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Intel details plans for mainstream and budget processor, plus we learn about Intel's plans for SSDs

Intel just recently released its new Nehalem-based Core i7 processors which are just about the fastest processors available on the consumer market. While the new Core i7 processors sit at the top of the food chain, Intel hasn't forgotten about its value and mainstream desktop processor lineups.


Intel Core 2 Quad
Model
Core
Frequency
L2 Cache
FSB January 18
Q9550s 2.83 GHz 12MB 1333 MHz
$369
Q9400s 2.66 GHz 6MB 1333 MHz
$320
Q8200s 2.33 GHz 4MB 1333 MHz
$245

Beginning on January 18, Intel will launch three new Core 2 Quad processors with a TDP of just 65W. This is compared to a 95W TDP for most other Core 2 Quad processors. At the time of launch, the price premium for the Q8200s, Q9400s, and Q9550s will be $62, $54, and $53 respectively compared to the non "s" models.


Intel Pentium Dual Core
Model
Core
Frequency
L2 Cache
FSB January 18
E5400 2.70 GHz 2MB 800 MHz
$84
E5300 2.60 GHz 2MB 800 MHz
     $74
E5200  2.50GHz  2MB  800 MHz $64

Intel Core 2 Duo
Model
Core
Frequency
L2 Cache
FSB January 18
E7500 2.93 GHz 3MB 1066 MHz
$133

Intel is also launching a new Pentium Dual Core processor in November and one more on January 18. The 2.6 GHz Pentium Dual Core E5300 will show up on November 30 priced at $86. The E5300 will be joined by a 2.7 GHz Pentium Dual Core E5400 on January 18 priced at $84. At that time, the E5300 will see a price cut to $74 while the older 2.5 GHz E5200 will fall to $64.

Slightly higher up on the food chain will be a new 2.93 GHz Core 2 Duo E7500 priced at $133.

Intel Core 2 Duo, Quad
Model
Core
Frequency
L2 Cache
FSB January 18
T9800 2.70 GHz 6MB 1066 MHz
$530
Q9000 2.00 GHz 6MB 1066 MHz
     $348
 P9600  2.66 GHz  6MB  1066 MHz $348
 T9550  2.66 GHz  6MB  1066 MHz $316
P9600  2.53 GHz  3MB  1066 MHz $241

Intel's power efficient 35W processor lineup will also see some changes in at the end of the year. No less than five new processors will be introduced ranging in price from $241 to $530. In addition, the slower 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo P8600 will fall from $241 to $209 on January 18.

Intel also hasn't forgotten about its other businesses when it comes to price cuts. Intel's multi-level cell (MLC) X25-E solid state drives (SSDs) have been burning up the benchmark charts thanks to its highly optimized memory controller. The street price for the 2.5" 80GB X25-M -- and its 80GB 1.8" X18-M counterpart -- will drop from $600 to $525 on November 30. 160GB variants of the X25-M/X18-M will show up in the first half of 2009 and will initially be priced at $990.

Moving over to the single-level cell (SLC) parts, Intel will introduce its high performance 32GB X25-E for $700 on November 30. For those that are patient, the price will drop to $575 on December 28. A 64GB part will be introduced in the first half of 2009 for $990.



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What about the new i7's
By Magmaros on 11/17/2008 9:46:35 AM , Rating: 2
whens word on the mainstream i7's gonna come out?




RE: What about the new i7's
RE: What about the new i7's
By teldar on 11/17/2008 9:59:22 AM , Rating: 2
I don't know that you can really call $300 mainstream. That's still a pretty good chunk of what people are going to be interested in paying for an entire computer these days.
Not that's it's exactly high end, not in comparison with $1000 processors.
It's great that there's going to be a little more competetion again.


RE: What about the new i7's
By Mitch101 on 11/17/2008 10:33:10 AM , Rating: 5
Not to mention the premium on the mobo's and the required high priced DDR3. Id love one but I love my cash even more.

Too often people/review sites do price comparisons to just the CPU and not take into consideration the surrounding hardware required for that CPU. The actual cost of entry includes a mobo and ram.

DDR2 vs DDR3 performance wise there isn't anything to speak about yet but price wise is night and day. Like I said Id love one but I love my cash even more.


RE: What about the new i7's
By VaultDweller on 11/17/2008 10:04:26 AM , Rating: 3
Key word: mainstream.

The Core i7 mainstream lineup is still many months away. The 920 could conceivably be classed as a mainstream CPU, but since the only chipset available is X58 and DDR3 still has a hefty price premium, make no mistake - there's no way the i7 platform can fit into the mainstream yet.


RE: What about the new i7's
By TomZ on 11/17/2008 10:58:49 AM , Rating: 3
I disagree - Dell has a well-outfitted Core i7 system for $999:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/x...

That includes 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, Radeon HD3450, and a 20" LCD. All for about $1K. Could be mainstream if you ask me - I guess it depends on how many they sell. :o)


RE: What about the new i7's
By Aloonatic on 11/17/2008 11:13:35 AM , Rating: 3
Seems you get much better deals in the states.

We're still having Q6600 systems pushed on us by Dell, the high end being Q9400s :-O

Back to the main point, I guess it all comes do what you mean by mainstream.

That seems like a good deal, when the screen is included.

But is $1000 a little pricey these days? In the era of the Eee PC and the "credit crunch"?

Also, do new i7 machines all have far more power than "the mainstream" currently require anyway?


RE: What about the new i7's
By TomZ on 11/17/2008 11:19:16 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
Also, do new i7 machines all have far more power than "the mainstream" currently require anyway?

I don't think so. When I have to wait hours to transcode hi-def video from one format to another, I feel like we need faster processors.

And transcoding video is not exactly a niche thing anymore. For example, if you shoot home video or record a TV show on a PC and then you want to record that onto a DVD...you're in for quite a long wait with today's processors.


RE: What about the new i7's
By Aloonatic on 11/17/2008 11:27:17 AM , Rating: 2
Video transcoding was about the only thing that I could think of that might need a bit more power.

But out of all the people I know, I am the only person who does anything like that, and then it is something that I am quite happy to leave going whilst I go out and about or do other things, no big rush.

And I am not sure that you can say that the activities of a DT reader are really "mainstream" to be honest.

I take your point though.

But in the unlikely even that video transcoding becomes the next big thing that my parents want to do, perhaps I'd be better of buying them a news graphics card rather than an i7 system?

The time saving gains will be much greater and the time saved will leave him plenty of time to carry on his hobby of writing angry letters to the Daily Mail or BBC.


RE: What about the new i7's
By MrDiSante on 11/17/2008 6:40:31 PM , Rating: 3
I feel that you should be using your GPU to transcode you video.
My launch e6600 (yeah, I know, it's ancient by this point, but I love it nonetheless) does SD transcoding from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 in slightly better than 2x real-time. Now compare to that my HD4850: it does it in about 10x real-time.

You can get a Q6600 for about the price of the HD4850, and for the sake of argument let's say that it scales linearly with cores. That means you have a bunch of processing power that you paid for and don't need (Flight Simulator X does not count) except for when you're recoding, versus not blowing a bunch of money on your processor and getting a decent video card instead (or using the one you already have).

Go with GPU-based video encoding.


RE: What about the new i7's
By VaultDweller on 11/17/2008 1:24:28 PM