The PC Report

Intel today has released some fairly mainstream processors with unlocked core multipliers, a first for the company who mainly reserve fully unlocked processors for their “Extreme Edition” line. The Intel “Clarkdale” Core i5-655K and Intel “Lynnfield” Core i7-875K are these new processors, both of which come with a fairly reasonable price of US$216 and US$342 respectively. The i7-875K is a particularly good deal as the processor is cheaper than the i7-870, which is essentially the same chip just without the unlocked multiplier.

The Core i5-655K is essentially the same as the US$175 Core i5-650 – it packs a clockspeed of 3.20 GHz, a Turbo Boost clockspeed of up to 3.46 GHZ, support for dual-channel DDR3 memory up to 1,333 MHz, two cores with four threads thanks to HyperThreading and 4 MB of L3 cache with a 73W TDP. The only thing different from the i5-650 is the unlocked core multiplier and unlocked power.

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You might have read about the recent refresh to Apple’s Macbook Pro line-up. Well, as it turns out, while PC Authority were reviewing the latest model in the range they managed to make the Core i7 CPU in the 17″ model reach 100°C – which is quite frankly ridiculous. The laptop’s chassis was so hot it could easily burn you and causing health issues if you just happened to be running CineBench on your laptop at the time.

PC Authority had to finish the benchmarks with the laptop on its side (pictured above). Obviously the aluminium unibody shell is not good enough to disperse the heat coming from the powerful Intel Core i7-620M on the inside. Maybe the folks over at Apple need to rethink their heat management for the next refresh of Macbook Pros

Intel has quietly added two new processors to their desktop line-up. The Core i5-680 is the fastest Clarkdale processor yet, coming loaded with two cores running at 3.6 GHz each which can be scaled up to 3.86 GHz thanks to Turbo Boost technology. The 32nm chip comes with 4 MB of L3 cache, Hyper-Threading support and a 733 MHz integrated graphics core. The Pentium E5500 is also joining the ranks today for those with an LGA 775 socket – it comes with a 45nm, 2.8 GHz dual-core CPU with 2 MB of cache and no HT or Turbo Boost.

Also, news is coming to us today of a second Intel processor to join the Gulftown six-core line-up. The Intel Core i7-970 will come with a 3.2 GHz core clock (slower than the i7-980X’s 3.33 GHz clock), presumably with Turbo Boost and the same 12 MB of L3 cache and will be compatible with LGA 1366 sockets. Prices for the Core i5-680 will start at US$294, the E5500 will cost you around US$75 and when the i7-970 gets released in the coming weeks it should retail for cheaper than the existing Core i7-980X.

Intel’s latest and most powerful processor has been popping up in the news over the past few months, but now it has been finally released and reviewed. The Intel Core i7-908X is Intel’s first six-core desktop processor released into their Nehalem line-up. Codenamed “Gulftown“, the i7-980X is built on the same 32nm process as the Arrandale/Clarkdale desktop CPUs and fits nicely into LGA 1366 motherboards powered by the X58 chipset with a simple BIOS update.

The 6-core beast comes with 1.17 billion transistors but thanks to the 32nm process is smaller than all the previous quad-core Nehalems. It comes loaded at 3.33GHz with a 3.60 GHz Turbo Boost, 12MB of L3 cache, 6 cores and 12 threads and a 130W TDP – the same as the other Bloomfield i7s. The chip also comes in the package with a new tower cooler that is bigger and presumably better than the cooler that came with previous i7s.

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Feeling satisfied with your long-running Core i7-920? Well, no more, because Intel has just released an updated version for sale. Like the i7-940 to i7-950 and i7-965 to i7-975 bump, the only thing new about the Intel Core i7-930 is a speed bump – which takes the 920′s 2.66 GHz and upgrades it to a 2.80 GHz with a 3.06 GHz Turbo Boost. It still packs the same four cores/eight threads setup as well as 8MB of L3 cache and the LGA 1366 socket.

