I'm not rushing out to purchase any new stuff either. Reality is that many people's discretionary income has now become un-discretionary, and is now required to purchase food/gas. Can't eat computers or use them to fill your gas tank. And to boot, they don't have a resale value of squat. The devaluing US dollar is seriously impacting a lot of people's lifestyle. And the unfortunate thing is that it doesn't look like that situation is going to reverse itself any time soon, if in fact it ever does.
Those 10 or 12 core systems would really be nice, but you can bet that they aren't going to be cheap. And with the general economic picture, it isn't like there is going to be the volume of purchasers for the new chips like there has been in the past. It isn't just the households that are having a rough time making it through the month... the business world is also being hit. So the old days when the mfrs used to incrementally bring out chip after chip slowly nudging up the speed are a changing. The bucks just aren't there to support that market model like it was in the past.
So all in all, I'm just not holding my breath on any super big breakthrough with AMD, or really, even Intel for that matter. I think things all over the place are more inclined to a holding pattern for the near term future anyway. People buy the q6600's cause it is a very solid chip, and it works. The motherboard market for the new AMD stuff isn't rushing a ton of product out to market either. The amd quad chip flaws have impacted many people's decision in purchasing new AMD chips. AMD also isn't unloading the X2's and all very well now either. By the time you put a system together, it is really hard to beat the q6600 for the price AND reliability of the motherboards/chip. This economic downturn isn't helping AMD out at all. :(
