166Mhz higher for double the price?

$300 for new motherboard (they will all certainly be enthusiast class at the start)
$300 for new memory (If you want as much memory as you can stuff into a box with DDR2 because DDR2 prices are rock bottom)

The processor isn't even going to be the most expensive part of this upgrade package :(

...reverting Intel's recent habit of pricing its fastest Core 2 Extreme offerings at up to $1,500.

What? Do you mean "reverting to", or "reversing"?

Is that 2.83 or 2.93GHz for the new Nehalem? That alone would justify the price increase from the Q9550. Not to mention the architecture improvements.

For those looking at Bloomfield, please hope that DDR3 goes down in price! Isn't Bloomfield DDR3 only? The higher end chipsets will require triple channel memory while the "consumer" chipsets will be only dual (someone else please correct me on this).

The 2.83GHz appears to be a typo. Looks like it should be 2.93GHz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehalem_(microarchitecture)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/14/intel_prices_up_nehalem/

DDR3 yes
Tripple channel yes
3 sticks required? no

You can run in 1, 2, or 3 channel. And it's not hte chipset that determines the memory, it's right in the processor, so if they want to make stuff that is only 2 channel they'll need a different socket.