Intel once again, is making a big mistake. Remember the Slot motherboards and how much they sucked. Now, with this new problem of bending pins and the corrupted Socket T design. I know I will be looking very hard at AMD for my next CPU. This could be the turning point for everyone who has stuck by Intel though all the crap they have forced us to swallow. For years Intel was the only real player in town, well times are changing. I am glad AMD is not following Intel into this hole. Keep up the awesome work AMD.

Hmm. Intel really didn't think about this one very much. Looks as if they need to clean house in the engineering dept... BUT, I will say this. For me personally, this is a minor setback at most. I don't switch processors out like It's going outa style... I usually buy a pretty high-end one, and keep it for a few years. By the time I'm ready to replace it, I would need to replace the motherboard too. So, while I am disappointed in Intel for this design, I will keep faithfully using their processors as I have been for the last 10 years or so. Performance wise, the've not let me down yet.

Hmmm, motherboard QA usually involves the addition of a processor.

There is a serious chance that the actual process of QA will damage a motherboard. Given the number of broken boards at Cebit ... what percentage? If they only had a single processor insertion beforehand the rate could be pretty damn high.

They can't be too happy about that. Nevermind that the socket is adding $8 to a motherboard.

Review sites will also hate it. "Oh, another motherboard broken, that's the third for this review".

This shows a serious miscalculation on Intel's behalf. Yeah, install once processors are fine and all that, but then you might as well mount the processor on the motherboard itself.

intel has pushed this move ahead whilst not listening to the manufacturers who have to make their products (stupid if u ask me) they wish to not get any CPU's returned from bent pins coming in reteail boxes, rather they push the problem onto the motherbord

which is easier replacing a CPU or an entire motherboard

CPU takes 2 mins to replace and motherboard takes about 20 mins depending on how neat you are with your cables,

Seriously this move will only force more people to AMD's half of the world with their A64 which is 32bit compatable out of the box unlike intels Itanium 1/2 and prescotts heat problems and variable voltage, which will probably end up killing the motherboard in the end