Your back to school computer will be obsolete on September 9th

New i7 processors will orphan current lineup of Dell and HP computes

Intel releasing i7 and i5 processors that are better and cheaper

Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, August 29, 2009

It is inevitable that computers get replaced by cheaper and faster models. It just hurts the ego and pocket book to buy on the cusp of a new and better processor family.

Intel is releasing new i7 and i5 processors, code name Nehalem,  around September 9th, 2009. Dell and HP are building computers with them while you read this.

All those back to school bargains will come back to bite consumers disappointed they bought old technology.

The new chips have reduced energy consumption and lowered cost. This means manufacturers can build desktops at lower price points that work better.

The original i7, released in Q4 2008, was a hot chip. It used 135 watts which had to be dissipated with more computer fans.

The Nehalen series i5 and i7 use 95 watts which means components inside the computer can be lighter with less heat dissipation equipment.

The i7 860 running at 2.8 Ghz will replace the i7 920 which is the only i7 that sold in quantity. It uses dual channel instead of triple channel memory, which means nothing to most of us.

According to EXPRreview, the i7 860 is faster than the i7 920 in almost every case.

Cinebench test from donanimhaber.com

The tests published yesterday are from a Turkish site. We have referenced an English translation since your Turkish and mine might be rusty. Thanks to DonanimHaber.com for the tests.

Initial cost for the i7 860 are equivalent to the i7 920 at $339 while the motherboards are about $125 less since the Northbridge controller functions are now in the i7. Translation – computers will cost less.

i5 750 processor

The i5 750 processor will be the staple of low priced desktops. It has 4 cores but only 4 threads versus 8 threads in the i7 series. This is not a problem for most home computers that are running single threading software.

Pricing and benchmarks are being kept under wraps by Intel but expect retail pricing under $200 which translates into sub $500 desktops that can send a man to the moon.

I couldn’t find any reliable benchmarks but they will start to appear in days. Stay tuned.

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