Intel's "Black Edition" Finally Here

[lopri]

i7-875K and i5-655K

 

[lopri]

i7-870: $562
i7-870K: $342 (identical to i7-870 but multipliers unlocked)

Sad reminder how CPU prices are not subject to a competitive market today.

 

[pitz]

CPU 'market' is competitive all right -- there's one price for Dell and a few other selected high volume buyers, and another set of pricing for people who just buy a couple units or a few thousand units at a time.

Now if only Microsoft would start offering OEM licenses of Windows 7 to the general public, at costs that resemble what Dell pays! At $150 or so for a current OEM license of Windows 7 (Professional, not the "Home" stuff), its pretty ridiculous to know that Dell is probably only paying 1/3rd of that.

 

[Phynaz]

Pitz,
Call Microsoft and offer to buy 1,000,000 copies of Windows. I'm sure you could get a price that resembles what Dell pays. It's called a volume discount for a reason.

 

[jvroig]

i7-870: $562
i7-870K: $342 (identical to i7-870 but multipliers unlocked)

The model which has an unlocked multiplier is $200 cheaper? Does this mean the 870 will be phased out in favor of the 870K?

 

[Soleron]

CPU 'market' is competitive all right -- there's one price for Dell and a few other selected high volume buyers, and another set of pricing for people who just buy a couple units or a few thousand units at a time.

That's not lack of competition, that's normal bulk discounts. If Intel were imposing extra conditions on Dell in exchange for the low price (like not buying more than a certain number of AMD chips) then that would be illegal. But discounting for volume is perfectly normal and makes economic sense.

 

[lopri]

The model which has an unlocked multiplier is $200 cheaper? Does this mean the 870 will be phased out in favor of the 870K?

From TechReport:

Intel charges a bit of a premium for the 655K versus the 650, but the 875K is $220 cheaper than the Core i7-870—at least right now. One would expect the Core i7-870's price to snap into line or the product to be canceled, but Intel says it has no plans to change the i7-870's price "in the near term." So it may just hang around as a singularly poor value. Whatever happens, the 875K gives you a more flexible CPU for a whole lot less cash.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18988/1

How nice would it be if you're in a market position where Intel sits. I applauded Intel's "Pilot" program in China and was most likely to do the same when a similar program lands in the U.S., but this move is seriously a joke. Give me unlocked i5-750 or i7-930 and I might change my mind.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I guess Intel is feeling the heat from AMD's "Black Edition" CPUs, especially the most recent 1090T. I found the comments on the last page of that AT article interesting.

Our perceptions changed when Intel told us that they will not be binning these processors in a special way or marketing them at die-hard overclockers, but instead at system builders who can utilize the unlocked core features to provide cheap pre-overclocked systems with minimal fuss.

That's quite a change in stance for Intel. Remember back in the Pentium II days, when companies were buying the unlocked lower-speed chips, and overclocking them and selling them as faster systems? That's the whole reason that Intel started locking the multiplier on their chips! This is a massive, massive about-face.

I wonder why? AMD?

PS. The bigger question in my mind is, are they going to offer these in the US, or only in China? And will Dell be offering these in systems, and will they leave the multiplier settings in the BIOS accessable, to allow overclocking?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Intel has launched 'K' processors as a China/East Asia-only product in the past (there were 'K' Core 2s), and I posted a link to an article in this forum a few weeks/months back about how they were going to do the same thing with some Clarkdale and Lynnfield products in China as well. The fact that Anandtech got their hands on some units for testing would seem to imply that Intel is prepared to bring 'K' procs to North America, though that is only a guess on my part.

And yeah, my guess is that Intel wants to cut into AMD's sale of X2, X3, X4, and X6 BE parts, though the focus on system builders confuses me a bit. Are there a lot of discount builds being sold out there with stock overclocked BE procs in them? From a builder's point-of-view, just ramping up the multi would be a lot easier than having to raise htt or bclk, especially from a testing/validation point-of-view.

 

[Idontcare]

How nice would it be if you're in a market position where Intel sits. I applauded Intel's "Pilot" program in China and was most likely to do the same when a similar program lands in the U.S., but this move is seriously a joke. Give me unlocked i5-750 or i7-930 and I might change my mind.

Pretty much the same across industries where patent protection is used to carve out an effective product monopoly that then gets maximized on a "per country" basis.

Pharmaceuticals anyone? Think the per-license fee for Photoshop CS5 is $600USD in China like it is in North America? Think MS charges $150 for legit Win7 licenses in Africa? What do you think Coca-Cola charges for that $2USD (in USA) 16oz Coke if you happen to be buying it in India?

It's the golden rule no matter how you slice it up...he who has the gold makes the rules. And right now the "he" is actually an "it" as in the businesses. Not that I think I'm telling you anything you don't already know, your anti-patent stance is well publicized, just saying it's all symptoms of the same disease and it infects all industries (not isolated to Intel).

 

[lsv]

i7-870: $562
i7-870K: $342 (identical to i7-870 but multipliers unlocked)

Sad reminder how CPU prices are not subject to a competitive market today.

$562? How is it so expensive? i7 930 is under $300. How does this work?

 

[Interitus]

I posted on the main page, but for better discussion I'll repost here.

Why does this make any sense on the 1156 platform? Intel created 2 different platforms, 1366 enthusiast and 1156 mainstream. Why is this on 1156 and not on 1366? Does that make any sense since 1366 is supposed to be the enthusiast/OC/hardcore version?

