New York — The formal introduction of the gaming optimized Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core QX6700 processor has led to a burst of product upgrades from PC vendors today.
The new processor can provide a 50 to 80 percent upgrade in performance over the previously available Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme. The processor is available at 2.66GHz with a 1,066MHz front side bus. The processor runs on Intel’s existing 975X Express chipset family. The company plans to introduce a mainstream version of the processor under the Intel Core 2 Duo Quad brand name during the first quarter of 2007, Intel said today.
The processor is priced at $999.
Gateway made the quad-core processors with two of its newest gaming machines, the FX530XT and the FX530XL. These were introduced in late October with the promise of quickly refreshing the models once the new Intel processor was released.
Alienware has added the processor to its Area-51 7500 and Area-51 ALX desktops. Meanwhile, Alienware’s parent Dell will make the processor available in its XPS 710 gaming PC.
Velocity Micro will offer quad-core processors in its Raptor Signature Edition and Raptor DCX custom gaming PCs.
Hewlett-Packard made no announcement on a consumer machine, but it will use the version Intel developed for its server line.
Systemax placed the processor into the new Sabre II gaming PC, $3,999 suggested retail price. The Sabre II features dual ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB video cards with Crossfire, Corsair TwinX 2GB PC6400 DDR2 memory, dual 150GB SATA 10,000RPM hard drives with RAID 0 Stripe, a 400GB SATA 7299RPM hard drive, a Plextor PX-755SA 16x DVDRW Drive, a 52x32x52/16x combo drive, a 9 in 1 flash media reader, a SoundBlaster X-Fi sound card, an Ultra X-Finity 600W power supply, a Saitek Eclipse blue illuminated keyboard and a Razer Copperhead High Precision blue gaming mouse.
