Well that’s interesting, I got a tip from twitter (thanks john_blanton!) that Sandy Bridge processors were back on sale over at Newegg.com.  Sure enough, that is indeed the case:

Sandy Bridge CPUs back on sale at Newegg - Processors 3

Again, how interesting…why would Intel suddenly give the go-ahead for selling a processor that STILL won’t have motherboards for sale again until at least the middle of March.  When I looked for motherboards under the LGA1155 socket, this is what I found:

Sandy Bridge CPUs back on sale at Newegg - Processors 4

Uh, well, one listed as out of stock and one open box Intel-branded H67 offering.  Not much else to comment on here other than we are slightly confused, but if you want to pick up a Sandy Bridge processor without a motherboard or system for whatever reason, I guess you can now…?  Maybe this is just an attempt to counter AMD’s latest marketing blast?  Anyone have an interesting guess?