Intel Cuts Prices of Some Sandy Bridge CPUs and Discontinues Some Pentium CPUs

In addition to releasing 16 new CPUs earlier this week, Intel has also discounted six low-power CPUs and discontinued three Pentium CPUs. 

Discounts

All of the discounted CPUs are based on the Sandy Bridge micro-architecture, which Intel released in January 2011. They are all low-power variants as well, meaning that their TDP value is lower than the standard. Low-power models can be identified by an S or T at the end (S stands for 65W while T stands for 35W). The actual price cuts are very modest though, only up to $12. Below is a table listing the CPUs and their old and new prices:

Discounted Sandy Bridge ProcessorsModelCore/Thread CountFrequencyL3 CacheOld PriceNew PricePrice ChangeCore i5-2390T2/42.7GHz3MB$195$184-$11 (-5.6%)Core i5-2400S4/42.5GHz6MB$195$184-$11 (-5.6%)Core i5-2405S4/42.5GHz6MB$205$201-$4 (-2%)Core i5-2500S4/42.7GHz6MB$216$205-$11 (-5.1%)Core i5-2500T4/42.3GHz6MB$216$205-$11 (-5.1%)Core i7-2600S4/82.8GHz6MB$306$294-$12 (-3.9%)

It's worth to note that these are the prices in one thousand quantities. Resellers don't always follow this pricing scheme and for example NewEgg is still selling the i5-2400S for $201, although even the old price was $195. Low-power models can also be harder to find since they aren't that popular and are more meant for OEM systems with more limited cooling (such as Apple's iMac). 

Discontinuances

The discontinued CPUs are listed under the Pentium brand and are based on Intel's Core micro-architecture with 45nm manufacturing process. While these CPUs are not based on the latest technologies, they were all released between 2009 and 2010. Intel will still be taking orders until November 23rd and the last shipment date is December 30th. 

Discontinued Pentium ProcessorsModelCore/Thread CountFrequencyL2 CachePricePentium E58002/23.2GHz2MB$64Pentium E67002/23.2GHz2MB$75Pentium E68002/23.33GHz2MB$86

Considering that Intel has already populated the same price points with newer and faster CPUs (see our review of Sandy Bridge Pentiums), the discontinuation makes sense. 

Source: Intel, Intel

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