If you've been looking for a computer upgrade recently, you've probably seen the stellar reviews of Intel's new 45nm Penryn-based cpu, the e8400. This dual-core, 3Ghz, 6MB shared L2 cache processor is great price to performance value as well as delivering the best price per watt as well as it runs cooler than the E6600 Conroe both at idle and at load.
I certainly wasn't the only one to notice this. The processor went from being available everywhere online at roughly $190 to nowhere to be found except at shifty places at sky-high prices of $300.
Once I had decided to go ahead and pick one of these guys up it was too late to find it at my favorite online computer store, newegg.com; out-of-stock there. I started searching far and wide. Eventually I ran across this Official Intel e8400 price thread
One of the reasons I love the internet is that almost always you will find that someone else has more time than you do and spends it on finding out information that is useful to everyone and posts it for all. Such is the case with the e8400 shortage. An enterprising netizen discovered that the Intel Xeon e3110 ends up being the same processor as the e8400. It's 100% compatibile, and in most cases when users run a utility like CPUz, it says they have an e8400 processor. I've not seen any reports of the e3110 not working in boards that are known to be working with the e8400. Alas, I missed the e3110 boat as well and that processor too is not available.
But that thread keeps on giving. Friday I read a post that mentioned that a local Fry's had plenty in stock at a reasonable price, $225 + tax. That set the idea for me to visit my local Fry's on Saturday. Bingo! The salesman said they had 60 in stock. Make that 59.
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