# Wait, wait, wait… 2,000 euros for a Z690 motherboard?



## Zyll Goliat (Oct 29, 2021)

Well...there are some leaks and info that upcoming Z690 Motherboards are going to be significantly more expensive from what most regular PC fans or even High end users are willing to spend on it.....





This is apparently the upcoming Asus Z690 Motherboard line.....What are yours thoughts about this?

Source: TechUnwrapped


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## ixi (Oct 29, 2021)

There is as well asus board for z590 which costs 1500e :]. Not that far away from 2k. Prices are stupid. Just ignore that mobo and tell your budies to ignore that model too. Not to mention that bottom mobo are overpriced too.


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## Zyll Goliat (Oct 29, 2021)

ixi said:


> There is asus board for z590 which costs 1500e :].


Well....sure...but now that type of high end top of the cream mobo are going to cost 2000€ also seems like that those "lower" and "mid" end motherboards also going to be more expensive than previos Z590....


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## pavle (Oct 29, 2021)

Well if you want extreme and glacial together and on a mainboard, that's the price. Who's gonna pay it is the question.


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## cst1992 (Oct 29, 2021)

ixi said:


> There is as well asus board for z590 which costs 1500e :]. Not that far away from 2k. Prices are stupid. Just ignore that mobo and tell your budies to ignore that model too. Not to mention that bottom mobo are overpriced too.


Like I said - these prices are stupid means "so high they think we're stupid".


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## erocker (Oct 29, 2021)

I remember paying $350 bucks for the Formula series.


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## Solid State Soul ( SSS ) (Oct 29, 2021)

I can buy a current gen console with the price of a "mid range" z690 board, this has to stop, its absurd


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## Vayra86 (Oct 29, 2021)

Zyll Goliat said:


> Well...there are some leaks and info that upcoming Z690 Motherboards are going to be significantly more expensive from what most regular PC fans or even High end users are willing to spend on it.....
> 
> View attachment 222870
> This is apparently the upcoming Asus Z690 Motherboard line.....What are yours thoughts about this?
> ...



My thoughts are auto avoid, postpone until late in gen, and buy from anyone but ASUS.

Its not hard. The market can be corrected, all you need to do is not buy. Let's see how that niche carries itself.


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## bug (Oct 29, 2021)

Thoughts? Half of those models are under $400. Considering we're talking about the flagship chipset and Asus, that's actually pretty good.


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## Vayra86 (Oct 29, 2021)

bug said:


> Thoughts? Half of those models are under $400. Considering we're talking about the flagship chipset and Asus, that's actually pretty good.



Actually the very bottom of that stack is still higher than what Z boards should cost at the entry tier. Starting at 250?! They used to start at just under 150.

So yeah, time, inflation, chip shortage and pandemic, maybe they should start at 200. But 250!?


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## joemama (Oct 29, 2021)

ROG tax


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## Zyll Goliat (Oct 29, 2021)

Vayra86 said:


> My thoughts are auto avoid, postpone until late in gen, and buy from anyone but ASUS.
> 
> Its not hard. The market can be corrected, all you need to do is not buy. Let's see how that niche carries itself.


Sure...personally not in my wildest dreams I could justify to spend that(2k) money on the motherboard ....but when I read this article seems evident that motherboard prices overall also are going to be much higher from the previous line....of course this is not yet official and we will need to wait and see but I am afraid that this is more then likely going to be the final outcome ....


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## Deleted member 24505 (Oct 29, 2021)

There are definitely rich fuck nuts who will pay that. It's probably a v nice board but not 2k nice. Nice for rich forumites to show off their expensive rig to impress the plebs i guess


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## ne6togadno (Oct 29, 2021)

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/stfg8J


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## dj-electric (Oct 29, 2021)

Counter argument here for a second. Hear me out on this one.

Considering global situation in electronics, and considering constant upticks in quality and port in motherboards,
what we should really care about is how the bottom 10% of motherboards look like, and how much they actually cost.

For example, I know Gigabyte's Z690 UD and the DDR4 edition are 199$ and 219$ and contain hardware pretty comparable to 250$+ boards we've just previously seen.


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## Gmr_Chick (Oct 29, 2021)

Wait...are you fucking kidding me?! I thought the prices for Z590 were bad, but it makes me even more flabbergasted to realize that, when I convert the euro price of the Z690-P Wifi D4, which is the bottom of the stack, to US dollars, it even costs more than what I paid for my X370 Crosshair VI Hero! The fuck is up with that? The Prime series has always been less "gamer" centric and far more mainstream, budget-conscious oriented. But there's nothing budget about having to spend close to $300 on a BASIC, no frills motherboard!


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## Bomby569 (Oct 29, 2021)

I remenber dearbauer reviewing some weird board that cost something like that not long ago.


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## cst1992 (Oct 29, 2021)

joemama said:


> ROG tax


Yeah, but this is ROGue...


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## ixi (Oct 29, 2021)

I just don't get it, why would anyone buy mobo for 2000usd or above. If asrock will releae z690 oc formula for 600 or 700 euro. I can bet (at least I hope) that it will destroy trashy asus 2k mobo .


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## RyzenMaster.sys (Oct 29, 2021)

Asus used to be good. Anymore they sell average products at above average prices on name alone. "Because it's Asus" is a horrible excuse to justify prices. 

Other brands have z690s for $200 or less.


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## bug (Oct 29, 2021)

Gmr_Chick said:


> Wait...are you fucking kidding me?! I thought the prices for Z590 were bad, but it makes me even more flabbergasted to realize that, when I convert the euro price of the Z690-P Wifi D4, which is the bottom of the stack, to US dollars, it even costs more than what I paid for my X370 Crosshair VI Hero! The fuck is up with that? The Prime series has always been less "gamer" centric and far more mainstream, budget-conscious oriented. But there's nothing budget about having to spend close to $300 on a BASIC, no frills motherboard!


Yeah well, now "BASIC, no frills" means 3 M.2 slots, WiFi6, Bluetooth and 2.5Gb networking.
I'm not applauding these prices, but I'm not going to pretend they're totally unjustified either. And again, it's Asus we're talking about. I'm sure a Gigabyte H670 motherboard will be priced more reasonably than what we're looking at here.

The real kicker here is Alder Lake requires Win11, so it will not sell in droves initially. Motherboard makers may be sitting on their stock for a while if they didn't plan accordingly.


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## xrobwx71 (Oct 29, 2021)

Ahh, we are getting back to the "good ol days" when PCs were above $10K. /s


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## Kovoet (Oct 29, 2021)

Think I will stick with my AMD cpu for a while yet.


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## looniam (Oct 29, 2021)

msi godlike:
z390 = $600
z490 =  $750
z590 = $1,000
z690 = (TBD)

the beatings will continue . . .


