PC Motherboard Prices to Rise By 10% By Q2, 2012

[btarunr]

Responding to increasing prices of key raw materials such as copper, and spiraling labor costs, motherboard manufacturers are planning price-hikes of their products by as much as 10%, which will take effect by the end of Q1, 2012. Vendors adopting these increased prices include major players such as ASUS and Gigabyte. Motherboard prices were earlier raised by 5-10% in early-2011 to tune in with increased material costs and the impact of labor shortages, and by 3-8% in April 2011 due to shortages and increased prices of components sourced from Japan, in the wake of the earthquake/tsunami disaster of 2011.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[boomstik360]

Great news lol. Good thing I got a solid board already and a steal of a price to boot.

 

[Crap Daddy]

The mobo manufacturers asked themselves: Why not?

 

[qwerty_lesh]

<ASUS>: *sings* some people think the best things in life are free.
<GIGABYTE>: *sings* but free things don't do it for me.
(both singing together whilst swimming in piles of cash): I want money do do dodo do, thats what I want do do dodo do

 

[pantherx12]

Glad I already have a board, wish it had a bios update though : /

 

[R_1]

Motherboard manufacturing is completely robotized and robot labor gets cheaper every year. Also boards are made from layers of fiberglass and epoxy adhesive. Thin copper wiring is sandwiched between these layers. It is so thin , that you may actually substitute it with gold, without increasing too much the final cost of the board. AMD/ATI is doing so on HD4890/HD5850/HD5870/HD5970/HD6950 and HD6970. There is no copper there, but gold. Copper is used in later HD7000 series boards, substituting gold, but price didn't fell down. Actually it was increased twofold from previous "gold" generations.

 

[imitation]

Motherboard manufacturing is completely robotized and robot labor gets cheaper every year. Also boards are made from layers of fiberglass and epoxy adhesive. Thin copper wiring is sandwiched between these layers. It is so thin , that you may actually substitute it with gold, without increasing too much the final cost of the board. AMD/ATI is doing so on HD4890/HD5850/HD5870/HD5970/HD6950 and HD6970. There is no copper there, but gold. Copper is used in later HD7000 series boards, substituting gold, but price didn't fell down. Actually it was increased twofold from previous "gold" generations.

I think you got something wrong there. Gold currently is 56k€ per kg, copper is at 8,50€ per kg, and the conductivity of gold is not even twice as good. Using gold for a 6 or 8-layer PCB would be a huge waste and drive PCB costs through the skies without any added benefit.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Motherboard manufacturing is completely robotized and robot labor gets cheaper every year. Also boards are made from layers of fiberglass and epoxy adhesive. Thin copper wiring is sandwiched between these layers. It is so thin , that you may actually substitute it with gold, without increasing too much the final cost of the board. AMD/ATI is doing so on HD4890/HD5850/HD5870/HD5970/HD6950 and HD6970. There is no copper there, but gold. Copper is used in later HD7000 series boards, substituting gold, but price didn't fell down. Actually it was increased twofold from previous "gold" generations.

I have a feeling you've never been to a motherboard factory then....
I have been to several and I can tell you that besides the SMD components, everything is still done by hand. There are thousands of people working in some of the large motherboard factories and the ones in China have military style barracks next to the factories where the staff sleeps and eats.

And FYI, there's no "copper wiring" inside the PCB layers, rather a thin layer of copper film, or not so thin if 2oz layers are used, is applied to the fibreglass and then traces are being made before another layer is fitted on top to make a multi-layer PCB. In total there's somewhere around 100-200g of copper in a PCB depending on the type of motherboard and how many layers it has.

You obviously need to go back to school and learn a bit more about motherboard manufacturing before you post comments like this very uneducated one :shadedshu

 

[R_1]

Well, those ATI/AMD boards were advertised as "12 layer, 4 ounce gold PCB" whatever that means. Belive me , I know a lot for manufacturing procesies , that (wiring thingy) was just simplification. Not a single operation in Motherboard production is done by hand. Go on Youtube and see for yourself.

