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FRONTPAGE Sneak Peak: Gigabyte X79 Motherboards

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After getting our whistles wet with the first of two new CPU launches this year, it's about time to at least take a look at some boards from the Intel side of the house. Gigabyte has sent us pictures of their upcoming X79 based motherboards which are based on Socket 2011 and support the, hopefully soon to be released, Sandy Bridge-E CPUs.

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I like the new board design, with the RAM sockets separated... Gives it a cool look... Sockets are getting bigger rather than smaller with this new technology...

I'm extremely looking forward to the GPU technology, and @ 22nm. I'm excited to see how much they can cram into that... 4 and 6 cores chips coming..

i7-3820 Quad core (3.6ghz) L3 cache 10MB $294
i7-3930K 6 core (3.2Ghz) L3 cache 12MB $583
i7-3960X 6 core (3.3Ghz) L3 cache 15MB $999

These CPU's will be like the 655K, no cooler is included...
 
I can already see there will be problems with those boards and clearance between the RAM and any aftermarket CPU cooler.
 
Why would the UD7 have 4 DIMM slots and the lower end boards have twice as much?

I'm guessing they put 8 DIMMs only on the UD5 to give people a reason to buy it.

G1 = audio/nic
UD3 = budget
UD5 = workstations that need tons of RAM
UD7 = OCing

So no quad channel RAM after all?

On boards with only 4 DIMM slots, I'm expecting quad channel if you fill all 4 DIMMs, and dual channel when using the matching colored DIMM slots. At least I hope that's how it is. I haven't heard anything about quad channel being removed.
 
I'm guessing they put 8 DIMMs only on the UD5 to give people a reason to buy it.

G1 = audio/nic
UD3 = budget
UD5 = workstations that need tons of RAM
UD7 = OCing



On boards with only 4 DIMM slots, I'm expecting quad channel if you fill all 4 DIMMs, and dual channel when using the matching colored DIMM slots. At least I hope that's how it is. I haven't heard anything about quad channel being removed.

That sounds right. Most aren't going to use 8 DIMM slots. With 4 you can still get to 16gb of ram rather cheaply, and keep quad channel. 8gb for even less.
 
Old news for me I have been staring at these boards for about 2 weeks now, cannot wait, but I'm going to wait for Nvidia Kepler to come out until I build my PC
 
Yes this is true and yes it is still quad channel as far as I know. Seems like an oversight on GB's part to not give the UD7 8 dimms though. What about RAM cache? RAM disk? We all know the performance that brings. :shrug:
I'm guessing they put 8 DIMMs only on the UD5 to give people a reason to buy it.

G1 = audio/nic
UD3 = budget
UD5 = workstations that need tons of RAM
UD7 = OCing

On boards with only 4 DIMM slots, I'm expecting quad channel if you fill all 4 DIMMs, and dual channel when using the matching colored DIMM slots. At least I hope that's how it is. I haven't heard anything about quad channel being removed.
 
As always... CPU prices are off the wall...But something tells me clock for clock, its going to wipe the core i5/i7 off the map!

Does anyone have the stage map? Remember the p4? 31 stages... core 2 is 13 stages... what about this new one?
 
Yes this is true and yes it is still quad channel as far as I know. Seems like an oversight on GB's part to not give the UD7 8 dimms though. What about RAM cache? RAM disk? We all know the performance that brings. :shrug:
WTH is ram cache?

The UD7 is essentially made for overclocking. Adding more memory just makes overclocking more difficult as it puts more stress on teh IMC.

Besides, 16GB isnt enough? :thup:

So no quad channel RAM after all?
4 slots = quad channel..........
 
WTH is ram cache?

The UD7 is essentially made for overclocking. Adding more memory just makes overclocking more difficult as it puts more stress on teh IMC.

Besides, 16GB isnt enough? :thup:

4 slots = quad channel..........

+1 on OCing being easier w/ 4 slots as opposed to 8. 8 slots is a LOT of mobo traces!

8GB dimms are out now (although, still quite expensive), so up to 32GB should be supported and possibly more if it supports 16GB+ dimms.


Bag-o-doughnuts said:
Sockets are getting bigger rather than smaller with this new technology...

Unavoidable. Even if you keep the CPU die the same size and just keep cramming more transistors in there you still need to get those signals out to the rest of the system. Those traces and contacts take space, and you only want to go small in that area, or the pins in the socket won't be strong enough or you risk having an unintentional short-circuit.
 
RAM caching is using a portion of your RAM to cache the most frequently used data/apps. Similar idea to SSD caching but a hell of a lot better than SSD caching. Will show an example in my x79 M4E review. When you have the ability to run 32-64gb of memory you can set up a ram disk and a ram cache if you want.

Im also not sold on more memory making ocing more difficult on x79 but I havent got to that in testing yet.
WTH is ram cache?

The UD7 is essentially made for overclocking. Adding more memory just makes overclocking more difficult as it puts more stress on teh IMC.

Besides, 16GB isnt enough? :thup:

4 slots = quad channel..........
 
Thanks for the info Eldonko!

I wouldnt imagine its the # of slots, but number of populated slots. The IMC has to account for any populated slot. Just like in X58, running single or dual channel would usually lead to an increase in bclk. I would imagine, with nothing to back it up, that would still hold true.
 
Looks like it has not changed since it's debut in 2008... Still 14 stages... vs the Pentium 4, 31 stages... Unless I'm incorrect...
 
:shrug:

Can you elaborate on that... I have no idea what you are referring to. Sorry! :chair:

How many IPC cycles for the outcome..

Makes it more efficient per clock... The less stages there are...

31 stages for the Prescott
20 stages for northwood
14 stages for the Core 2 - Present...

That's why you really cant compare clock for clock, because the pipelines are different.

Understand now?
 
I do... and thought that was what it had to do with. But seeing as how this is a mobo thread and no mention of IPC, wasnt sure. :)
 
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