Santa Clara (CA) - Intel prepares its processor lineup for the upcoming FSB1333 Core 2 Duo refresh and has lowered the prices of 17 processors across the Core 2, Pentium D, Xeon 3000 and Celeron portfolios.

The new prices are especially interesting as there are sharp cuts in the Core 2 Duo family for the first time since the launch of the architecture in July of last year. On the high end, the quad-core Q6600 is now available for a tray-price $530, which has been the price of the dual-core E6700 until yesterday.

The E-series mainstream dual-core processors are now priced in a range from $316 (E6700) on the high-end to $113 (E4300) on the low end. CPUs of the phasing out Pentium D 800/900 series can now be purchased for as little as $74.

Here is an overview of the price changes in Intel’s processor list :

Processor Model New Price in $ Old Price in $ Drop in % Core 2 Quad Q6600 530 851 38 Core 2 Duo E6700 316 530 40 Core 2 Duo E6600 224 316 29 Core 2 Duo E6400 183 224 18 Core 2 Duo E6300 163 183 11 Core 2 Duo E4300 113 133 31 Pentium D 935 84 133 37 Pentium D 925 74 113 35 Pentium D 915 74 84 12 Pentium D 820 74 79 6 Celeron D 336 34 39 13 Xeon X3220 530 851 38 Xeon X3210 423 690 39 Xeon X3070 316 530 40 Xeon X3060 224 316 29 Xeon X3050 188 224 16 Xeon X3040 167 183 9