Update on August 10 at 11:00 p.m. with official Intel pricing:
Existing Q9550 drops from $530 to $316. Pricing for new processors: Q9650 priced at $530, Q9400 at $266, E8600 at $266, and E7300 at $133.
The Xeon X3660 is reduced from $530 to $316.
Intel says it plans to roll out a bevy of midrange processors, all built on its new 45-nanometer manufacturing process, on Monday. Game computer vendors, among others, are expected to follow suit with new machines.
Intel Core 2 Quad processor
(Credit: Intel)The Core 2 Quad Q9650 heads the list of updated chips, according to Intel. It has a core clock speed of 3GHz, a 12MB level-2 cache, a 1333MHz front-side bus, and is rated at 95 watts. Generally, the larger the level-2 cache memory, the better the performance. The front-side bus (FSB) carries data between the processor and other silicon.
Several retailers already have the new processors listed on their Web sites. TheNerds.net has the Q9650 listed at $576, one of the lowest prices on the Web. Retailers' prices are typically higher than Intel's official list prices, so the prices announced by Intel Monday will likely be lower than those retailers' offerings.
A bit further down the list is the Core 2 Quad Q9400 with a clock speed of 2.66GHz, 6MB of cache, and a 1333MHz FSB. This has a list price of $284 on TheNerds.net.
Core 2 Duo chips will also get a refresh. The E8600 has a clock speed of 3.33GHz, 6MB of cache, and a 1333MHz FSB. The E7300 runs at 2.66GHz with 3MB of cache, and has a 1066MHz FSB.
Game PC vendors such as Falcon Northwest and Dell's Alienware unit plan to announce new systems based on the processors Monday, according to sources.
Intel will introduce the Q9650 Core 2 Quad processor in the third quarter, according to Chinese-language Web site HKEPC, almost halving the price of the current high-end Intel part with similar specifications.
(Credit:
Intel)
The Q9650 will be priced at $530, according to HKEPC, close to half the price of the similarly spec'd high-end "Extreme" QX9650, which is listed at $999 on Intel's pricing Web page.
Like the QX9650, the Q9650 will have a clock speed of 3GHz, a 1333MHz front-side bus (FSB), and 12MB of cache memory.
The other notable desktop processor slated to debut in the third quarter is the Core 2 Duo E8600. This will have a clock speed of 3.33GHz, a 1333MHz FSB, and 6MB of cache memory, according to HKEPC. It is expected to be priced at $266.
The E8600 will top the currently available E8500, which runs at 3.16GHz and is priced at $266.
When contacted, Intel had this to say: "We publicly acknowledge that we will have future 45nm Intel Core 2 processor offerings which fit into LGA775 sockets and take advantage of currently available and future desktop platforms with similar physical, power, and thermal characteristics."
HKEPC also lists price cuts. The quad-core Q9550 (2.83GHz), for example, is slated to drop from $530 to $316 (the upcoming Q9650 will push the Q9550 down to a lower price point). The widely-used Q6600 (2.4GHz) is expected to fall from $224 to $203.
The Core 2 Duo E8500 should see its price fall from $266 to $183.
- prev
- 1
- next
