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Thread ID: 63027	2005-10-27 02:40:00	Are Video Cards A Rip Off In NZ?	deanbo (9151)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
399944	2005-10-27 06:11:00	ACTUALLY in one word yes. Most Computer equipment is fairly similar once you do the conversion. HDD's RAM, CPU's MB's all similar prices in NZ compared to US, all ok But high end video cards are a mystery, I just brought in a 6800GT from the states and it was $250 cheaper than anywhere else in NZ (I could find). Same with the higher cards, you can save $300+ on like a 7800GTX. It is odd, but video cards are an anomily and population does not have anything to do with it, otherwise the other equips would have a similar prob.	Battleneter (60)
399945	2005-10-27 08:05:00	ACTUALLY in one word yes. Most Computer equipment is fairly similar once you do the conversion. HDD's RAM, CPU's MB's all similar prices in NZ compared to US, all ok But high end video cards are a mystery, I just brought in a 6800GT from the states and it was $250 cheaper than anywhere else in NZ (I could find). Same with the higher cards, you can save $300+ on like a 7800GTX. It is odd, but video cards are an anomily and population does not have anything to do with it, otherwise the other equips would have a similar prob. I'm glad I didn't miss your post (page 2), I was beginning to think I was alone in my thoughts...	deanbo (9151)
399946	2005-10-27 08:35:00	High end video cards are made and sold in smaller numbers then just about any component, they struggle to meet demand following the product lauch in the states, any you see apear here are bought over at the expense of the larger market that they should be trying to keep happy. How do they make it worthwhile?, they have to charge more. Doesn't take a brain surgoen to figure it out.The cards are hard to source, especially the top-end brands.Not only now but right through their shelf life. Then you see plonkers selling the crap for $20 markup. Then the people who probally never inteded to spend the money in the first place start complaining.	Metla (12)
399947	2005-10-27 08:36:00	qmb.co.nz This Ati card don't cost a grand at QMB. That card isn't even the same generation let alone a similar model.	Metla (12)
399948	2005-10-27 16:59:00	Why stick to video cards. The biggest racket of the lot is with CPU's. And it has been since the first PC was sold about 20 years ago. Intel brings out a PCU, with all the fanfare and talk about how great it is and how it will meet your computing needs for the next 100 years.we all flock in to buy the wonderful new processor. Then when the market is saturated they suddenly announce another CPU that is the greatest ever with the same performance all over again. We believe them and rush in to buy the new "wonder processor" Look at how many CPU's "improvements" that have come out, one after the other. 286's 386's 486's pentiums. And look at the small steps in performance between them. Consider the Pentium 4. Consider the number of steps it took to get from about 2 mhz up to about 3.8. You will never convince me that they couldn't have produced the 3.8 the same day they released the 2.0. Now they are starting again with their double layer cpu's. Same performance again! Then to keep their other departments in business they put a few extra pins on the CPU so we have to buy new motherboards. And don't even think of bleating about R&D. Most ,if not all, the R&D was done before a new range was released. Anothe joke. Remember how , not long ago, FSB speed was the wonder selling point. Now everyone is on the fsb waggon they decided it is not realy important at all. Almost forgotten about. What is realy annoying me at the moment is that the graphic card makers are on the same path. Small improvements at a high price. Then same again next month. Today you can buy a 6 month old motherboard, a cpu and a gig of ram for a lot less than the price of the latest video card. And of course in six months time this graphics card will be in the bargain bin.	JJJJJ (528)
399949	2005-10-27 20:04:00	More fool you if you purchased every CPU upgrade released, or were sucked in by marketing. As for Intel, Haven't used one since the P3 450.	Metla (12)
399950	2005-10-27 21:14:00	More fool you if you purchased every CPU upgrade released, or were sucked in by marketing. As for Intel, Haven't used one since the P3 450. I might be silly, but I'm not stupid	JJJJJ (528)
399951	2005-10-29 01:22:00	High end video cards are made and sold in smaller numbers then just about any component, they struggle to meet demand following the product lauch in the states, any you see appear here are bought over at the expense of the larger market that they should be trying to keep happy. How do they make it worthwhile?, they have to charge more. Doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure it out.The cards are hard to source, especially the top-end brands.Not only now but right through their shelf life. Then you see plonkers selling the crap for $20 markup. Then the people who probally never inteded to spend the money in the first place start complaining. I think your comments about the HIGHEST end cards is pretty much spot on, and no arguments there, However I think your on the wrong track slightly. If you look at me for example, only 3 few weeks ago ish, I brought in a 6800Gt 256MB for NZ$358 and $NZ$40 freight to my door ($398). The 6800Gt is over a year old (now considered mid range) and there is certainly no supply issues. The cheapest (at the time I could find in NZ) was a Gigabyte 6800GT for $520+GST "wholesale" and not in stock. My company does not bring in video cards itself. I think there is some hefty price markups in NZ, even after taking into account of freight and volume. If you go to like a Nvidia 7800GTx (no supply problems overseas) the difference can be NZ$400. What ever excuses aside, they are overpriced here and I recommend people to buy offshore, (taking into account the extra warranty headaches if something goes wrong), its still worth it.	Battleneter (60)
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