Intel Phases Out More Sandy Bridge CPUs
Intel is cleaning up the mid-range Sandy Bridge portfolio.
In a product change notification, Intel said that it has begun phasing out the 32 nm processors i5-2380P, i5-2450P and i5-2550K with clock speeds of 3.1 GHz, 3.2 GHz and 3.4 GHz, respectively. The CPUs sit right in the middle between the high-end and entry-level Core product line and currently sell for tray prices of $177, $195 and $225.
According to the notification: market demand has "shifted" to other products and it is obvious that Sandy Bridge processors have to make way for Ivy Bridge as Intel continues to ramp the 22 nm generation quickly.
All three processors received a final order date of February 22, 2013 for both tray and boxed CPUs. Final shipments are scheduled for August 9, 2013 for tray processors and until supplies are depleted for boxed versions.

Not sure where you are coming from... A SB/IB is a good enough CPU for multiple years. By the time most people's systems are bottlenecked by their SB/IB, the motherboard's features will be so outdated that there isn't much point in a CPU upgrade.
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They misread that apparently. The world isn't going to end its the end of an era apparently. Anyway the mayans didn't count leap years so actually the world should have ended about 9 months ago now I think. Sorry about that.
Well intel are just continuing their progression on CPUs. I hope their planned socket change isn't set in stone, surely there's nothing stopping Haswell being able to be put in LGA1155?
Not sure where you are coming from... A SB/IB is a good enough CPU for multiple years. By the time most people's systems are bottlenecked by their SB/IB, the motherboard's features will be so outdated that there isn't much point in a CPU upgrade.
Think of it this way (and this is their argument, not mine). If you are buying a brand new CPU for a gaming rig, do you really want it choked by 3 year old ram, 3 year old buss speeds, and be forced to update your firmware (which may brick a perfectly good board... though the process has gotten better over the years)? While I do not entirely agree with this outlook, I do understand that they are on top right now, and they do not want to get a bad name for having chips that phisically fit, but may have the wrong voltages, firmware, or feature sets to work perfectly right. By changing the interface every 2-3 years (regardless of necessity), it saves them a ton of support time explaining that 'had you purchased a different board, with the same chip-set, your new CPU would work, but the one you purchased does not'.
As it is, you slap it in, and it works, and there is no better PR than that. Updating the firmware may unlock some features, but for the most part the chip will work regardless.
wa wa wa wa, so a new scocket, big deal. Your still going to get about 5 years out of the dead board anyway and how cares about the socket. I have never upgraded to a new cpu without the board as well. also you do not want the intel video buy a laptop with ati or nvidia. when a laptop only cost around 400 dollars, what the hell do you want.
My first laptop was a dog 233 back in the day by micron. 3 Grand due 3 grand.
sit down a shut up about what company X is doing.
. . . slow down.
how old are you? pentium II never hit anywhere near 1ghz if it wasnt for AMD you would still have a netburst single core maybe at 4ghz that gets destroyed by bulldozer
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These sites are more your style: Dell.com HP.com
your math is flawed 7 years ago was the end since you started counting from roman calendar time and not mayan calendar time when this was written many thousands of years before christ was born. The Mayan calendar was established in 3372 BC.