The Core i7-930 is available now from several retailers such as Newegg, who are selling the chip for just $6 more than the i7-920 at US$294.99. Go out and grab one now if you want a cheap i7 on the LGA 1366 platform, or alternatively just overclock your i7-920 if you have one.

New reports are coming through about when both AMD and Intel will release their new six-core processors into their ranges. According to Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers the Intel six-core “Gulftown” CPUs, starting with the Core i7-980X, will be coming out at the end of March this year and priced at greater than US$1,000.

AMD will be releasing their six-core “Thuban” processors sometime in May of 2010. The CPUs will go under the Phenom II X6 1000T series, and will start with the Phenom II X6 1075T, 1055T and 1035T and will all be based off the 45nm process. A quad-core Phenom II X4 960T will also be released along with the six-core CPUs, and the new 890FX and 890GX chipsets will come a month before.

It’s heading up to CES 2010 so it’s just about the right time for huge amounts of new machines to start flooding in for users to enjoy. Heading off the pack is the Lenovo line-up refresh, which has been officially released today.

First up is the new Lenovo ThinkPad Edge, which is rather sexy for a ThinkPad machine and will be available in a few different colors. At launch, you will be able to grab the 13-inch model (14- and 15-inch models coming later) with either an AMD Turion Neo X2 or AMD Athlon Neo X2 processor with up to 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Other features include WiFi b/g/n, optional 3G/WiMAX in-built modem, a built in card reader and HDMI out. It will come preloaded with your choice of either Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional (32-bit or 64-bit)

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Not so long ago we saw a preview of the new hexacore Gulftown processor, which we figured would be released into a new line-up of processors branded as Intel’s Core i9 series, but alas, we were wrong. According to the latest leaked slide from Intel, the 6-core beast will be joining the Core i7 range as the Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition (codenamed Gulftown).

The leaked slide also shows us some more information about the processor: it will be made using the 32nm Westmere process, have 12MB of Intel Smart Cache (L3 Cache) and a TDP of 130W. Of course, as it’s joining the other i7-9xx CPUs it will fit into the LGA 1366 socket and will be compatible with the Intel X58 chipset through a BIOS update. The processing speed is said to be around 3.33GHz on all 6 cores and 12 threads, similar to the preview we saw before.

With this revelation, we are now left wondering what will be put into the (assumed) Core i9 line-up that we have seen on several occasions in various roadmaps. No doubt more details of this chip will follow soon, as the release date is planted as Q1 2010.

In what appears like an update to this roadmap we saw back in July, we are getting more details of upcoming Intel processors. First off are the S, or low powered, versions of some processors, namely the i7-860 and i5-750, which bring the TDP down to 82W and also lower the clock speeds. These processors still carry the same amount of L3 cache and still TurboBoost up to the same clockspeeds as the non-”S” versions.

Then we get some details on the dual-core i5 CPUs that appear to be coming relatively soon. There is an i5-670, clocked at 3.46GHz, an i5-660/661 clocked at 3.33GHz and an i5-650 clocked at 3.2GHz. All these CPUs come with 4MB of L3 cache and have a TDP of 73W. Interestingly, these CPUs are marked with “2-core & GPU” colors and another chart shows them also to have some sort of GPU combined. We’ll have to wait for more details though.

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The most powerful 15-inch laptop just got a bit more powerful: it’s now packing one of the new Core i7 mobile processors on the inside. The Alienware M15x now has the fastest mobile processor available, the 2 GHz Intel Core i7 920XM, inside it’s massive 4kg, 4.8cm thick shell. Accompanying this CPU is a 1GB Nvidia GTX 260M, up to 8GB DDR3, a Blu-ray drive and your choice of either a 500GB hard drive or 256GB solid state drive

Of course, Alienware is known for some ridiculous pricing (the M17x costs around US$5,800 for the best configuration), and by using Dell’s online customizer, the M15x starts at US$1,499 and goes all the way up to US$4,599 for the best configuration. I still think that a gaming desktop is better value than a gaming laptop, but go ahead and buy this if you like powerful laptop hardware.