Intel's Core i7 'Clarksfield' CPUs for laptops launching late September?

Taiwanese rumor-rag, DigiTimes, has a knack for sniffing out insider information from within Taiwan's MoBo manufacturing cartel. So it's worth paying attention when it claims to have the latest launch schedule for Intel CPUs. Up first is a trio of laptop-based Clarksfield CPUs -- 2GHz Core 2 Extreme XE, 1.73GHz Core 2 Quad P2, and a 1.6GHz Core 2 Quad P1 –- ready to make their debut sometime around the end of September or October. These processors should carry the Core i7 brand to keep things as confusing simple as possible and would be a suitable match for a Q4 refresh of the MacBook Pro or Dell XPS laptop, for example. At the low end of the rumored schedule are a pair of Celeron SU2300 and Celeron 743 CPUs for ultra-thin laptops with an expected announcement coming at the end of September. Intel's also pegged with plans for desktop-based Lynnfield CPUs and P55 chipsets to be announced between September 8-11. The first announcement is set for early August -- if Intel starts making a fuss about its new Xeon procs for servers at that time then we'll have a pretty good idea as to the validity of DigiTimes' claims.

[dros @ Jul 13th 2009 7:06AM]

Dude, Where's My GHz?

[DR House @ Jul 13th 2009 7:33AM]

1.6 GHZ 380$
1.7 GHZ 800$
2.0 GHZ 1000$

lol intel i'll take that Dual core 2 duo 3.000 for 500$
IF ONLY AMD matters in the mobile market intel wouldn't steal us like this

[Rob @ Jul 13th 2009 12:40PM]

You, understandably, misunderstand. These chips have a low and high mode. The 2.0 ghz chip, for example, can ramp up to 3.2 ghz as needed per application and usage. So you get the battery power most of the time and the brute force when you need it.

[loosely_coupled @ Jul 13th 2009 8:51PM]

@Rob

Don't insult someone if you yourself are a bit misinformed. The point of Intel's "Turbo Boost" technology is to increase performance on single-threaded and weakly-threaded applications by shutting down x number of processing cores and increasing the clock frequency of the remaining cores -- all while staying with the same TDP. Although the implementation is far better on the Clarksfield mobile chips than it is on Bloomfield/Core i7, you are not going to see 1000Mhz clock bumps when all four cores are running. The 3.2Ghz turbo boost will no doubt only be seen when one core is active, with two and three cores running significantly slower. Running on all four cores with a cool platform will probably net you no more than ~200mhz or so with Turbo boost turned on.

[rezaudio @ Jul 13th 2009 7:08AM]

So many different chips to choose from - I just want a high end desktop that can handle all the pro audio stuff !

Is i7 the thing for me ... ?

[GingerFox @ Jul 13th 2009 7:19AM]

The i7 flys, my friend has a 2.66 one and it eats any thing thats thrown at it, puts my quad core to shame, so should do what you want it to.

[Lazarpandar @ Jul 13th 2009 7:28AM]

Yeah if there's something you can't do on an i7 you're doing something wrong.

[rezaudio @ Jul 13th 2009 7:28AM]

@GingerFox

Thanks - I have a friend who is loving his Quad core for music making but I just don't want to get something that will be obsolete in 6 months. I know the i7's will be superseded eventually but at least if I get the mid ranged one (with over-clocking) I should get some longevity in a quad core hyperthread CPU running at 3.8Ghz.

We'll see ...

[Drew @ Jul 13th 2009 7:45AM]

They're amazing. I have the Intel i7 950 in a rig I built myself and it's incredible. That's the 3.07 Ghz. I overclocked it easily up to 3.67 Ghz and it only runs at 47 degrees C at 100% output. I can easily throw any application and it runs it flawlessly without question. I am probably going to see if I can push it to 4.0 Ghz but I don't see the need. It's already wicked fast in the meantime.

[rezaudio @ Jul 13th 2009 8:05AM]

@ Drew

What did you pay for it? I know it's a DIY job so just a rough figure. I'm looking at spending just under £1700 ($2700 or €1900) for the i7 950 over-clocked to 3.8Ghz with a 300GB Velociraptor HDD and 512MB g/card.

[Ebzy @ Jul 13th 2009 12:17PM]

@rezaudio

As you are in the UK I would suggest you shop around for prices. I would recommend you try ebuyer or novatech for components or the same sites and play.com for prebuilt pcs

Also note that if you have a quad core processor even though it is not an i7 its not going to be obsolete in six months.

