Intel Drops Prices on Select 65nm Processors

[Rob Williams]

From our front-page news:

Intel today has announced price-drops on many models from their 65nm line-up, including the Q6600 and E6850. The Q6700 sees the biggest drop, from $530 to $266, while the Q6600 sits comfortably at $224. For some Dual-Core action, the fast E6850 has dropped 31% in price, and all three Xeon-equivalents to these models have had their price dropped respectively as well.

<table style="border-collapse: collapse;" align="center" border="1" bordercolor="#000000" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="400"> <tbody><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffce5b" width="175">

Model​

</td> <td bgcolor="#ffce5b" width="75">

Before​

</td> <td bgcolor="#ffce5b" width="75">

After​

</td> <td bgcolor="#ffce5b" width="75">

% Drop ​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>C2Q Q6700 (2.66GHz) </td> <td>

$530​

</td> <td>

$266​

</td> <td>

50%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>C2Q Q6600 (2.40GHz) </td> <td>

$266​

</td> <td>

$224​

</td> <td>

16%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>C2D E6850 (3.00GHz) </td> <td>

$266​

</td> <td>

$183​

</td> <td>

31%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>C2D E4600 (2.40GHz)</td> <td>

$133​

</td> <td>

$113​

</td> <td>

15%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Pentium E2200 (2.20GHz) </td> <td>

$84​

</td> <td>

$74​

</td> <td>

12%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Pentium E2180 (2.00GHz) </td> <td>

$74​

</td> <td>

$64​

</td> <td>

14%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Celeron E1400 (2.00GHz) </td> <td>

$53​

</td> <td>

$43​

</td> <td>

19%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Celeron 440 (2.00GHz) </td> <td>

$53​

</td> <td>

$44​

</td> <td>

17%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Celeron 430 (1.80GHz)</td> <td>

$44​

</td> <td>

$34​

</td> <td>

23%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Celeron 560 (2.13GHz) </td> <td>

$134​

</td> <td>

$107​

</td> <td>

20%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Celeron 550 (2.00GHz) </td> <td>

$107​

</td> <td>

$86​

</td> <td>

20%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Xeon X3230 (2.66GHz)</td> <td>

$530​

</td> <td>

$266​

</td> <td>

50%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Xeon X3220 (2.40GHz) </td> <td>

$266​

</td> <td>

$224​

</td> <td>

16%​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Xeon 3085 (3.00GHz) </td> <td>

$266​

</td> <td>

$188​

</td> <td>

29%​

</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
While these prices drops are nice to see, I wish we saw them sooner. Because Intel's own 45nm line-up is becoming more readily available, the decision between these price-dropped models or the newer product is made more difficult. This of course excludes the Celeron's and Pentium's, since there are no 45nm models for those, yet.

The Q6600 drop is a good one though, since even the lowest 45nm Quad-Core (Q9300) sits at $290 on most e-tailers. The E6850 is well-priced at $183 as well, but if that's a "to e-tailer" price, then it would still be priced the same as the E8400, which we find to be a much better option. If you happened to read our review of the E8400, then you'd know why.
​

 

[Kougar]

Have you seen that one site that compared a E1400 to current chips? It's amazing how much power is left in that dual-core Celeron @ $43... it also speaks wonders about how little benefit L2 cache really is to Core.

 

[Rob Williams]

Cache comparison is a subject I'd like to tackle sometime in the future (I'm just not sure when). It would be nice to run an array of CPUs with identical frequencies, but with different cache sizes... because I seriously have no idea what type of application shows the most benefit.

As for the E1400... it's certainly a great price for a small system, that's for sure... especially if it's overclocked.

 

[Merlin]

Have you seen that one site that compared a E1400 to current chips? It's amazing how much power is left in that dual-core Celeron @ $43... it also speaks wonders about how little benefit L2 cache really is to Core.

Hmmmm...It would seem a larger cache would be a real benefit
It's just, I always thought so

YEah a review of different cache would solve some mystery in what effect the cache really plays a part in the scheme

Interesting........

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage: