Intel Price Cuts

[Stringent]

OK this PC is annoying me now, I need an upgrade. Is it true there is going to be an Intel price cut soon or was that just a rumour? Looking at the Quad Core CPU's.

[BUFF]

iirc it's April 21st - Q6600 doesn't come down a lot but Q6700 drops a lot to being not much more than Q6600.
Fudzilla - Intel to cut its prices on April 20th

[j.o.s.h.1408]

is it worth getting the q6700 though? does it have an unlocked mutliplier or is that the other quad core?

[Hunain]

I dont know about that, but the E8300 mentioned in the article looks good, its 45nm, 6mb cache and 2.83Ghz stock! only for $169...that would be what? 90 quid?

[Stringent]

Thanks for the info. Aren't Intel introducing a new socket soon? I need to play some catch up here!!

[j.o.s.h.1408]

yes next year but be realistic for a second. any new tech that comes out is fileld with bugs/issues and is always overpriced so give or take maybe a year and half till the next socket is mainstreme and affordable. early adopters are always crap.

go with a quad or dual now and wait 2 years and a neleham will be affordable

[s_kinton]

is it worth getting the q6700 though? does it have an unlocked mutliplier or is that the other quad core?

No. The unlocked multipliers are only on the extreme edition CPU's i.e. the QX6700 and QX6850.

They're not worth the money to be honest unless you're going for record breaking overclocks or have a board that only likes low fsb. I've just sold my QX6700 on eBay - they still retail for £585

[Hunain]

No. The unlocked multipliers are only on the extreme edition CPU's i.e. the QX6700 and QX6850.

They're not worth the money to be honest unless you're going for record breaking overclocks or have a board that only likes low fsb. I've just sold my QX6700 on eBay - they still retail for £585

And if you dont mind me asking, how much did it go for?

[BUFF]

a Q6700 should be coming down to ~£160 (from ~£330) though & it will give you an extra multi which means that you'll need less CPU fsb for your overclock e.g. 3.6GHz on a Q6600 is 9x400 whereas on a Q6700 it would be 10x360 - on some mobos that will make a difference.
Q6600 should be coming down to ~£135.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

so a q6700 can overclock better then. hitting 3.6gh z on a q6700 is more likely then you hitting 3.6gh on a q6600 seeing as there have been reports that it becomes unstable at over 3.1ghz

[GSte]

Yes, I personally think you'll get past 3.6 fairly easily with a Q6700, but TBH I don't know anyone who owns one, they all have Q6600s or are loaded so have a QX.... variant

[BUFF]

so a q6700 can overclock better then. hitting 3.6gh z on a q6700 is more likely then you hitting 3.6gh on a q6600 seeing as there have been reports that it becomes unstable at over 3.1ghz

tbh in terms of pure CPU overclock I doubt that there is much in it (& you will always be subject to luck in getting a good/bad example) but the extra multi may make it easier for some CPUs to hit higher freqs on some mobos..

[GSte]

Should be a few hundred Mhz I reckon.... agreed that luck is a big part of it! I know people who have E6600s that hit 3.8gig on air, whereas mine struggles with 3.6, and others can only get 3.4......

[Stringent]

I'll be picking up a Q6600 or maybe a Q6700 when they lower then. I agree with the new hardware/bugs issue. Intel Quad, 4GB RAM and an 8800GT Graphics. Should tie me over. I might even put Vista back on!

[Thorsson]

I guess the question is whether the Q6700s are in any way speed binned compared to the Q6600s, or whether they're just random picks - given the headroom on even the worst Q6600 it seems impossible that they wouldn't work at Q6700 stock speeds.

[GSte]

They are speed binned when they come off the wafer which should theoretically give them more OCing headroom, personally I think the IHS accounts for a lot of the variability seen.....