We do AI platforms for the public safety industry, where people's lives can depend on faster execution. Our app is Java-based, and can use all available cores fully. In short, we're looking forward to this thing...

I think Scott's original review of the first Skulltrail may explain a lot of the "why bother with this kind of thing" questions people have. This system just screams for some video editing and 3D applications tasks to really keep it busy. It'd also make a fine Server if you throw a bit of Virtualization into the equation. But save the occational Beverly Hills type, it's not much of a desktop platform for gamers.

drop in that new SSD that does 700MB/sec for $1k

Skulltrail = platform with an identity crisis.

It is overkill for even hardcore enthusiast while costing as much as a "true" workstation platform, but lacking some of the expected features.

Why even bother getting this? Just get the Nehalem derived 2P Xeon. I'm sure there will be several competitors.

I think I might be interested right about the time that this monster rolls out.

The Core 2 lineup, dual and quad, has satisfied my need for more cores. They've also demonstrated that we've reached a place where faster CPUs don't often equal faster performance. Time to get something big and current and let things coast at speed for a while. I think SSDs and GPUs are the only things that will be continuing a huge pace. CPUs and RAM have reached heights of speed and density that now things will sit tight for a little while.

This, a couple of the PCIe based SSDs, and I'll just be doing video upgrades for a few years... it'll be like my old dual 2.4ghz Xeon rig all over again!

Why bother? 2x the length of your e-peen that's why!