An early look at the QX9770

Peter G. 19 Nov, 2007 at 12:14pm ET Article published in Tech

Comments

1. 
   19 Nov 2007 ~ 1:59pm Winfrey One thing for sure is that they won't be cheap.
2. 
   19 Nov 2007 ~ 8:30pm Leonardo No, they will be expensive when first released. Within six months after release, they will tumble in price, especially if AMD has something competitive (or at least cheap). But look at the Q6600: it's available for less than $300 less than a year after introduction. Considering it's capabilities, I'd say it's not expensive.
3. 
   20 Nov 2007 ~ 11:46am RADA I've resigned myself to being 6-8 months behind the lastest technology when I start my next build.
   
   1. The prices are getting beyond painful. Oh, how I long for the days when the Uber video card was in the sub $250 range...
   
   2. Manufacturers are pumping this stuff out so fast now, I feel like they have made the consumers into part of their Beta-Test platform. Call me crazy, but I'd rather not be a pseudo-lab rat for a manufacturer after dropping $600+ dollars on a piece of equipment, specially with the less than stellar RMA policies and procedures some of these companies enforce on us consumers.
4. 
   20 Nov 2007 ~ 11:49am Thrax What, like the TNT2 Ultra days?
5. 
   20 Nov 2007 ~ 11:52am Winfrey True after six months the prices will drop some but the "Extreme Edition" line of proc's that intel puts out have a nasty disposition to "hang" in price. Mostly because there isn't competition from AMD in the high-end Desktop CPU market. The QX9770 will go down when Intel releases its next gen quad core or eight core or what have you.
   
   I still think the jury is out on whether these EE procs are worth the extra dough. Right now the Q6600 is the most attractive CPU on the market because of its great performance/price combination. You may get 10-20% more out of an EE proc, but you pay 100-150% more.
6. 
   20 Nov 2007 ~ 11:54am Thrax Nah, you don't get anything more out of an EE chip than you do a regular chip, once the silicon filters down. The EE chips are a waste of money.
7. 
   20 Nov 2007 ~ 12:21pm Leonardo

   1. The prices are getting beyond painful. Oh, how I long for the days when the Uber video card was in the sub $250 range...
   
   2. Manufacturers are pumping this stuff out so fast now, I feel like they have made the consumers into part of their Beta-Test platform. Call me crazy, but I'd rather not be a pseudo-lab rat for a manufacturer after dropping $600+ dollars on a piece of equipment, specially with the less than stellar RMA policies and procedures some of these companies enforce on us consumers.

   I really must disagree with you. When those top tier video cards were under $250, how many years ago was that? Adjusted for inflation, I think computer parts now are much more affordable than they were before. How much did PCs cost 10 and 15 years ago? I just upgraded three computers for same outlay it would have taken for just one computer a few years ago. It wasn't that long ago that a 30GB drive cost more in constant dollars than a 750GB drive does. No, high tech is a whole lot less expensive now. As far as tested, ready hardware and we being beta testers. No, again I must disagree. With an odd exception now and then, what do what have today that compare to the dismal days of sorry VIA chipsets and Creative sound cards that required voodoo to get working correctly?

   Nah, you don't get anything more out of an EE chip than you do a regular chip

   EE = huge ripoff. Q6600 with hardly any effort at all on a sub-$100 motherboard will overclock well past the stock speed of Intel's fastest quad core.