rmay635703 wrote on 2022-11-15, 04:52:
The thing to understand was “early” K6-2’s were almost always purchased as apart of a bundle. In a bundle circa 1998 the price difference between a k6-2 barebones and a Celeron could be over $100, let alone as a “not barebones” system.
Early K6-2 were priced at full Pentium 2 level as I already showed multiple times. Later Intel always tried keeping Celeron a smidgen cheaper. Can you dig up one example of those great 1998 deals? an ad from pc mag or something? 2000 was indeed time of barebone bottom of the barrel K6-2 dreg systems (cough pcchips) and bundles sold for next to nothing, but that was after Duron and Coppermine entered the market and everyone was trying to offload old stock of obviously obsolete components.
rmay635703 wrote on 2022-11-15, 04:52:Still good for a very very cheap system ($40 all in some cases circa 2000) 256mb pc133 cl3 low density was only about $12 a Module briefly in that era which made a cheap system even better.
ram was insanely expensive in 2000, it was just after 1999 Taiwan earthquake https://www.eetimes.com/dram-prices-rise-shar … taiwan-quake-2/
256MB SDRAM was $200-300, not $12. Whats up with those weird rose-tinted glasses price memories people have? 😮 😀
Anecdote. Sales guy from my company realized ram was going to dry up same week earthquake news hit and paper "sold" (to himself) all the stock we had in storage. Regional distributor, probably >10 dimm trays stocked at all times, and 30 day deferred payments. He bought a fully loaded Renault Megane Coupe a ~month later, a hot car at the time just on the heels of European Rally Championship win.
the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-11-15, 16:47:
🤣. You've discovered Fry's black friday sales.
haha. November 25. Yes, makes sense 😀 We dont have those in EU. $29 cpu SKU specifically commissioned from AMD for singular insane sales event makes sense.
the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-11-15, 16:47:These were retail stores! You could consider Frys a retail parts supplier, that pretty much dominated once they opened up, and many smaller ones closed.
Despite not connecting the date to black friday I do know what Frys was 😀 I think MicroCenter is the closest today.
the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-11-15, 16:47:
Frys sold "BOX" which was a box with AMD's logo, a fan+heatsink with AMD's logo, a paper "warranty info", and a sticker. Their "OEM" listings was just the CPU.
the thing with this specific k6-3/333 cpu is AMD never officially admitted to releasing it to OEM market. So even distributors selling OEM components never got it in stock. So far all internet leads point at Frys as the only place it ever popped up at one specific date at the end of 2000.
the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-11-15, 16:47:
Why a poor marketing spiel from AMD that makes the 333mhz non-legit I wont understand.
nobody does, but according to AMD this CPU never existed.
the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-11-15, 16:47:
That doesn't make it "non-existent" or "unofficial".
no, AMD not acknowledging its existence and no other place on earth ever stocking it does.
the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-11-15, 16:47:
Frys probably bought them straight from AMD under OEM-like terms. Other stores could have done this too? What's the big deal with this anyway?
Not a big deal, other than this is unusually low speed cheap variant of "high end" K6-3 model nobody ever sold outside of Frys, thus it doesnt make sense to claim K6-3 was cheap because of this one cpu sold by this one particular retailer during one huge sale.
the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-11-15, 16:47:
It would have been a buzz what they let go for next to nothing on black friday, but that is not indicative of a singular event.
Can you find any other entity ever selling this particular CPU? My google fu failed me outside of those forum links I posted earlier.
the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-11-15, 16:47: The 333mhz was there the longest -- probably 1999 into 2001.
K6-2 333 yes definitely, k6-3 nope.
Socket3 wrote on 2022-11-15, 21:33:
I don't know about japan's pricing back in the day, but in eastern europe (well, at least in my country) all intel parts commanded a heavy premium
can you reveal the country? Maybe it was all black market in your neck of the woods. In Poland outside the company I was working for there were 4-5 other big distributors all importing directly from manufacturers. We also had a big domestic ram manufacturer, Wilk Electronic https://www.goodram.com/en/, selling at competitive prices with added bonus of lifetime warranty.
Socket3 wrote on 2022-11-15, 21:33: ZIDA, the ZX98-AT, and that alone was 200$.
indeed crazy price
Socket3 wrote on 2022-11-15, 21:33: and the Celeron 300A was priced around 320-350$ - twice what it sold for in 2000 in Japan.
thats not twice, Celeron 300A was $57 from March 1999 all the way to February 2000. Thats 5-6 times over, WTF is in order 😀 Slowest Celeron was always below $100 in Poland from first 300, thru 300A all the way to last Coppermine ones, same for slowest Durons.
Socket3 wrote on 2022-11-15, 21:33:
The Abit BH6 by the way sold for over 350$ here - I remember it well, because I used to drool over them.
Abit BX6 $130 in Poland September 1999, and it was one of the most expensive boards on the market. I think only Asus P2B/P3B were slightly more expensive.