Intel Announces Fastest Mobile Processor

The Core 2 Extreme X7800 now sits at the top of Intel's mobile processor line with two cores clocked at 2.6GHz and no overclocking protections.

Gamers, it may be time to invest in a mobile rig. Intel announced Sunday that its “Extreme” line of processors is making the leap to notebooks. The Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 mobile processor features two cores cranking away at 2.6 GHz with an 800MHz front-side bus and 4MB L2 cache, making it Intel’s fastest mobile processor to date.

Besides the hot out-of-the-box specs for the new chip, tweakers will also be pleased to know that Intel won’t be including the customary protections that prevent overclocking. That means an even faster processor is only a BIOS setting away, but without many aftermarket cooling options for laptops, the chip’s overclocking mileage may be quite limited. And of course, don’t forget that your warranty will become null and void when Intel finds out you were running your notebook hot enough to cook eggs on the lid.

The X7800 is based off the same Merom core found in its predecessor, the Core 2 Duo T7700. It also includes the standard mobile power-saving features such as a low-frequency mode and a deep sleep mode that conserve energy when the processor doesn’t need to be running full bore. The only catch to Intel’s new hot-rod mobile processor: the chip alone will run $851 at launch. Expect notebooks with the X7800 under the hood in the next two weeks.