Santa Clara (CA) – Intel prepares its processor lineup for the upcoming FSB1333 Core 2 Duo refresh and has lowered the prices of 17 processors across the Core 2, Pentium D, Xeon 3000 and Celeron portfolios.

The new prices are especially interesting as there are sharp cuts in the Core 2 Duo family for the first time since the launch of the architecture in July of last year. On the high end, the quad-core Q6600 is now available for a tray-price $530, which has been the price of the dual-core E6700 until yesterday.

The E-series mainstream dual-core processors are now priced in a range from $316 (E6700) on the high-end to $113 (E4300) on the low end. CPUs of the phasing out Pentium D 800/900 series can now be purchased for as little as $74.

Here is an overview of the price changes in Intel’s processor list: