3.6 GHz i5 680 is coming out

[Dadofamunky]

Seems to have died here without a ripple but I thought I'd point it out. A google search will verify if anyone cares. Certainly clock-for-clock the fastest dualie ever put out, but for ~$300 I don't see people waiting in line outside Fry's or Micro Center for it.

I still have a dualie and if I wanted to swap out a motherboard and do a new build I CERTAINLY wouldn't go this route. What is Intel thinking? Its integrated GPU still ain't nothing compared to any enthusiast or high-mainstream video card. I guess Intel is making so much money these days that they can afford to waste marketing dollars on this overpriced stuff. Nobody with half a brain would settle for this when for $100 less they can have a monster quad with a clear upgrade path (i7 930 on LGA1366 from MC).

There just doesn't appear to be much of a marketing segment for this. Enthusiasts won't care. People shopping for a new build won't care if they bother to check prices. Newbies won't understand the difference and will wind up paying too much for a middling performer, and Costco shoppers will never see boxes with this chip in it in the warehouse rack. It doesn't compete with AMD's offerings because of its exorbitant price.

All in all, hard to see it in general. Strange BOM, intel.

 

[Apocalypse23]

The issue with Intel is that they have over diversified their market by introducing a lot of niche chips like Atom,i3,i5,i7. The i7 920s and 930s are coming down to the $270-260 mark at select outlets and at rare deals, heck I bought a new i7 930 for $267 CAD (it was a 2-3 day deal). So yes this may be another "whatever" chip.

 

[alyarb]

clarkdale memory architecture is horrible.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Intel are really pushing dual core cpus. So 2007.

 

[yh125d]

Only Intel CPUs worth buying imo are Atom, i3 530, i5 750, and i7 920. Everything else is filler (and this is no slight against intel, those products are wonderful)

 

[RussianSensation]

Only Intel CPUs worth buying imo are Atom, i3 530, i5 750, and i7 920. Everything else is filler (and this is no slight against intel, those products are wonderful)

umm....I am not sure I agree.

The Atom is a joke. Have you used a netbook? I think netbooks have a 50%+ dissatisfaction from customers last time I read the survey. For not much more, you can get a laptop with ULV Intel processor 3x faster.

i5 750 does make sense in most stores. But for a mere $20, you get HT and faster clock speeds in the 860 at Microcenter. So that makes Core i5 750 irrelevant customers who have access to these prices ($180 i5 750 vs. $200 i7 860). Also, with the introduction of AMD 1055T within a week, it's going to be very hard to consider a non HT Core i7 when for $200 you'll be able to buy a 6-core Thuban.

i7 920 has been replaced by i7 930 a while back. But considering X58 mobos cost more than P55, and generally people tend to buy 6GBs of ram over 4GBs for X58, the extra costs add up to $100+ between the 2 platforms. This makes X58 overpriced unless you want better USB3.0/SATA3 support. I'd rather buy a 4GB Core i7 860 P55 platform + GTX480 than a 6GB Core i7 930 X58 platform and 5870 if someone said here is extra $100 Alternatively that's $100 extra towards an SSD.

As to the 680, I think it's for a specific market. I would personally never buy one since I had a C2D 3.4ghz in 2006.

 

[yh125d]

umm....I am not sure I agree.

The Atom is a joke. Have you used a netbook? I think netbooks have a 50%+ dissatisfaction from customers last time I read the survey. For not much more, you can get a laptop with ULV Intel processor 3x faster.

i5 750 does make sense in most stores. But for a mere $20, you get HT and faster clock speeds in the 860 at Microcenter. So that makes Core i5 750 irrelevant for those customers ($180 i5 750 vs. $200 i7 860). Also, with the introduction of AMD 1055T within a wek, it's going to be very hard to consider a non HT Core i7 when for $200 you'll be able to buy a 6-core Thuban.

i7 920 has been replaced by i7 930 a while back. But considering X58 mobos cost more than P55, and generally people tend to buy 6GBs of ram over 4GBs for X58, the extra costs add up to $70+ between the 2 platforms. This makes X58 overpriced unless you want native USB3.0/SATA3 support.

Last I checked, decent CULV platforms were $450+, and all 12"+ platforms. If you want under 12", and only spend $300-350, atom is a good option. Yeah it sucks to switch from a 4gHz quad rig to one but it does what it was designed to do

Its a pity not to OC an intel iX cpu, so stock speed increases are a nonfactor to me (which is why I prefer 920 over 930 - if 920 is $20 cheaper and they both OC to 4gHz the same....). Also, do people still turn off HT when overclocking much? I remember they were for awhile. Either way though, for gamers, HT on a quad isn't really necessary, and imo not worth the price gap (you can't use microcenter prices when talking on a macro scale, since the overall publics access to a MC is very limited)

 

[RussianSensation]

Ya, on a macro scale, I agree that i5 750 > 860. Hopefully Intel will lower pricing after X6 Thubans come out

 

[yh125d]

Ya, on a macro scale, I agree that i5 750 > 860. Hopefully Intel will lower pricing after X6 Thubans come out

Me too. i'm tired of me e7200, WTB cheaper i5 750s!

