I have been baffled by the reviews I read today at other sites that don't "do the platform". They all test the 790fx/Phenom with Nvidia video cards. I wanted to see the platform as a whole to see if it made a difference.

" following a precedent set by Intel around year and a half ago for its Conroe launch."

Intel previewed a work in progress 4-5 months before launch in March 2006 -- lighting up the internet with calls of 'we must wait to get test systems in our labs' and 'take with a grain of salt.'

Come launch on July 14, 2006 the internet was opened up to a flood of independent third party reviews. Of which I will link a few:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/cpu/intel-core2-duo-e6600.html
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/intel_core_2_performance/
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6184

You continue to cast AMD's poor behavior in light of 'what Intel has done' when in true context it could not be further from the truth.

Anand has this to say on AMD's methodologies:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3153

"A representative from AMD's PR agency in charge of the Tahoe trip asked me, somewhat surprised, "what, Intel doesn't work like this?". 

Sorry to say, Intel doesn't. 
"

What a load of Inq crap once again.