Shuttle, a world-leading PC manufacturer focused on high-performance small form factor desktops, today announced the availability of the Shuttle H7 5800G Pro and H7 5800P Pro extreme performance PC models for purchase through Shuttle's USA online shop, starting today.

Ready for gamers and enthusiasts, the Shuttle H7 5800G Pro features a 3.06GHz Intel Core i7 950 quad-core processor (up to 3.33GHz Core i7 980X Extreme Edition), NVIDIA GeForce performance graphics (up to GeForce GTX 580 or Radeon HD 6970), 4GB DDR3 memory (up to 16GB), and 500GB hard drive (upgradeable to SSD), starting at $1,299.99 MSRP.

Two hours into the event, and seasoned overclocker Matose is staying ahead with an accumulate score of 68 points. He has had very few snags in reaching a clock speed of 6.08 GHz on his Core i7 980X Extreme Edition, cooled by liquid nitrogen. An impressive Pifast run clocked at 13.920 seconds along the way.

Intel has formalized a wide range of price cuts and changes for processor models from across various segments and platforms. The most noteworthy of these include addition of new SKUs, and repositioning (price-cuts) of certain SKUs. To begin with, Intel formally introduced the Core i7 970 six-core desktop processor. This "non-XE" model comes with a clock speed of 3.20 GHz, and Turbo speeds of 3.43 GHz, and is based on the 32 nm Gulftown die. Earlier expected to be in the $500~$600 range by sections of the press, the SKU is positioned at $885, a mere $115 cheaper than the Core i7 980X Extreme Edition (which is priced at $999).

Most of the action lies in the LGA1156 platform, with the Core i7 870 getting a massive 47.6% price cut, sending its price plummeting down to $294, from $562. This cut may have been influenced by the Core i7 875K, which is a multiplier-unlocked SKU which is priced just a little under $350, with the same clock speeds as the i7 870. Interestingly, no price changes for the i7 860 were noted. An energy-efficient variant of the i7 870, the 870s, was introduced, it is priced at $351.

Intel is working on a small design change to the Core i7 980X Extreme Edition processor. The change covers the Intel thermal solution (HSF) only, and consists of a redesigned impeller that makes it quieter, overall. This is done by downsizing the edge of the impeller blades to 0.3 mm, and perforating the impeller hub (central portion connected to the motor). The slightly revised Core i7 980X Extreme Edition package should start shipping from June 7.

In an overclocking feat by XtremeSystems community members Elmor and Kinc, an ASUS EAH5870 MATRIX Radeon HD 5870 graphics card was able to achieve a mind-boggling core speed of 1525 MHz (core) from its default speed of 894 MHz, and AMD reference speed of 850 MHz. This translates into 70% over default speeds, and 79% over reference speeds. The not-so-relevant memory overclock was 1300 MHz (5.2 GHz effective), an 8.3% overclock. The card was cooled using liquid-nitrogen evaporators.

This wasn't a "hit-and-run" feat, either. The stability of the GPU at 1500 MHz was proven with a run of 3DMark Vantage, where it scored P29342 points at the performance preset. The rest of the bench comprised of an Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition six-core processor running at 4492.9 MHz, at 1.52V, also cooled by liquid nitrogen, ASUS Rampage III Extreme motherboard, 6 GB of Corsair Dominator GTX DDR3 memory, and Antec 1200W power supply. The validation for the 3DMark Vantage run where it scored P30542 can be found here.

On the occasion of Game Developers Conference, an annual conclave of game developers, in San Fransisco, USA, Intel previewed to audiences its latest Core i7 980X Extreme Edition six-core processor. This meant that the media could publish performance evaluations of the new processor. Intel seems to have pulled it off with this launch. There is a broad consensus among the media that the six-core processor has a performance incentive with most of today's multi-threaded application that scales up well compared to quad-core processors.

The 980X is also the first high-performance processor based on the 32 nm Westmere architecture. The processor is able to maintain a TDP rating of 130W, on par with its 45 nm Nehalem quad-core counterparts. It has six cores operating at 3.33 GHz, with HyperThreading technology enabled, there are 12 logical CPUs (threads) for the operating system to deal with. Each core has 64 KB L1, 256 KB L2 caches, while a large 12 MB L3 cache is shared between all the cores. The Core i7 980X comes in the LGA-1366 package. Most existing motherboards with the Intel X58 Express chipset will be able to support it with a BIOS update. Intel will formally release the processor by April, at an estimated price of US $999.

Contrary to older reports, Intel will stick to the Core i7 brand identifier to sell its first consumer (client) six-core processor based on the Nehalem architecture, codenamed "Gulftown". The first offering of these socket LGA-1366 processors, is the Core i7 980X Extreme Edition. Its positioning and pricing shows that Intel will replace its current flagship desktop processor, the Core i7 975 Extreme Edition with it, and at the very same price-point of US $999 (in 1000 unit tray quantities).

A future price list also shows that the Core i7 980X Extreme Edition is slated for March 2010. A month ahead of its launch, Intel will introduce the Core i7 930, which succeeds the Core i7 920 at its price-point of $284. The Gulftown core will be manufactured on Intel's brand new 32 nm HKMG process, it features 6 processing cores with 12 threads (HyperThreading Technology), triple-channel DDR3 memory with its integrated memory controller, 6.4 GT/s QPI link to the Intel X58 Express chipset, 12 MB of L3 cache, compatibility to platforms that support the Core i7 9xx processors, and 130W TDP. The Core i7 980X Extreme Edition comes with a clock speed of 3.33 GHz, The Core i7 930 on the other hand, is a quad-core processor which runs at 2.80 GHz.