PC Purchase Ahead...

[Sloan]

Another thing is that Intel seem to design a new motherboard socket every time they release a new line of processors, whereas AMD design their processors to work on the same socket (as well as making thier newer models backwards compatible with the previous generation of motherboards) so 3 or 4 years down the line you can drop £150 on a new processor, pick up some more RAM and bring your computer up to speed for under £300.

This is something I've noticed as well. I bought a motherboard years ago with AMD's socket AM2+/AM3 and was able to make an upgrade last year that was super cheap and made a big difference.