But better cooling = more $. And user can see the difference in their electricity bill
That's up to the vendor's ODM or in house designers to make sure they comply with Intel's spec (67C sustained for all cores @ 100%, but it can go over for shorter periods of time).
But that's also worst case. See below (response to
All Taken).
I just added it because you forgot to mention it. Lower TDP parts always cost more. For example i7-870 costs 294$ but 870S costs 351$ and it's only 2.66GHz while 870 is 2.93GHz. The TDP difference is only 13W as well, with 130W vs 95W it's already a whopping 35W!
Yes, but it's meant for rackmount systems that have a dedicated HVAC system. In those instances, the power bill adds up considerably.
Intel's goal (what the enterprise users have requested/demanded), is more performance for the watt. That's the reason for more cores (more work per clock cycle, assuming the software can utilize it). The "bean counters" have spoken, and they're watching everything from intial system cost to operational costs (utilities, payroll,...), and infrastructure costs (building size, HVAC equipment,...).
For instance, Apple has used the 95W parts in Nehalem MPs and there must be a reason behind that. I'm guessing noise as 130W parts run hotter and thus need more effective cooling (in Mac Pro's case it's higher fan speeds).
Apple's choices were related to cost (X5690 = 130W, and goes for $1663 in Quantity; X5677 too, but for the same $, I'd stick with the X5680 myself). People could have heart attacks over the price (most here on MR using DP systems seem to be independent pros of some sort from what I can determine).
Most of the "X" series of DP parts are 95W (L = 40W or 60W, and E = 80W).
Here's the full list of DP parts if you're interested.
LGA 1366 isn't dead yet as LGA 2011 isn't going to be available anytime soon. LGA 1155 isn't enough to replace LGA 1366 (e.g. less PCIe lanes IIRC). I agree that stepping update is unlikely but not impossible. Maybe Intel wants to deliver a new high-end @3.6GHz?
In terms of architecture, they are (no new architecture planned). There's unreleased parts yet, but they're only variations in clock speed. So they will use the same B1 steppings. It's meant to go this way by Intel, as it's cheaper for system vendors to implement systems (same boards can be used for 2 releases). If they had to use new boards for every part, users would hesitate to buy, and that would affect everyone's sales.
And on the enterprise side, they need support for a longer period of time than consumers do, as they can't usually implement an upgrade all at once (have to stagger it due to both financial reasons and logistics of getting it done would be a total nightmare otherwise).
The next architecture is set for different sockets (LGA1155 for the consumer end, and LGA2011 for the enterprise side).
AFAIK W3690 isn't officially available yet, at least there is nothing on Intel's site.
No, it's not out yet. Nor is the W3620 or W3640. But they're the last ones.
I don't like the thought of 2x 130w in a mac pro. Do you think the machine can handle them without issue?
Really appreciate the quick replies, have any thoughts on my questions higher up the thread?
I am currently looking to go with a W3680 if it is a considerable boost from a W3565.
Don't worry about TDP so much, as those numbers are worst case (every single subsection of the CPU running full bore; cores, memory controller, CPU controller,...), not average. And there's a significant difference between them.
For example, the MP has a 980W PSU, but base systems typically only draw ~250W or so under normal usage. There's at least one thread on it here in MR somewhere.
