clear through the whole stack of layers.) They've been simulated in expensive CAD software, prototyped and tested in a $nnn,000 test chamber, possibly sent back for a design tweak one ore more times, THEN sent to the FCC
+equivalents for their OK. In other words, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Adding to the previous point, these are tiny, MANY pin, surface mount components, that cannot be soldered by hand. So, you've got to find a custom board assembly company, and pay to have the parts added.
Alternatively, it could be a little cheaper, but it would be the size of one or more of the Harry Potter books... in hardback.
Then get your hands on: batteries, charger, display, Gorilla glass, and a case to hold it all.
The only reason why we see phones at $500, or $200 with contract, is because the carriers are going to get a huge amount of money from you when you pay for service. I guessing here, but those prices are both subsidized by the carrier. That $500 price has already reduced from the manufacturer's price using money sucked from the customers under contract.
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Click to collapse
That's a lot of great information. I have a few thoughts.
You mention the $500 price point being subsidized, but that's not necessarily true. I buy only unlocked devices without contract (not from Carriers) and my Nexus S cost $529 new.
What about just using a reference design from a manufacturer, essentially just a rebadge. You can see that Orange has done that with the Intel Medfield reference design.
rharter said:
That's a lot of great information. I have a few thoughts.
1. You mention the $500 price point being subsidized, but that's not necessarily true. I buy only unlocked devices without contract (not from Carriers) and my Nexus S cost $529 new.
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Click to collapse
Then I'm not as smart as I think I am. It was a guess. I was wrong.
rharter said:
2. What about just using a reference design from a manufacturer, essentially just a rebadge. You can see that Orange has done that with the Intel Medfield reference design.
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This is a complete phone they are selling to carriers (to help get their Atom processors some attention). From this article about the Medfield reference design:
The more tempting possibility is one that I'm not sure Intel is feeling risky enough to explore, at least not in 2012. Selling its reference design through a carrier is one thing, what I really want to see is Intel selling the reference design, unlocked, to consumers directly.
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Click to collapse
So, without more information, I don't see this as any different than most other phones. The phone is still a black box to be hacked.
I did a little googling, and didn't find anything in the way of actual design details. I did come across this article Fast, good, or cheap - or why you can't build a smartphone, which basically says the same thing... only with a more cynical attitude.
Any and all information regarding GPU price drops and increase is welcome here. As we all know, these prices are ridiculous and hopefully we will see some drops soon. Linus tech tips and some others are mentioning we might see some lower prices...
Let me know what your thoughts are and if you have spent the money to buy a GPU recently
I planned to upgrade in 2020. I was actually buying high end video cards in 2019, like the gtx 2080, to use them for 28 days before returning.
I wish I had just kept one, but I would tell myself to wait for the next generation. The increase in performance is crazy and the 3080 would be in my price zone.
I never managed to upgrade, and at this point I'm forced to continue with my 980. You can't even find older cards at a good price.
I do not think it's ending soon. I think the next generation will be released and a few of us will snag a card not far above MSRP. Depending on what measures are taken by Nvidia and AMD, we will see how it goes.
I believe the video card market will not return soon, and the hard drive market will inflate next. I would buy any M.2 SSDs right now, while you can get a good deal. I never imagined that an entire PC component would be unavailable to purchase in every form.
At this point, I'll likely upgrade by purchasing a pre-built computer. Those companies seem to have deals that allow them to get these high-end video cards.
enitnelavecnahc said:
I planned to upgrade in 2020. I was actually buying high end video cards in 2019, like the gtx 2080, to use them for 28 days before returning.
I wish I had just kept one, but I would tell myself to wait for the next generation. The increase in performance is crazy and the 3080 would be in my price zone.
I never managed to upgrade, and at this point I'm forced to continue with my 980. You can't even find older cards at a good price.
I do not think it's ending soon. I think the next generation will be released and a few of us will snag a card not far above MSRP. Depending on what measures are taken by Nvidia and AMD, we will see how it goes.
I believe the video card market will not return soon, and the hard drive market will inflate next. I would buy any M.2 SSDs right now, while you can get a good deal. I never imagined that an entire PC component would be unavailable to purchase in every form.
At this point, I'll likely upgrade by purchasing a pre-built computer. Those companies seem to have deals that allow them to get these high-end video cards.
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Click to collapse
Nice. I wanted to build a new one but I ended up just buying a laptop with a 3070 inside
There is now a 3080Ti out, scan are offering one that's in stock for £1700+
Honestly until they vet people trying to buy these cards, the issue will continue.
My last card was a new evga 1080sc and it was just under £800
For the latest flagship, you need to add £1000
Sad times.
Prices are now very low and maybe more going down
Prices don't have a stable graph. They are always low or high . Old models are going down.
Seems to be the norm for any new anticipated device to have one of these threads, so here goes...
Ordered:
11:49am pst on May 10th
256 porcelain
delivery by date is June 27th.
*As always with these threads... Google often will ship out devices out of order without preference to who ordered ahead of who due to whatever logistics they use. In short, don't expect Google's shipping to make sense to you.
256, black, 25-27 June.
Wed, May 10, 11:51 AM
Obsidian 512GB
Delivers Jun 26 - Jun 30
256 Obsidian
Ordered May 10th ~3:30pm CST
Delivers (estimate): June 27-28
256 obsidian
may 11
delivery: june 27-28
12th May, 11:30am
Obsidian 512GB
Delivers 27 Jun – 1 Jul
Update 23rd May: now saying "Delivers 27 Jun – 28 Jun"
Update 1st June: now saying "Delivers 27 Jun – 3 July"
Ordered May 10th, at 3 pm
Porcelain 256GB, 512 would've been a nice option
Delivers 27th June ~ 30th
Ordered May 10th
Obsidian 256GB
Delivery June 25-27
512GB Obsidian , ordered 19th May with Obsidian case for Fold
Did you guys get the LTE Obsidian watch ?
