Chicago (IL) – Several PC manufacturers announced Core i7 PCs prior to the official launch of the new processor at 5 pm Pacific time later today. The bragging rights of owning a PC with the fastest processor will cost you at least $1250 with the usual open end. Boutique PC vendors are offering configurations well north of $10,000.
Core i7 may be available in at least one version that is relatively close to mainstream (the 2.66 GHz 920 model has a tray price of $284) and would suggest that sub-$1000 PCs should be possible, it isn’t entirely surprising that PC vendors are putting a premium on this new CPU.
The cheapest Core i7 PC we found was Gateway’s FX6800-01e, which includes a 750 GB HDD, 3 GB of memory, a 920 CPU, an ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card, a DVD burner and Windows Vista Premium 64-bit for $1250. The company also offers a version with the 2.93 GHz 940 CPU with 6 GB of memory, a Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card, a 1 TB HDD as well as an 80 GB SSD for $3000.
Dell’s entry-level Core i7 offering is the Studio XPS desktop for $1500. The gaming desktop XPS 730 starts at $2600 and tops out at about $8000 with a factory-overclocked version of the Core i7 (965 3.73 GHz). The firm’s Alienware unit sells Core i7 PCs from $1650 (Area-51) and allows customers to configure the systems with up to 12 GB of memory and SSDs (not available for the Dell XPS) for about $6400. The more expensive ALX system starts at $3700 and tops out at about $7400.
Voodoo PC has not released a Core i7 system yet, which leaves the boutique market to vendors such as BioHazard and Falcon Northwest, at least for now. Falcon Northwest Core i7 PCs start at about $2650, but can be escalated to about $12,500. BioHazard systems start at $3000 and can approach the $13,000 mark. Those high-end systems get very pricey through high-end components, such as Intel’s Core i7 965 EE, for which some vendors demand an $1100 upgrade as well as fast Intel 80 GB SSD drives that are priced at around $1000.
It is interesting to note that high-end prices of the PCs have somewhat dropped over the past years. Also, Core 2 Duo computers were priced at up to $16,000 at their introduction (however, the cheapest started at below at $1000).
Core i7 may be available in at least one version that is relatively close to mainstream (the 2.66 GHz 920 model has a tray price of $284) and would suggest that sub-$1000 PCs should be possible, it isn’t entirely surprising that PC vendors are putting a premium on this new CPU.
The cheapest Core i7 PC we found was Gateway’s FX6800-01e, which includes a 750 GB HDD, 3 GB of memory, a 920 CPU, an ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card, a DVD burner and Windows Vista Premium 64-bit for $1250. The company also offers a version with the 2.93 GHz 940 CPU with 6 GB of memory, a Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card, a 1 TB HDD as well as an 80 GB SSD for $3000.
Dell’s entry-level Core i7 offering is the Studio XPS desktop for $1500. The gaming desktop XPS 730 starts at $2600 and tops out at about $8000 with a factory-overclocked version of the Core i7 (965 3.73 GHz). The firm’s Alienware unit sells Core i7 PCs from $1650 (Area-51) and allows customers to configure the systems with up to 12 GB of memory and SSDs (not available for the Dell XPS) for about $6400. The more expensive ALX system starts at $3700 and tops out at about $7400.
Voodoo PC has not released a Core i7 system yet, which leaves the boutique market to vendors such as BioHazard and Falcon Northwest, at least for now. Falcon Northwest Core i7 PCs start at about $2650, but can be escalated to about $12,500. BioHazard systems start at $3000 and can approach the $13,000 mark. Those high-end systems get very pricey through high-end components, such as Intel’s Core i7 965 EE, for which some vendors demand an $1100 upgrade as well as fast Intel 80 GB SSD drives that are priced at around $1000.
It is interesting to note that high-end prices of the PCs have somewhat dropped over the past years. Also, Core 2 Duo computers were priced at up to $16,000 at their introduction (however, the cheapest started at below at $1000).
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