Thanks for the information on future sockets. Very interesting.
Yes, upgradeability is important, but in the end there's a fixed pattern:
I tend to get a new CPU with a new motherboard every two year or so, so I'm not too upset. I've even considered building my new system around a Core 2 Duo E7500. It is quite limited in terms of upgradeability, but it is cheap and would let me reuse my DDR2 memory and the Scythe cooler from my wife's system (reuse is fun).
I work from home. I'm not doing processor-intensive tasks, but having a snappy system makes my work more efficient and pleasurable.
As for D-Sub problem, I think I got it now. Intel's integrated graphics do not support analog output through D-Sub port (see review from customer#1 in the link below), but digital output through the same should be fine.
http://www.20north.com/Intel-Core-i3-Pr ... src=search
I've been considering the AMD Athlon X4 630, which costs about the same price as the i3 core 530 here. I'd save a few pennies by reusing my DDR2 memory, and I'd have slighter better performance than the i3, but that's it. (not sure about the better performance of four cores in Office applications)
The low power consumption of the i3 is extremely attracting to me. Also, I have been using AMD-based systems for ten years (cost performance!), and maybe I want to taste something different now. Not sure.