Mobo makers to follow P4 price cuts with cheaper boards

Intel's next round of Pentium 4 price cuts, which will take place on Sunday 29 April, will be quickly followed by motherboard price reductions, Taiwanese mobo makers have said.

According to mobo companies cited by DigiTimes, P4 motherboards currently shipping for around $160 a pop will drop to $150 and under next month. At the start of the year, a P4 mobo cost around $180.

Not much of a drop, you might think, but it is a sign that demand has been growing, fuelled by Intel's various P4 price cuts over the last couple of months.

Of course, the real leap will come later, when Intel ships P4s capable of being using with PC-133 and DDR SDRAM-based chipsets arrive next quarter. In that light, Intel's price cuts can be seen as being as much about clearing Socket 423 P4 inventory to make way for the Socket 478 P4s, which Intel clearly believes will drive up volume sales of the P4 family, as boosting P4 demand as a whole.

RDRAM-based mobos are more complex than other mobos, and thus more expensive, mobo makers said. They currently require six layers of circuitry. However, motherboard companies are working on cheaper, four-layer boards for production by the end of this quarter, the DigiTimes report said. ®

Related Link

DigiTimes: Taiwan to cut prices on Pentium 4 motherboards

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