Regardless of whether or not you’re an AMD fan-boy or an Intel fan-boy, there’s one area of computing we can all come together on and that is performance fan-boyism. I’m a huge fan of performance in many facets of life – how my PC performs is among the chief of those areas – and it should matter to you as well.

With Microsoft cranking out more bloated software and game publishers pushing the bounds of today’s PC hardware, the forethought of snatching up top-shelf PC hardware is ever paramount to PC enthusiast and gamersalike.

Today’s performance look at Intel’s pending Core I7 CPUs gives us aquick look-see at what’s right around the corner in regards toperformance for both the PC and MAC platforms (even though Apple hasn’t officially announced it, we know they’ll be moving to this newplatform).

I find it kind of funny that for the past few years we’ve been asking Intel about any plans of moving from an external memory controller to one that’s built into the CPU like AMD has done now for quite awhile–and even though its clear Intel didn’t need one to win the performance crown – it clearly has some advantages and with Nehalem (code name for Core I7).

So what’s new about it?
For starters – about everything is new with the Core I7 over its Core2Duo predecessor – an entire new piece of silicon which takes its design into new horizons for Intel.

On the outset, you will need a new motherboard as the socket has a higher pin-count – additionally, it requires the use of DDR3. Why? Because the memory controller is now built into the CPU die which in turn means that Intel had to pick one type of memory (like AMD has done) and plan to run with it until future products potentially change that direction.

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