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## freeagent (Oct 29, 2021)

The paying customer enabled these prices. With people spending the big dollas like eff it it's only money.. that told manufacturers you don't care what it costs and that you must have it..


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## Dr_b_ (Oct 29, 2021)

Manufacturers keep putting displays, RGB lights, and gaudy heatsinks and armour all over the boards that aren't needed, these things are often overstylized, really ugly because they cater to Asian tastes and norms, and drive up costs.   Bring the quality components, dont put those metal "heatsinks" and OLED screens all over the place outside of the VRMs, and give us a decently priced product.  Of course none of that will ever happen.  Its the engineering and component quality that make the board what it is, not some super ugly blinking lights in a full board heatsink that really doesn't do anything except block airflow


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## cst1992 (Oct 29, 2021)

bug said:


> now "BASIC, no frills" means 3 M.2 slots, WiFi6, Bluetooth and 2.5Gb networking


No, it doesn't. Basic motherboards have one or two M.2 slots, no Wi-Fi, and gigabit networking.


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## Kovoet (Oct 29, 2021)

This will have a chain effect with PC gaming as well. I can see all on consoles in the future when it comes to gaming


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## Wirko (Oct 29, 2021)

Vayra86 said:


> Actually the very bottom of that stack is still higher than what Z boards should cost at the entry tier. Starting at 250?! They used to start at just under 150.
> 
> So yeah, time, inflation, chip shortage and pandemic, maybe they should start at 200. But 250!?


Yeah, it's the low end that is the reason to worry, not the $2000 boards. Ignoring any differences in features, ten cheapest Z590 boards cost between 120 and 150 €, VAT included (geizhals.eu) while ten cheapest Z690 boards cost between 200 and 240 € (same source). No, the prices won't come down by 40% shortly after the launch.


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## TheLostSwede (Oct 29, 2021)

Seems to be legit, as the Asus ROG Maximus Z690 extreme Glacial is listed for between €1889 and €2190...





						Mainboards Intel Sockel 1700 Preisvergleich Geizhals EU
					

Preisvergleich für Mainboards Intel Sockel 1700 ✓ Bewertungen ✓ Produktinfos ⇒ Auswahl und Filtern der Produkte nach den besten Eigenschaften und dem billigsten Preis




					geizhals.eu


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## elghinnarisa (Oct 29, 2021)

The Z590 Maximus XIII Hero is almost 170 euros more expensive than what I paid for my Maximus X hero
The Z690 Maximus Hero board seems to be a finger below 300 euros more expensive than the X hero. In fact, its ~twice the price.


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## TheLostSwede (Oct 29, 2021)

Vayra86 said:


> Actually the very bottom of that stack is still higher than what Z boards should cost at the entry tier. Starting at 250?! They used to start at just under 150.
> 
> So yeah, time, inflation, chip shortage and pandemic, maybe they should start at 200. But 250!?


See link in previous post, it seems like some retailers have slightly better pricing, but Asus is indeed a lot more expensive than its competitors.



joemama said:


> ROG tax


More like Asus tax now. I guess they need to make back money lost on other, less profitable business units.


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## Bomby569 (Oct 29, 2021)

With motherboards you can still be a good buyers, shop around and get a good board with the necessary features for a good price. With graphic cards it's way worst. The weird part is that it seems that with graphic cards it's the gpu prices that sky rocketed, with the motherboards it doesn't seem to have much to do with the chipset but the AIB's going nuts.


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## bug (Oct 29, 2021)

cst1992 said:


> No, it doesn't. Basic motherboards have one or two M.2 slots, no Wi-Fi, and gigabit networking.


The OP was complaining specifically about the Z690-P Wifi D4. It does have everything I listed, it's the cheapest Z690 board listed by Asus.


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## Kovoet (Oct 29, 2021)

Surely a glaciel would be to slow.


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## tekjunkie28 (Oct 29, 2021)

I remember buying a asus P5K and a P5Q... I think one was $89 and another was $129.  I almost killed over when I saw the price for a Crosshair 7 Hero but it was my 1st AMD rig I built for myself so I got it.... Never again will I pay that much and probably wont buy another asus.



looniam said:


> msi godlike:
> z390 = $600
> z490 =  $750
> z590 = $1,000
> ...


Until moral improves?


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## qubit (Oct 29, 2021)

Bargain.


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## ThrashZone (Oct 29, 2021)

Hi,
Looks like msi caught scalping their own products has spread widely 
Apex
z490 400.us looks like my last one
z590 600.us they can keep it
z690 750.us ? they can keep it.


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## Kovoet (Oct 29, 2021)

I just don't understand it. Is it they want to sell less so they can cut down on manufacturing cost's. PC components is really getting weirder with there pricing and availability


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## Chrispy_ (Oct 29, 2021)

When the flagship boards jumped from $300 to $600 for no reason, I stopped giving a shit about flagships.

At €300 they could justify the premium over the mainstream €150 boards.

At €600-800 they are basically just plastic decoration, pointless gimmicks like OLED animated graphics, and silly non-functional cosmetic crap

At €2000 they are clearly just leaning hard into the "rich idiots who want pointless toys will pay anything for bragging rights". There will be €300 boards that pretty much match these new €2000 'flagship' boards but without the cosmetic BS and €1500 of ePeen tax.


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## cst1992 (Oct 29, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> "rich idiots who want pointless toys will pay anything for bragging rights"



Reminds me of this gem of a thread: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...rious-guys-and-dont-think-im-a-troll.1377908/

I have it bookmarked. It entertains me every time I read it!


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## MIRTAZAPINE (Oct 29, 2021)

cst1992 said:


> Reminds me of this gem of a thread: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...rious-guys-and-dont-think-im-a-troll.1377908/
> 
> I have it bookmarked. It entertains me every time I read it!



 The dummies guide about build your own pc is the cherry on top. I remember when I started joining techpowerup here I occasionally see someone wanting to make ridiculous build and throwing parts in it just to make it expensive.

Edit: I cannot believe that gpu nowadays  cost more than that crazy quad sli Gtx780


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## oxrufiioxo (Oct 29, 2021)

I'd spend $800-1000 on a board if I really liked it somthing like the X570s Crosshair VIII Extreme but not 2000€ although the board without the waterblock is 850€ cheaper for the same board making the 2000€ even more irrelevant than it already is.


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## Kovoet (Oct 29, 2021)

I spent £460 on my Asus Hero VIII and I thought that was a lot. When I was with Intel I only bought the Maximus Formula but now don't know if I would.


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## Solid State Soul ( SSS ) (Oct 29, 2021)

Kovoet said:


> I spent £460 on my Asus Hero VIII and I thought that was a lot. When I was with Intel I only bought the Maximus Formula but now don't know if I would.


