Intel to Offer Affordable Processors With Unlocked Multipliers
Intel is reportedly working on a Lynnfield/Clarkdale processor with unlocked multipliers and, the most important is, the CPU will arrive with an affordable price.
Intel only unlocks multipliers on its highest-end models like Extreme Edition, except for Pentium E6500K which was only found on sale in China.
According to Steve Peterson, the head of marketing of Intel’s chipset department, the company is introducing an overclockable and affordable model fairly soon. Though he didn’t mention which socket it supports, we guess it would be LGA1156.
When asked about the overclocking potential, Peterson said it depends on the cooling conditions. Such processors with unlocked multipliers should be available in a limited quantity, and we have no clue if it will retails worldwide or in Europe only – but the good news is it would be just a bit more expensive than regular models.
March 5th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
come on, where’s the catch?
March 6th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
I imagine it’ll be a Core i7-870 with an unlocked multiplier for $599.99 MSRP. I’m going to assume it will compete with Thuban Black Edition for the people whom love pumping volts through CPUs that are 2-3 times what average joe overclocker would pay and 1/2 what crazy extremist would pay. Interesting niche.
870 has a 22x (23x turbo) stock multiplier. This begs the question, does anyone other than an extreme overclocker, likely to be on S1366, really need greater than a 23x multiplier? Lynnfield doesn’t seem to love much over 4ghz without high volts/power consumption, and this can be obtained through a reasonable base clock overclock on a decent motherboard with an 860, which is half the price.
I guess that would be the catch.
March 6th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Only someone used to spending $1k would see an MSRP of $600 as affordable.
Consider Intel’s experimental sales run in China of a Pentium E6500K with an unlocked multi was available no where near the dollar equivalent of $600. It was basically a crippled 45nm Core 2 Duo, just enough so E8000 sales were cut into. So only frequency junkies were interested.
That would be the only way Intel could sell such CPUs and make a buck, and not cut into sales of higher priced non-unlocked CPUs, if something like their Clarkdale-based Pentium G6950 or Core i3’s were unlocked. Most defintely an i7 in s1156 will not get unlocked, as it would cut into s1366 sales since that’s where the only unlocked CPUs are showing up.
Keep in mind, it is AMD’s cheaper dual/tri-core black editions that are forcing Intel’s hand, which are all less than $300.
March 7th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
HAHA !
So AMD forced intel to make affordable processors with unlocked multipliers !
AMD rocks !