Reactions to the pricing of NV 680i chips/boards

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We managed to speak to a few manufacturers and they are concerned abt the sales of their 680i. As the chipset is 3x more expensive than the 965p. Some manufacturers are sticking to the Intel 965p as it offers better performance at a lower price point.

One of the managers we interviewed who declined to be named told us that the Intel 965P has a much lower price point. he also said that what NV has is just SLI which is not a necessity. Considering the the price of 2 8800GTXs and one 680i motherboard, it is way too expensive.

A check on the price of the mainboard featuring the new 680i is tagged at USD 300 or more. With this price, you can get a server class board. You can probably buy 1.5 piece of high end 965P board or 4 pcs of entry level 945/965 board from 2nd tier manufacturers at 100 USD a piece. Most importantly, some of these cheaper boards can also support all series of CPUs including the Quad Core Kentsfield. For example, the highest end Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 is only USD 199. Pricings quoted are from newegg.

Some other manufacturers are looking at the NV 650i chipset as an alternative but most will still stick with Intel 965P to make boards that are less expensive and are feature rich.