Buying from the States

[cymatty]

After AMD drops its prices soon, my grandma will be going to America to visit her friend. I am currently looking at getting a X2 4600 shipped to her house for when my grandma arrives, at this point I think they will be around the £160 mark. Are CPU prices much different in the states than over here?

What are the potential drawbacks of buying a CPU from the states? If it breaks, what will the return policy be?

Oh... I'm not worried about customs (I know they don't like 'funny looking chips') as I doubt they'll stop an 80 year old woman

 

[cymatty]

Cheers for that. It should work cheaper for me then seeing as how I'm getting it shipped to an address in the states.

 

[cymatty]

i thought when you got something shipped over from US they bummed you with import tax and other ludacris rubbish, or am i wrongly informed?

Sometimes they do, but i am hoping to aviod this by using a little old lady to put it in her case.

 

[cymatty]

Ok next question, would i notice a lot of difference between a a64 3200@ 2.6, and a X2 4600?

 

[cymatty]

I would say go for the 4400+ over a 4600+ as the 4400+ has more L2 cache (1mb as opposed to 512kb) and will probably clock better but yes your system should feel nippier and it will be especially fast once you get it clocked

Well i am looking at the 4600 as it will be greatly reduced in price where as the 4400 will not be.

4600 = $301
4400 = $470

http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/1779_large_full_pricing.png

So to me the 4600 seems to be the better bet?

 

[cymatty]

Yes I would say so, I will be going for one of those. Afterall as most people say the extra cache isnt that much a biggy

Well not for an extra £80.

 

[cymatty]

bythe way.. there won't be a warranty on it unless you return it in the states..

Cant you send it back to AMD directly?

From the site i am looking at

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Manchester 2000MHz HT 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail

** This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only.
In Stock

 

[cymatty]

p.s. you wont get an X2 4600 even after the price reductions, for £160. they are currently £287 in America, you can expect them to drop to around £200/£220.

The prices in the link i posted from amd show that the price will drop to $300 which is around £170-180. The current prices in the states are very similar to amd's rrp.

 

[cymatty]

Well i should get away with that as it will be posted to an adrees in the USA, and then brought back by hand to the UK.

 

[cymatty]

Then you just need to walk calmly through the green customs lane and hope you don't get stopped by an overzealous customs person!

I think my near 80 year old granny looks sweet enough not to get stopped fingers crossed.