Intel cuts prices on some chips up to 48 percent
Updated on January 19 at 8:15 a.m. PST with additional information throughout.
On Sunday, Intel instituted broad price cuts on processors, spanning the Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium dual-core, Celeron, and Xeon product lines.
Some of the cuts are in response to Advanced Micro Devices' recently-introduced Phenom II "Dragon" desktop platform. AMD's Phenom II X4 940 (3.0GHz), for instance, is priced at $275.
Intel cuts were concentrated on quad-core chips like the Q9650 (3.00GHz), reduced 40 percent, to $316 from $530, to counter AMD's Phenom II. But Celeron processors received some of the largest reductions. The mobile Celeron 570 (2.00GHz), was slashed 48 percent, to $70 from $134, for example.
Some Xeon processors also received hefty cuts. The price on the X3370 (3.00GHz), for instance, was cut 40 percent to $316 from $530.
The Pentium dual-core E5200 was reduced 24 percent to $64 from $84.
The mobile Core 2 Duo P8600 was shaved 13 percent, to $209 from $241. The P series of mobile Core 2 Duo processors have a thermal envelope (Thermal Design Power or TDP) of 25 watts versus 35 watts for mainstream mobile chips.
Intel also introduced new processor models such as the desktop Core 2 Duo E7500 (2.93GHz), priced at $133 and the Core 2 Quad Q9550s (2.83GHz), which is a low-power variant--with a thermal envelope of 65 watts--of the 95-watt Q9550.
Brooke Crothers has been an editor at large at CNET News, an analyst at IDC Japan, and an editor at The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, among other endeavors, including co-manager of an after-school math-and-reading center. He writes for the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
* Intel cut prices due to the economy - their last earnings call was pretty bad (they made money, but not as much as they had originally projected). Don't get me wrong - competition is a good thing, but seriously, AMD hadn't put a dent in the marketshare game just yet. Intel sometimes did do pre-emptive cuts, but I doubt AMD was the motivator this go 'round (otherwise I would've agreed with you ab't the reason why, Wade).
* May not want to run to Fry's just yet... the prices quoted are likely (author didn't specify retail or wholesale) to be the per-unit price when you buy 'em in lots of 1,000 - so unless you have an HPC cluster in your basement and a powerball jackpot in your bank... you'll likely be paying a bit more.
- by gizmophile February 21, 2009 3:25 PM PST
- Big reason why I'm choosing the E5200 to build my wife's computer with. Awesome, awesome price for the performance you get.
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