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Intel Slashes Desktop Chip Prices

Posted 07/21/09 at 09:46:50 AM  by Paul Lilly

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While you sat at home on Sunday watching Tom Watson choke on what would have been an historic 8-foot putt in the 2009 British Open, Intel was busy slashing prices on a bunch of desktop processors, including a good many quad-core chips.

The Q9400 (2.66GHz) is now a sub-$200 part after being reduced 14 percent from $213 to $183. That meant pushing down the Q8300 (2.5GHz) from $183 to $163, an 11 percent reduction. Intel also cut prices on lower power quads, such as the Q9400S going from $277 to $245, a 12 percent reduction.

Moving away from the quads, the Core 2 Duo E7500 dropped 15 percent from $133 to $113, while Pentium desktop chips saw price cuts of up to 14 percent. One of the biggest cuts in terms of percentage came to the Celeron E1500 (2.2GHz), which was reduced 19 percent from $53 to $43.

Finally, the Xeon X3330 (2.66GHz) dropped from $219 to $188, a 14 percent reduction.

Bummer about Watson, though.

COMMENTS:7
TAGS: intel, cpu, processor, hardware, build a pc, prices
COMMENTS
avatarI wonder if

Submitted by joeyjr on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 1:27pm

joeyjr

Last week I sent a suggestion too Intel and asked if they might considder making a Q8500 or a Q8600 that used 130 watts with 2 E8500 or 2 E8600 for some people that were not ready to upgrade yet.  Hopefully around 300-350 dollars and could help them in reducing there stock levels.  I think it would be a pretty good processor for the money with out having to build a new system right now and the extreem quad cores are way to expensive.  I realy am waiting for the core i7,  x58 to mature a little more and the motherboards to have updated chipsets. I wonder if this had anything too do withit? LOL :)

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avatarHmmm

Submitted by Thiazolium on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 9:19am

Intel is slashing prices on the not-so-desirable chips.  Even the lowliest i7 hasn't been touched!  Damn! If you're aiming for Core2Quad, go with AMD; at least you'll be able to upgrade as new chips come out. Heck, you may be able to get a 6 or 8 core chip in the future that plugs right in.  Who knows.  That being said, Core2Quad is done. If you want to go with Intel, I would stay with the new current architecture - Nehalem and up. No use paying for dead end tech.

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avatarLooks like this is the

Submitted by HeartBurnKid on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 8:37am

Looks like this is the clearance before Core i3 and i5.  Probably only a good idea to buy in now if you don't plan to upgrade any time soon after; chances are, we won't be seeing anything new come out on LGA775 from now on (maybe some Celerons, but nothing more than that).

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avatarthe core2 line of processors

Submitted by Denis63 on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 7:59am

the core2 line of processors are reliable and fast. i'd buy a core2quad before any AMD, hands down.

 Looks like my e6550 might be demoted to a server, and my gamer might be getting a few more cores...       -Denis

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avatarYour loss

Submitted by HeartBurnKid on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 2:06pm

With this price cut, the C2Q chips finally (just barely) match performance with equivalently-priced Phenom II X4 chips.  Before this, going with Phenom II was your best option for a budget build.  Still is, if you plan to go with integrated video (e.g. for an HTPC) and want something that doesn't suck.

Speaking of which, I wonder how AMD will respond to this move?

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avatarIs it safe?

Submitted by schmitty6633 on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 7:44am

Is it safe to buy any Core2 quad processors anymore if Intel drops support or would it be safer to go with Amd Phenom x4's? Any help is appreciated :)

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avatarIf you want future

Submitted by HeartBurnKid on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 2:10pm

If you want future upgradeability, go with Phenom II and an AM3-based board.  AM2+ may or may not be phased out soon; it's all rather iffy.

Otherwise, I see no reason not to go with Core2's.

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