That board is 220 euros msrp, how the fudge did you pay that much for it, you simply got scammed


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## nguyen (Oct 29, 2021)

welp....let hope Alder Lake is worth making so many different Z690 motherboards, otherwise they are just masssive e-waste like the Z590....


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## cst1992 (Oct 29, 2021)

MIRTAZAPINE said:


> Edit: I cannot believe that gpu nowadays  cost more than that crazy quad sli Gtx780


"EVGA GTX 780 Superclocked (FOUR of these)"

The bit that makes me sad is someone saying "You can build an amazing computer for $2000" and now this thread...


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## newtekie1 (Oct 29, 2021)

Zyll Goliat said:


> Well....sure...but now that type of high end top of the cream mobo are going to cost 2000€ also seems like that those "lower" and "mid" end motherboards also going to be more expensive than previos Z590....


New product is new. Give it a couple months and prices will settle down, they always do.


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## jesdals (Oct 29, 2021)

10-12 layers PCB does not come cheap - but in DK z690 is more or less the same as 570x counter part starting price point and yes 2k is crazy but these water prepared boards has not been cheap


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## The red spirit (Oct 29, 2021)

joemama said:


> ROG tax


Not really, even overheating shit tier Prime stuff is now sold at premium. "Throttle with style" seems to be the new Asus motto.



Tigger said:


> There are definitely rich fuck nuts who will pay that. It's probably a v nice board but not 2k nice. Nice for rich forumites to show off their expensive rig to impress the plebs i guess


I can bet you that TPUers will buy them. TPU said shit about RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3090 too, it only took several months to see TPU full of them.



Bomby569 said:


> With motherboards you can still be a good buyers, shop around and get a good board with the necessary features for a good price. With graphic cards it's way worst. The weird part is that it seems that with graphic cards it's the gpu prices that sky rocketed, with the motherboards it doesn't seem to have much to do with the chipset but the AIB's going nuts.


Deals may exists, as well as cheaper boards, but at this point overheating VRMs are rampant. You have to be careful buying them.



cst1992 said:


> Reminds me of this gem of a thread: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...rious-guys-and-dont-think-im-a-troll.1377908/
> 
> I have it bookmarked. It entertains me every time I read it!


At first it was fun, but I'm actually concerned if that kid isn't retard or doesn't have early dementia. It's as if OP didn't have any brain cells left.


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## Bomby569 (Oct 29, 2021)

The red spirit said:


> Deals may exists, as well as cheaper boards, but at this point overheating VRMs are rampant. You have to be careful buying them.


just go for buildzoid's recommendations


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## The red spirit (Oct 29, 2021)

Bomby569 said:


> just go for buildzoid's recommendations


Does he even review any cheap boards at all?


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## cst1992 (Oct 29, 2021)

The red spirit said:


> At first it was fun, but I'm actually concerned if that kid isn't retard or doesn't have early dementia. It's as if OP didn't have any brain cells left.


Who knows. Things change in 8 years, though.

Did you see that the guy that said he was 15 is now a moderator?


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## docnorth (Oct 29, 2021)

All I can say is very expensive Strix F, but reasonably (for a Z690) priced Prime-A board. It seems the quick release button is very costly. 4-digit priced boards just don’t exist for me.


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## freeagent (Oct 29, 2021)

The red spirit said:


> Does he even review any cheap boards at all?


I think he had a couple of cheap ones on the bench over the last couple of years. He might have even modded one to make it better in the power delivery dept. Probably not something you would want to do yourself unless you were into it..


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## outpt (Oct 29, 2021)

Holy cow Batman glad of what I have. Going to the sidelines for a while till the stupidity goes down. If ever.


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## The red spirit (Oct 29, 2021)

cst1992 said:


> Who knows. Things change in 8 years, though.
> 
> Did you see that the guy that said he was 15 is now a moderator?


Yes, but he wasn't typing like a had a stroke and then dementia.


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## Vayra86 (Oct 29, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> When the flagship boards jumped from $300 to $600 for no reason, I stopped giving a shit about flagships.
> 
> At €300 they could justify the premium over the mainstream €150 boards.
> 
> ...



Let's hope the market corrects. I think it will, with shortages and climate and all going forward.

Candles tend to flicker wildly before going out eh.


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## Kovoet (Oct 29, 2021)

Just checked my receipt and yes you are right I paid 
Grand Total:
£370.19


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## RandallFlagg (Oct 29, 2021)

Solid State Soul ( SSS ) said:


> I can buy a current gen console with the price of a "mid range" z690 board, this has to stop, its absurd



You can?  They're about $1000 on ebay stateside.

I'm not sure what's going on with the high end boards, they are indeed stratospheric in price.  The lower end boards are about +20%, which is not really horrible given that it's moving to PCIe 5.0 and at least the one I was looking at had an additional m.2 slot and upgraded USB connectivity to 2x2 vs the last gen 2x1.


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## The red spirit (Oct 29, 2021)

RandallFlagg said:


> You can?  They're about $1000 on ebay stateside.
> 
> I'm not sure what's going on with the high end boards, they are indeed stratospheric in price.  The lower end boards are about +20%, which is not really horrible given that it's moving to PCIe 5.0 and at least the one I was looking at had an additional m.2 slot and upgraded USB connectivity to 2x2 vs the last gen 2x1.


Series S is 300 EUR. As expensive as Asus Prime garbage.


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## Bomby569 (Oct 29, 2021)

The red spirit said:


> Does he even review any cheap boards at all?



i remenber this one for example


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## The red spirit (Oct 30, 2021)

Bomby569 said:


> i remenber this one for example


By cheap, I meant 50-60 USD boards, those without VRM heatsinks, usually with A520 or H510 chipsets and usually names ending with S2V, HDV, S2P, HDS. 100-130 boards aren't really cheap, they are mid tier. 150 and more expensive boards, to me, are high end.


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## Mescalamba (Oct 30, 2021)

The red spirit said:


> By cheap, I meant 50-60 USD boards, those without VRM heatsinks, usually with A520 or H510 chipsets and usually names ending with S2V, HDV, S2P, HDS. 100-130 boards aren't really cheap, they are mid tier. 150 and more expensive boards, to me, are high end.


Even in year 2010, high-end for me was somewhere around 500 USD. While times have definitely changed for worse, your bar is just a bit low. At that price point you ask its impossible to make decent mobo, I mean probably not even one that works.

That said, I like second, third or countless hand market. Older top tier is pretty good stuff and for a lot less money than new stuff.

2000 EUR for mobo is still a bit absurd, but then there is place for Chiron and Phantom in this world too.


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## caroline! (Oct 30, 2021)

How is it so expensive yet has such a terrible design? ugh.

