Well they need to do something. That i7 is bad ass.
My logic is simple. As I'm a simple minded person. When the FX was first introduced nothing Intel had could touch it. Now we have the "Black Edition" that has yet to live up to the FX name. I'm old fashion and superstitious. When they finnaly come out with a CPU worthy of the FX name I hope we don't get another 4 door Charger. Now you get me?
The AMD Chuck Norris. Unlocked multiplier of awesomeness.
i7 is fast/powerfull/hot but its also expencive to build a decent i7 system, where as you can build a damn nice phenom2 system for a good price be it with ddr2 or ddr3 now, the money you save going amd on board+cpu can go to getting a better videocard, or a couple nice cards for crossfire
i7 still isnt worth the green it costs IMHO, and the fact that you will soon have i7's in 2 diffrent sockets......just makes things that much more confusing for the consumer......
how much you wana bet you see people giving chips/boards bad reviews on newegg because they got the wrong cpu+board? its already happening with am2/am2+ cpu's and am3 boards, people are DUMB and will blame the board maker or chip maker for their not reading properly.....
blah, I know im going phenomII not i7 or i5 or i3, even if i cant get an "fx" chip, I would be happy with a chip i can clock nicely that will let me do what I do at a reasonable speed(gaming, encoding, movies)