Intel's new branding (about time)

[stiltman]

Intel has revamped its processor badging and rating system. Consumers are the main target, though business systems will get new badging too.

The new badges include a die (the chip minus the packaging) accent in the upper right hand corner, a prominent main brand (e.g., "Core"), and the modifier (e.g., "i7").

Intel has also instituted a star system that rates chips from five stars (best performance in class) to one star (lowest performance). "So when a consumer goes into a Best Buy store they can distinguish between Centrino, Core, Celeron, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad," said Intel spokesman Bill Calder.


Continued...

You know what's the real scary part, my Q6600 only ranks 3 stars...OUCH!!!!
However, it's good news IMO. Intel got way to confusing with their chips over the past 1 1/2 years

Guess it's time to retire my Q6600 and get an i7....NOT!

[DarrellS]

The Q6600 is such a mediocre chip that they keep raising the price so that everyone will buy the i7 instead of the Q6600. I was planning on buying another Q6600 for my other PC when the i7s came out cause everyone said the price would drop. Wrong.

[rallynavvie]

I want new Xeon case badges

[disturbed1]

You know what's the real scary part, my Q6600 only ranks 3 stars...OUCH!!!!

My E8400 ranks 4 stars My next build will be with a middle spec'd Intel Quad core. I'd move upto i7 if the damn motherboards and DDR3 weren't so expensive.

[minidv2dvd]

"Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!"

does a 3 star overclocked 50% earn 4.5 stars?

[jagabo]

Now AMD will come up with a six star rating system to make their processors look faster!

[MJA]

You know what's the real scary part, my Q6600 only ranks 3 stars...OUCH!!!!

My E8400 ranks 4 stars My next build will be with a middle spec'd Intel Quad core. I'd move upto i7 if the damn motherboards and DDR3 weren't so expensive.

I don't understand why i7 motherboards are so expansive

[jagabo]

I don't understand why i7 motherboards are so expansive

For the same reason motherboards for new processors are always expensive. Intel soaks the MB manufacturers on the new chipset prices. And the MB manufacturers soak the buyers for the latest motherboards with all the bells and whistles. Once the bleeding edge crowd has bought their new motherboards more affordable boards come out.

[MJA]

i guess we just wait then

[lordsmurf]

Now AMD will come up with a six star rating system to make their processors look faster!

I'd take that bet. You're surely correct. :P

[jagabo]

And Apple will follow up with an eleven star system. They would call it a 10 star system but rate their fastest computer 11 stars. Such is the genius of Apple marketing.

[stiltman]

The Q6600 is such a mediocre chip.

Totally disagree
It's a damn good processor.

Sure it was only out for a few months before faster chips came out, but for the price at the time I bought mine, it had the most bang for the buck. I stll think it's a great chip. Might not be the fastest chip in town anymore, but I think it should rate 4 starts none the less

[disturbed1]

The Q6600 is such a mediocre chip.

Totally disagree
It's a damn good processor.

Sure it was only out for a few months before faster chips came out, but for the price at the time I bought mine, it had the most bang for the buck. I stll think it's a great chip. Might not be the fastest chip in town anymore, but I think it should rate 4 starts none the less

I debated for a while between the E8400 and Q6600, both $150 when I bought it. Some days, I wish I would have gotten the Q6600. Can't count how many times both of my cores have been pegged and I needed a couple more to get some work done. Maybe I should just jump to dual quad cores. I know that's what rallynavvie would do

I hear AMD is testing quad 6 core+ setups now. 24 cores

[DarrellS]

The Q6600 is such a mediocre chip.

Totally disagree
It's a damn good processor.

Sure it was only out for a few months before faster chips came out, but for the price at the time I bought mine, it had the most bang for the buck. I stll think it's a great chip. Might not be the fastest chip in town anymore, but I think it should rate 4 starts none the less

I was being sarcastic. I own a Q6600 also and like I said, I was hoping to get another one when the price came down but it never did. As soon as the i7 came out, the price started going up on the Q6600. It's about the same price now as what I paid for mine a year ago.

disturbed1 said he saw one for $150 when he got the E8400 but I never saw it below $185.

Newegg has the Q8300 for $189.99 ($214.99 for the Q6600) and although it's 2.5Ghz, the Q6600 is way faster at encoding h264 according to the benchtests.

The Q8300 and E8500 seem to be the best buys in the mid range CPUs right now. The Q6600 and E8500 were both $189 right before the i7s came out. The E8500 has stayed the same and the Q6600 has skyrocketed in price.

[budz]

If you got a micro center in your city they're selling the Q8200 for $99.99 instore special. Damn good deal!! The Q8200 has a low multiplier of 7x but for $99.99 & I'd buy it in a heartbeat but there's no micro center in Hawaii.

http://f.microcentermail.com//asbs/servlet/WebContView?C=16184152&R=1101100755&K=viFl&...rRc=1101100755

The newer Q6600 don't overclock very well. You're lucky if you got a G0 stepping one which can overclock very well. I got a Q9550 which is great but I paid over $340.00 for it as I couldn't wait till the price dropped cuz I'm impatient!

[disturbed1]

If you got a micro center in your city they're selling the Q8200 for $99.99 instore special. Damn good deal!! The Q8200 has a low multiplier of 7x but for $99.99 & I'd buy it in a heartbeat but there's no micro center in Hawaii.

http://f.microcentermail.com//asbs/servlet/WebContView?C=16184152&R=1101100755&K=viFl&...rRc=1101100755

The newer Q6600 don't overclock very well. You're lucky if you got a G0 stepping one which can overclock very well. I got a Q9550 which is great but I paid over $340.00 for it as I couldn't wait till the price dropped cuz I'm impatient!

disturbed1 said he saw one for $150 when he got the E8400 but I never saw it below $185.

Microcenter is where I picked up my E8400, still $149 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0299046 . Haven't bought anything from Newegg in awhile. Their prices just aren't as competitive anymore, plus their shipping isn't what it used to be either. Slow processing times, and it appears people just chuck the stuff in the boxes and put a couple of packing peanuts in there for good measure. I have received many items from Newegg that weren't done this way, the majority where just fine. When we make 20+ orders a year, and 4-8 either show up damaged, or with poor packing, I took our business elsewhere.

Nothing beats driving 20 minutes to Microcenter for a $25 DVD+/-R driver, $10 1 gig DDR2, and $50 160gig hard drive. Don't have to wait on UPS/Fed Ex or try to figure out why shipping is so much when we pay almost half of that through our UPS account. It seems they tend to raise the prices on free shipping items too.

[rallynavvie]

Maybe I should just jump to dual quad cores. I know that's what rallynavvie would do

"Would do"?

There's always a new best thing coming out just around the corner in the computing world so you have to bite the bullet and build a system sometime instead of waiting around for that next best thing. Being very familiar with Intel I wait for the die-shrink or "tock" phase of their chip development because the architecture has matured enough by then. Though the new i7 interests me I am not at all disappointed I didn't wait around for the Nehalem-based Xeons because I would have been a year without my new system by then and the i7 architecture is still new (think Nocona versus its later Irwindale replacement).

From what I've seen of Intel's desktop chips you can't really complain because I've seen nothing as terrible as what the Prescott P4s were

[disturbed1]

From what I've seen of Intel's desktop chips you can't really complain because I've seen nothing as terrible as what the Prescott P4s were

Willamette
I still have a socket 423 P4. If it wasn't for the Abit TH7 Raid motherboard, I would have thrown the thing away long ago. Too bad Abit no longer makes motherboards.