Intel is said to be preparing a pair of dual-core Core 2 Extreme processors specifically developed for gamer-friendly notebooks, the first coming in Q2/Q3, the second arriving as a follow-up in Q4.

So claim Taiwanese motherboard-maker moles cited by Chinese-language site HKEPC. Codenamed 'Merom XE', the two 65nm parts will contain the usual 4MB of shared L2 cache and operate over an 800MHz frontside bus. The first of the two, the Core 2 Extreme X7800 will be clocked at 2.6GHz, it's claimed; the second, the X7900, will run at 2.8GHz.

Both processors are said to support SpeedStep, Virtualisation Technology and 64-bit addressing. At this stage, it's not known how much power the chips consume.

The sources alleged the X7800 will be priced at $795 when it ships late Q2/early Q3. The X7900's price is unknown.