Originally Posted by
lutjens
Also, with Intel in firm command of the high-end market, having a 6 core "Extreme Edition" also gives Intel a handy, high margin dumping ground for all the Xeons that have a defective core or two, or that have a portion of the cache that's defective, but otherwise are a high bin chip. Simply deactivate the offending section of the chip and voila, much of the profit is saved. I'd also surmise that the 3930K also only exists for that reason...to make it more palatable to enthusiasts. They just disable an additonal 3MB of cache to differentiate the 3960X from the 3930K.
Which is fine...Intel needs to do what it needs to do to ensure maximum profit. What incenses me to no end is the castration of the very best chips...the E5-2687W. Absolutely ignorant move on Intel's part, one that effectively flips the bird to the highest spending enthusiasts, some of whom have given Intel huge $$$ over the years.:mad: