In September 2013 I wrote an article about the apparent end of regular PC price drops. Just over a year later, I thought I’d return to see if things had improved.
I’ll compare the original prices and specs with another even more up-to-date set.
| 2012 spec | 2012 spec price (2012) | 2012 spec price (2013) | 2012 spec price (2015) | 2015 spec price | 2015 spec |
| Gigabyte Z77-DS3H | £70.91 | £68.96 | £66.94 | £61.44 | Gigabyte Z97P-D3 |
| OCZ Vertex 4 120Gb | £89.99 | £84.99 | £63.36 | £109.98 | Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250Gb |
| Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz | £259.45 | £260.93 | £269.00 | £258.27 | Core i7 4790K 4.0GHz |
| 2x8Gb corsair 1600 CL10 | £69.77 | £101.69 | £122.34 | £122.34 | no change |
| £490.12 | £516.57 | £521.64 | £552.03 |
So, the original spec is still more expensive than it was over 2 years ago, although partly that is because it is hard to find some of the original components. More importantly — the new system costs fractionally more than the old system, and isn’t significantly improved in performance with the notable exception of the SSD. Basically CPU progress has all but ground to a halt in the last 2 years — and with no sign of AMD challenging the Intel performance crown there is no motivation for Intel to push performance higher.
“I've been on this hunt a few times myself. I still have my Aluminus ultra in black (only 5 5.25…”