Intel today released its quad core processors. With all the buzz that’s permeated the web lately about them, I mistakenly thought they were already out. Apparently now even mere mortals can get their hands on them.
The Xeon 5300 is clearly a replacement for the current Woodcrest Xeons in today’s Mac Pros. The rumor mill is already started, so let me add another tree and say that it probably won’t be long before we see new Mac Pros with a whopping total 8 cores of processing might.
The Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor is aimed at more consumer-like machines. Long term, it’s the replacement for the Merom in iMacs. However, considering Apple chose to stick with the mobile version of the Core 2 Duo in the iMac, it makes me wonder if this new chip may put out too much heat.
I certainly wouldn’t expect them next week though. Check out the prices.
The X5355 processor is the most powerful and pricey of the latest chips, with a list price of $1,172. The 2.33GHz E5345 costs $851, the 1.86GHz E5320 costs $690, and the 1.60GHz E5310 costs $455. The X5355 and the E5345 also come with a faster front-side bus connecting the processor to the rest of the system, up to 1,333MHz from the 1,066MHz bus used on the E5320 and E5310.
