GhostRyder To be honest not much of a shocker on the release but its nice these will be supported on existing motherboards. I do highly doubt the 28 lane chip on the base will be dropped since its most likely going to be a 6 core option unless one of two things happen:



1: Price increase on the base chip

2: Base chip is the only 6 core in the lineup with the others becoming both 8 cores



That of course is only my speculation.

I would tend to agree with your assessment.Past actions are the best indication of future actions IMO. The one thing that Intel has done "consistently" with the entry level HEDT processor offering throughout the generations is be "inconsistent".For example:Core i7 3820 - didn't receive the "K" designation and was often referred to as partially unlocked. while it had the 40 PCIe lanes it was only quad core and the other two Sandy Bridge-E processors were 6 cores.Core i7 4820K - The Ivy Bridge-E entry level chip was much the same as the 3820 but this time presumably actually deserving of the "K" suffix and thus fully unlocked.Core i7 5820K - Finally 6 core / 12 threads and fully unlocked but a somewhat truncated 28 PCIe lanes.What is clear is that Intel wants to limit, impede or gimp the entry level processor in a significant way but they just seem undecided as to how to do it. So they keep experimenting with the variables.I expect some change in the entry level Broadwell-E processor. Although it would be nice if they upped the PCIe limit to something like 32 lanes at least,....assuming they don't go for the full 40.