Intel's next big round of desktop price cuts will come on 22 July, a day that will see the debut of revamped Core 2 Duo processors and a faster four-core Core 2 Quad, it has been claimed.

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A report on Chinese-language site HKEPC, citing motherboard-maker sources, claims the 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q6700 will go on sale on 22 July, priced at $530. That's how much Intel is currently charging for the 2.4GHz Q6600, launched last January - its price will fall to $266.

Which is apparently what Intel will ask for the 3GHz Core 2 Duo E6850, its first dual-core chip capable of operating on a 1333MHz frontside bus. It will be joined by the 2.66GHz E6750 and the 2.33GHz E6550, priced at $183 and $163, respectively. All three support all the usual Intel technologies - Virtualisation, SpeedStep, EM64 etc - plus Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), Intel's hardware-based security system.

A version of the E6550 without TXT, the E6540, will also ship on 22 July, the report claims, priced at $163. Also new on the day is the 2.2GHz E4500, a 2MB L2 part that runs on an 800MHz FSB. It will cost $133, forcing the price of the existing E4400 to fall to $113. The E6xxx chips all have 4MB of L2, incidentally.