Intel to take axe to Core 2 Quad pricing on 22 April?

Core 2 Duo line-up adjustment due then too, it's claimed

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

30th January 2007 12:53 GMT

Intel is set to slash the price it charges for its quad-core processor, the Core 2 Quad Q6600, on 22 April, Asian industry moles have claimed. The April quarter should also see the arrival of further Core 2 Duo and Core 2-derived Pentium processors.

The Q6600 currently costs $851 when sold in batches of 1,000 CPUs, slightly more if it's bought as a boxed part. On 22 April, its price will fall to $530, a reduction of 37.7 per cent, Chinese-language website HKEPC claims. It's been known that Intel is planning to cut the Q6600's price by that margin for some time, but only now do we have a date for the reduction.

The report claims the Core 2 Duo E6700 and E6600, currently priced at $530 and $316, respectively, will also see their prices cut on or before 22 April, to $316 and $224. The E6400 and E6300 will fall to $183 and $163, from $224 and $183, respectively.

The E6300 and E6400 both contain 2MB of L2 cache - the higher-priced Core 2 Duos have 4MB. Around the time of the price cuts, Intel will introduce the E6420 and E6320, both with 4MB of L2, priced at $183 and $163, respectively.

Joining them will be the E4400, a 2GHz, 2MB L2 part that supports an 800MHz frontside bus, the report states. It will be priced at $133. The recently released 1.8GHz E4300 current sells for $163, but that will fall to $113 on 22 April.

In June, the report claims, we'll finally see the Pentium E2140 and E2160, both with 1MB of L2 - they're single-core parts - and clocked to 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz, respectively. They'll apparently be priced at $74 and $84. The $49 1.8GHz Celeron 430 and the $59 2GHz Celeron 440 will appear in the same timeframe, it's said.