AnandTech Article - New Intel CPU's and chipsets coming!

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by polonyc2

apparently these new i5 chips perform better then an i7 920...at least 2 of them do anyway...apparently the lowest end one does not come with Hyperthreading enabled...this looks like a decent step up from my E8400...I was thinking about upgrading to a Q9650 but I'm going to hold off on that...I'd rather move to an i7/i5 when I decide to get a quad or 6 core CPU...plus nothing really takes advantage of 4+ cores at the moment (especially games)

too bad none of these new i5 CPU's will come at 3.0 Ghz or higher (default clock speed)

Actually HT was pretty cool back in the single core days. Then there was the 840EE chip which OC'd very well. It had two chips sewn together with HT so what you got was the first quad core or quad threaded CPU. Back then it helped. Now with 4 real cores and 4 HT's I think all it does is add heat. Also if you go to AT's article on page 3 it says the Lynnfields will most likely be:

AnandTech: The Lynnfield Preview: Rumblings of Revenge
2.93GHz
2.80GHz
2.66GHz

[polonyc2]

Originally Posted by Sandog

Actually HT was pretty cool back in the single core days. Then there was the 840EE chip which OC'd very well. It had two chips sewn together with HT so what you got was the first quad core or quad threaded CPU. Back then it helped. Now with 4 real cores and 4 HT's I think all it does is add heat. Also if you go to AT's article on page 3 it says the Lynnfields will most likely be:

AnandTech: The Lynnfield Preview: Rumblings of Revenge
2.93GHz
2.80GHz
2.66GHz

the highest Lynnfield is 'only' 2.93 Ghz...I wish they had bumped it up to 3.0 Ghz...that would have been a sweet spot (for me anyway)

I think Hyperthreading is still a good thing even with 4 cores...yes it adds heat but it's still nice to have 8 virtual cores--which Windows 7 should do a better job of managing

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by polonyc2

the highest Lynnfield is 'only' 2.93 Ghz...I wish they had bumped it up to 3.0 Ghz...that would have been a sweet spot (for me anyway)

I think Hyperthreading is still a good thing even with 4 cores...yes it adds heat but it's still nice to have 8 virtual cores--which Windows 7 should do a better job of managing

2.93/2.997/3.0 doesn't make any difference. The reason it is 2.93 is because the i7 & i5? have a 1066 CPU bus. My Penryn has 1333. It is the Lynnfield 2.93GHz part that does 3.6GHz in turbo.

It looks like most popular board makers are going all out with the P55/57 chipsets. Take a look at what Gigabyte is doing.
Fudzilla

[Sandog]

I really want one of these chips solely because it will jump to 3.6GHz on its own. Other than that a TPM module would be nice along with Braidwood tech. and of course I would like USB and SATA 3.0's. I am sure the P57 would use less power than even my P45 due to smaller chipset and the Lynnfield using less power.

[Sandog]

OT but does anybody know if 2x8 PCI-E lanes restricts Crossfire or SLI over 2x16 lanes? Don't forget most mobo's are now using PCI-E 2.0 which doubles the bandwidth so 1x16 PCIe 1.0 = 1x8 PCIe 2.0. I wonder if 8x restricts todays current video cards or not. I might have a hankering to buy 2 ATI 40nm DX11 cards before Christmas to use in a P57 chipset board.

[Sandog]

Intel's Maloney kicks off Computex keynotes

""Lynnfield" will supposedly offer much improved HD capabilities to mainstream desktops by the latter half of this year, as Maloney claimed users will experience 40 per cent better performance compared with last year's "Penryn"."



Here's the high-K story:

"Intel, said Maloney, will go on to deliver "Lynnfield" and "Clarksfield" processors in the second half of 2009 and ship 32nm "Westmere" chips using a second-generation Hafnium-based high-k metal gate transistor design "soon after"."

I'm beginning to think Intel is ran by a bunch of spacemen

[polonyc2]

I'm giving serious thought to upgrading to an i7...the fact that Gulftown will also be using the same socket 1366 as current i7's is what is tempting me...Lynnfield sounds good but it also sounds a bit too watered down...if I get a i7 920 or 950 now, future upgrades will be made easier

the fact that I won't really be taking advantage of all 4 cores is what is deterring me...I'll just have some fancy new benchmark scores but I prefer real world performance...I've been doing a lot of reading today about all the latest X58 mobos etc...will make a decision soon

[Sandog]

Benchmarks will decide in favor for Lynnfield for me I believe. Unless there is a possibility you want two video cards and you don't care about buying a +750W power supply then get X58. Lynnfield will have 4+4 threads with HT (all except the lowest model) and turbo mode will go jump 667MHz on single threads. They will need to upgrade X58 mobo's to provide USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 to match the newer P55/P57 chipsets. Gulftown will be the fastest though and at 32nm but it will be as expensive or more so than i7.

[johnrr6]

Originally Posted by polonyc2

but I prefer real world performance...

Poly----if you do video work-----your real world performance gains with an i7 will be huge....

Plus it multitasks better than any other CPU-chipset combo out there

I recommend the Asus X58 boards

Asus is just.....the best....