Personally I think you are going for too much for what you want to do. Perhaps a cheaper phenom ii or the i7 920 (which is being discontinued but is still available in shops) which is brilliant for overclocking are as much as you need.

You need to concentrate more on sound components and maybe some larger hdd's if you are working with raw files, rather than go overkill on processors and superfast drives.

[rezaudio @ Jul 13th 2009 12:32PM]

@ Ebzy

Good points but I was looking at scan.co.uk as they get great reviews from the audio community and I like the fact that the are custom made with good acoustics and a 2 year warranty - plus they do a good job of over-clocking and I don't want to be doing that myself. I thought the system drive being 10k rpm would help and the working drive will be 2x1TB RAID'd to record audio channels but it's the CPU juice that I really need to use all the new virtual processing stuff that's around now.

I guess you think I'm paying too much?

Oh - by the way ... I don't want to be building this myself.

[Ebzy @ Jul 15th 2009 11:40PM]

Sorry for late reply. This post went off the rss list.

I think that the price is fair for the components, just that I thought that you were getting too much, i.e. more than what you needed.

If the 2 year warrenty covers accidental breakage etc, then it is a really good deal.

[loosely_coupled @ Jul 19th 2009 3:01AM]

i7 yes, but the i7 brand is not just Bloomfield. The newer i7s will be based on Lynnfield which is a more mainstream version of Nehalem quad-core. Despite it only having two memory channels, it is actually a more advanced chip that gets rid of the northbridge entirely. It has PCIexpress built right into the die, so all it needs is a southbridge connected via DMI.

More to the point, the reason you will want it besides just being lower cost and more efficient is the fact that the Turbo Boost mechanism is vastly improved over Bloomfield. Just like this mobile chip in the article, Lynnfield will be able to heavily scale CPU cores clock speed when one or more cores isn't in use. An example would be that you could buy/build a new PC and use one of the slower and cheaper versions of Lynnfield, say 2.5Ghz or so. When all cores are maxed out, it will still be able to do 2.6Ghz or 2.7Ghz. More importantly, when only two or three cores are active, it will scale above 3.0Ghz and probably reach around 3.5Ghz in single-core mode. This gives you great performance at a good price.

[chuuchdizzle @ Jul 13th 2009 7:09AM]

will this carry the triple channel ram? i just hate how there's still new notebooks coming out with ddr2.

[ratchetnclank @ Jul 13th 2009 7:26AM]

No because it's not a real i7. Just a fake one with a badge on it.

[jon @ Jul 13th 2009 7:53AM]

Clarksfield should be 2 channel DDR3.

Tripple channel and DDR3 aren't the same thing.

[sleey0 @ Jul 13th 2009 7:25AM]

Ummm.. Dell is NOT going to refresh the XPS line as it is being discontinued. Alienware is now Dell's top-gaming line.

[Kelmon @ Jul 13th 2009 7:49AM]

Oh, I hope that isn't true. I'm not a "PC Man" but the XPS range at least has some professional looking case designs whereas the Alienware machines have always been hideous. I'd be much happier for the XPS range to live on and for Alienware to be killed off.

[Leo @ Jul 13th 2009 11:41AM]

I think the author meant Studio XPS. And besides, XPS line is not yet discontinued, you can still buy older XPS stuff on Dell's website.

[av8or @ Jul 13th 2009 12:15PM]

sauce?

was looking at 1730's and the selection/availability is really thin and the goobers on the live chat had no information about anything being discontinued or new model releases

[crsh @ Jul 13th 2009 7:31AM]

"These processors should carry the Core i7 brand to keep things as simple as possible"

Or allow them to fool consumers into thinking they're getting a laptop with a cutting-edge CPU inside when it's a rebadged Core 2.. Nvidia-like marketing tactics win again.

[jon @ Jul 13th 2009 8:04AM]

Using a completely different architecture with on-chip DMI and hyper-threading.

Worst. Re-badging. Ever.

[bhtooefr @ Jul 24th 2009 8:37PM]

To be completely fair, this article reads REALLY confusingly. I think it's wrong about them being called Core 2 at all.

[resource @ Jul 13th 2009 7:37AM]

Can apps handle quad core processors?

[rells009 @ Jul 13th 2009 8:26AM]

Some programs can, but most programs out there don't take advantage of multiple cores.

Seriously, AMD needs to announce they're new portable platform ASAP.

