Cliff,

The Core 2 Duo/Quad is 3 years old. Let's go back that far and look at AMD's socket: AM2. AM2+ and AM3 processors do not work in an AM2 socket. Both manufacturers are on even ground for anyone coming from an architecture released in 2006 or 2007, and any customer from this generation is in for a new motherboard and processor.

And let's be a little honest about AMD, here. Selling a lack of innovation as "flexibility" is a bit disinenuous. In the lifetime of the Phenom II, Intel will have had four separate generations of processors, each faster than the last: Conroe, Penryn, Nehalem and Westmere. AMD has had Agena and Deneb.

Not only has AMD stood on the same ground as Intel with socket changes, it's done less innovation in the same amount of time.

You sort of got me on the IGP business, but we both know that Intel GMA is crap, and any HTPC with an Intel chip would be running on an NVIDIA IGP.

Lastly, any overclocker knows that locked vs. unlocked is hardly a matter for concern any more. Modern FSBs make FSB tweaks as easy as multiplier adjustments. I can set a Core i7 920 to 4GHz just as quickly as you can take a Phenom II X4 to 4GHz. The approach is difference, but the time and the cooling requirements are identical.