I have an ancient Q6600 currently, and am having trouble over-clocking it (BIOS keeps resetting in POST). I've been looking at an upgrade, although this is one that I am trying to be cost conscious at the moment, as I have other competing priorities. I have a 460GTS and am running Windows 7 64 bit.Looking at the Core i7 series, I am reading that the Lynnfield series (i7-8xx / 8xxS) are 4-core with an 8MB L3 cache (so I understand the difference to the 12MB L3 on the Bloomfield), and use the LGA 1156 socket. I'm still looking at prices, but it seems that the combo motherboard/CPU for LGA 1156 might save some money, however I also acknowledge the lack of upgradability using this socket. The LGA 1156 seems to be fleetingly transitionary between the 1366 of the high-end CPU's and the LGA 775 that were popular several years ago.Am I saving money only to lock myself into a limited technology here? What was the issue of the 1156 socket that caused such a limited lifespan, or was it just superseded by the next architecture after a limited time?I know that the best thing might be to wait until the Sandy Bridge series arrive in January, and the prices of the Bloomfields etc. start falling, although with high-end stuff not coming out until Q2, and that new PMDG bird and the Level D B752 coming out possibly soon, the temptation is to talk nicely to "Santa" now and be ready for these new planes. Thanks for any ideas- Bruce.

To be honest, I can't imagine current chips becoming any cheaper with the release of Sandy Bridge. Just look at the price of a Q9550, for example - still $275 on newegg. I can buy an i7-950 for only $25 more!I also wouldn't recommend basing your decision on the hope that prices drop. I understand you're on a budget, but I really don't like the idea of anybody buying an 1156 system right now. 1366 will cost you maybe $100 more, but probably not even that. Sandy Bridge will be out January 9th. What better way to greet the new birds than with an i5-2500k! The really high-end Intel stuff (LGA 1356/LGA 2011) won't be out till Q4 2011 or Q1 2012 and it certainly won't be cheap. AMD Bulldozer should be out Q2 2011.

cmeeks: One way to look at is that even the 2600k will overclock far better than any of the upcoming Intel offerings... but I still agree wait an extra 1-2 quarter that's just a golden rule with any new process.

To be honest, I can't imagine current chips becoming any cheaper with the release of Sandy Bridge. Just look at the price of a Q9550, for example - still $275 on newegg. I can buy an i7-950 for only $25 more!I also wouldn't recommend basing your decision on the hope that prices drop. I understand you're on a budget, but I really don't like the idea of anybody buying an 1156 system right now. 1366 will cost you maybe $100 more, but probably not even that. Sandy Bridge will be out January 9th. What better way to greet the new birds than with an i5-2500k! The really high-end Intel stuff (LGA 1356/LGA 2011) won't be out till Q4 2011 or Q1 2012 and it certainly won't be cheap. AMD Bulldozer should be out Q2 2011.

Thanks for the helpful replies. Bruce.