Memory Doesn't Matter!

[ctal]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

the "yippee ki-ay"-version will be triple-channel.

You've probably been watching some Bruce Willis movies lately.

Regards,

-- Al

[k0NG0]

Originally Posted by ctal

You've probably been watching some Bruce Willis movies lately.

Heh, no, but calling it "top of the line" or "high end" makes me sound like a salesman, and that in turn makes me reach for the strychnine. And I like the ring of it.

[TQ]

I didn't know Nehalem required a new socket.
Man...I have more reading to do. It'll have to wait 'till we get back from New Mexico. No internet access for Mrs. TQ's air card on our side of the mountain and we're leaving tomorrow morning.

Nehalem is the 1600MHz line of processors, then? And the purported 1600MHz FSB speeds the X48 supports will likely be for a budget line of processors?

[TQ]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

Heh, no, but calling it "top of the line" or "high end" makes me sound like a salesman, and that in turn makes me reach for the strychnine. And I like the ring of it.

I knew it...you're a cowboy at heart.

[k0NG0]

Originally Posted by TQ

I didn't know Nehalem required a new socket.
Man...I have more reading to do. [...] Nehalem is the 1600MHz line of processors, then? And the purported 1600MHz FSB speeds the X48 supports will likely be for a budget line of processors?

Yup, LGA1366 for the triple-channel version (it will replace LGA775 on the high-end). Then there's LGA1160 which is dual-channel IIRC.

Nehalem won't use a front-side bus. It will use QPI - QuickPath. It's like HyperTransport basically. Since there's an integrated memory controller, the CPU socket will have to connect to memory directly. Hence new sockets all around.

Edit: socket pics: Nehalem's new CPU socket is bigger and more robust - The INQUIRER

Originally Posted by TQ

I knew it...you're a cowboy at heart.

Viking > Cowboy.

[TQ]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

Yup, LGA1366 for the triple-channel version (it will replace LGA775 on the high-end). Then there's LGA1160 which is dual-channel IIRC.
Nehalem won't use a front-side bus. It will use QPI - QuickPath. It's like HyperTransport basically. Since there's an integrated memory controller, the CPU socket will have to connect to memory directly. Hence new sockets all around.

Oh, I remember reading about that. I'll have to crash course myself on all this when I get back.

You're right about Viking=Cowboy. There is a school of thought that it was a Viking expedition that brought the breed of horse we call the "Paint" to North America. Something about the unlikely environment here for the paint to have evolved its distinctive markings and the more favorable surroundings for such evolution in Viking Land.
And we all know that cowboys love their paint ponies. Native Americans, too, ....heck, for that matter the Mexican Caballeros. Great horse breeders, the Mexicans.

[traveler]

Still waiting for the Asus X48 Rampage Extreme.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

That depends. Let me remind you that for Nehalem, Intel is bringing out new sockets across the board. You'll be able to use the DDR3 for that, of course, but the upgrade path for the rest may not be as great as one could wish.

[snip]

My new build is less than a month away, not a year away.

[k0NG0]

Originally Posted by TQ

Oh, I remember reading about that. I'll have to crash course myself on all this when I get back.

You're right about Viking=Cowboy. There is a school of thought that it was a Viking expedition that brought the breed of horse we call the "Paint" to North America. Something about the unlikely environment here for the paint to have evolved its distinctive markings and the more favorable surroundings for such evolution in Viking Land.
And we all know that cowboys love their paint ponies. Native Americans, too, ....heck, for that matter the Mexican Caballeros. Great horse breeders, the Mexicans.

There're quite a few changes that are coming within the next year. Exciting, for the most part. But if one wants an LGA775 rig now, it's fair to say it's something of a dead end as a viable performance upgrade path unless one upgrades thrice a year.

As for that last bit, I do play a mean game of horse, if I may say so.

[ctal]

Well, for what it's worth we can now get DDR3-2000 at 8-8-8-28 by water-cooling our memory modules

OCZ Technology | Products | Memory | OCZ DDR3 PC3-16000 Flex II Edition

-- Al

[TQ]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

There're quite a few changes that are coming within the next year. Exciting, for the most part. But if one wants an LGA775 rig now, it's fair to say it's something of a dead end as a viable performance upgrade path unless one upgrades thrice a year.

Yeah...that pretty much shoots my "upgrade path" argument in the foot. Still, I think I'll indulge in a bit of mission creep and rationalize that the current socket 775's are very refined and have a great dollar-to-performance ratio and that I'm still going to use XP/DX9 for my game rig (holding out for Win7) and the down-streamed X48 will make a heck of a workstation in eighteen months when I think the new-fangled tech has matured enough to downstream the game machine to replace my 975BA2-based workstation with the X48 and a quad-core.
Oh, and the fact that I just have an itch to build a new machine. That could just be the dandruff talking, though.