I know looks aren't everything but the EVGA DARK lineup simply looks way better, the 590 has some sweet bare copper heatsinks and heatpipes I haven't seen in a while now, the LEDs kinda ruin it and the wi-fi is just an useless gimmick but I guess you can disable those.
Oh man, I'd unironically sell one of my kidneys for that board and a compatible chip.


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## The red spirit (Oct 30, 2021)

Mescalamba said:


> Even in year 2010, high-end for me was somewhere around 500 USD. While times have definitely changed for worse, your bar is just a bit low. At that price point you ask its impossible to make decent mobo, I mean probably not even one that works.


It's certainly possible to make a functional board for that money. And they last too. Some early Sandy Bridge machines are still chugging along to this day without malfunctions. There shouldn't be an argument of possibilities, since that is certainly possible. Even 40-50 USD is possible budget for motherboard. Those boards are usually okay up to 70-80 watts. Increasing budget to 70-90 USD means that there's is a budget for more robust VRMs, heatsinks and maybe gamery aesthetics. A board at such budget can handle 100-130 watts with modest cooling and perhaps 10-30 watts if there is strong downdraft cooler near socket. 90-130 USD tier can afford VRMs good enough to not throttle i9 or 5950X with unlocked boost. Since overclocking is more or less dead at this point, there's not much reason to spend more on board, therefore anything more than 130 USD is is buying wants rather needs. This stuff has barely changed in the last decade, despite inflation and loads of odious marketing. There's really nothing high end about those expensive boards, if they don't give user any significant return. They are mostly overpriced products overmarketed to gamers, that benefit board OEMs more than users.


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## Melvis (Oct 30, 2021)

But but but intel is the cheap option right?

But we already knew this was coming


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## The red spirit (Oct 30, 2021)

Melvis said:


> But but but intel is the cheap option right?


i5 10400(F) certainly and was one of the last truly great value chips, but most people avoided it due to RAM speed limitations and poor reviews from GN. Mostly it was bullshit, as RAM speed limitation only meant up to 5% performance reduction is really rare case and then people misterpreted fps graphs, when it wasn't an equal chips, it performed little worse, but it was selling at 30-40% less than 3600, 40-60% less than 3600X and whopping 2 times less than 5600X. It got shat on by media so much, that people just bought Ryzens instead, then 1 year later it made a small comeback mostly from TechYesCity. And now not so great value i5 11400(F) has a good reputation, but mostly lacks merits of 10400(F), as it's not much faster and costs significantly more and runs hotter. Anything else with certain exceptions for i3 10100(F) weren't great value and it's mostly regurgiated bullshit from, mostly because some Intel chips managed to match AMD chips in performance per dollar metric, while obviously mostly ignoring i5 10400(F) and i3 10100(F). Media like GN, HU and some others showed how incompetent they were at interpreting their own data and in the end you get some really twisted conclusions from them and lots of fake drama, that could have been avoided. Anything beyond their benchmarks, data and your own local pricing basically doesn't matter, in those sections they can say whatever they want (usually nothing of value) and thus you are better off just skipping them.


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## Athlonite (Oct 30, 2021)

seems prices here aren't quite that bad asus-rog-maximus-z690-hero-gaming for $1099 Gougelandastanie plunketts and the Intel i9 12900K is around the same price and the 32GB of DDR5 would add another 600 Gougelandastanie plunkettes on top


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## Kissamies (Oct 30, 2021)

What the hell.... I kinda could understand if a HEDT limited edition would cost more than 500EUR, but 2000EUR from a consumer socket board..?

Insane.


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## AlwaysHope (Oct 30, 2021)

Keep this in perspective, add the cost of the CPU also.... & if you want shiny new DDR5 sticks!


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## freeagent (Oct 30, 2021)

^^

Plus tax!


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## maxfly (Oct 30, 2021)

This is what happens when you combine EK, the most over priced wcing company in the business(barely edging out BP). With Asus the most overpriced mb manufacturer (and utterly soulless i might add). It was the inevitable connection from hayellll!


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## mrthanhnguyen (Oct 30, 2021)

1 kidney is enough to upgrade to ADL guys?


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## RandallFlagg (Oct 30, 2021)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> 1 kidney is enough to upgrade to ADL guys?



Might need to throw in a few fingers.  It's ok though, you have two kidneys and 10 fingers.  Unless you already spent them.


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## mrthanhnguyen (Oct 30, 2021)

RandallFlagg said:


> Might need to throw in a few fingers.  It's ok though, you have two kidneys and 10 fingers.  Unless you already spent them.


Need to count to see how many I have left.


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## cst1992 (Oct 30, 2021)

RandallFlagg said:


> Might need to throw in a few fingers.  It's ok though, you have two kidneys and 10 fingers.  Unless you already spent them.


Not yet, but that's not a great habit...


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## Solid State Soul ( SSS ) (Nov 1, 2021)

The red spirit said:


> Series S is 300 EUR. As expensive as Asus Prime garbage.


Also dont forget that consoles will eventually get even cheaper below MSRP with mid gen refresh ( slim models ) that will shave 100$ of the current MSRP, meanwhile motherboards since coffee lake got more and more expansive as time goes on


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## Metroid (Nov 1, 2021)

erocker said:


> I remember paying $350 bucks for the Formula series.



The more you trolls pay overpriced prices then manufactures have a reason to increase further the price.


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## RJARRRPCGP (Nov 1, 2021)

And these aren't even the equivalent to an X299? (quad-channel HEDT)


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## Fangio1951 (Nov 1, 2021)

What a JOKE !!

I paid AU$750.00 for my Z270 Gagabyte Extreme mobo in Dec 2017 when it was first available - but it was a v/high end board.

But 2000 euro, that's like AU$3000.00 = That's what we in Oz call = Ned Kelly rates.

Ned Kelly was a famous bush ranger - AKA thief


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## cst1992 (Nov 1, 2021)

So your motherboard was still worth 500 euros. That's a lot. Hope it was worth it for that much.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Nov 1, 2021)

Fangio1951 said:


> What a JOKE !!
> 
> I paid AU$750.00 for my Z270 Gagabyte Extreme mobo in Dec 2017 when it was first available - but it was a v/high end board.
> 
> ...



Famous for his armour


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## erocker (Nov 1, 2021)

Metroid said:


> The more you trolls pay overpriced prices then manufactures have a reason to increase further the price.


Do you know what the word "troll" means? I don't think you do.


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## Chrispy_ (Nov 1, 2021)

Kovoet said:


> This will have a chain effect with PC gaming as well. I can see all on consoles in the future when it comes to gaming


These flagship boards aren't what the mass-market PC gamers buy. They are what the "given free samples" influencers like Jay (Jayz2c) and Roman (Der8auer) promote on their channels for showcase builds.

