Intel over the weekend introduced a new mobile quad-core chip, which Acer started offering Monday in its latest Aspire laptop for multimedia and gaming enthusiasts.

In addition, online retailers started offering pre-orders of Advanced Micro Devices' Phenom II quad-core chip, which AMD plans to introduce next month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The new product is aimed at high-end desktops.

The Acer Aspire 8930G-7665 laptop is powered by Intel's new Core 2 Quad Q9000. On Sunday, Intel released an updated price list that lists the 2.0-GHz Q9000 for $348 in batches of 1,000. Pricing for Intel's other mobile quad cores start at $851, with the highest-price product, the QX9300, listing for $1,038.

Intel also listed four new dual-core processors for laptops, the 2.93-GHz T9800, $530; the 2.66-GHz P9600, $348; the 2.66-GHz T9550, $316; and the 2.53-GHz P8700, $241.

The latest Acer Aspire sports an 18-inch display and includes 4 GB of memory, an Nvidia GeForce 9700M GT graphics card with 512 MB of video memory, and a 500-GB, 7,200-RPM hard disk drive. The system also includes a Blu-ray disc player, built-in Wi-Fi support, a Webcam, and Windows Vista Premium. The manufacturer suggested retail price is $1,800.

AMD's 3.0-GHz Black Edition Phenom II X4 9400 was available for pre-order on Computers4Sure, owned by Office Depot, and A-Power Computer Online. The chip comes with a three-year warranty.