The first benefit of course is that you don’t have to do a whole ton of searching in your computer manuals to figure out which type of CPU goes with the motherboard you just purchased. An AMD motherboard, for example, will only work with specific types of AMD processors, not Intel. Normally you might get a pretty nasty surprise when you got your purchases home, but with a motherboard bundle that’s not going to happen; the processor that comes with the motherboard is specifically designed to work with it. It’s that easy.

As I said previously, the cost savings for buying a bundle are considerable compared to buying each component individually. This is due to the way product markup works. Normally a company puts a markup on each product it sells; if you buy the processor and motherboard separately, you’ll be paying markup twice. That is, you’ll pay markup on both products. When you buy the bundle, there’s only one product that’s being marked up: The bundle itself. The savings can be significant, particularly if you’re buying a high-end bundle like the Core i7. These i7 processors aren’t cheap. The CPU itself can be at least $500 depending on the level you get, and the motherboard has to be capable of handling that much power. Thus, the motherboard itself will be $100 or more. Don’t pay markup on both. Buy them in a bundle and save a couple hundred dollars.