Even those guys don't recommend these boards for most people and their channels also include (or link to) budget boards for budget builds. There are dozens of YT channels that regularly highlight console-beating gaming PCs on a budget. Graphics cards are the problem right now, but if you could get a 3060 or even an old 2060S for a reasonable price, there's nothing to stop you from dumping it in something like an older 8th-gen Intel i5 and getting a gaming experience that matches or beats the current-gen consoles. R5 3600 and i5 10400F are the current darlings of price/performance new builds, despite neither of them being the current generation!

Alder Lake is the new hotness, the "entry level" boards are still very much suffering from early adopter tax, which is subset of 'premium tax'. Nobody NEEDS the latest platform and by the time Alder Lake has been shipping in large quantities both to the DIY market and the prebuilt PC market for a month or two, I expect there to be a range of boards and chipsets starting from the usual sub-$100 MicroATX wonders that just cover the basics well without pointless costmetics and addon features that 99% of people will never use, or can at least comfortably do without. No you won't be able to overclock but apparently Alder Lake is a nightmare to overclock anyway and the current-gen 'overclock-friendly' Rocket Lake/Zen3 chips don't exactly leave much on the table in the first place. Boosting has become good enough that both Intel and AMD CPUs will get close to their maximum potential with out-of-the-box settings, making the concept of a K-series chip and Z-series motherboard kind of an ego tax in itself.


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## Palladium (Nov 1, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> These flagship boards aren't what the mass-market PC gamers buy. They are what the "given free samples" influencers like Jay (Jayz2c) and Roman (Der8auer) promote on their channels for showcase builds.
> 
> Even those guys don't recommend these boards for most people and their channels also include (or link to) budget boards for budget builds. There are dozens of YT channels that regularly highlight console-beating gaming PCs on a budget. Graphics cards are the problem right now, but if you could get a 3060 or even an old 2060S for a reasonable price, there's nothing to stop you from dumping it in something like an older 8th-gen Intel i5 and getting a gaming experience that matches or beats the current-gen consoles. R5 3600 and i5 10400F are the current darlings of price/performance new builds, despite neither of them being the current generation!
> 
> Alder Lake is the new hotness, the "entry level" boards are still very much suffering from early adopter tax, which is subset of 'premium tax'. Nobody NEEDS the latest platform and by the time Alder Lake has been shipping in large quantities both to the DIY market and the prebuilt PC market for a month or two, I expect there to be a range of boards and chipsets starting from the usual sub-$100 MicroATX wonders that just cover the basics well without pointless costmetics and addon features that 99% of people will never use, or can at least comfortably do without. No you won't be able to overclock but apparently Alder Lake is a nightmare to overclock anyway and the current-gen 'overclock-friendly' Rocket Lake/Zen3 chips don't exactly leave much on the table in the first place. Boosting has become good enough that both Intel and AMD CPUs will get close to their maximum potential with out-of-the-box settings, making the concept of a K-series chip and Z-series motherboard kind of an ego tax in itself.



but I can't wait to spend big $$$ on "easy" OCing so I can have that extra 5-10% CPU performance that I will never notice!

*sarcasm*


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## Zyll Goliat (Nov 1, 2021)

Palladium said:


> but I can't wait to spend big $$$ on "easy" OCing so I can have that extra 5-10% CPU performance that I will never notice!
> 
> *sarcasm*


Funny or not there are substantial amount of people who will do exactly that......


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## Chrispy_ (Nov 1, 2021)

Zyll Goliat said:


> Funny or not there are substantial amount of people who will do exactly that......


And these are the "more money than sense" market that motherboard manufacturers are selling to; I can't blame them for playing the game, they're in it to make money and there is a profitable market that is more than happy to pony up for stuff they _want, _even if they have no need for it.

It's up to buyers to educate themselves on what they _need and want_ vs what they're _getting and paying for_.
If motherboard makers don't eventually get Alder Lake boards down to competitive costs, they will need to prove, *decisively*, that PCIe 5.0, DDR5, and 12th Gen are all must-have features. The competition won't be other motherboard vendors, it'll be their own 11th-gen product lineup.


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## phill (Nov 1, 2021)

I presume the price does include the nice button release on the side of the motherboard for the PCIe slot??....


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## TheLostSwede (Nov 1, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> These flagship boards aren't what the mass-market PC gamers buy. They are what the "given free samples" influencers like Jay (Jayz2c) and Roman (Der8auer) promote on their channels for showcase builds.
> 
> Even those guys don't recommend these boards for most people and their channels also include (or link to) budget boards for budget builds. There are dozens of YT channels that regularly highlight console-beating gaming PCs on a budget. Graphics cards are the problem right now, but if you could get a 3060 or even an old 2060S for a reasonable price, there's nothing to stop you from dumping it in something like an older 8th-gen Intel i5 and getting a gaming experience that matches or beats the current-gen consoles. R5 3600 and i5 10400F are the current darlings of price/performance new builds, despite neither of them being the current generation!
> 
> Alder Lake is the new hotness, the "entry level" boards are still very much suffering from early adopter tax, which is subset of 'premium tax'. Nobody NEEDS the latest platform and by the time Alder Lake has been shipping in large quantities both to the DIY market and the prebuilt PC market for a month or two, I expect there to be a range of boards and chipsets starting from the usual sub-$100 MicroATX wonders that just cover the basics well without pointless costmetics and addon features that 99% of people will never use, or can at least comfortably do without. No you won't be able to overclock but apparently Alder Lake is a nightmare to overclock anyway and the current-gen 'overclock-friendly' Rocket Lake/Zen3 chips don't exactly leave much on the table in the first place. Boosting has become good enough that both Intel and AMD CPUs will get close to their maximum potential with out-of-the-box settings, making the concept of a K-series chip and Z-series motherboard kind of an ego tax in itself.


Actually, you'd be surprised how well some of these boards sell. Obviously with the price points that are being hit now, it might have gone to high, but $500-700 motherboards have done well and I guess that's why the board makers are being bold and keep trying ever increasing price points. Yes, it's mostly "useless" features beyond a certain point, but it's also about being able to show off to your mates, much like people used to do and still do with their cars, AV setups etc.
Up until the board I have now, I have usually stuck with mid-range to upper mid-range boards, but a lot of those are lacking features today, whereas many models that were mid-range are now entry level. I'm not sure what's going on in the motherboard industry, but the feature mixture is really weird in a lot of segments of the market.


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## Chrispy_ (Nov 1, 2021)

phill said:


> I presume the price does include the nice button release on the side of the motherboard for the PCIe slot??....