Yeah, I'm selling it and figured it might fetch a little more ching.
krabman said:
Yeah, I'm selling it and figured it might fetch a little more ching.
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I wonder if the fold will come with a factory installed screen protector
Darkness4life said:
I wonder if the fold will come with a factory installed screen protector
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Don't know if it'll be on the retail units but there is a screen protector on the inner display according to Mr. Mobile.
I have to say I'm miffed about the lack of a charger in the box. I don't know why because I'm swimming in various chargers. But... If you consider the Vivo I'm typing this on it came with a 67 watt dual USB C charger. A cable that is of high quality and almost two meters long. A wallet case that is of decent quality; it's TPU and nothing special, but decent. Decent ear buds. It was all in a VERY nice box that looked and felt expensive.
Here you get the device in cheap recycled paper with a cable that's just a little too short and probably can't be used for root.
I feel like you pay top dollar you should get more than the potato; you should get all the fixings with it.
krabman said:
I have to say I'm miffed about the lack of a charger in the box. I don't know why because I'm swimming in various chargers. But... If you consider the Vivo I'm typing this on it came with a 67 watt dual USB C charger. A cable that is of high quality and almost two meters long. A wallet case that is of decent quality; it's TPU and nothing special, but decent. Decent ear buds. It was all in a VERY nice box that looked and felt expensive.
Here you get the device in cheap recycled paper with a cable that's just a little too short and probably can't be used for root.
I feel like you pay top dollar you should get more than the potato; you should get all the fixings with it.
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You got a point , other brands provide alot more in packaging, my Xioami 12s Ultra came with goodies also . I bought the Debrand case for Fold , looks good
Darkness4life said:
You got a point , other brands provide alot more in packaging, my Xioami 12s Ultra came with goodies also . I bought the Debrand case for Fold , looks good
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Problem is only Samsung and Google are selling foldables globaly. If Vivo xaiomi etc would sell outside of china we'd see much better value from Samsung and Google. Since Samsung make nearly all the foldable screens you have to wonder have they put an embargo on these companies selling outside of china
Hard to launch here without carrier support. I'll circle back to that.
Outside of Lenovo who picked up Motorola for the patents, most Chinese OEMs lack the patents to operate in the US and to a lesser extent, Europe. As an example, last I read, Apple had 48 patents for every one Xiaomi holds. Established brands like Apple and Samsung use their libraries to prevent competition by suing for infringement. This litigation can be hugely expensive and acts to stifle competition.
Licensing costs are also based on the market (nation) and they're, in general, higher in the west. That both increases profits and hinders competitors for those patent holders.
You've got cultural stigma. Made in China is synonymous with inexpensive, low quality products in the west.
Political headwinds: Leaving the politics themselves out of it, if you're sitting in a boardroom in China and considering trying to sell a product in the West it would certainly be on your mind. Think about how it went for Huawei.
When you put it together, you're looking at trying to get a carrier agreement with all that entails. You don't have the patents to force licensing agreements that eliminate or reduce patent fees and will have difficulty defending yourself in an expensive legal action which you fully expect to come. Your product may get torched in the political process. You're going to be fighting an uphill battle in terms of perceived quality.
Or you can skip that and go for the low hanging fruit in developing countries without facing most of those problems or greatly reducing them. It's not hard to see which way they've been going so far.
I see today that the 512 is sold out, as is the Porcelain 256. The Porcelain is on backorder all the way to August. They're selling a few anyway.
krabman said:
Hard to launch here without carrier support. I'll circle back to that.
Outside of Lenovo who picked up Motorola for the patents, most Chinese OEMs lack the patents to operate in the US and to a lesser extent, Europe. As an example, last I read, Apple had 48 patents for every one Xiaomi holds. Established brands like Apple and Samsung use their libraries to prevent competition by suing for infringement. This litigation can be hugely expensive and acts to stifle competition.
Licensing costs are also based on the market (nation) and they're, in general, higher in the west. That both increases profits and hinders competitors for those patent holders.
You've got cultural stigma. Made in China is synonymous with inexpensive, low quality products in the west.
Political headwinds: Leaving the politics themselves out of it, if you're sitting in a boardroom in China and considering trying to sell a product in the West it would certainly be on your mind. Think about how it went for Huawei.
When you put it together, you're looking at trying to get a carrier agreement with all that entails. You don't have the patents to force licensing agreements that eliminate or reduce patent fees and will have difficulty defending yourself in an expensive legal action which you fully expect to come. Your product may get torched in the political process. You're going to be fighting an uphill battle in terms of perceived quality.
Or you can skip that and go for the low hanging fruit in developing countries without facing most of those problems or greatly reducing them. It's not hard to see which way they've been going so far.
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Click to collapse
Xaiomi do really well outside of china as do oppo ,both my kids have xaiomi they're great phone's but neither will release they're foldables outside of china
Yeah, they're starting to make progress in Europe as well; I have a Windtre plan I use over in Italy and when you go in those stores the selection is much better although it's mostly the lower end. The more expensive stuff is Apple and Samsung. I cant recall seeing a single flagship Chinese phone in those stores but that may just be Wintree? Like I said you can see they've choosen to go after easy pickings and they are making (in some cases great) progress in other markets. The US in particular will be a tough market until something happens to precipitate a change.