intel-core-i7 posts

Intel's new version of its Core PC processors, previously known by the code name "Sandy Bridge", were officially announced earlier this week. At Intel's CES 2011 press conference, Valve's head man Gabe Newell took the stage to demo the upcoming puzzle shooter Portal 2 running on the new processor.

According to a story over at the International Business Times web site, Newell praised the technology in the new Intel Core processors stating that Portal 2, due out in April, was made with the new processor in mind. He's quoted as saying, "It's a real game changer for us. This allows for a console like experience on the PC." We are not quite sure what that means, exactly. We will email Valve to get a little clarification.

Dell's Alienware unit made an impressive gaming PC laptop with the Alienware M11x (you can check out our review right here). At the moment the laptop uses an Intel Core 2 Duo processor but it looks like the model may be getting a big processor upgrade very soon.

A recent YouTube video shows a Dell spokesperson showing off the Alienware M11x (You can check it out after the jump) and mentions fairly casually near the end that next month the product will get a Intel Core i3/5/7 processor upgrade. That will certainly boost the performance of the laptop although it might also impact battery life. Alienware is scheduled to appear at E3 in June and a hardware boost for the M11x would certainly be a good announcement to make at the show.

[Via Engadget]

If your PC is in need of an upgrade but you don't have some important stuff, like money, to buy some new parts, you still have some hope. This is the final reminder that we are running a giveaway that will give two of our readers an Intel Core i7-920 processor which is a perfect way to get your PC rig up to support multi-core features in new PC games.

Head over to our contest page for more info and to enter (if you are eligible of course). You only have a few more hours; the contest ends at 11:59 pm Eastern time tonight.

We launched our latest Intel processor contest giveaway back on Wednesday and as predicted lots of folks have already entered for a chance to win one of the two Intel Core i7 920 processors that we will give out to two of our loyal readers.

So if you want a chance to get one of the faster PCs chips, you have to head to our contest page in order to enter. As we always try to remind our readers, please be sure to read over our official contest rules before entering, particularly the part where you have to be 18 years of age or over and be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec). The deadline to enter is 11:59 pm ET on Monday.

We rarely give away hardware items here at Big Download but the folks at Intel are giving us the oppotunity to give our readers a chance to win one of three Intel Core i7-920 PC processors. This quad-core processor runs at 2.66GHz and has 8MB of L3 cache. Having this processor will allow PC gamers to run game titles like Sega's recent RTS game Napoleon Total War which are especially designed to run on multi-core PC processors.

So how can you win one of these chips to put in your PC gaming rig? It's pretty simple:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday, April 5
• You may enter only once.
• Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Those three winners will each be sent an Intel Core i7-920 PC processor (valued at approximately $265 each)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to Intel and also to Napoleon Total War publisher Sega for sponsoring this giveaway. Good luck.

PC maker Dell bought Miami-based gaming PC company Alienware back in 2006 and since the Alienware brand has continued to be used by Dell as their main brand to sell PCs to hardcore gamers. Today at the Tokyo Game Show, Alienware has revamped almost their entire line of PCs with four all new desktop models (such as the new Aurora model above) as well as a 15 inch version of their high powered gaming laptop.

One of the most interesting things about these new products is what's not inside them. In a phone briefing to Big Download earlier this week, Alienware confirmed that their current product line that is announced today will not have any AMD processors. Alienware simply feels that Intel's current line-up of Core i7 processors outperform AMD's current line up. Alienware will still give gamers options to put in AMD's ATI Radeon graphics chips.

Check out Alienware's new products after the jump:

Intel wants all of you to know about its newly launched Core i7 Extreme Edition processor and they are doing it in a rather big way. Working with Ubisoft the PC company is running a contest all through December where they will be giving away an Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition processor every day this month.

But that's not all. Intel will be giving away a whopping 50 copies of Ubisoft's recent first person shooter Far Cry 2 every day this month as well. Yep, that means there are still well over 1,000 copies of the game still to be won so if you haven't tried out the game yet this might be a good way to pick up a copy for free.

PC processor maker Intel is scheduled to officially launch their next major family of processors today with the release of the Intel Core i7 chip. However, News.com reports that Japanese stores have already started selling the new chip ahead of its US launch.

The new Core i7 (previously known by its code name of Nehalem) represents the next major processor family for Intel. It has already been previewed on many PC hardware web sites that have run benchmarks and compared them to Intel's previous Core 2 processor. However, the results have been mixed with games like Far Cry 2, Crysis and others showing only a few percent increase in performance over Intel's previous Core 2 processor (although it's likely future PC games will take advantage of Core i7's features, such as Hyper-Threading, over time).