When can one buy a Nehalem based computer?

Nehalem based servers (Many MacPros are just rebagged Intel single or dual socket servers) should be available late this year however desktops are a different story.

I'd say in the channels by September so we should be able to by (in very limited, almost token numbers) December. The big players are seriously going to drain the channels for now.

However unless you need some serious memory bandwidth, 8 cores(effectively from 4 cores each running 2 threads) or dual processor buying Core i7 / Nehalem now is not the best idea. If 4 cores are enough and DDR2 is fast enough(almost always is for us general users / gamers) a current 45nm quad core or dual core will perform almost as well, cost much less and is already available.

Edit: Grammar / spelling, my bane...

Best option right now is waiting for Nehalam/i7 and THEN buying a Q6600/Q9450 because they're bound to drop in price shortly after i7 become available...

I think waiting until the new tech is release to buy the old one is not a good idea economically. I'll explain:

1. Everyone knows that a new tech will cause a price drop to the old tech.
2. The closer the release is more people are willing to wait to the release of the new tech
3. More people are waiting= lower demand
4. Lower demand = price drops

so the closer the release is the price of the old tech is lower. By the time the new tech is released there is no significant price drop because prices are already down.

Only if the new tech is better the expected you'll see price drops on the old tech (the Nvidia 260/280 prices droped because AMD 4850/4870 were better then expected not because they were better then Nvidia)

Nehalem/Core i7 won't be very affordable till Summer of next year.

Thanks for the inputs. I am a researcher who needs a powerful computer to do serious research involving computer simulations. So, performance is a much more important factor than cost. Given the strong competitions in research, waiting for the price to drop next year is certain not a good idea for me.

For research and simulations I think i7 may well be a good investment although obviously we need to see some real world tests and benchmarks.