Intel prices up first Core i7 four-core CPUs
Still mum on the release date, though
Intel has priced up its upcoming initial quad-core Core i7 processors, all based on its new 45nm microarchitecture, 'Nehalem'.
The initial roll-out will centre, as expected, on three desktops CPUs: the 920, 940 and 965 Extreme. All three 'Bloomfield' chips contain 731m transistors in a die that measures 263mm²
Intel's Core i7-965 Extreme: yours for a dollar less than a grand
The three new chips will set Intel's customers back $284, $562 and $999 when purchased in batches of 1000 CPUs - as expected.
Unfortunately, Intel's not saying exactly when the chips will ship beyond "later in November".
The Extreme part is set to clock at 3.2GHz and connect directly to 1333MHz DDR 3 memory though its integrated memory controller. The 920 and 940 will run at 2.66GHz and 2.93GHz, respectively, and connect to 1066MHz DDR 3. All three chips can link to three channels of memory.
Intel's X58 chipset
They contain 8MB of L3 cache shared across all four cores - each core has its own complement of L1 and L2 cache, 256KB of the latter.
The CPUs connect to Intel's new X58 chipset across a 25.6GB/s QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) bus. The X58 hooks up to 36 PCI Express 2.0 lanes for a variety of graphics card configurations, and over a 2GB/s bus to Intel's ICH10 southbridge, which handles the usual array of USB, Gigabit Ethernet, HD audio and SATA ports.
Intel X58-based Asus P6T Deluxe Core i7 motherboard preview
COMMENTS
386DX
4K for a 386Dx in 1987 , I woulda taken this deal .{ of course this included a $400 vid card ]
@druck
In practice few machines can come close saturating an internal bus due to ethernet traffic or SATA disk traffic, unless the traffic is compoetely generated in the CPU without reference to external machines or the inrternal disks.
No disks in existence can actually do 3Gb/s, that's just a rating on the SATA bus. Even a six disk RAID5 array on a 3Ware 9650 8 disk controller tops out around 150MB/s read speed IME.
Now that PCIe thing is a problem with multiple x16 video cards... is there an error in the description of where the PCIe bus hangs off the rest of the system or is the 2GB/s incorrect?
Will it run Crysis?
I just had to ask. It is an old joke, but I still like it.
BTW, I bet it will run it FAST.
Mine is the one with tomatoes stains in the back.
Bottleneck
The 2GB/s bus between the X58IOH and the ICH10 is looking a bit of a bottleneck to me, given it supports 3GB/s SATA, not to mention any PCI Express, USB and Gigabit ethernet transfers which might also be occurring.
Overall costs are going to be insane
Sure $284 sounds good for a CPU, you also have to consider how much the memory will cost and how much the motherboard will cost. DDR3 memory is not cheap and the X58 chipset is not cheap. With the economy sucking the way it is, I'm going to pass on the Core i7 right now.
