Intel Core i7 (Nehalem) Architecture Overview Comments

... and here i am with my lowly q6600... woe is me :D

tempting as nehalem is, at the moment i don't have anything that takes real advantage of my 4 cores. even photoshop cs4 has gone all gpu accelerated on me.

*waits for tomorrow*

Hmm. I'll get excited when there's a Mac Pro update :D

i just hope HyperThreading works this time around i had to turn it off when i upgraded to SP2 on XP many years ago cause it caused my pc to stall and has never worked since.
Anyway will this fit in motherboards manufactured now and be 100% compatible, ie. P45 chipsets like the ASUS P5Q Deluxe?
*also waits for tomorrow*

highly unlikely. it'll use it's own socket design, which has more pins than LGA 775 (which has been around for ages)

(To Jay)
Sorry, but these require a new motherboard as the socket is different (LGA 1366 rather than the classic LGA 775)

For the interest of everyone here, the INQ have a list of all the i7 reviews on the net so far (42 and counting...)

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/11/03/core-i7-reviews-counting

Jay, i7 uses a new socket and is a completely new architecture. It will require a new motherboard.

thanks guys, think i'll hold off building my own pc for a short while then but at the same time watch the prices of the old core2 range to see if any good deals come about.

I've been running a Q6600 since a month or so after they were released. Fantastic CPU, great overclocking. Gaming is great, Lightroom and Photoshop are even better.

However having seen the upgrade costs for an i7 - motherboard, CPU and DDR3 are around £700 as a starting point, I can't see the sense to change. I upgraded over the weekend to a Q9450 for a net £30 cost, and that will do me until the 32nm shrink.

i7 is fantastic architecture, just even with all I use my PC for, I don't need it at that price.