For the top slot, yes.
That's a solution to a problem the silly bolt-on heatsink shroud creates though. The release tab is easily accessible if you don't have a massive shroud in the way.
Don't get me wrong, if I had a button like that on the top PCIe slot, I'd definitely prefer it, but not if it comes at a $1700 premium.


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## Palladium (Nov 1, 2021)

TheLostSwede said:


> Actually, you'd be surprised how well some of these boards sell. Obviously with the price points that are being hit now, it might have gone to high, but $500-700 motherboards have done well and I guess that's why the board makers are being bold and keep trying ever increasing price points. Yes, it's mostly "useless" features beyond a certain point, but it's also about being able to show off to your mates, much like people used to do and still do with their cars, AV setups etc.
> Up until the board I have now, I have usually stuck with mid-range to upper mid-range boards, but a lot of those are lacking features today, whereas many models that were mid-range are now entry level. I'm not sure what's going on in the motherboard industry, but the feature mixture is really weird in a lot of segments of the market.



The material cost of low-end vs top-end mobos is marginal but the difference in profit margins is huge.


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## TheLostSwede (Nov 1, 2021)

Palladium said:


> The material cost of low-end vs top-end mobos is marginal but the difference in profit margins is huge.


Well, yes and no. Obviously features like 10Gbps Ethernet, Thunderbolt and so on adds some very real cost and would justify some of the price difference, but other things are clearly mostly cosmetic and often also quite useless, like various plastic bits and they have a fairly high tooling cost, even if the plastic parts themselves don't cost much to make. Likewise, custom aluminum extrusions aren't free and when every motherboard has a different heatsink design, it adds to the overall cost of the boards, for no sensible reason.
We've gotten to a point where a lot of money is being wasted on what really are useless "features", which simply translates into higher costs in the end.
It might look "nice" but is it really worth it in the end?


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## AusWolf (Nov 1, 2021)

Buying a motherboard for regular use (including gaming) for 2000 euros is just as stupid as buying one for serious gaming / overclocking for 60 euros. Luckily, there have always been, and probably always will be sensible options for sensible people.  In short: you don't need a Lamborghini to enjoy a road trip. They only exist because some people have too much money to waste.


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## bug (Nov 1, 2021)

TheLostSwede said:


> Actually, you'd be surprised how well some of these boards sell. Obviously with the price points that are being hit now, it might have gone to high, but $500-700 motherboards have done well and I guess that's why the board makers are being bold and keep trying ever increasing price points. Yes, it's mostly "useless" features beyond a certain point, but it's also about being able to show off to your mates, much like people used to do and still do with their cars, AV setups etc.
> Up until the board I have now, I have usually stuck with mid-range to upper mid-range boards, but a lot of those are lacking features today, whereas many models that were mid-range are now entry level. I'm not sure what's going on in the motherboard industry, but the feature mixture is really weird in a lot of segments of the market.


But this is how you sell those $500-700 motherboards: you create $1,000 motherboards to make the others look reasonably priced


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## skizzo (Nov 1, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> When the flagship boards jumped from $300 to $600 for no reason, I stopped giving a shit about flagships.
> 
> At €300 they could justify the premium over the mainstream €150 boards.
> 
> ...



the type of people who buy this stuff......


			
				Guy with more money than brains said:
			
		

> but the color scheme matches my $2 million dollar (unopened) copy of Super Mario Bros. Both which will sit on a shelf and look cool when all my totally real friends come over to visit and gawk at them. Also, for the record....my e-peen is bigger than yours



In seriousness, I would assume the same people who buy a fucking NES cartridge for $2mil are the types who tell "their people" (because they are rich enough to have "people" lol) to set them up a gaming rig to play with their son or nephew or whoever. Money is no problem sort of thing. Then said people go on a shopping spree or ask some builder to make them a custom all out balls to the wall setup. $10k spent on just a PC later they are playing Rocket League on a 100" OLED that alone cost more than most peoples new vehicles, in a newly constructed game room adjacent to their indoor pool and movie theater at their 5,200sq ft mansion gated community summer vacation home with 13 bathrooms which they commissioned just for this sole purpose of gaming. In the long run they will enjoy playing it for like 12 days until they get bored and never use that room or touch the PC again lmao money well spent!

who else besides the most die hard of EXTREME overclockers would even need a $1K+ board, let alone pushing $2k. The rich guy with more money than brains is the target audience really


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## cst1992 (Nov 1, 2021)

AusWolf said:


> They only exist because some people have too much money to waste.


Nope, they exist because they're a premium segment - a niche product.

Because they're geared for performance rather than utility. They cater to a different need - a different segment of the market.

For example(a kinda weird one) - why do you have gaming phones when you can get consoles and gaming PCs?


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## phill (Nov 1, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> For the top slot, yes.
> That's a solution to a problem the silly bolt-on heatsink shroud creates though. The release tab is easily accessible if you don't have a massive shroud in the way.
> Don't get me wrong, if I had a button like that on the top PCIe slot, I'd definitely prefer it, but not if it comes at a $1700 premium.


It was a bit of sarcasm but I don't seriously get why a motherboard should cost 2000 Euro's...  I think the most expensive I have ever bought was my EVGA Classifieds or my Crosshair models..  £400 seems to be about the limit for me.  I can't see or say that from £400 to £2000 would give me that amount of extra performance considering everything is down to the silicone lottery...

I mean, the sun shines on a dogs bum at times but hell......


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## Wirko (Nov 1, 2021)

bug said:


> But this is how you sell those $500-700 motherboards: you create $1,000 motherboards to make the others look reasonably priced


$1000 consumer boards also make 500 € workstation boards suspiciously cheap. The most expensive S1200 board I can find is 486 € (Supermicro X12SCZ-TLN4F), and it has dual 10Gb ethernet.


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## AusWolf (Nov 1, 2021)

cst1992 said:


> Nope, they exist because they're a premium segment - a niche product.


That's exactly what I said using different words. The term "premium segment" doesn't mean anything on its own. Niche products wouldn't exist if some people weren't sitting on way too much money.



cst1992 said:


> For example(a kinda weird one) - why do you have gaming phones when you can get consoles and gaming PCs?


That I really don't know, as I can't imagine any non-indie/non-puzzle kind of gaming to be even slightly enjoyable on a phone.


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## cst1992 (Nov 1, 2021)

AusWolf said:


> That I really don't know, as I can't imagine any non-indie/non-puzzle kind of gaming to be even slightly enjoyable on a phone.


Did you know that you can play GTA San Andreas on a phone?



AusWolf said:


> Niche products wouldn't exist if some people weren't sitting on way too much money.


