Intel rebranding with Core i3, i5 and i7 while Centrino shifted to WiFi/WiMAX

Intel announced that it will be rebranding its CPU range to simplify its lineup, focusing on the “Intel Core” prefix and transitioning the Centrino brand to cover the company’s WiFi and WiMAX products. Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 will eventually replace Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, distinguishing different feature sets; but confusingly, some processors will slot into multiple i-prefix categories, depending on their capabilities.



For instance, the upcoming Lynnfield desktop processor will be an Intel Core chip, but have various models that slot into the i5 or i7 segments. Broadly speaking, i3 is an entry-level chip, i5 is a mid-level chip and i7 is the flagship high-level processor. It’s not all change, though, as the Celeron and Pentium brands went on to cover “affordable entry-level” and “basic computing” respectively.

Finally, one of the most popular chips over the last twelve months, the Atom range of processors, will also survive, and vPro technology will be offered on certain i5 or i7 chips. There’ll also be a new star-system, shown under the Intel Core logo, which indicates whether its feature-packed or not.

Intel Rumor: New Chips and Price Drops

According to DigiTimes, rumor has it that Intel is set to drop its prices as well as introduce new processor models. If they come to fruition, some CPUs could see price drops of up to 20 percent. Intel is also said that these new processors will be revealed next month. Reports say April 19 will see the launch of the Q8400 (95W) and Q8400S (65W), both clocked to 2.66 GHz but priced at $183 and $245, respectively.

The same report, which cites sources at motherboard manufacturers says that we’ll see more processors introduced at the end of May, including Celeron and Pentium Dual-Core parts, the Core 2 Duo E7600 and two new Core i7s: the 3.06 GHz 950 and the 3.33 GHz 975, priced at $562 and $999, respectively. The news comes just a couple of months after Intel dropped the prices on several processors significantly, with some of the cuts amounting to as much as 48 percent. The company's Celeron Mobile 570, Core 2 Quad Q9650 and Xeon X3370 all saw cuts of over 40 percent.

Here’s a full list of the aforementioned price drops and new releases, courtesy of DigiTimes.

Seven $200-300 Core i7 X58 Motherboard Roundup

Hunting for a motherboard for my next Core i7 rig, I stumbled upon a very informative article, tomshardware's thorough roundup of seven Core i7 motherboards in the $200-$300 price bracket.

According to them, there were originally ten candidates for the roundup but interestingly two failed to submit samples and one conked out before reaching POST (Power-On Self-Test).

They also warned that spending $200 or more on a new motherboard or simply paying an additional $100 just to obtain the new socket might surprise you with the realities of the Core i7, and checking out this roundup will definitely help you a lot in spotting gems from rubbles in the X58 market.

These are the following boards that were tested:

1. Asus P6T


2. Biostar TPower X58


3. DFI LANParty DK X58-T3eH6


4. EVGA X58 3X SLI


5. Foxconn Renaissance


6. MSI X58 Platinum SLI


7. ASRock X58 SuperComputer


The verdict? The Asus P6T gained top spot, which also happens to be my all time board favorite. Second place goes to MSI X58 Platinum running a base clock of 133.7 Mhz. They also concluded, and I quote:

"With a performance advantage of over 2% over the Foxconn, DFI, ASRock, Biostar, and EVGA products, Asus could have easily won the performance comparison even without its 0.20% base clock advantage. Exceptional performance at its stock settings earns Asus' P6T a spot in each Tom's Hardware lab as our reference platform for 2009."

Percent total performance difference from all benchies are shown below.


You can read more about the Core i7 X58 roundup at tomshardware here.

The New Kinetic HD:Hub fitted with Intel Core i7

Kinetic Media Center reported its latest Kinetic HD:HUB fitted with an Intel Core i7. The Kinetic HD:Hub is more than a High Definition Entertainment System that allows you to collect all your HD content such as photos, movies and music - it’s a Beast just waiting to be unleashed.

In order to be the best, fastest and most powerful Home Entertainment System around, Kinetic comes fitted with Intel Core i7 Processor - the worlds fastest processor. It out performs every other processor on the market and is currently the Number 1 when it comes to providing the best High Definition experience. Play back a DVD while encoding High Definition movies and running a virus scan... it’s all possible with Intel’s Core i7.

With built in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD support you can collect and catalog an entire movie library in stunning quality. You can also rip all of your CD’s to the massive internal storage system (upto 6TB!), and still have room to store all your family photos and movies.

And since it runs on Windows Vista it can also do things your normal PC can... Browse the Web, Check Email, Order Shopping, Write Letters and Create Presentations. All of our HD:Hubs come complete with Windows Vista Home Premium, which includes Windows Media Centre - now you can collect and store all your digital memories in one easy to find location.

There’s even support for FreeSat HDTV, Virgin Media and Sky HD. Simply add an HDTV Tuner to your customised HD:Hub and begin building your HD Library in no time!*

There's no mention yet of a price, but we get the feeling that these are mostly reserved for those across the pond.