[Devil_Dog]

Originally Posted by bmwbaxter

no need to find a gem if a 5.3ghz chip beats 6ghz gulftown.

anyone know if there is an SR3 mobo in the works?

That is true but I still would have to try to bin for better. That may cause a divorce.

Yes, there is an SR3 in the works but iirc it will be just like the SR2 and be limited to Xeon chips.

[Brolloks]

Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

I'm knee deep in the RIVE review right now but after that one I'll see what I can do. However don't I remember something about first-gen SB chips dying from disabling cores? I don't really want to take a chance on this chip.

I can do a really quick comparison with WPrime in the comments here. I'll just assign it four threads, then eight and see how they compare with each other. Would that help?

It was Gulftown that died when you disable all cores except one, I will include that in my review, that way we have something different in another review if you dont mind

[ghost_recon88]

Curious as to how much faster quad channel is over dual channel on the same CPU, or if its just a marketing gimmick? Any chance of running the 3960X with both dual and quad channel? Might be to ones advantage to run only in dual channel if the DIMMs they have can run higher MHz and tighter timings than the quad channel kit.

[hokiealumnus]

Originally Posted by Brolloks

It was Gulftown that died when you disable all cores except one, I will include that in my review, that way we have something different in another review if you dont mind

Fine by me!

Originally Posted by ghost_recon88

Curious as to how much faster quad channel is over dual channel on the same CPU, or if its just a marketing gimmick? Any chance of running the 3960X with both dual and quad channel? Might be to ones advantage to run only in dual channel if the DIMMs they have can run higher MHz and tighter timings than the quad channel kit.

Excellent point, and I plan on addressing it in the review of this G.Skill kit, which is in line after the motherboard.

[capttripppp]

Making a sign right now..... "Will work for LGA2011"
Edit: or we can "occupy" Intel.... Anyone interested?

[I.M.O.G.]

Thanks hokie, great article and everything I was looking to read on this. Can't wait to see some benchmark scores crushed very soon.

I'm still on the fence about plunking down the cash here, but man this chip's performance look great.

Originally Posted by LancerVI

Dissapointing chipset. X79 is not a "flagship" Enthusiast chipset. It's just not. Looks pretty mainstream to me.

Maybe you aren't looking at the price on the boards - that looks pretty flagship enthusiast to me.

[dejo]

anyone know how they respond to cold? As that will be a factor for some.

[hokiealumnus]

Thanks!

Originally Posted by I.M.O.G.

Maybe you aren't looking at the price on the boards - that looks pretty flagship enthusiast to me.

Haha...what's more amusing is that I've heard the chipset is what's driving up the price of these boards. It's not much better than P67. I can't imagine precisely why it costs so much more to produce. If it had at least six SATA 6Gb/s ports along with USB 3.0 native support, maybe...but it doesn't. No idea what they were thinking with this one. The CPUs are insanely powerful, but the chipset? Not so much.

Originally Posted by dejo

anyone know how they respond to cold? As that will be a factor for some.

I'm so disappointed you didn't hang on my every word.

From the review:

It’s important to note that Intel has said repeatedly that their focus is on optimizing these CPUs for air and water cooling. Their “…more integrated PCIe architecture is optimized for more real world conditions vs. maximum frequency under extreme cooling.” They feel that’s where they should focus their efforts and indeed on a decent water loop these things perform wonderfully with low temperatures. Like Sandy Bridge, chances are going cold might allow you higher clocks but it will definitely allow the same clocks you get on ambient cooling to be more stable and run with less fear of killing your chip.

[dejo]

the point was, Is it a fight to get it to boot if sub-zero as the Sb is?

[hokiealumnus]

When asked directly, Intel said we can expect the same behavior out of SNB-E as we did with SNB before it. I haven't had the chance to take it cold yet, but chances are we'll see the same issues.

[dejo]

I would have guessed the same, but you never know till you try it. We were told that SB wouldnt boot cold, but there are ways, just takes some trial and error.

[I.M.O.G.]

I haven't tested it, but I expect it will act the same way Dejo. Like you though, I'd like confirmation from those actually doing it.

[Janus67]

Originally Posted by dejo

I would have guessed the same, but you never know till you try it. We were told that SB wouldnt boot cold, but there are ways, just takes some trial and error.

SB will boot cold, but it surely as a CB/CBB unlike AMD chips. I didn't run into any issues when I did mine on my MIVE with DICE.

[ghost_recon88]

Native USB 3.0 would have been icing on the cake, guess we'll have to wait until IB to get those.

[Seebs]

I'm thinking there will be a surplus of SB chips and mobos hitting the "used" market soon. Good thing for those of us that have not made the move to SB just yet.

I'm sure that's CPUz just bugging out, but did anyone else notice this?

[bmwbaxter]

Originally Posted by xXSebaSXx

I'm thinking there will be a surplus of SB chips and mobos hitting the "used" market soon. Good thing for those of us that have not made the move to SB just yet.

I'm sure that's CPUz just bugging out, but did anyone else notice this?
Attachment 101414

he mentioned in the review that CPUz wasn't reading it correctly.

[hokiealumnus]

What, you don't believe I hit DDR3-10500?!?

[ghost_recon88]

I like how bclk is finally above 107 again

[Theocnoob]

SO FAST! I saw the benchies. OH MY GAWRSH... This is a QUANTUM LEAP for cryin out loud. Look at those numbers. Crushes a 2600K by double in most cases.

[bmwbaxter]

Originally Posted by ghost_recon88

I like how bclk is finally above 107 again

i didn't think bclk went above 100mhz all FSB strap did was add a multi so it was like 125mhz, 150mhz, 200mhz and 250mhz. but blck stayed at 100mhz. thats how I understood it working. Clarification?

EDIT: my 2600k and M4E can do 108.3 thats over 107