Nope. It's just products that differ from the mainstream - basically the dictionary definition of the word "niche". If the product that satisfies that demand has a lot of cost - whether it be material, R&D and/or labor, then it'll be expensive.
Take for example, when SFX PSUs and mini-ITX cases were new in the market. They were expensive, sure, but they weren't Lamborghini-level expensive. And they were a niche market.
Now even those are becoming mainstream.

I calculated this: if I were to build a PC today, making it with usual hardware and mini-ITX hardware has the same cost within a $25 margin.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Nov 1, 2021)

Well if i was a rich fuck nut who pisses money, i would have one, but i guess that is who this is aimed at.


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## sepheronx (Nov 1, 2021)

I'll buy Two!


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## cst1992 (Nov 1, 2021)

Tigger said:


> Well if i was a rich fuck nut who pisses money, i would have one, but i guess that is who this is aimed at.


I'd love to see the prebuilt PC that contains this.

I'm sure Steve over at Gamers Nexus would give it rave reviews...


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## The red spirit (Nov 2, 2021)

Solid State Soul ( SSS ) said:


> Also dont forget that consoles will eventually get even cheaper below MSRP with mid gen refresh ( slim models ) that will shave 100$ of the current MSRP, meanwhile motherboards since coffee lake got more and more expansive as time goes on


That is not very likely, because MS is likely selling them at some loss and unlike before, we have C19 pandemic with all supply chain being fucked up and Series S is already a slim model, so who knows if there will be a meaningful refresh.



cst1992 said:


> I'd love to see the prebuilt PC that contains this.
> 
> I'm sure Steve over at Gamers Nexus would give it rave reviews...


GN Steve is a bit of shill


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## 80-watt Hamster (Nov 2, 2021)

The red spirit said:


> That is not very likely, because MS is likely selling them at some loss and unlike before, we have C19 pandemic with all supply chain being fucked up and Series S is already a slim model, so who knows if there will be a meaningful refresh.
> 
> 
> GN Steve is a bit of shill



Think so?  Seems to me he doesn't like much of anything.  It's starting to get annoying, in all honesty.


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## The red spirit (Nov 2, 2021)

80-watt Hamster said:


> Think so?  Seems to me he doesn't like much of anything.  It's starting to get annoying, in all honesty.


Something like budget and value to him are foreign words and also short, but informative content, that he actually researches in depth.


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## AusWolf (Nov 2, 2021)

cst1992 said:


> Did you know that you can play GTA San Andreas on a phone?


I know, but I can't imagine playing it on a touchscreen to be any good. I've tried World of Tanks (whatever the mobile version is called) once and it was horrible.



cst1992 said:


> Nope. It's just products that differ from the mainstream - basically the dictionary definition of the word "niche". If the product that satisfies that demand has a lot of cost - whether it be material, R&D and/or labor, then it'll be expensive.
> Take for example, when SFX PSUs and mini-ITX cases were new in the market. They were expensive, sure, but they weren't Lamborghini-level expensive. And they were a niche market.
> Now even those are becoming mainstream.
> 
> I calculated this: if I were to build a PC today, making it with usual hardware and mini-ITX hardware has the same cost within a $25 margin.


That's different. With ITX boards, we're talking about an entirely different use case. The same way a minivan isn't a more expensive car. It's a minivan.

"Niche product" is something with the same functionality as the base model, just way up in the "diminishing returns" part of the price to value graph. Where 1% increase in performance comes with 100% increase in price.


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## Dr. Dro (Nov 2, 2021)

bug said:


> But this is how you sell those $500-700 motherboards: you create $1,000 motherboards to make the others look reasonably priced



Yeah. First example were the "premium" $300+ B550 boards... and the worst of all, I bought one, because it seemed the most sensible at the time. Ugh. Cheers


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## Solid State Soul ( SSS ) (Nov 2, 2021)

80-watt Hamster said:


> Think so? Seems to me he doesn't like much of anything. It's starting to get annoying, in all honesty.


Negativity and strong emotions always sells, what can i say, some people like to see the world burn around them as long as they'r ok...


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## Hyderz (Nov 2, 2021)

man thats rather steep for a motherboard....


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## cst1992 (Nov 2, 2021)

Solid State Soul ( SSS ) said:


> Negativity and strong emotions always sells, what can i say, some people like to see the world burn around them as long as they'r ok...


I have to disagree with you on this. I've seen a lot of their reviews and he doesn't give out  that kind of vibe at all. Most products in the market (e.g. prebuilts) ARE terrible.


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## Steamroller (Nov 2, 2021)

Didn't know there's a bunch of people that don't get the idea of a "Halo Product".
If you don't like it, don't buy it. No one is forcing you to get an Audi E-Tron, just get a Civic.


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## Solid State Soul ( SSS ) (Nov 2, 2021)

cst1992 said:


> I have to disagree with you on this. I've seen a lot of their reviews and he doesn't give out that kind of vibe at all. Most products in the market (e.g. prebuilts) ARE terrible.


He is a great content creator its just that he likes to cover bad things a lot, almost as he wants that, and when he likes something, he barley likes it

i dono, i watch some of his videos for fun, they are educational,  if a bit cynical


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## ViperXTR (Nov 2, 2021)

So how much would the H670/B660 cost? Are these gonna be overclockable too?


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## bug (Nov 2, 2021)

ViperXTR said:


> So how much would the H670/B660 cost? Are these gonna be overclockable too?


Still unknown, but take a look at the current lineup for a rough idea.


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## TheLostSwede (Nov 2, 2021)

ViperXTR said:


> So how much would the H670/B660 cost? Are these gonna be overclockable too?


Not likely to be overclockable, since so far you've needed a K SKU CPU and a Z chipset motherboard to overclock with Intel and that's not likely to change.
Keep in mind that the Z690 chipset is only $1 more than  the Z590 or Z490 chipset, so it's not the chipset that is the key part for the cost increase here.
The H and B chipsets are usually around $20 cheaper though. That said, we don't know what features Intel will trim this time around.


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## Chrispy_ (Nov 2, 2021)

Steamroller said:


> Didn't know there's a bunch of people that don't get the idea of a "Halo Product".
> If you don't like it, don't buy it. No one is forcing you to get an Audi E-Tron, just get a Civic.


A halo product is a way to sell boring things *by association* with the top-of-the-line flagship being related. 

The problem with these boards is that they are priced and featured so differently to the average-joe $100-200 boards that they bear no resemblance whatsoever to the $100-200 boards they're supposed to be selling. There_* isn't *_any association between Prime/TUF and the Maximus lineup.

In fact, pricing a halo product too ridiculously just alienates most of the user base. Asus have long been building up a reputation of awesome flagships, underwhelming midrange and as their flagships become less and less affordable, the bulk of their reputation is trending towards "don't buy an Asus, they're overpriced and under-specced compared to Gigabyte/MSI/Asrock" because 99% of what they put on the market is too expensive compared to its competition.


