Perusing the forums this morning I came across this quote.
There are two half full glasses, but they are incompatible. I would have preferred one full glass.
Which made me chuckle. If you don’t get it… think about it for a minute.
The discusion was here at the top of page 5 on a thread comparing the merits of the existing i7 and the upcoming chip from Intel (nicknamed i5, but that may or may not be it’s real name at launch). The i5 will launch at similar prices to the current low-end (low being relative here) i7 920 and i7 940. The socket is new, so you can’t put an i5 chip in an i7 socket or vice-versa. Performance is comparable to an i7 in most things, but since the platform (motherboard, RAM) is cheaper you can get a very comparable system for just a bit less than an i7.
The big question is what happens to the 920 and 940? In particular the i7 920 is fantastic. It overclocks easily into the mid 3Ghz range, and 4Ghz is semi-common. Retail price is about $280, but Microcenter usually has it available for $230 and even had it on sale at one point for $199! If it’s going to go away, I want one before it does :D