Intel has started 2007 by launching a trio of processors where the common nominator is four physical cores. Intel’s continued venture with quad-core has now resulted in three new Quad-core models where one of them is for the retail market. This last one is the rumored Core 2 Quad Q6600, which with a frequency at 2.4GHz and an 8MB L2 cache, just like big brother QX6700, is suppose to become a cheaper alternative for those who wants to equip their PCs with more parallel power. At the moment, this is highly relative though. Q6600 namely costs over $800 in stores, which is just $100 less than QX6700 at best.
During the second quarter of 2007 the price is expected to drop to below $600, as we’ve earlier reported. Except from Q6600, Intel has also launched two new quad-core Xeon processors, Xeon X3220 and Xeon X3210. The only things separating them are the price and frequency, as X3220 has the exact same specifications as Q6600, while X3210 has a slightly lower frequency, 2.13GHz. The price of Xeon X3220 will be identical to Q6600, both now and after the price reduction as it will affect both models. X3210 will now cost close to $700 but is expected to drop to close to $400 during the second quarter.
