Core i7-965

It’s been said that recessions come and go but life goes on at Sim Lim Square, that six-storey techie haunt in Singapore, for those unfamilar.

The best evidence comes from the way PC buffs snapped up Intel’s new Core i7s, as they hit the stores late last week.

So popular are these Core i7s that the supporting high-end DDR3 modules are near sold out. Popular retailer Cybermind, for example, now has stocks for only 3 x 1GB DDR3s from Corsair (S$255 with bundle). The 3 x 2GB packs (S$499 with bundle) are already sold out.

MSI P45-8D \"Memory Lover\"

Yeah, you read that right. MSI has come up with a mobo that has twice as many slots for memory modules than the average mobo out there.

Four slots on the P45-8D, dubbed “Memory Lover”, supports cheap DDR2 modules and the other four slots support newer DDR3 modules.

Okay, that means you only still have four slots at any one time. But MSI is touting it as a board that gives more flexibility to people transiting from one type of memory to the other.

It’s a nice thought, this mobo based around Intel’s P45 Express chipset. But you wonder if it is not cheaper to junk your old RAM and board when the time comes and just go with a new board when prices for DDR3 come down in future, and they are coming down faster of late.

If you have been holding out for a new top-end graphics card, here’s a little bit of good news.

Sim Lim Square stores like Cybermind and Bell and online retailers like Potterhouse are (finally) selling some Nvidia GTX 280 cards for S$699 this weekend (down from S$799), reflecting the price drop that gamers in the US have been enjoying for weeks.

The anticipated price wars have begun! Reports everywhere are suggesting that Nvidia are finally lowering ther crazy S$999 prices for their GTX 280s. If you go to Newegg.com, you’ see that you can now get a MSI GTX 280 for US$459.99, which works out to be about S$620.10.

Now that’s a mch improved deal, if you consider that the cheapest GTX 280 you can get now in Singapore costs about S$899 at Potterhouse. Sure, the new $600 price is still higher than two ATI HD4850s (S$500+), but hey, there’s no worry about Crossfire scaling since the GTX 280 is a one-card solution.

Now, there’s only the wait for the price drops to come to SG, which will be swift, I assume. If you have been looking for the next best thing in a while, the GTX 280 suddenly looks great again… unless of course you want later versions with smaller die and things like DX10.1.

Now, this BFG-Dangerden GTX 280 monster would be a great replacement for my water-cooled 8800GTX now. (It costs more than stock GTX 280 of coz, but you can always buy the Danger Den waterblock separately).

bfggtx280