arghyle

So AMD announced their Tech Tour dates for 2007. Not especially big news, but something to look forward to. This is an event every year where AMD invites partners (resellers, system builders, etc.) to stop by, have dinner, listen to a few people talk, and then maybe win a prize. The tour stops in locations all over the country and is not a press event, but rather is AMD giving a little back to the people on the front lines.

I went to the event two years ago and it was okay, nothing great. There are a few companies lined up along the sides of the auditorium showing off their products (mainly looking to find resellers), pretty good food, and a lot of AMD people bragging about how great their products are. There was a considerable number of people at the NJ event I attended, maybe about 500 or so, though there were hardly any familiar faces as this is not a press event, and almost anyone who applies can get in. I don’t know how upbeat this year is going to be considering how AMD is not at their best right now, but they do have Barcelona on the way and non-press people tend to take a different perspective on Intel/AMD competition so everything should go well enough.

The main reason why people seem to go to the event, aside from the free food, is because of the bundles. Every year AMD gives atendees a chance to buy a processor/motherboard/OS bundle on the cheap and almost everyone who guys takes them up on the offer. In the past there were two bundles a desktop one and a server one (came with two CPUs and a Windows Server). The bundles were a great 0deal if you looked at the retail price of the three components, but most people bought them to sell on eBay only to find out that a few hundred other people across the country had the same idea and got their first.

This year’s bundle is an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ energy efficient CPU, Asus M2A-VM motherboard, and a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate (NFR) for $349.99. Retail this would cost ($159 + $73 + $249 to $378) about $481 to $610, depending on the version of Vista it has (the low end being the Ultimate upgrade, the high end being Ultimate DVD retail kit). If I had to take a guess I figure it would be the retail kit, but even to the major of the value of the bundle is the operating system. Past the OS, which I wouldn’t think of putting on my computer right now, the bundle is not great. While both the CPU and motherboard are more than enough to run a solid computer, neither are anything to brag about.

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