Eight Years Later, Netburst Finally Dies
05.17.07 - 06:49pm
Netburst has been lingering around for the last 18 months filling in Intel’s ultra-budget market but very soon Intel will replace the Pentium D with it’s new Core 2 Duo E2xxx line of chips. The Core 2 Duo/Quad E6xxx chips form the mid and upper range of chips in Intel’s portfolio with the E4xxx chips taking care of the low-end platform with prices starting around $100. The recently introduced E2xxx line will fill in the bottom-rung with prices starting around $70 and bring the Core 2 architecture in direct competition with AMD’s bottom tier processors, namely the X2 3600+ and X2 3800+.
With the wide range of choices now available from Intel along with the upcoming price cuts it’s becoming very difficult to recommend a certain processor for a certain purpose. The hardware sector has been on a rollercoaster ride of launches, failures, and price cuts so I haven’t done a Hardware Recommendation guide for May but in June when all the dust settles there should be a huge range of products to choose from. Intel is rumored to have pushed up their Q3 price cuts from ~September to July 22nd meaning that within 2 months you will be able to pick up a Q6600 for $266. Following closely after these price cuts will be the launch of AMD’s Phenom processor line, the successor of their Athlon line of desktop processors. Rumor has it that we will see AM2+ processors along with Socket F processors, hopefully AMD will be able to match Intel’s current performance rush while maintaining decent prices. For now the E2xxx line of chips will be great for budget machines for offices and such, otherwise I’d hold out for the Q6600. You might think “what do I need all this power for” and I just ask that you look over the developments over the last 2 years and the upcoming multi-threaded titles. Goodbye Netburst, it’s been fun.
Relevant Links
TechConnect Magazine Article on E2xxx Chips
PCOnline.com Review of E2xxx Chips
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