Well, there you have it. It’s out. Intel’s latest and greatest apparently is the latest and greatest indeed. There are a bunch of reviews out there if you’re interested, but in a nutshell, it’s fast. Taking anywhere between 50% to 100% increase of the previous generation, it’s deemed to be the new Core2Duo.

Coming in 3 flavours, the youngest (and cheapest) of the family also proves to be highly overclockable as well; aiming to replace the legendary Q6600 G0. Priced around $300, $600, and $900, Intel will definitely conquer the market once more even when AMD’s releasing its 45nm production next year. (afterall, it’s the same family, just smaller die size to conserve energy and a wee bit of performance increase)

The biggest issue I see is the rest of the package. Requiring a new socket, Nehalem forces its new adopters to replace the motherboard. Some early adopters of DDR3 RAM are able to re-use the parts, but the price has really gone down, PLUS the new trend seems to be triple-channels, no more duals. Indeed, the motherboard is the issue, pitching at $250 the CHEAPEST, hitting $400 for the true high ends.

Well, guess I’m not getting one set up anytime soon……. unless Boxing Day…. hmmm……