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

[Adagio]

Looks great, finally the tester are allowed to talk about it

I'm not sure if it'll be the 6600 or 6700 I'll get, but they both look great

And the release date is still juli 27?

[self biased]

indeed. this may throw my plans off for purchasing a new computer. what sort of price range are we talking about, and what're the major differences between the 6700 and the 6600.

[Adagio]

IIRC the 6700 was supposed to cost something like $550 and the 6600 probably something like $100 less

[SlowwHand]

If this isn't the mark of a champion, I don't know what is.

Intel announces layoff of 1,000 managers, more may follow
Wolfgang Gruener and Scott M. Fulton, III July 13, 2006 16:08




Santa Clara (CA) - An announcement did come from Intel today, but it wasn't the pleasant kind: The company is laying off about 1,000 managers, in a move spokesperson Chuck Malloy told TG Daily is intended "to improve communication flow and the decision-making process." Mulloy went on to say that only some of the managers selected for attrition have been notified, with the remainder expected to be told within the next few days.

First-line (low-level) and senior level managers will be affected by the layoffs, in all company categories, across all geographies, Mulloy told us. Executives would not be affected in this round of cuts, he said, mainly due to the fact that cutting at the executive ranks would require formal reporting to the SEC, and Intel is not quite prepared to make such reports. This left open the possibility that some executives could indeed be cut in the future, as part of the wide-ranging corporate reorganization announced by CEO Paul Otellini in late April. One month later, analysts speculated that Intel's layoff numbers could eventually reach as high as 16,000.

[LordShiva]

6600 will be around the $350 mark.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...357&adid=17662 and they're always slightly more expensive

[DanS]

Originally posted by LordShiva
I'm building a new HTPC soon; I think I'll get me a 6600.

Am I better off going with 965 or 975X? The former doesn't support SLI, but supports 800MHz DDR2.

For an HTPC, the 6400 should be more than plenty. Best to cut down on heat and power consumption in order to decrease noise levels.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by DanS
For an HTPC, the 6400 should be more than plenty. Best to cut down on heat and power consumption in order to decrease noise levels.

That sounds rational, but when it comes to me and power, there can be only one option: "MORE POWWWER!!!"

[DanS]

Sharkyextreme has a nice graph of the watts used at idle and watts used under load for a system including these processors. I have a Pentium D and it looks like the power used by the Core 2 Duo under load is about half.

Excellent. No more 450 watt power supply!

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/cpu/article.php/3261_3620036__11

[LordShiva]

Also from SharkyExtreme:

Value is tough to ascertain on a pre-release CPU, but given the Intel 1KU pricing for the official release date of July 23 2006, we can certainly make some comparisons against the existing crop of AMD and Intel processors. Intel 1KU prices have historically been close to what online retail prices are set at, discounting any short-term bumps due to initial demand. Intel will sell the 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo E6700 at $530, while the 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo E6600 is set at only $316. Both of these offer exceptional value for the price, especially as these can both outperform the Athlon 64 FX-62 and the top-rated Pentium EE models. It really is amazing that a $300+ processor is faster than anything you can buy today, but that's exactly what Intel has done.

The Core 2 Extreme X6800 will have a retail price of over $1,000, due to the Intel 1KU price of $999. This makes it a tougher buy, as although this processor offers the top desktop performance, its only real advantages over the standard Core 2 Duo are the higher clock speed and an unlocked multiplier. For the more entry-level crowd, Intel is also releasing a set of Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13 GHz) and E6300 (1.86 GHz) processors, both of which have 2MB of L2 rather than the 4MB of their high-performance cousins. We have not had a chance to test the performance of the Core 2 Duo E6400 and E6300, but at 1KU prices of $224 and $183, respectively, these have piqued our interest.

$316? W00t!!

[Q Classic]

Finally, Intel seems to be back on its game. Bring it, AMD!

[padillah]

(Don't flame me, I'm stupid)

So what's the deal with the FX2 64? And is the Core 2 Duo really a 64bit core or just another set of 32's in disguise?

Tom P.

[Wiglaf]

Asher's avatar is the first animated avatar I have ever seen that isn't annoying. I think that is remarkable.

[Asher]

Originally posted by padillah
(Don't flame me, I'm stupid)

So what's the deal with the FX2 64? And is the Core 2 Duo really a 64bit core or just another set of 32's in disguise?

Tom P.

They're fully 64-bit.

[Asher]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
If this isn't the mark of a champion, I don't know what is.

Getting rid of red tape.

[Whaleboy]

Getting rid of middle management