There's a new king in town: Intel's Core2 obliterates Athlon 64 FX

[Fve Crathva]

I don't think Intel is in danger of running out of money in the next 5 weeks.

SP

[Sava]

Interesting stuff.

Any idea when these processors would reach the "sweet spot" in terms of the price vs performance ratio? i.e. when they would be worth buying?

I really don't pay attention to new developments and such, just what is on the market currently. I'm happy with my system now, but I'm always looking to upgrade.

[mrboo123]

Does anyone know when the Core2s are coming out of laptops? Early 2007?

[Jon Miller]

Probably some like Alien Ware will put them in soon after they are released.

Others (standard Laptop MFs) like Fugjitsu might never put them in.

They aren't a laptop processor (from what I understand).

JM

[Asher]

The desktop version is called Conroe, the laptop version is called Merom.

Conroe is launching in Kuly (Desktops), Merom is launching in August (Laptops). Both are under the "Core 2" name and are very similar.

Meroms are drop-in capable for current Core Duos...meaning manufacturers making current Core Duo laptops just need to plop in the new Core 2 Duo CPU.

From wikipedia:

Intel has claimed that Merom will provide 20% more performance yet maintain the same battery-life as the Yonah-based Core Duo. Merom will be the first Intel mobile processor to feature EM64T 64-bit extensions.

The Merom processors are expected to be labeled as the "T5X00" and "T7x00" Core 2 Duo models, with the T5500 clocked at 1.66 GHz, the T5600 clocked at 1.83 GHz, the T7200 clocked at 2.0 GHz, the T7400 clocked at 2.16 GHz, and the T7600 clocked at 2.33 GHz. The T5x00 models are expected to come with 2 MB of shared L2 cache, and the T7x00 models are expected to come with 4 MB of shared L2 cache.

A second wave of Merom processors featuring an 800 MT/s FSB and using the new Socket P will launch during the second quarter of 2007. These chips will be part of the platform codenamed "Santa Rosa".

[Asher]

It's also official now that Woodcrest, the workstation/server versions of Core 2 Duo, will launch first on June 26th: http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/06/13/co...ch_on_26_june/

sources have told TG Daily that the processor will be introduced in six different versions, ranging 1.6 to 3.0 GHz and carrying FSB1066 and FSB1333. All Woodcrest version will integrates 4 MB L2 cache.

Pricing ranges from $209 for the entry-level 5110 (1.6 GHz, FSB1066) to $851 for the high-end 5160 (3.0 GHZ, FSB1333).

The desktop version of the Xeon 5100, called Core 2 Duo E4000/E6000 series (conroe) core is rumored to launch on 23 July. The mobile variant (Core 2 Duo T5000/T7000), which is the foundation for the Xeon 5100 and the Core 2 Duo E series, will follow in August or September.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Asher
Meroms are drop-in capable for current Core Duos...meaning manufacturers making current Core Duo laptops just need to plop in the new Core 2 Duo CPU.

This means that the Core2 MacBooks will continue to suck because Apple won't bother with solving the issues if there's no platform shift involved.

[Asher]

Yup.

So...don't buy Apple? Their engineering has always been shoddy. OS X also sucks the battery life out of laptops due to its glorious inefficiency.

[Nostromo]

It seems Vista has the same problem

[Fake Boris]

Things tend to improve over time with new revisions, though not as much as I'd like. As for battery life, my 9 month iBook still gives me a good four hours of browsing (or 3 hours of DVD playback) which sounds decent to me.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
Things tend to improve over time with new revisions, though not as much as I'd like. As for battery life, my 9 month iBook still gives me a good four hours of browsing (or 3 hours of DVD playback) which sounds decent to me.

My nearly 3 year old ThinkPad T40 gives me seven hours of battery life of browsing. I recently bought another battery, and the new battery gives me my original 8 and a half hours.

And it's significantly faster than the G4 chips in the iBooks.

[Asher]

Originally posted by nostromo
It seems Vista has the same problem

Only when you run it with all of the flashy UI elements like OS X has, which makes it more like playing a 3D game than browsing the internet.

If you want good battery life you'll revert to the Windows XP-based GUI in Vista.

[Jon Miller]

Well, apparently I Was wrong.

JM

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Asher

My nearly 3 year old ThinkPad T40 gives me seven hours of battery life of browsing. I recently bought another battery, and the new battery gives me my original 8 and a half hours.

And it's significantly faster than the G4 chips in the iBooks.

It costs what? 3, 4 times an iBook?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
It costs what? 3, 4 times an iBook?

9 months ago? No way.

You can get them for well under $1000 on eBay.