Intel carved out high-end socket LGA1156 processors such as the Core i7 800 series, just so people opting for the LGA1156 also have the headroom to upgrade to high-end parts without having to switch to the more powerful LGA1366 platform with its Core i7 900 series processors. There are four parts in the performance-enthusiast (>$250) segment: Core i5 670 dual-core, Core i7 860 and Core i7 870 quad-core. With the possible advent of more powerful socket AM3 processors from AMD, notably the Phenom II X6 series with its overclocker-friendly Black Edition parts, Intel seems to be finding a need to expand its LGA1156 series a little.

In the works are the Core i7 875K quad-core, and Core i5 655K dual-core. Being careful as to not label them "Extreme Edition" chips (since the "Extreme Edition" moniker seems to be clearly demarcated for the LGA1366 platform and the market segment by that name), Intel gave these chips the "K" brand identifier. Last summer, Intel released the Pentium Dual-Core E6500K to select markets. Similar to that, the Core i7 875K and Core i5 655K are overclocker-friendly chips that come with unlocked BClk multipliers (much like the Extreme Edition chips).

The i7 875K is based on the Lynnfield core, operates at around 3 GHz (could be 2.93 GHz), has four cores, eight logical CPUs with HyperThreading enabled, 256 KB of L2 cache per core with 8 MB shared L3 cache, on-die dual-channel DDR3 memory controller and PCI-Express 2.0 root complex, and the unlocked BClk multiplier. The i5 655K is a dual-core part based on the Clarkdale core, operates at 3.20 GHz, has four logical CPUs with HyperThreading enabled, 256 KB L2 cache per core with shared 4 MB L3 cache, and on-chip northbridge. The i7 875K has a TDP of 95W, while the i5 655K has a TDP of 73W. Intel plans to release these chips around the time of Computex 2010 targeting summer sales. It remains to be seen which markets Intel targets with these new chips, whether it will be a worldwide product launch at all.