If you followed my posts over the weekend, you could probably figure out what happened on Monday: Intel officially acknowledged the release of its six-core Core i7-990X Extreme Edition processor, its fastest (and most expensive) desktop CPU. That led to some additional PC manufacturers adding it to their systems, as well as some well-needed price cuts on a couple of older Core i7s.
Boutique builder Maingear rolled out the i7-990X across its lineup of gaming PCs, which means you can get it on any Super Stock 6 configuration for an additional $1,000 (less on some systems). Select versions of the Shift will see the processor overclocked to 4.5GHz from its stock 3.46GHz clock speed.
CyberPower likewise announced the inclusion of the i7-990X as an option on its Xtreme line of gaming PCs. You can get it on the Gamer Xtreme SSD-X for as little as $2,635, in a three-way AMD Radeon CrossFireX Gamer Xtreme XE for $3,635, or across the Fang EVO series, including a Black Mamba edition with dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards for $4,465.
Finally, the launch coincides with some price cuts on older Core i7 processors, according to Fudzilla. The quad-core Core i7-960, an older 45nm part, will now cost nearly half off, falling from $562 to $294, while the six-core Core i7-970 gets a trim from $885 to $583. No word on if previous six-core Extreme Edition CPUs will get price cuts, though Intel hasn’t done much chopping on these parts in the past.
