We’re not sure how many people are slapping Intel’s uber-powerful Nehalem EX chips into workstations, so we’ll go with another new 32-nanometer processor released as part of this year’s Xeon 5600 series update to the original Nehalem launch in 2009.

The Xeon X5680 is a six-core, 130-watt workhorse that chugs along at 3.33GHz -- and Intel Turbo Boost will crank the clock up even further. Not to mention, Intel Hyper-Threading means you’re getting 12 compute threads, or two per processor core.

Release date: March 16, 2010

Price: $1,663