Ive tried all the different board manufacturers from Gigabyte to Abit to ECS to Jetway.

In fact---I have built rigs for myself, friends and family using these manufacturers:

Abit
Albatron
Asus
Biostar
Chaintech
ECS
DFI
Epox
Foxconn
Gigabyte
Intel
Jetway
MSI
Shuttle

All had special things that made them attractive.....
Gigabyte had dual bios chips and better power phasing
Abit boards used to be the king of overclockers
DFI supports their boards with the best and most frequent BIOS options
Some of the lower end boards the attraction was simply price/value.

But, over the years, I always keep coming back to Asus for my workhorse desktop build. They just never seem to have any issues and their support and BIOS are simply the best in the motherboard arena----at least all the ones I have tried.....

Good Luck Poly!

You will like the i7.....

[johnrr6]

Originally Posted by Sandog

and you don't care about buying a +750W power supply then get X58.

I think there is a little misconception about the PSU necessary for decent dual video cards.

The key is the amps available on the rails and the components it is built with---watts are not the most important factor.

Pick up a cheap 750 Watt----and then pick up a solid Seasonic 600W or a PC Power and Cooling 600W......

the 600 Watt PSUs will be heavier and will actually be the better PSU....

In fact----I'm running a decently overclocked i7 on an X58 board with 12 gigs of RAM, a dual core graphics card (ATI 4870 X2) with a RAID, an X-Fi Titanium and a Hauppage TV card....

On a 600 W Seasonic.....

With absolutely no issues.....

And the machine runs 24/7.....

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

I think there is a little misconception about the PSU necessary for decent dual video cards.

The key is the amps available on the rails and the components it is built with---watts are not the most important factor.

Pick up a cheap 750 Watt----and then pick up a solid Seasonic 600W or a PC Power and Cooling 600W......

the 600 Watt PSUs will be heavier and will actually be the better PSU....

In fact----I'm running a decently overclocked i7 on an X58 board with 12 gigs of RAM, a dual core graphics card (ATI 4870 X2) with a RAID, an X-Fi Titanium and a Hauppage TV card....

On a 600 W Seasonic.....

With absolutely no issues.....

And the machine runs 24/7.....

Thats good to hear John, most systems I read about have 1000W power supplies with the X58 chipset boards. I have a very good 650W power supply in which the power output is only getting half used. When Lynnfield comes out in September we will see the benchmarks and we should also start hearing more about Gulftown. I think anybody will be happy with i7, i5, or Gulftown.

[polonyc2]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

Poly----if you do video work-----your real world performance gains with an i7 will be huge....

But, over the years, I always keep coming back to Asus for my workhorse desktop build. They just never seem to have any issues and their support and BIOS are simply the best in the motherboard arena----at least all the ones I have tried.....

Good Luck Poly!

You will like the i7.....

I don't do any video editing...the i7 definitely excels in that area

I've only used ASUS and never any other mobo manufacturer...I love ASUS because they are reliable and have excellent cooling and performance...only thing that always bothers me about them is that they seem to overvolt and/or don't seem to handle voltages well

just for the sake of trying something new I was very close to going with DFI for my last build...but in the end decided that there was just too much hard core tweaking involved with their BIOS...and I'm not too much of a hard core overclocker...I prefer stability

for this new i7 build I also want to break out of my ASUS mentality...I'm really really tempted to get the Gigabyte EX58-UD5 board

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

or maybe even a nice reliable vanilla Intel board

EDIT: At Computex Gigabyte launched their newest addition to the X58 family, the GA-EX58A-EXTREME. Boasting a 24-phase power design, the board is tailored for the overclocking/hardware enthusiast crowd and continues to support Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 3 features. Gigabyte even outfits the board with 6Gbps SATA ports

[johnrr6]

Gigabyte would be my second choice...

Always solid.....Dual BIOS and Power Phasing has always been their specialty....

My only problem with Gigabyte is that their BIOS updates tend to run few and far between. But then----if you have a solid product off the shelf from the git go....

Who needs a lot of BIOS updates....

DFI 3rd

DFI will ultimately have the best BIOS and overclocking features----but only if you like to tweak a ton----and you said you really weren't into that....NOBODY has BIOS like DFI....you can take months tweaking and playing with BIOS options no one has even heard of before and you can't find out any info on----even in Rojak Pots BIOS guides.....

And some of these obscure settings actully give you rather significant performance boosts....

DFI BIOS are a Tweakers dream.....or the common bloke's nightmare.....

[Sandog]

So many hardware, so little time

Taste great, less filling.
AnandTech: Intel’s Core i7-975 & 950: Preparing for Lynnfield
In particular the 3.0 Lynnfield is the one I'm interested in.

[XJ.]

I expect that the 4 core Lynnfield wo/ HT will likely clock higher than those with HT. I have seen posts on Nehalem were overclocker's were able to hit significantly higher core clocks by disabling HT. So unless one is running applications that make good use of SMT (HT), the "low end" Lynnfield may be a better choice (if you are an overclocker and assuming it isn't crippled beyond the lack of HT).