Velocity Micro have announced a new PC range based on Intel’s freshly-announced Core i7 processors. The Core-920, Core-940 and Core-965 Extreme will all be offered on select models in the company’s Edge, Raptor, ProMagix and Vector models, with prices starting at $1,699.
CyberPower just announced their Black Pearl model, which features their brand new Core i7 processor. This thing really packs in the power, when you get right down to it.
When it comes to specs, this thing is pretty powerful with a 3.2GHz 965 Extreme Edition processor, two 2GB ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 PCI-Express cards, 12GB of RAM and more. It also features an Intel X58 chipset and supports NVIDIA three-way SLI and ATI CrossFireX tech.
Additional features include DDR3/1600 SATA RAID, eSATA, Dual GbLAN, FireWire, USB 2.0 and 7.1 audio support. As you might have expected, the Black Pearl–not to be confused with the Pirates of the Caribbean ship–costs a pretty penny at $3,999.
If our review of Gateway’s FX6800-01e Intel Core i7-powered desktop PC whetted your appetite, but you want more Nehalem goodness, you’ll be pleased to hear that the company has unveiled a second FX6800-series PC. The FX6800-05 swaps the entry-level model’s Core i7-920 processor for an i7-940 CPU, running at 2.93GHz. That’s not the only change, either: out goes the graphics and three single gigabyte RAM chips, to be replaced by ATI Radeon HD4870 X2 video cards and 6GB of DDR3 1066MHz memory.
This month marks the release of Intel’s new i7 processor. Die-hard PC enthusiasts drooled over the latest and greatest i7 with unparalleled efficiency and performance would have to pay a higher price to get the novelties ahead of everyone. While many are struggling to get hold of the new Intel Core i7 processors, Newegg is one step ahead of the industry; the online vendor has already put up a custom built Nehalem gaming rig available to order online.
Intel have announced a press conference in San Francisco on November 17th, where it will officially launch the Core i7 “Nehalem” processor range. Although test chips are already with reviewers – in fact we reviewed one of the first PCs to use the Core i7 920 CPU, the Gateway FX6800-01e, here - until now the actual release date was unknown.
Sitting on the SlashGear test bench for the past week or so has been Gateway’s FX6800-01e PC, and boy have we wanted to tell you about it. Outwardly there’s little to suggest – beyond the color scheme, which edges on the vibrant – that the FX6800-01e is anything other than a standard Gateway machine, but the giveaway is the discrete Intel Core i7 badge. This is one of the first systems to use Intel’s next-gen processor, formerly known as Nehalem, marking a significant architecture change from the Core series. The FX6800-01e is based on an Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz quad-core processor; the biggest question remains, is performance increase as revolutionary as the architecture?
Intel are gearing up to launch their new Core i7 processor, formerly known as ‘Nehalem’, and so manufacturers are starting to put out compatible motherboards. Register Hardware have had the ASUS P6T Deluxe on the test bench, complete with six DDR3 RAM slots, 16+2-phase power design, three PCI Express 2.0 slots and onboard Crossfire and SLI. However, because the Core i7 isn’t actually officially released yet, they can’t tell us exact processor performance figures.
Intel clammed up after announcing the Core i7 processors back in August, saying nothing but that it was aiming for Q4 production. Now leaked information is suggesting a November 2008 launch, together with further details of the mainstream, performance and extreme versions Intel are planning. Each will have four cores and a TDP of 130W.
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