Minor tweaks
Intel has launched the Q8400 quad core desktop CPU and its low power variant, the Q8400S. It has also dropped the prices of some quad cores to accommodate them.
The price of the SP9400 Core 2 Duo mobile processor has also been dropped, as have its low voltage and ultra-low voltage variants. A few Xeons have also had a price cut.
| Model | Cache (MB) | Cores | Frequency (GHz) | Price ($) | Change (%) |
| Q9300 | 6 | 4 | 2.50 | 213 | -20 |
| Q8400 | 4 | 4 | 2.66 | 183 | |
| Q9550S | 12 | 4 | 2.83 | 320 | -13 |
| Q9400S | 6 | 4 | 2.66 | 277 | -13 |
| Q8400S | 4 | 4 | 2.66 | 245 | |
| Q8200S | 4 | 4 | 2.33 | 213 | -13 |
| SP9400 | 6 | 2 | 2.40 | 284 | -10 |
| SL9400 | 6 | 2 | 1.86 | 284 | -10 |
| SU9400 | 3 | 2 | 1.40 | 262 | -9 |
| X3330 | 6 | 4 | 2.66 | 219 | -2 |
| X3320 | 6 | 4 | 2.50 | 219 | -18 |
| L6630 | 12 | 4 | 2.83 | 320 | -13 |
It's not clear why Intel didn't drop the price of the Q9300 by more as it still costs the same as the 2.66GHz Q9400. The Q8400 seems to make the Q8300 obsolete and the SP9400 price drops make the SP9300 and its variants redundant.
How much consumer demand there is for low power desktop CPUs is also far from obvious, but we can presumably expect them to appear in server/workstation form before long.
