Mobo's More Rare Than CPU's

[Error 504]

why is it that previous gens mobos are usually more expensive than previous gens cpu's?

and it seems to be more difficult to find mobos that support previous gens cpu's than just cpu's themselves?

 

maybe i'm wrong, but it's just what i have noticed after trying to find a z390 or a z490 board.

why is that?

 

thanks.

 

 

-

[mariushm]

Because they stop making them..duh.

 

Also motherboards cost more to ship and distributors order them by the thousand, shipping containers, so once new sockets are released and processors for those are also available, a distributor would be less likely to order a shipping container worth of new but somewhat outdated motherboards, because they'll sell at a very slow pace...

[Tech87]

20 minutes ago, Error 504 said:

why is it that previous gens mobos are usually more expensive than previous gens cpu's?

and it seems to be more difficult to find mobos that support previous gens cpu's than just cpu's themselves?

 

maybe i'm wrong, but it's just what i have noticed after trying to find a z390 or a z490 board.

why is that?

 

thanks.

 

 

-

My guess would be that production has stopped, and because supply is more limited, price goes up. 

 

That's a common occurrence with older technology.

[RONOTHAN##]

That's a bit young to not find a board for a system, but this is a phenomenon that does actually occur, usually becoming hard to find boards once you hit ~6 years old. There's a couple reasons this happen.

 

1.) Motherboards die faster than CPUs. Unless you're pushing a butt ton of voltage into a CPU, the odds of it breaking in day to day use are pretty low. Motherboards, however, have more components on them that can fail, especially capacitors, and sometimes things just die. The reason you have a hard time finding old motherboards is that there just aren't that many of them left. 

 

2.) CPUs are cheap. People want to take advantage of the super cheap CPUs available for these old platforms. X58, for example, you can get a top of the line Xeon for like $10. Since demand is thus high because of those super cheap CPUs, prices go up.

 

Usually about 4 years after a chipset releases, that's when motherboards hit an all time low. That's when most people decide to do a CPU upgrade, and it's before the time when most motherboards die. After around that point, they go up in price.

 

 

I don't really know what you're seeing with Z390 and Z490. In my area there are quite a few of those boards for fairly reasonable price.

[Error 504]

it's easier to find a brand new 1151 socket cpu than a brand new mobo at a more "reasonable" price.

 

a brand new 9900k right now is about $550 +/- $50

a brand new, aorus z390 master is almost extinct, or higher-end mobo from other manufacturers.

 

does this mean they made more cpu's than boards?

or mobo production usually tends to end sooner than cpu's?

 

[RONOTHAN##]

5 minutes ago, Error 504 said:

a brand new 9900k right now is about $550 +/- $50

 

That's still above what they were selling for when they were relevant or what makes sense to buy now. 

 

5 minutes ago, Error 504 said:

a brand new, aorus z390 master is almost extinct, or higher-end mobo from other manufacturers.

 

Because they stopped manufacturing them. Either way they wouldn't make sense to buy unless they're really cheap, and they don't make sense to sell for really cheap.

 

8 minutes ago, Error 504 said:

does this mean they made more cpu's than boards?

or mobo production usually tends to end sooner than cpu's?

Speculation: Motherboards are bigger so cost more to keep around, so they go on clearance sale a lot sooner than their corresponding CPUs. 

[YoungBlade]

22 minutes ago, Error 504 said:

it's easier to find a brand new 1151 socket cpu than a brand new mobo at a more "reasonable" price.

 

a brand new 9900k right now is about $550 +/- $50

a brand new, aorus z390 master is almost extinct, or higher-end mobo from other manufacturers.

 

does this mean they made more cpu's than boards?

or mobo production usually tends to end sooner than cpu's?

 

They certainly made more 9900K CPUs than Z390 Aorus Master boards. In fact, there probably are more 9900Ks than top-of-the-line motherboards, as boards like the Aorus Master, Taichi, Carbon, etc are halo products that don't sell nearly as well as the lower tier ones. Plenty of people paired the 9900K with a mid or even low tier board. You'll probably have an easier time finding a UD, Phantom Gaming 4, or Mortor, not that those are the best pairings with the 9900K, but more of them exist.

[Chiyawa]

Hmm... Well, I have a few theories of my own:

 

High-end motherboards, like Aorus Z390 Master, are quite expensive, so not many shops willing to stock a lot of them, which means the demand for these high-end boards is low, and manufacturer doesn't produce that much of it because it is not worth it if the market is limited.

 

There's also this theory, when people upgrading their motherboard, they will look for better motherboard with more feature. When new generation of motherboard has been released, most old generation motherboard (including high ends one) will get a price cut as shops will start to make way for new stocks and get rid of the old stock while they still can, and people will take advantage to get better high-end motherboard as high end motherboards has all the bells and whistles and now they are affordable.

 

Another theory is that people usually hold to their high-end mobo because they spent quite a fortune for it, even if the CPU they are using is low or mid tier. Many doesn't need an octa-core CPU at all let alone an over-clockable one because they don't need that type of performance, but they need a mobo that has long upgrade paths like 3 M.2 slots and better VRM (which unfortunately can only be found in high-end motherboards) so they can upgrade or expand their components down the road when their components are deemed obsolete or insufficient.

[Alex Atkin UK]

3 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

I don't really know what you're seeing with Z390 and Z490. In my area there are quite a few of those boards for fairly reasonable price.

I just checked in the UK and there seems to be precisely TWO models of Z390 on Amazon, although they are both reasonably priced.

Another popular UK store had ZERO.

[mariushm]

My preferred IT store has 1 z490 motherboard (as in physical 1) in stock in their warehouse, and 8 motherboards are listed as "stocked at the distributor, can be ordered on request"

 

Divide by 5 to get the EUR price or divide by 6 to get pounds  (or 4.3 for $) and keep in mind my country has 20% VAT, included in the price.

 

 

 

 

 

[RONOTHAN##]

7 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I just checked in the UK and there seems to be precisely TWO models of Z390 on Amazon, although they are both reasonably priced.

Another popular UK store had ZERO.

I was mainly referring to used boards, since buying a 2-3 year old chipset new generally doesn't make sense (exception of B450)

[Error 504]

in local stores in vancouver, it's easier, or still possible, to find cpu's at retail prices (i think $500 +/- $50 CAD is about the same as initial pricing for 9900k), but all the high-end boards are either gone, or are super-crazy-higher-than-the-initial-pricing expensive.

 

knowing why won't change the fact, but i'm just curious, that's why i asked this question.

thanks all for answering.