Keep in mind I'm not arguing the viability of either socket. I'm just saying that Intel designed 1366 to be the high end, so why do this for the low end, but keep the unlocked chips for 1366 at $1k?

When I originally posted this, somehow I missed how it was not supposed to be aimed at OC'ers but for system builders. Regardless, I'm sure some people would even buy low-end systems at minimal cost and gut them for the "K" CPU's. I know I've done it before. If you could snag a system at <$500, pull the CPU and resell the rig to someone, you could easily have one of these CPU's to play with even if availability is limited to OEM's.

Someone tell me I'm missing something, because otherwise this is absolutely stupid IMO. Not that I'm unhappy with my 920, but having an unlocked multi to play with would be nice.

 

[tweakboy]

You should be able to, There is a way... gl

 

[lopri]

$562? How is it so expensive? i7 930 is under $300. How does this work?

I think you misunderstood me. I didn't say anything was too expensive. If you'd like to take i7-930 as an example, imagine the following:

i7-930: $280
i7-930K: $180 (identical to i7-930 but multipliers unlocked)

Does that compute for you? Or can you think of a (free) market where such practice makes sense?

 

[jvroig]

I think you misunderstood me. I didn't say anything was too expensive. If you'd like to take i7-930 as an example, imagine the following:

I think there's been a case of miscommunication here.

When I read his post, I understood it to mean he is asking why the i7-870 is >$500 when the i7-930 is only $300 (the basis for the incredulity being that the "930" should be more powerful and thus more expensive than the "870" thanks to the numbering)

 

[VirtualLarry]

i5-655K is still rediculously more expensive than, say, a Phenom II X3 720 BE.
Seems kinda pointless to me.

 

[jihe]

Seems kind of useless, overclock is limited by cpu before fsb.

 

[mhahnheuser]

....OEM's will produce systems more competitive at the low end with these cpu's, so as long as they pick up and honour the warranty it should be ok, and I have no problem with it. My worry is that a lot of folks will be paying extra $$ for products running out of spec. Got enough problems with highend laptops at the moment, now we add desktops to fray - not sure it's such a good idea though???

As for cannibalising a system for an unlocked cpu? This surely can only be contemplated by someone who has been out in the sun too long - delirious. Please save your money and your dignity and buy a BE Phenom. At least we all know that is at user's own risk and let's not muddy the water of a niche market created by a credible product.

 

[Interitus]

As for cannibalising a system for an unlocked cpu? This surely can only be contemplated by someone who has been out in the sun too long - delirious. Please save your money and your dignity and buy a BE Phenom. At least we all know that is at user's own risk and let's not muddy the water of a niche market created by a credible product.

It's really not that big of a deal. Figure in how OEM's price systems. You can get a Dell with the same parts as what you price yourself for WAY cheaper frequently. So if you can do that, pull the CPU, put a locked one back in and sell the whole rig you gutted.. You come out almost ahead. It's not that uncommon. I've bought a Dell with a nice GPU for 100 more than the GPU cost alone, replaced it with my old GPU and then sold the Dell. Wound up getting a $300 GPU for $80 in the end. And that's with fair pricing on the rig I sold.

It's not insane if you know what you're doing and have people ready to buy the rig you purchase.

 

[A554SS1N]

When will the 875K chips appear in retail - I've not seen anything yet? I can't seem to find any info in any article I read either. Is this just a paper-launch?

 

[Kenmitch]

I thought the initial reports on the 875k was kinda a overclocking dog wasn't it? Maybe these are low binned chips without a multiplier lock just to make the temptation to purchase one greater

 

[Kenmitch]

When will the 875K chips appear in retail - I've not seen anything yet? I can't seem to find any info in any article I read either. Is this just a paper-launch?

You can find some info here for it. http://www.anandtech.com/show/3742/intels-core-i5655k-core-i7875k-overclocked-and-analysed-

 

[taltamir]

Pretty much the same across industries where patent protection is used to carve out an effective product monopoly that then gets maximized on a "per country" basis.

Pharmaceuticals anyone? Think the per-license fee for Photoshop CS5 is $600USD in China like it is in North America? Think MS charges $150 for legit Win7 licenses in Africa? What do you think Coca-Cola charges for that $2USD (in USA) 16oz Coke if you happen to be buying it in India?

It's the golden rule no matter how you slice it up...he who has the gold makes the rules. And right now the "he" is actually an "it" as in the businesses. Not that I think I'm telling you anything you don't already know, your anti-patent stance is well publicized, just saying it's all symptoms of the same disease and it infects all industries (not isolated to Intel).

I prefer to call it "First rule of economics: Something is worth as much as you can get people to pay for it"

 

[jvroig]

I prefer to call it "First rule of economics: Something is worth as much as you can get people to pay for it"

Exactly. In business, it is said that the ideal price is whatever is the most the target market/niche/customer is willing to pay, hence the proliferation of so many market segmentation techniques, from "weekend rates" to coupons and MIR.

 

[nyker96]

I hope Intel can eventually unlock a lower end product like say a i5-750K. now that's going to sell like hot cakes, not that it really matters much considering it's not hard to OC i7 750s even with locked multipliers. They are probably wanting to win some enthusiasts' businesses from AMD with these two new K models.