Also included in this machine is SLI'd GeForce 7900 GTX cards, up to 4GB of ram, 150GB hard drives, DVD burner and water-cooling. Don't worry, there is a downside. This behemoth of a PC will set you back roughly $5,000, depending on what kind of customization is done. – Travis Hudson

For Dedicated Gamers, a PC With an Unearthly Look (requires reg) [NY Times]

The single-socket chips will be plenty fast, however, with the processors bringing all kinds of new technology to the party. The extra speed and efficiency is thanks to Intel's 65-nanometer manufacturing process which crams more transistors onto each chip, a gigantic integrated cache that Intel calls the Advanced Smart Cache, and other coolness like wide dynamic execution and smart memory access. The result? Faster processors that run cooler and use less power.

PC manufacturers far and wide are all falling into line, announcing their Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme machines today. For a first look at the performance of these new chips, check out our scoop where we review one of the first Core 2 Duo workstations to come off the assembly line, the Dell Precision Workstation 390. – Charlie White

Intel Extends Core 2 Duo Line with 10 New Processors [GeekZone]
Press Release [Intel]

Our test machine ($3893) arrived equipped far beyond its basic $1050 configuration, powered by the fastest Core 2 Extreme processor, a dual-core 2.93GHz "Conroe" chip. Along for the ride is 2GB of DDR2 533MHz RAM, a workstation-class NVIDIA PCIe Quadro FX 3500 graphics card, and an 80GB SATAII 7200RPM system drive. Then there's a little high-tech jewel, a Raid-0 array with two tiny one-inch 146GB SAS hard drives spinning at 15,000RPM, a brand new piece of technology which gave us remarkable speed test results.

How fast was this monster workstation from Dell? Find out after the jump.

Don't be fooled by that 2.93GHz clock speed, because this is the fastest processor we've ever seen here at the Midwest Test Facility. That's because these Conroe processors have an extra speedy front-side bus design, a 4MB L2 cache and a 64-bit dual core architecture. They're just more efficient all around, and Intel's blather about how they're faster by 50% or more is not really blather, it's all true.

Along with that efficiency comes serene quietude. Dell has always been expert at hushing even its most powerful workstations, and this Precision Workstation 390 is no exception. Of the dozens of workstations we've tested here, this one is the quietest, and a few times we wondered if it was even running, only confirming such by observing its backlit power button on the front. Yes, this speedster is quiet enough to be in "church mouse" territory.

Exactly how fast is it? Let's start with that pair of 146GB SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) hard disk drives. This is the next generation of hard disk drives, and these 15,000RPM babies lashed together in a RAID-0 array added $1000 to the price of this configuration, but showed us astonishing speed, tipping our disk speed benchmarks at 160MB per second writing and an even faster read speed of 178MB per second.

The main event? Since this is the workstation-class machine, we ran a suite of benchmarks concentrating on Adobe After Effects compositions, and the Dell Precision Workstation 390 blew the doors off every machine we've ever tested using our suite of After Effects benchmarks. It lags slightly behind an HP dual core dual Opteron machine we tested a few months back on CineBench rendering tests, which demonstrate 3-D graphics performance, but then that dual-core dual Opteron machine costs $1500 more than this one.

Overall, the Dell Precision Workstation 390 performs as advertised, with its Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.93GHz processor delivering speeds on some benchmarks that were nearly twice as fast as a dual-core dual-processor Opteron 280 machine. If you're looking for power, efficiency, and quietude, look no further. – Charlie White

Full review [Digital Video Editing]

Product Page [Dell]

Nothing like some friendly co-opetition between Dell subsidiaries Alienware and XPS to keep the blood boiling, and the next shot inside of Michael Dell's bucket is the upcoming XPS 700. It'll feature an overclocked and hyper-cooled Core 2 Extreme CPU (affectionately known as Conroe), and will also offer the option of two NVidia GeForce 7900 GTX graphics cards strapped together in SLI mode.

At a meeting with the press, Dell Chairman Michael Dell lauded the upcoming processors from Intel, pointing out the various flavors which all receive a significant power boost by using Intel's Core architecture:

"Conroe is a great part. I think whether you look at Woodcrest, Conroe, Merom, that Core is a huge improvement in terms of performance and power from the prior generation, and we're very excited about what that's going to mean, all up and down the business in terms of the desktop market, mobile with Merom, [and the] Woodcrest servers that are already starting to go out. I think it's a real nice advancement."

Dell also hinted at a limited edition of the XPS 700, similar to the Renegade Edition of the XPS 600, a loaded-for-bear $10,000 PC that sold out in 36 hours. – Charlie White

Revised Dell XPS 700 to feature overclocked Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU [TG Daily]

The higher-end Conroes will have a 4MB cache, and will be numbered 6600 and 6700. They will run at 2.39GHz and 2.67GHz, and will cost $316 and $530. The senior member of the group will be the Core 2 Extreme, otherwise known as the 6800, which will have a 4MB cache and run at 2.93GHz. While the other four newcomers draw 65 watts, the Extreme needs 80 watts and will cost $999. – Charlie White

Intel goes boom or bust on summer collection [the Inquirer]

To tell the Conroes from the Meroms, Intel will add numbers to the end of each chip name between the 4000s to 6000s for Conroe processors and the 5000s to 7000s for Merom. These numbers get higher as the clock speed increases, where the Core 2 Duo processors are expected to launch with five versions starting with the 4200 model at 1.6GHz, up to the fastest 6700 model at 2.66GHz. Look for these new processors to be available in the third quarter of this year.

The second coming of Intel's Core Duo [c|net, via ars technica]