New Computer follow up

If you saw my last post about 2 months ago, where I said it would be advantageous to wait a bit longer if your in the market for a new computer, well that time has come!

This past Tuesday (Sept 8th) Intel formally launched the basic components you were waiting for in your next Desktop machine.
Then Core i5 700 series or Core i7 800 series processors. (The previous Core i7 processors were the 900 series)
Socket 1156 which is what those 2 new families of processor will connect to.
And the P55 chipset which acts as the traffic cop on your Motherboard.
Put them together and you have a new Motherboard and Processor for your new computer.

If you want some technical details on the new machines as well as some comparisons to previous processors you might already have, I would recommend reading these 2 articles:
Anandtech: Intel's Core i7 870 & i5 750, Lynnfield: Harder, Better, Faster Stronger
Tom's Hardware: Intel Core i5 And Core i7: Intel’s Mainstream Magnum Opus

If your interested in building your own machine based on these new technolgies, NewEgg is a good place to start in order to see whats available.
New Processors: All Socket 1156 Processors - The Core i7 860 @ $299 is the best bang for your buck.
New Motherboards: All Socket 1156 Motherboards
Memory: DDR3 - Because if your upgrading from an older machine, you probably don't have this laying around. I would recommend getting 1333 for the speed and 4GB (2GB x 2) as the minimum for any new machine.

If you want to just buy a new machine, it seems there is only 1 major vendor who has machines available right out of the gate:
Dell: Studio XPS 8000 series


And lastly, if your waiting for a new Laptop, its going to be another month or three before we see those emerge.