<span class="content"><font size="2"></font> <p align="center"><font size="2"><strong>Note: This article was not condoned or supported in any way by Intel. We obtained all pre-release hardware on our own.</strong> <strong>Enjoy.</strong></font></p> <h3><font size="2">The Recap</font></h3> <p><font size="2">Yeech, ok, this is more complicated than it should be. Last year Intel launched its brand new Nehalem architecture, the first processor was codenamed Bloomfield and sold as the Core i7.<br /> <br /> </font><span class="content"><font size="2">The Core i7 has four cores (with Hyper Threading, so that&rsquo;s 8 threads), an 8MB L3 cache and a triple-channel DDR3 memory controller. Of course there&rsquo;s a lot of other special sauce that makes the i7 the beast that it is; if you want more details check out my original Nehalem architecture article.</font></span></p> <p><font size="2">Since its launch, i7 has only been available in three flavors: the 920, 940 and 965. The most affordable one, the i7-920, costs $284 in 1Ku quantities. </font><span class="content"><font size="2">The Core i7 fits into Intel&rsquo;s new LGA-1366 socket and is mated with Intel&rsquo;s X58 chipset:<br /> <br /> </font></span></p> <div id="intelliTxt"><span class="content"> <p><font size="2">With the memory controller on-die, the X58 chipset acts like a PCIe switch than anything else; all other I/O (e.g. USB, SATA, Ethernet, etc...) go through the ICH10 which is connected to the X58 hub.</font></p> <p><font size="2">Despite being a relatively simple piece of silicon, Intel prices the X58 chipset as a premium product. The X58 chipset is more expensive than any other desktop Intel chipset on the market, that includes P45 and X48. In turn, X58 motherboards are pricey.</font></p> <p><font size="2">At launch X58 motherboards sold for well above $200 and it took a while for us to see boards finally drop down to and below that $200 price point. Only recently have we found a motherboard that&rsquo;s even somewhat affordable with MSI&rsquo;s X58M priced at $169.</font></p> <p><font size="2">With a $200 motherboard and a $284 CPU, the i7 was priced out of competing with even AMD&rsquo;s highest end Phenom II. While the Phenom II X4 955 costs $245, you can easily pair it with a $100 motherboard. </font></p> <p><font size="2">Rather than drive LGA-1366 pricing down, Intel had another plan - to introduce a more mainstream platform for Nehalem.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3570">Read more...</a></font></p> </span></div> </span>