Intel's "Extreme" series are nothing but a scam and a fancy name to rip people off. Honestly, what's the difference between an Core 2 Duo E6850 (3.0GHZ) and a X6800 (2.9GHZ)? NONE. What's your guys' oppinions.

Congratulations.

Actually, the X editions have unlocked multipliers, but otherwise are a ripoff.

Extreme Edition have their multiplier lock removed, allowing higher overclocks.

So with E6850, you can only do 9x multiplier max, while X6800's stock is 11x, and can continue upward.

Its similar to AMD's FX series, as well as Black Editions. Same clock, but with multiplier unlocked.

Being able to run a 1333 bus speed without overclocking is one advantage. You may also notice there is hardly much of a difference in price.

If you have some fast memory it can run at the same bus speed as the processor, though there is not much of a gain other than bragging rights.

You act like this is some kind of revelation. It's been going on for some time now. Don't get too upset, it will be OK.

That x6800 has been out for almost a year and a half whereas the E6850 has been out less than 6 months. Hence the price differences. Old high-end CPUs don't tend to drop in price. I remember the old EE965 being the same price as x6800 for months after the x6800 was released.

Wouldn't mind getting hold of one of those EE965s as a project actually, could be quite fun.

the retailer bought it for that price when it was the latest and fastest.
they dont want to lose money by selling it for the same price as the new and cheaper chips.
and thats not a fair comparison. why pit an old chip against a new chip? the latest extremes are now 45nm quads(or atleast against the same generation like the qx6850). but you are still right, extremes are still ripoffs for the performance you get for the price...
then again these "extreme" chips are meant for people who has loads of money to spend and wants the best money can buy.

There's a certain amount of marketing involved too. I would go into it but frankly I'm too tired and busy to really explain it.

As was said.

X6800 was at the time the best of the best. It's also a B2 revision Conroe.

E6850 is the newest of the new with a G0 stepping.

Retailers bought X6800 at (insert price) and must sell it off at a profit. Same thing happened with the E6x50 series came out and was priced under B3 stepping Conroes. I remember lots of "why is the E6750 cheaper than an E6600?!"

**YAWN**

My opinion is you are in serious need of a dictionary.
I don't think you understand the definition of what you are saying.

I believe the term you are looking for is "boutique" or something similar.

Scam indicates that Intel is providing something other than what they represent.

A "boutique" item is one in which the buyer is buying something as a luxury item and not out of need. In general the price of a "boutique" item is greater than it's actual worth, but the spender generally tends to not be a price concious shopper due to having a large amount of disposable liquid assets.

But, yes, I do agree with you that it's a boutique item.
I'm also glad you you learned your word for the day.

shhh with your thruthiness!

My thoughts... cherry picked, higher multi... perhaps more stablity, more quality made die.

AMD does the same.

Overclocking shines the most in this case, turning a cheap end product to perform like the high end.

The E6850 has 67 more MHz maybe?
There you got your difference

Screw "W00t" as the word of the year. One vote for "boutique".

Feed the trolllllsssss....

EXACTLY what i was going to say...

How in the hell can you compare a year old highend CPU with a 3-6 month old mainstream CPU.

Hell while we are at it why dont we compare the P4 XE 3.46GHz with a C2D e6850? Idiot

No one is forcing you to buy a year old CPU ...so DONT... no one is forcing to buy a $1000 CPU... so DONT