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Is i5 a dead-end upgrade path?

They'll probably still release new high-end CPU's for LGA1156 it just won't see the latest super duper chips like LGA1366 will.
 
I can`t see the LGA1366 lasting that long ether as a high end socket.

Remember, next year 2011 Intel will be releasing their Sandy Bridge prosessor which will be there top high end performance chip at that time and according to most sites this chip will probably on a completely new socket, so where does this leave socket LGA1156 and LGA1366???
 
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get a cheap CPU lets say on AM3 setup like the BE 550 which is cheapo dual and will run everything just fine for the next two years or so yet and then you can just smack new 6core or a 965BE (or anything newer if it comes out) for almost no cash and have double or triple performance upgrade which will do fine for another 2yrs or so : )

Personally I'm not sure ift a cheapo dual core is going to last into 2012 for the enthusiast sector, likewise I suspect by 2014 I suspect things will have moved on and that socket will be behind the times.

To be honest the only 'future proofing' I think is worthwhile when it comes to motherboard selection is in cases where you have a new gpu interface (e.g. PCI->AGP->PCI-E) and possibly memory. So for example I'd be wary of buying a DDR2 system
 
I would second the above. Although in saying that, it's not like quad cores are fully utilised at present (if we exclude video editing / redering etc). If the future of processors is indeed multithreading then perhaps the old dual core has some life in it yet?
 
but really.. for most consumers what do they use the computer for? some gaming? some vid editing and photoshop maybe...internet browing - mostly!

will word 2014 not run properly on a quad core pc from today? internet explorer 15 or whatever it will be...

we have almost reached a plateu where people are beginning to realise that they can do the tasks they need, without buying top of the range because the tasks they do arent really that intensive at all.
 
But remember, AMD's bulldozer will be on a new socket so why not Intel's Sandy Bridge???

There have been recent roadmaps which show Bulldozer listed as "AM3/DDR3", I think its been picked up on too and isn't an error so there's a possibility that some of the early bulldozer chips will actually work on AM3 boards.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/12/amd_client_roadmaps/

(Scroll to the bottom to see the desktop roadmap "Scorpius Platform"). It's therefore possible that AM3 with DDR3 and a board with decent voltage regulation could be an extremely good option in terms of upgrade path to get you onto the next gen arch easily; then again you might end up with the situation that AM2 had where only certain boards were compatible.
 
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