this is all pure speculation but ill give a stab at it...
but first lets get some general prices out there:
(from googlegear.com)
AMD Athlon MP 2000+ 1.67GHz Processor Retail = $270.00
AMD Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73GHz Processor Retail = $260.00
Intel(R) Xeon(TM) Processor 2.2GHz = $679.00
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Processor (Northwood) 2.4GHz = $589.00
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Processor (Northwood) 2GHz = $312.00
Asus A7M266-D AMD 760MPX = $222.65
Xeon Motherboard = Approx $450.00
Now considering that clawhammer will also be comming out in a single processor version (clawhammer vs. clawhammer DP)... I expect the the two to be very similar in price as the Athlon MP and XP are... so being that if they want to ever sell single CPU clawhammers to the general public they need to be "within the realm of possibilty"... its looking good for us dual CPU people to be able to afford them without having to have to big bucks of a large company shopping for a server...
What all would you think the cost of one those yet to beholded procs would be?
Being that XP will become throughbred and then Barton... im thinking that hte barton line will be priced "intially" (i.e. overpriced) at around $300 and that means that clawhammer mostlikely will start at about $400+ for the best at release...
Meaning, wait around a bit and you will see clawhammers at around $200 - $300 as faster ones are released...
Ive been reading things like Clawhammer 3400+ and possible dual channel ddr... so things be heating up...
And what about Sledgehammers?
I think that sledgehammer wont to much more but considering that it will run 64 bit logic... that could easily get the prices hype into the xeon range, of $500 a pop per processor...
From what i read sledgehammer will be powerful but it also needs a 64 bit operating system to run on and Microsoft 64 bit OS is still like 1000s of dollars... but linux 64 is possible, though i dont know the cost of it... also I really think that getting a sledgehammer to run 32 bit games is a waste of money, considering that clawhammer will be better suited for running 32 bit (opinion/fact... not sure) and will be cheaper.
Id not worry about sledgehammer... its most likely going to be AMDs attempt to get $600 per processor from the peeps with deep pockets.
Im personally waiting for clawhammer to arrive and i am hoping for dual channel ddr333 and for AMD to up FSB to atleast 166