[Nick Soapes @ Jul 13th 2009 8:43AM]

once Snow Leopard is released, all programs running on Mac OS X will be able to take advantage of multi-core processors thanks to Grand Central Dispatch.

[gerrrg @ Jul 13th 2009 9:56AM]

The multiple cores allow you to run several apps at the same time, or you could run software that takes advantage of multiple cores, such as graphic programs. But if you dedicate X-number of cores to running on one program, the rest of your apps will run slow.

[rells009 @ Jul 13th 2009 10:02AM]

Now if only Microsoft could borrow that idea.

[Kelmon @ Jul 13th 2009 7:56AM]

Assuming the rumours are true (and I don't really trust DigiTimes myself), I don't see these new processors turning up in Apple's notebooks this year. Apple can be quite slow when it comes to releasing their own computers with new processors (sometimes then can be quite fast, however) and the release of these new processors sounds a bit too close to when Apple normally introduces its notebook selection for the Christmas period. Plus, I expect that supply of the new processors will by typically low to begin with and probably not suitable for a mainstream product launch on day 1. I'm happy to be proven wrong but I won't be holding my breath for a quad-core i7 MacBook Pro. Heck, we don't even have a quad-core iMac yet...

[Nick Soapes @ Jul 13th 2009 8:14AM]

keep in mind that the imacs also use mobile processors. once apple finds a processor that is suitable for the imac or the macbook pro, it will most likely turn up in both machines.

[Kelmon @ Jul 13th 2009 9:25AM]

True, but Intel already makes a Quad Core Core 2 Duo mobile processor (Q9100) that could go in the iMac, particularly since it doesn't have the same cooling requirements as the MacBooks. Why Apple didn't add this processor as an option when they introduced the new iMac earlier this year is quite beyond me.

[dagamer43 @ Jul 13th 2009 11:10AM]

9 month product cycle says Apple will skip these chips. Besides, they run too hot for the TDP Apple usually targets. Going back to 2006, it's always been 9 months from each product refresh in the mobile sector. If anything, Apple is going to wait for 32nm Arrendale chips that hit in Q4 and update their lineup in February or March.

[Kelmon @ Jul 13th 2009 12:34PM]

The WWDC announcement rather caught everyone off-guard. I'd expect an announcement of some sort in the September/October area since notebooks are so important to Apple these days but then it would be such a short period of time since June that it would very unusual. I agree that I don't see these chips arriving in Apple's products at the same time as I expect they will be in the competition's, which is a shame. Still, I'd love to be proven wrong...

[loosely_coupled @ Jul 13th 2009 3:40PM]

They will not use the Clarksfield until 32nm. The Macbook Pro is too thin and compact for the cooling system required for a 45W+ chip. Not to mention that a ~3Ghz core 2 Duo will still be faster than a 1.7Ghz quad-core in most average applications that cannot take advantage of a quad-core -- although at least some of Apple's pro apps should fall outside of that category.

[NoAndThen @ Jul 13th 2009 10:20AM]

Now I'm so torn- I want one of the new 13"MBP, but I've been reading about Ion 2 coming down this year, and now the processors getting a good update.. Damn it all.

Any suggestions? I'm looking for a machine to be an audio workhorse. I just really want to be able to squeeze every last once of power out with snow leopard.

Anybody have experience with logic pro on hackintoshes?

[loosely_coupled @ Jul 13th 2009 3:43PM]

I wouldn't go the hackintosh route. I have a Dell e1705, and it's been a bitch to get it working well, particularly once you move outside of mainstream applications. I don't have any experience with pro apps on hackintosh, but I know getting sound cards to work well has been a problem, and especially advanced functionality.

[tanimtanvir01 @ Jul 13th 2009 10:51AM]

don't try

[coolbee8 @ Jul 13th 2009 10:47AM]

Screw mobile i7. Check this out:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=398080

4.0 Ghz i7 in laptop...

[dagamer43 @ Jul 13th 2009 11:34AM]

And it doubles as a portable oven!

[ACEY RIOT @ Jul 13th 2009 11:02AM]

i had a thought, if the next generation of i7 started overheating would we call them Chesterfeild?

[rick @ Jul 13th 2009 6:07PM]

if anything, the Lynnfield/i5 CPUs would make a good entrypoint for a mid-range headless Mac.

something to tuck a radeon 4890 cleas card in and have a decent machine for Mac and Windows without having to go the whole MacPro route.