Core i5 vs. Core i7: Differences Between Intel's i5 and i7 Processors

The new Core i5 processors are meant to be the mainstream version of Sandy Bridge. But what is the difference between the new i5 and the existing i7? In what ways are Core i5 and Core i7 similar? The answers to those questions are easier than one might think, but the differences between the i5 and i7 processors are also more substantial than one might think. Here we explore the i5 vs. i7 showdown and how the new socket, chipset, turbo mode, memory usage, and hyper-threading compares between the two.