Next year is just around the corner, and 2007 is promising to be another big year in the CPU industry. Intel wants everyone to smile and say "Conroe," but AMD has other plans - its 65nm parts are due out in Q3 and they don't look too shabby on paper. So what happens when you're the leading performance winner, soon to see your crown evaporate in an ever-repeating struggle of Moore's law?

Easy: you do just like AMD did with Conroe's release, and you slash prices like it's your job. Which is exactly what Intel will be doing in Quarter 2 of 2007 with its whole Core 2 line. If you can't win by performance, you might still win by performance per dollar.

The Core 2 price cuts will accompany the release of a couple new low-budget chips in the lineup during second quarter. However, the cuts will affect all of the lineup, even the new Core 2 Quads. Each chip is getting a reduction of roughly 25-35%, but here are some of the most important figures for you:

• Core 2 Quad Q6600 - Down to $530 from $851
  
• Core 2 Duo E6700 - Down to $316 from $530
  
• Core 2 Duo E6600 - Down to $224 from $316
  
• Core 2 Duo E6400 - Down to $183 from $224
  
• Core 2 Duo E6300 - Down to $163 from $183

Along with the reduction, new chips will be added to the lineup. First will be the 4MB cache versions of each of the current Allendale cores, labeled as E6320 and E6420. As well, a couple lower-end chips (the E4400 and E4300) will make their way into the lineup to replace the old Celeron chips.

All in all, it looks like Intel is taking AMD's Q3 2007 announcements pretty seriously. We may have a good battle on our hands. In the meantime, if you're pretty set on Core 2 Duo (and we can't really blame you), you may just want to wait a little while.

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