October 4, 2002

AMD TO RELEASE 2700+ AND 2800+

The first processors from AMD with a 333 FSB will be released in November.  The 2700+ will be all we see until next year when they release the Barton processors, which will not only be 333 FSB but will also have 512k cache.  The 2800+ will only be available to select OEM’s.  I guess we don’t qualify as select.  There are only 5 listed OEM’s. 

Note that the KT400 chipset is readily available on several motherboards now.  We are stocking the MSI KT4 Ultra and DDR400 256MB RAM.  This board also has an 8X AGP slot. 

HARD DRIVE PRICES EASING UP

It appears that the hard drive shortage is either over or it was a hoax.  We never did see short availability on any of these drives, as we were lead to believe.  The prices aren’t going up anymore and a few are starting to come back down.  Maybe it was a ploy to get us all to buy bigger capacity drives.  It is amazing to me the number of people who still want a 10 or 20 GB drive on a new computer.  Western Digital is already at the 200GB mark.  You get 10 times the capacity at only 5 times the price.  Buy a little smaller than 200 GB and this ratio is even greater.  One thing to learn from this: If you buy old technology and it fails be prepared to wait for a replacement.  They will be end-of-life sooner than you think.

LONGSHOREMAN WORK STOPPAGE

As you may or may not be aware, dockworkers are on strike.  Ships are backing up and not being unloaded.  This has happened in the past and it can have devastating effects on pricing for our industry.  We will keep a close eye on this situation and let you know if anything significant changes. 

S&K