With many consumers currently sitting on the fence about whether to wait for the re-release of Sandy Bridge or simply purchase an aging LGA 1366 socket system, Intel has restructured the pricing of its Core i7 LGA 1366 line as well as introducing a new extreme flagship chip.

Welcome the new Core i7-990X Extreme Edition behemoth, a six-core processor based on the 32nm Gulftown architecture. The processor has an unlocked BClk multiplier and a clock speed increase to 3.46 GHz. The Core i7-990X will replace the current  i7-980X Extreme Edition at US $999, as the latter is phased out.

Price restructuring also comes to the six-core Core i7-970, now priced at $583 USD from its current $880 USD. As well, the quad-core Core i7-960 will become the new starter chip of the LGA 1366 lineup as it drops to $294 USD, taking over the i7-950, and providing similar performance to the Sandy Bridge Core i7 2600K.