You and I are of the same mind, Insight Driver. While I respect AMD's value angle, I simply cannot find it in me to get behind it.
AMD is recommending a motherboard that tips the scales at $180 for the X4 955. That's not cheap, and it's in the same price range as any number of high-performance X58 boards. Comparing the cost of AMD's recommended motherboard with a 955 to one of those X58 boards and a Core i7 920 reveals that there really
isn't an unbridged chasm in platform value.
I'm not sold on this front.
Let's step away from value and look at possible upgrades during the expected lifetime for each company's socket:
AMD Socket AM3: Phenom II until 2011.
Intel LGA1366: Nehalem until 4Q09, then Westmere until 2011.
LGA1366 immediately presents an obvious upgrade path with the Westmere. While the Nehalem already offers a performance lead on the Phenom II X4, the Westmere will widen it further while reducing size, heat and power consumption. Unless AMD has some magnificant new stepping of the Phenom II lurking in the wings, it has no direct way to bridge that performance gap until 2011.
So I have to ask myself: How can I support this processor when it's comparable in price, loses in the benchmarks, and does not present a clear upgrade path like its competitor?
* Thrax shrugs.
Maybe AMD has an answer that will catch us entirely off our guard. In the mean time, selling the value angle to me will be virtually impossible.