 

[fuzzymath10]

If more mfrs could take advantage of Atom's TDP like Dell did in the Mini 9 then it would be fine. It's quite amazing to have a netbook without a single moving part (no fan, no hdd). And for day-to-day stuff I'm still bottlenecked by the storage. I have a fast Core 2 laptop to play HD content, or I could try the broadcom decoder.

I agree that a 12" netbook is more or less pointless though. A 9" netbook is significantly smaller to the point where I can bring it everywhere whether or not I use it, which I wouldn't do with a 12" laptop.

 

[OCGuy]

So they get the thumbs down for putting out too many options, even if most of those options are not something you personally would consider....?

 

[JimKiler]

umm....I am not sure I agree.

The Atom is a joke. Have you used a netbook? I think netbooks have a 50%+ dissatisfaction from customers last time I read the survey. For not much more, you can get a laptop with ULV Intel processor 3x faster.

i5 750 does make sense in most stores. But for a mere $20, you get HT and faster clock speeds in the 860 at Microcenter. So that makes Core i5 750 irrelevant customers who have access to these prices ($180 i5 750 vs. $200 i7 860). Also, with the introduction of AMD 1055T within a week, it's going to be very hard to consider a non HT Core i7 when for $200 you'll be able to buy a 6-core Thuban.

i7 920 has been replaced by i7 930 a while back. But considering X58 mobos cost more than P55, and generally people tend to buy 6GBs of ram over 4GBs for X58, the extra costs add up to $100+ between the 2 platforms. This makes X58 overpriced unless you want better USB3.0/SATA3 support. I'd rather buy a 4GB Core i7 860 P55 platform + GTX480 than a 6GB Core i7 930 X58 platform and 5870 if someone said here is extra $100 Alternatively that's $100 extra towards an SSD.

As to the 680, I think it's for a specific market. I would personally never buy one since I had a C2D 3.4ghz in 2006.

As a tangent I think netbooks are only going to get better, I love mine but I went with a 12.1" screen and people have to realize the value is in portability, i.e. taking notes in class.

 

[RussianSensation]

As a tangent I think netbooks are only going to get better, I love mine but I went with a 12.1" screen and people have to realize the value is in portability, i.e. taking notes in class.

I have an IBM Thinkpad X200 series: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...F0CC608A649A77

And I think 12 inch is the bare minimum for any kind of excel/microsoft office work. It's pretty hard to use a smaller screen for 8 hour work days lol I mean of course once you use 30-37 inch screen for work, then it hurts even more :awe:

 

[jihe]

I have an IBM Thinkpad X200 series: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...F0CC608A649A77

And I think 12 inch is the bare minimum for any kind of excel/microsoft office work. It's pretty hard to use a smaller screen for 8 hour work days lol I mean of course once you use 30-37 inch screen for work, then it hurts even more :awe:

Yeah the X200 series rule.

 

[Dadofamunky]

clarkdale memory architecture is horrible.

That's interesting. Care to elaborate? Smaller cache? does the cache get shared between the CPU and the GPU?

 

[Dadofamunky]

The issue with Intel is that they have over diversified their market by introducing a lot of niche chips like Atom,i3,i5,i7. The i7 920s and 930s are coming down to the $270-260 mark at select outlets and at rare deals, heck I bought a new i7 930 for $267 CAD (it was a 2-3 day deal). So yes this may be another "whatever" chip.

And 930s at MC for $199, which to me is just like stealing. It is amazing just how many BOMs Intel has now. Some of them I think they could stand to get rid of at this point. At the very least I think they could give their users a break and significantly cut the price of some of them - there is no way an E8600 like mine is worth $279 from NewEgg. Even $150 for that thing is now too much. The Wolfdale chips WERE excellent, but they need to cut the price, blow them out and cancel the line.

I'm not sure if there's an overall strategy at Intel by doing this, or if there's just a hell of a lot of marketing/engineering silos each married to their particular strategy and product mix. I was just talking with a colleague who used to work at Cisco, and she observed that that is a company that's made up of nothing BUT silos. No cross-functional teams, no interest or cross-pollination from one another's products, ideas or initiatives. Sounded like a pretty bleak place. I bet anything Intel is the same way.

I've used Intel off and on for a long time, and they've never had such a massive product mix.