Intel raised the desktop CPU performance bar back in November when it launched its latest and greatest architecture to date, Nehalem, in the form of three Core i7 processors. However, not everyone is able or willing to shell out upwards of $500 for one of these beasts and their accompanying X58 motherboard. Luckily, according to Fudzilla, more affordable derivatives are already being sampled and could arrive in their final form as soon as July.


Specifically, the site claims P55 based motherboards will be shown off at Computex in early June, one month before the expected release of compatible Lynnfield (also referred to as Core i5) CPUs. This mainstream variant to the Nehalem microarchitecture will feature an integrated dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, integrated PCI-Express graphics controller and a DMI controller instead of QPI for communication with the Intel P55 (Ibexpeak) chipset.

A handful of P55 prototype motherboards have indeed been caught in the wild recently from the likes of Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and Biostar, showing that they are all busy designing new motherboards based on the chipset. Of course Intel may very well push back the release date of Core i5 to deal with overstock problems, as it has been previously speculated, which in turn would force motherboard manufacturers to do the same.