Intel to ship dual-core Sandy Bridge chips on February 20

Jos

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Despite recent problems with its 6 Series chipset Intel is moving full steam ahead with the rollout of new Sandy Bridge processors. The dual-core, four-thread mobile variants in the Core i3, i5, and i7 families will launch on February 20 using between 17 and 35 watts of power while running at speeds up to 2.7GHz, according to the chip maker's website.

Specifically the lineup includes the 35W Core i5 2540M and 2520M, which will clock in at 2.6GHz and 2.5GHz, respectively. There's a low-power 17W Core i5 2537M clocked at 1.40GHz and a pair of embedded CPUs clocked at 2.5GHz due to be released on the same day. The company will also ship seven Core i7 microprocessors, with a range topping Core i7 2620M running at 2.7GHz, and the Core i3 2310E clocked at 2.1GHz, both with a 35W TDP.

In terms of feature set the Core i7 variants come with 4MB cache and Turbo Boost support. Core i5 models slightly reduce the amount of cache to 3MB while at the end of the scale the Core i3 also drops Intel's Turbo Boost.

On the desktop side of things there are three new chips in the Core i3 family scheduled to debut. These include the 3.3GHz 2120 and 3.1GHz 2100, both featuring a 65W thermal-envelope, and the low-power 2.5GHz 2100T consuming just 35W. Again, the Core i3 parts won't support Turbo Boost and these three chips in particular are limited to just 3MB total cache compared to others in the Core i3 desktop lineup that feature 4MB.

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Looks like a full-bore Sandy Bridge launch even with the P67 chipset problem. Intel looks bent on pressuring AMD in every price segment of the PC market. Bad news also for Socket 1156 and 1366 owners, their upgrade path looks to be pretty much non existent at this point.
 
Kinda glad I've more or less waited until now (some being money/price issues, others being lazy), though I'll look into a full rebuild after the chipset issue has been cleared out of the air.

Also, am I the only one crazy enough to want a sandy bridge based laptop in a netbook sized enclosure, while not particularly caring about power drain? Seriously, I'd love one for basic photo editing (can't do much on a 10.1-11 inch screen lol) and tagging, as well as general use that DOES NOT feel sluggish, like it does with pretty much every netbook that has come out up till now. Even If it lasted an hour to an hour and a half, that'd be a win for me. =p

I'm just that crazy.
 
I completely agree with you man. But alas! there is something for our taste! check out the alienware m11x. 11'' screen with the with available i7. Very powerful 11'' notebook.
 
Acer has a system out with that processor too, but only with intel graphics so compared to the m11x it's still weak. I figure a Sandy Bridge based netbook sized laptop would be better performance per watt, even in LV-ULV territory.
 
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