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## cst1992 (Nov 2, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> don't buy an Asus, they're overpriced and under-specced compared to Gigabyte/MSI/Asrock


If the sentiment is like that, fine; but I've actually found some of their Prime and TUF Gaming offerings to be pretty competitive in terms of price and features with the competition.

I'd say do your own research before you buy. If the board has features you want at a price you can afford, go ahead and buy it. Of course, this applies equally to non-Asus boards and Asus boards.


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## Chrispy_ (Nov 2, 2021)

TheLostSwede said:


> Keep in mind that the Z690 chipset is only $1 more than  the Z590 or Z490 chipset, so it's not the chipset that is the key part for the cost increase here.


Supposedly it's the PCIe 5.0 lanes adding the number of PCB layers required, which exponentially increases the manufacturing complexity. Even so, the manufacturing costs are a relatively minor part of the final retail price.

Realistically, the market this flagship caters for is the wealthy gaming enthusiast and with gaming GPUs practically unobtainable, the only members of that market have shown they're more than willing to pay triple the market value for a GPU. Asus are probably just being super-greedy here and saying "well, if they'll pay triple for a GPU, they'll probably pay triple for a motherboard" without making any real changes to the product.

This could and _would _normally be a $700 board but Asus are banking on the stupidly rich not caring about the actual price given the current market.



cst1992 said:


> If the sentiment is like that, fine; but I've actually found some of their Prime and TUF Gaming offerings to be pretty competitive in terms of price and features with the competition.
> 
> I'd say do your own research before you buy. If the board has features you want at a price you can afford, go ahead and buy it. Of course, this applies equally to non-Asus boards and Asus boards.


I have 3 Prime Z490/H490 boards in my house right now and am currently using a TUF GPU. They were picked for availability reasons and they were abysmal value for money with pretty dubious quality/features. I'm accustomed to far nicer hardware from MSI's A-Pro, Asrock's Steel Legends, and Entry-level Aorus boards. My TUF GPU is lovely and the cooling is seriously well-made but dang, was it expensive!

Perhaps performance/$ varies by region but typically the Prime stuff is overpriced by 20% or more here in the UK and the TUF varies wildly from being reasonably priced to a complete ripoff where you could get a competing flagship from a market tier above TUF.


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## AusWolf (Nov 2, 2021)

cst1992 said:


> If the sentiment is like that, fine; but I've actually found some of their Prime and TUF Gaming offerings to be pretty competitive in terms of price and features with the competition.
> 
> I'd say do your own research before you buy. If the board has features you want at a price you can afford, go ahead and buy it. Of course, this applies equally to non-Asus boards and Asus boards.


Agreed. There are also other things to consider before buying. I personally go with Asus because I know their UEFI, I know the software/driver environment, and I know what kind of quality and reliability I get with different tiers. I currently own two TUF boards (B560M-Plus WiFi and A520M-Plus). I also had a TUF B550M-Plus Wifi and a Strix B250I in the past, all four are excellent models.


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## Steamroller (Nov 2, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> A halo product is a way to sell boring things *by association* with the top-of-the-line flagship being related.
> 
> The problem with these boards is that they are priced and featured so differently to the average-joe $100-200 boards that they bear no resemblance whatsoever to the $100-200 boards they're supposed to be selling. There_* isn't *_any association between Prime/TUF and the Maximus lineup.
> 
> In fact, pricing a halo product too ridiculously just alienates most of the user base. Asus have long been building up a reputation of awesome flagships, underwhelming midrange and as their flagships become less and less affordable, the bulk of their reputation is trending towards "don't buy an Asus, they're overpriced and under-specced compared to Gigabyte/MSI/Asrock" because 99% of what they put on the market is too expensive compared to its competition.


I can guarantee you that the Glacial will be sold out and people will be looking to buy it. 
You are forgetting the fact that there are quite a few users out there with dual liquid-cooled 3090 Strix cards...


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## Chrispy_ (Nov 2, 2021)

Steamroller said:


> I can guarantee you that the Glacial will be sold out and people will be looking to buy it.
> You are forgetting the fact that there are quite a few users out there with dual liquid-cooled 3090 Strix cards...


Oh sure, I'm not denying that market exists. I'm literally explaining that Asus saw people in that particular market willing to pay _triple_ the going rate and deciding to cash in on that quick buck too.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Nov 2, 2021)

Steamroller said:


> I can guarantee you that the Glacial will be sold out and people will be looking to buy it.
> You are forgetting the fact that there are quite a few users out there with dual liquid-cooled 3090 Strix cards...



Like i say, rich fuck nuts who piss money, wanting to impress the plebs on forums with pointlessly over powered rigs.


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## TheLostSwede (Nov 2, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> Supposedly it's the PCIe 5.0 lanes adding the number of PCB layers required, which exponentially increases the manufacturing complexity. Even so, the manufacturing costs are a relatively minor part of the final retail price.
> 
> Realistically, the market this flagship caters for is the wealthy gaming enthusiast and with gaming GPUs practically unobtainable, the only members of that market have shown they're more than willing to pay triple the market value for a GPU. Asus are probably just being super-greedy here and saying "well, if they'll pay triple for a GPU, they'll probably pay triple for a motherboard" without making any real changes to the product.
> 
> This could and _would _normally be a $700 board but Asus are banking on the stupidly rich not caring about the actual price given the current market.


No extra PCB layers have been added, although they are using improved PCB materials which cost a bit more, but hardly enough to to justify the price difference here. This is much the same as with the move on the AMD size from X470 to X570, although back then these types of PCB materials weren't as widely used by the motherboard makers, so it was more pricey back then. 

Sadly it doesn't look like Asus is the only company that's being super greedy here, as top to bottom the board prices have gone up by a significant amount, well beyond what is reasonable. Obviously some of this is due to the component shortages, extra shipping costs and what not, but greed does indeed seem to be the main factor here.


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## bug (Nov 2, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> Oh sure, I'm not denying that market exists. I'm literally explaining that Asus saw people in that particular market willing to pay _triple_ the going rate and deciding to cash in on that quick buck too.


A couple more points.
Even if these sell, they don't sell as much as sub-$200 motherboards do. Economy of scale is a non-factor here.
There is some specific engineering going into these boards, they're not your run-of-the-mill, tried and true solutions. (They're not rocket science either, but you get the idea.)

So it is possible Asus isn't just trying to rip us off here, they can justify at least part of the cost. It's a different question whether it makes sense for you to pay the asking price, even if you have the cash to spare.

The trouble (for me) is where $200 used to buy you the best boards, today it doesn't guarantee you a decent one. And that is, in part, driven by these halo products easing people into higher prices.


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