Let me tell you a little tale of fun and adventure of price hunting and spying and travel. It begins in Auckland New Zealand, where there are a hundred different stores where you could hunt around and forage to find the deal you're looking for. Well, after having taken my Palomino 1600+ to the extremes (210 FSB and 1667 MHz) and come away unscathed in all regards, I looked for to removing the bottleneck of my system - my CPU core MHz. A stable 1612 MHz shows forth the true PR rating (Performance Rating often matches the true Perceived Rating in the overclocking realm -hehe). I had high expectations from a new core processor and sought to let myself into a cheap overclocking treat namely the Athlon XP: Barton 2500+ (AQXEA Stepping)
First thing I need to explain is I live in New Zealand, and as such do not have access to the latest technology when given an overclockers budget. And so, THIS not-so-serious overclocker goes about price hunting in New Zealand's market and what do I use? - nothing but the best: PriceSpy! Well, okay, you've been there and checked the reasonably extensive list of hardware available for lookup and you decide to bookmark it, GREAT. Next thing on my mind was to look for delivery prices as we all know ordering in from distant and strange lands like China is a no-no thing to do, so we support the local retailers. This is okay in the cities but you really have to be IN the cities for this to be worth pursuing. So after hunting around a few online stores we find that PCGear does not have the cheapest stuff this time... Pricespy shows us that a store in another city has the best Barton price, we'll flag that one cos freight charges would cancel that 'best buy' bargain. Second on the list happened to be a store called E-Zone Computers which is within driving distance from my locale and even closer to my workplace. Okay, now to ascertain whether they have the produce onhand (always important) before leaping off to purchase the product, I made a 2 minute phonecall to hold a sample pending my arrival. The price at that time was just over NZ$200 (US$~90) for the Retail Barton 2500+ which included Heat Sink + Fan and installation details. Along with the barton I also purchased a Volcano 11+ HSF which was getting difficult to find elsewhere since the orders had slipped my notice (tut tut). The whole deal came to around NZ$270 (US$~126).
Upon finding this North Shore apartment-sized store, it was a simple matter of payment for product and I was away with a beaut in hand and cool copper piece (HSF) in tow. Although I originally had a Volcano7 and was using a Volcano 9+, I never did find a better HSF from the 9 but rather preferred the full copper base and glued on fins of the 11. Coolermaster would have been a better choice perhaps, but then again, finding them in New Zealand is a chore more suited to an importer than the average consumer.
Thus concludes my price hunt event and goes to show with a good source like pricespy and a little know-how you CAN get a looong way and find that sometimes elusive bargain. For those of you who are out in the country or in the sticks you may be better off getting something couriered over from the Point Of Sale (POS) or website (credit cards/bank no.s and things) which usually incurs a fee but is less than the travel cost to the shop.
Good luck and Happy Hunting!!
Edit: The current price as of writing (10 Jul 03) at same store is $190 GST incl.
For a review of this fine CPU go to OC Addiction
