Confirming our source’s information from last week, Intel has quietly adjusted pricing for its Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, and Pentium processors—and the changes make some Core 2 Quad processors quite considerably cheaper. Here’s the meaty part of the cuts according to Intel’s official price list:
| Processor | Speed | L2 cache | FSB | Old price | New price |
| Core 2 Quad Q9650 | 3.00GHz | 12MB | 1333MHz | $530 | $316 |
| Core 2 Quad Q9550 | 2.83GHz | 12MB | 1333MHz | $316 | $266 |
| Core 2 Quad Q9400 | 2.66GHz | 6MB | 1333MHz | $266 | $213 |
| Core 2 Quad Q8300 | 2.50GHz | 4MB | 1333MHz | $224 | $183 |
| Core 2 Quad Q8200 | 2.33GHz | 4MB | 1333MHz | $193 | $163 |
| Core 2 Duo E7400 | 2.80GHz | 3MB | 1066MHz | $133 | $113 |
| Pentium E5300 | 2.60GHz | 2MB | 800MHz | $86 | $74 |
| Pentium E5200 | 2.50GHz | 2MB | 800MHz | $84 | $64 |
| Pentium E2200 | 2.40GHz | 1MB | 800MHz | $74 | $64 |
Interestingly, the Core 2 Quads Q9650, Q9400, and Q8300 seem to have undergone the largest cuts. If you’ve read our review of AMD’s Phenom II processors, you’ll know the Q9400 and Q8300 are in direct competition with AMD’s newest two offerings. AMD should now have little choice but to pull the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition to around $213 and the Phenom II X4 920 to around $183.
Intel’s cuts have also made room for some new blood, and we can spot a handful of newcomers in the company’s price list: Core 2 Quads Q9550s, Q9400s, and Q8200s CPUs, which are pricier than their near-namesakes but seem to have tighter thermal envelopes; the Core 2 Duo E7500, which takes the E7400’s spot at $133 and offers a higher 2.93GHz clock speed; and finally, the Pentium E5400, which arrives at $84 and brings a 200MHz-higher clock speed than the E5300. Those last two should put some pressure on AMD in the low-end.
Last, but not least, TR reader Gajanan has spotted a mysterious Core 2 Quad Q7500 in Intel’s Processor Spec Finder. This CPU doesn’t figure in the price list, but it looks like a stripped-down (and thus cheaper) quad-core offering, with a 2.6GHz clock speed, 2MB of L2 cache, 800MHz front-side bus, and 65W thermal envelope.
Update: Intel appears to have replaced the Spec Finder entry for the Core 2 Quad Q7500 with one for the Core 2 Quad Q9400s. This is more than a simple name change, though, since the listed specifications are different.
