Pssst! Want an Intel 'Nehalem' processor on the cheap? Well, just go and ask the chip giant for one. It's 2.66GHz 'Bloomfield' CPU has been price at just $284, it has been claimed.

That's the batch price, of course. To get it, you'll have to buy a 1000 CPUs at once - boxed Bloomfields will come in slightly higher than that.

Related stories

• Super Micro super ready for Intel Nehalem Xeons
• Intel names 'Nehalem' launch date
• Intel prices up first Core i7 four-core CPUs
• Intel talks up CPU+GPU system chippery
• Intel stuffs Nehalem chips with joy
• Intel adds 22nm octo-core 'Haswell' to CPU design roadmap
• VIA heralds end of third-party PC chipset biz
• Intel to brand next-gen CPUs 'Core i7'
• Nvidia spurns Intel Atom for VIA, spurns VIA for Intel Atom?
• Leaked AMD southbridge details yield 'Fusion' CPU snippets
• Market watcher warns of 'Nehalem' slippage
• Intel lengthens first-gen 'Nehalem' CPU shelf life?
• Intel confirms Nvidia 'Nehalem' negotations
• Intel 'Nehalem' CPU 'borrows' AMD Phenom cache plan

As previously reported, the 2.66GHz Bloomfield - Intel's desktop Nehalem - will also be made available in 2.93GHz and 3.2GHz versions. The pricing, posted by Chinese-language site HKEPC, confirms the latter will be an Extreme-branded gaming PC part - it'll cost $999. The mid-range Bloomfield will cost $562.

All Nehalem CPUs will require new motherboards, thanks to their inclusion of an on-board memory controller capable of connecting to DDR 3 memory. They also use Intel's new QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) bus and fit into 1336-pin sockets.

Currently, the only Nehalem-friendly desktop chipset known to be in the works is the X58, based on the 'Tylersburg' chipset.