Intel Starts Selling Boxed Sandy Bridge Mobile Processors

Intel has recently started retailing in Japan three of its Sandy Bridge processors that were destined for mobile use, the Core i7-2720QM, Core i5-2520M and Core i5-2540M, and all of these are sold as boxed parts.

At a first glance, there doesn't appear to be any difference between these retail processors and their counterparts that are used by OEMs for building notebook and other portable devices.

Just as its name implies, the most powerful chip of the bunch is the Core i7-2720QM, which features a quad-core design as well as Hyper-Threading support in order to process up to eight threads simultaneously.

The CPU has a base frequency of 2.2GHz, which can be increased up to 3.3GHz in Turbo mode depending on the workload run, 6MB of Level 3 cache memory, support for all the latest Intel technologies and all of these are fitted inside a 45W TDP.

The two other Core i5 processors also share a similar specs list, but, this time, they only get two processing cores, which enabled Intel to lower the maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) estimates to 35W.

Unlike in the Core i5 desktop chips, Hyper-Threading is still present and the main difference between the two CPUs is their operating speed, as the i5-2520M is clocked at 2.5GHz, while the i5-2540M works at 2.6GHz.

When Turbo is activated, these frequencies can be raised to 3.2GHz and 3.3GHz, respectively.

According to Intel's ARK CPU database, the Core i7-2720QM is priced at $378.00, while the i5-2520M and i5-2540M have an MSRP of $225.00 and $266.00, respectively. All three processors are compatible with the Intel G2 socket.

In the end, even though the appearance of these boxed mobile SKUs is an interesting occurrence, not so many users will be interested in getting their hands on such chips as their uses are extremely limited. (via Akiba PC Watch)