We are..... computer parts in Malaysia is tax free..... so in this case we can blame local distributors for the price hike.

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO should cost around RM650 (@ most) .....

ya wait for ASUS.the best mobo!ROG!u the best and f*** the rest!

heck the 4 threaded Apps are not even fully optimized for the 4 cores, u mostly see the "common" Apps claim to support 4 thread are poorly optimized on the 3rd/4th core.

Core 2 quad is like 5yrs old already. I think we need another 5yrs to fully adopt/optimized the 6 cores.  I wonder who is the guy behind AMD to come up the idea to design bulldozer for "special" 8 core + expecting software developer to adopt it. *good luck with that.    I think Intel high IPC are more feasible for now. 

Temp and cooler you use ? 3770k same as 3570k temp ?

What kind of app u are running. I am talking about software the number of taking 4 thread in general. Just because there is a couple of App using 4 thread doesnt mean >50% of them in the market is fully written in 4 thread. 

take for example, Dragon age are only benefit 3 cores, PXSX2 are only recently get quad core support and it still heavily rely on dual core, Skyrim are also put heavy use on dual core when it first launch. There is a reason Intel Stays at quad core for Haswell.

industry software cannot be consider common software use for common user.    There are atleast 3-4 times more people use consumer software than industry user. Intel is targeting those guys

Lifespan, nobody knows.
But Ivy will not degrade like Sandy for sure.
It is durable.

Yeha interested in this too. Cyntrix can explain pros and cons for using Xeon on cheap h61 mobos?