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Intel 45nm quad-core CPUs not available for months
Author: Richard SwinburnePublished: 13th April 2008
The Q9450s: we can't find them either.
While Intel is not having yield problems, we did find out it is facing fab capacity problems - an eye opener seeing as it has more fabs than any other chip company.
We checked UK retailers for Q9450 stock and only found it available OEM at OCUK for a wallet emptying £293.74. This is significantly more than the typical £260 asking price, such is the consequence of supply and demand.
What about Q9300? This chip has half the cache (even less than the 65nm Q6000 range) and is slightly slower than the Q9450 (2.5GHz versus 2.66GHz), but it also has a faster 1,333MHz FSB compared to the Q6600's 1,066MHz. This does impact on the overclocking though: The Q6600 has a 9.0x multiplier which should allow the chip to clock further than the Q9300's 7.5x.
We checked other UK retailers today and only found quite a few of these available: Ebuyer has the UK best price at £162.95 and 54 in stock, although Scan and Yoyotech aren't far behind at £169.20 and £169.39 respectively.
OCUK has 10+ in stock of the OEM version on offer for £171.54 and Tekheads has three in stock for £176. Remember you can also keep updated on the Q9300 with bit-tech shopping.
It's not all Intel's problem though - the new energy efficient AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e, a 2.5GHz 65nm dual-core 45W chip that launched with AMD's new 780G chipset is also nowhere to be found. You can find the 45W BE-2400 just fine, but it's also only 2.3GHz and very expensive compared to other CPUs like the 65W 5000+. In contrast, the new Phenom X4 9850 has more stock - the best UK price is again Ebuyer for £152 but other stores aren't far behind.
Are you frustrated with CPU availability and have you resorted to buying something else? Let us know in the forums.
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Comments (16)
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I visited Aria and they are expecting retail q9450s as well as the faster q9550s (both retail) this month. It might also be worth mentioning that they have q9450 OEM's in stock for £206.47 inc VAT.
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Quad+Q9450+2.66GHz+%28OEM+775%29+?productId=30934
I've currently got an order in for a Q9550 with Scan and getting somewhat annoyed especially considering most OEM manufacturers are getting there hands on them already.
Usually that would really upset me, as I hardly ever buy new hardware and am always looking forward to it, but I'm so busy at the moment that I might not have time to put it all together even if it did arrive, so I'm happy to be patient... For once lol.
Is it just me or has availability on the latest tech been really short for the last few releases? It started with the 8800GT and kinda spread.
lol, I am relying on my Conroe to last until Nehalem becomes affordable. I doubt there will be much it bottlenecks with my usage until then.
Just noticed on Wikipedia that there have actually been Nehalems before in the Netburst days
I think waiting this long is too much. I'm just gonna opt for a q6600, there not much in it so ho hum.
The Nehalems were being taped out during the P4 days, but the Tejas team was split to make Penryn and Silverthorne. :)
Doesn't really make me want to shop with them again!
huh?
q9300 and xeon equivalents show similar numbers at all the major stores in canada. i guess it sucks to be in the uk.
You guys have FAR more availability than us over here in Blighty, although our E8500/8400 stock seems to be better than you ;)