Why no old / legacy hardware availability?

Scania

Scania

Scania

Caporegime
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Whilst I suspect it's simply because manufacturers want you to buy new platform kit, I've been wondering why you can't get new older kit, namely my 1156 DFI board is a bit iffy, can't complain I paid £10 for it on the MM! , it often won't boot and my RAM only works in single channel, so I tried to source a replacement board, having found a Gigabyte one eventually (and for £80!) new, it took some digging.
Surely there is a market for replacement parts, motherboards especially, but this seems not the case....

In my own case, £80 was simply more cost effective for me than to buy new - i.e. a new board and CPU to match - whilst old, my current setup runs the latest games (such as GTA V) @1080p beautifully and I simply don't feel the need for an upgrade.

I'm sure I've already answered my own question, but, thought I'd throw it up for debate!
 
You're right, the manufacturers do not want internal competition with new parts. particularly in the time of incremental performance updates <5%.

They would prefer to sell new platforms rather than older components.
 
I think one of the main reasons is that the big mobo manufacturers have got to dedicate production line to certain boards.

If they are selling brand new Z107 boards to customers, how many are going to want Z97? Probably very few, unless it was much cheaper - but then why bother?

OK, so there would definitely be some demand for brand new Z68, X58 boards etc for people who have damaged their old motherboard, but the numbers wanted would be so low that allocating production to those would cost far more than the profit would ever be. Then on top of that you've got to get them to the customers. The manufacturer couldn't sell direct, so I guess they'd have to sell one of each to resellers like OcUK. And why would OcUK want to have a SKU for an item they're only going to sell a handful a year?
 
Scania said:
Whilst I suspect it's simply because manufacturers want you to buy new platform kit, I've been wondering why you can't get new older kit, namely my 1156 DFI board is a bit iffy, can't complain I paid £10 for it on the MM! , it often won't boot and my RAM only works in single channel, so I tried to source a replacement board, having found a Gigabyte one eventually (and for £80!) new, it took some digging.
Surely there is a market for replacement parts, motherboards especially, but this seems not the case....
Click to expand...

Put simply the is very little point.

In years gone by if you changed your motherboard then Windows would have an aneurysm and simply BSOD on boot but that is no longer the case. With Windows 7 and newer you can basically move a boot drive between boards without issue (Unless your moving between AMD/Intel), I moved the same Windows 7 installation from LGA1156 P55 to LGA1155 P67 and then to LGA2011 X79 all without issue, not only that but it works with RAID arrays too, you can disconnect a RAID 10/5 array from a H55 LGA1156 board and drop it straight into a Z68/77 board and it will be picked up and boot fine.
 
Consumer demand dictates the manufacturing cycle and consumers often demand the latest products lines. Once older stocks have depleted then it doesn't make economic sense to re-open a line which carries a risk of them having unsold stock.. Same can be said for manufactured product line.
 
And my item arrived today - a Sct 1151 board!

Back it goes under DSR.....

So much for the rainforest seller!
 
Jim99 said:
I think one of the main reasons is that the big mobo manufacturers have got to dedicate production line to certain boards.

If they are selling brand new Z107 boards to customers, how many are going to want Z97? Probably very few, unless it was much cheaper - but then why bother?

OK, so there would definitely be some demand for brand new Z68, X58 boards etc for people who have damaged their old motherboard, but the numbers wanted would be so low that allocating production to those would cost far more than the profit would ever be. Then on top of that you've got to get them to the customers. The manufacturer couldn't sell direct, so I guess they'd have to sell one of each to resellers like OcUK. And why would OcUK want to have a SKU for an item they're only going to sell a handful a year?
Click to expand...


This put simply.
 
I don't agree that's necessarily the reason. Some level of NOS is always possible and pretty striaghtforward to implement. I.e. a planned over-maufacture before shutting down the old line. Which many manufacturers may do anyway regardless in order to keep enough spare boards for warranty exchange.

To me, it's more about the other costs / losses of selling old boards. For example missing a newer sale that would demand a higher margin than an older discounted board. And also the cost of supporting too many different generations of boards at once. I.e. if they sell an prev-gen NOS board to someone, then that board is still considered new and must come with a standard 1 year (2 for EU) manufacturer's warranty. There are probably other reasons too. Including lack of demand etc.

Very few people ever voluntarily want to buy older boards TBH. That is to say older than the previous generation (which I think are often still being sold / kept supported? eg Z97 / H97).
 
Another major factor that I don't think anyone has mentioned is support. The last thing any company wants to do is make a product and support it for a lifetime. The problem is, technology moves on.

Thinking in my line of work we put software onto servers to sell as a product. HP roll a new generation of servers pretty much every 18 months. So every 18 months we have new products added to our portfolio. After 5 years it gets to a point where it's a nightmare to support legacy hardware. So there's always a shelf life for products.
 
Another issue is price. If we're looking at manufacturers and retailers deliberately stocking older parts (rather than just still having them kicking around when they want rid), then they're going to be full price or else what's in for them? But we, as consumers, are going to expect them much cheaper as they're old/obsolete parts - the OP already showed this by indicating £80 is expensive for an old motherboard when that's often the going price of a mid-to-low end board.

Mainly though, I agree with there others - the number of people wanting to buy old when newer/faster/shinier is available is just too low for it to be an area worth focusing on for businesses when they exist to make a profit.
 
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