New Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 dual and quad core chips appear in Elitebook CTO options
Hey, what do we have here… looks like HP has quietly added a bunch of new and currently unreleased Intel Core i3, Core i5 AND Core i7 Mobile processors to their Elitebook line of notebook PCs! If you’ve checked out my posting about the HP Envy 17, SOME of these new processor options may not come as a surprise, but I bet you never knew about those new Core i3 Mobile processors, huh?
All of today’s new processors have already been priced and are available for order, which is strange because even Intel themselves have only scheduled release to be in “Q3 2010″. But then again, it’s gonna be Q3 2010 in less than 48 hours (July to September), so HP probably wants to be the one of the first ones out of the door (along with Dell, thanks Chema) with these spanking new options and has put them up already as a sort of ’preemptive action’.
For the Elitebook 8440w, 8540w and 8740w Mobile Workstation notebooks (which have 14, 15 and 17 inch LED-backlit displays respectively along with Nvidia/ATI workstation class graphics cards), as well as the more conventional (and affordable) 15 inch Elitebook 8540p notebook, these new processor options have appeared under CTO. In case you don’t know what it means, CTO stands for “Configure To Order”… so you’ll find these new processors absent from the “specifications” section but buried deep inside the “Configure your model” section.
- Intel Core i7 740QM – This new quad core processor succeeds the 1.6 GHz quad Core i7 720QM of 2009 with a slightly higher clock rate of 1.73 GHz (quad core), and Turbo Boost up to 3.06 GHz (versus 2.80 GHz). L3 cache remains the same at 6 MB.
- Intel Core i7 840QM – Replacing last year’s 1.73 GHz quad Core i7 820QM, this guy packs 1.8 GHz of quad core goodness (8 threads in total, of course) and Turbo Boost up to 3.20 GHz. However, the 8 MB worth of L3 cache of its predecessor remains unchanged here.
Nice, HP, very nice. But can you please tack on Intel’s Core i7 Extreme Quad core processors as options as you’ve promised (in the Elitebook 8740w’s manual), pretty please?! EDIT: HP does offer the 2.0 GHz quad Core i7-920XM Extreme as an option for the Elitebook 8740w in some countries, but it’s still not as ‘mainstream’ as the conventional Core i7′s which are available everywhere. Also, the 2.13 GHz Core i7-940XM will be making an appearance soon…
Well, HP hasn’t left out the ‘baby’ of the Elitebook line, the Elitebook 8440p. How kind of them to allow you to soup it up with Intel’s latest Core i3-370M or Core i5-540M processors, among other existing options from earlier this year…
- Intel Core i3 370M – The Core i3 370M is a 2.40 GHz dual core processor that will sit above (but not replace) the current dual core 2.26 GHz Core i3 350M processor. The only change here appears to be the slight boost in clock speed; the 3 MB L3 cache and lack of Turbo Boost in the i3-370M makes it consistent with other Core i3 Mobile processors Intel has released so far.
- Intel Core i5 450M – This is one of the lower end options in Intel’s Core i5 series of processors. It has the same 2.40 GHz (dual core) clock speed and 3 MB of L3 cache as the i5-520M, but a slower 2.66 GHz Turbo Boost speed (versus 2.93 GHz Turbo on the i5-520M). Unfortunately, there appears to be a little typo by HP here regarding Turbo Boost speed (it’s supposed to say 2.66 GHz, n0t 2.93 GHz)
And that’s it, folks! There you have it, Intel’s latest Mobile Core i3, i5 and i7 (standard voltage) for Summer/Fall 2010; revealed and now available from HP as options on their Elitebook PCs. Will we see similar processor refreshes for the low-voltage Intel processor line on the 12 inch Elitebook 2540p ultra-portable and Elitebook 2740p tablet in the near future? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Later this week ON HP Fansite: If you’re a long-time reader of HP Fansite [shame on you if you're not 
], you would probably know I’ve been shopping around (for way too long, since January!) for an “ultra-portable” computing device that suits my needs for mobile productivity/working on the go (Planning to attend a few conventions and trade shows next year, anyone got any invites?). Having looked at everything, from HP’s Elitebooks to Lenovo’s X200-series Thinkpads to even the iPad (and everything else in between); I’ve finally made up my mind. Find out what I’ll be getting and why, later this week!