 

[imitation]

Well, those ATI/AMD boards were advertised as "12 layer, 4 ounce gold PCB" whatever that means. Belive me , I know a lot for manufacturing procesies , that (wiring thingy) was just simplification. Not a single operation in Motherboard production is done by hand. Go on Youtube and see for yourself.

So you must know that gold is fairly hard to etch - and specialized processes would make these consumer cards even more expensive.
You do know that there is such a thing as gold plating?

 

[_JP_]

Guess it's time to finally buy that upgrade, before it gets out of reach.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

>.<

Dick-tits!

10% is a lot to people who don't have much money.

*Shakes fist!*

 

[_JP_]

10% is a lot to people who don't have much money.

10% on a 80€ motherboard is 8€. Me thinks if those people can afford an 80€ motherboard, the extra 8€ isn't too much of an increase.
Of course...with an Extreme GENE, the story would be completely different...but then again, we're talking about people that don't a lot of money, right?

 

[NC37]

See, this is what happens when you let slave labor have their way instead of calling their mass suicide bluff. Quick, 3rd world countries arise! Lower your human rights standards more, open to foreign businesses ruling you, and make China's cheap labor look like greedy millionaires!!

Ya know someday we're just going to get smart and invest more into space travel. Then mine the crap out of this solar system. RED FACTION!!!

 

[R_1]

Where are the people here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwkr411TYvc

 

[InnocentCriminal]

10% on a 80€ motherboard is 8€. Me thinks if those people can afford an 80€ motherboard, the extra 8€ isn't too much of an increase.
Of course...with an Extreme GENE, the story would be completely different...but then again, we're talking about people that don't a lot of money, right?

Thanks for the maths there.



People on tight budgets will have to pay the extra if that want a specific product. Personally every pound/dollar/euro counts for me because it has to. Still, this is just something everyone will have to deal with and even though it may not equate to much for the majority, it'll still burn for some people. An expensive hobby.

:shadedshu

 

[claylomax]

Another excuse/reason to upgrade right now; grrrrr!

 

[pr0n Inspector]

Where are the people here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwkr411TYvc

Yeah, Germany is full of migrant workers from rural China who are willing to work their asses off for as little as 1500CNY or 238USD per month.

fun facts: pork is actually more expensive in China than most developed countries. an average fast food lunch box sold in an average shop in an average city is about 5-10CNY. My dad is Li Gang. And Chinese Starbucks are still full of hipsters with MBPs.

 

[de.das.dude]

 

[R_1]

This Christmas I was in а mood of upgrading, so I got two ASRock boards. First of them had mediocre assembling quality. Nearly all capacitors were misaligned, tilted sideways with one or both leads longer than they should be. At €170 the board was not cheap, so I was expecting better assembling quality. Next board was perfectly OK. All capacitors were fixed firmly to the board and I didn't noticed any excessive wires. One can say with a great confidence that in the manufacturing of first board human labor was involved - lot of errors there.

 

[TheMailMan78]

If you add mobo prices up with this.....

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157162

Then we all are going to be paying about 20% more for a completely new build next year.

 

[R_1]

Please add GPU prices there too. I would say, that AMD went for 200% higher prices. Nvidia to follow.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Please add GPU prices there too. I would say, that AMD went for 200% higher prices. Nvidia to follow.

200%? Maybe 40%. Still I agree AMD is way, WAY over priced right now.

 

[R_1]

I bought HD5870 at launch on MSRP, which back then in 2009 year was $379 + VAT. Now HD7970 will cost me $705 + VAT. That is exactly 186% more expensive. A pair of HD5870 in CrossFire are roughly equal to single HD7970. In some games they a better. So I was able to achieve HD7970 performance back in 2009 for the same price at that it retails now. But it was two and a half years ago. That performance should be cheaper now!

 

[eidairaman1]

put some industry back on US soil. I recall PCBs being made stateside in the late 90s early 2000s