It’s in stores now people.
Newegg has prices starting at $320 for the i7 920. That’s a very reasonable price I think. At the same price point, you can get the Q9550 or for a bit less (if you can find it) the Q9450. The Q9550 is the best of the current generation of chips, the best at a reasonable sub-$1,000 that is. The 920 will beat that Q9550 by probably about 10-20% on average (see previous post on that).
Although for me the main deterrent right now is the lack of affordable motherboards. Newegg has 8 boards available right now, with only 3 of them less than $300 and the cheapest is $220. Comparably, a current P45-based plain motherboard can be had for way under $100, and a nicely equipped board runs for about $150.
So I’m going to wait until probably later this year once motherboard prices come down a bit, and RAM prices could stand to drop a bit as well. I also want to see how other people go about overclocking theirs also to see how much overhead these chips have.
In the meantime though, they’re out if you want them. Some local stores may have it cheaper. Micro Center (local here) has the 920 for $300.