It's that time of year again. Computex is almost upon us and that usually means some major product introductions are getting ready to occur. On May 21st, Intel will launch the P35 chipset, the successor to the P965 chipset introduced last June. We have been testing several P35 (Bearlake) based boards in both DDR2 and DDR3 configurations. We cannot reveal benchmarks yet, but let's just say there are a few surprises in store on launch day. Unfortunately, AMD's new AM2+ design along with the Barcelona/Agena family of processors are not quite ready for public display, but rest assured we think the wait will be well worth it.
While the new product introductions always grab the lion's share of attention, it also means that today's top performing products are well on their way to becoming tomorrow's value based solutions. This is always good for those of us with limited budgets and the lack of desire to upgrade every six months but who want excellent performance per dollar. We are now seeing the second generation of P965 motherboards selling near the $100 mark and they are still providing very good performance and features.
More good news is that the products based on these now "mature" chipsets are well tuned and most of the bugs have been sorted out. Case in point is the Infinity 965-S from DFI and the P5B Premium from ASUS which are two excellent P965 motherboards that were recently launched. While targeted to different audiences and price segments, they both offer top performance and features with a certain level of maturity not found in earlier designs. In fact, our P35 motherboards will be compared and graded against these two P965 boards shortly.
Today we will present some of the motherboard products that we are currently testing and will provide reviews of in the near future. While this is not a complete listing and does not include all of the boards in the upcoming uATX opus, it should provide a good indication of the products we are currently excited about. If you can't wait for the full reviews and one of these boards has the features you're looking for, consider inclusion in this preview a general recommendation of the product. (Naturally, you'll still have to wait for the P35 parts.)
One of the most interesting articles we have worked on in a long time will be an upcoming chipset shootout with all currently available chipsets for the Intel Core 2 Duo product including the new Bearlake series. The chipset determines many of the features a board will include, as well as many of the performance aspects. As such, we think the chipset roundup will prove enlightening. With that said lets take a quick look at some of these product offerings.
Motherboards: Intel Performance
The continuing introduction of new chipsets from both Intel and NVIDIA for the Intel Core 2 Duo processor series has created an enormous amount of product introductions in recent weeks. So much so that our labs are once again stacked with motherboards that we are in the process of testing and analyzing. Intel currently holds the overall performance crown with the Core 2 Duo and the continued rollout of new motherboards for this impressive processor series is still amazing.
The DFI NF-680i LT is based upon the recently released NVIDIA 680i LT SLI chipset that we reviewed a few weeks ago. The board supports LGA775 socket processors, features three PCI Express x16 slots (dual x16 SLI support, x8 physics support), one x4 PCI Express slot, and two PCI 2.3 capable slots. Besides the six native Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports, DFI has also included two Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports via the Silicon Image 3132 chipset. The board also features DFI's new Karajan audio module featuring the Realtek ALC885 8-channel HD audio codec. In initial testing we have reached 9x420FSB with our retail QX6700 and general performance has been very good, although DFI is still tweaking memory performance and overclocking capabilities on the quad core and 4MB cache Core 2 Duo CPUs. We will be comparing this board to our other 680i and 650i boards shortly.
The MSI P6 Diamond is based upon the NVIDIA 680i chipset that has proven itself over the course of the last few months to offer excellent performance when tuned properly. As with most new Core 2 Duo chipsets introduced since last year, the 680i had a bumpy introduction but the latest boards based on this chipset have matured greatly since the launch. The P6 Diamond is no exception to this rule and early testing has revealed a board with a lot of potential and performance that scales very well.
The board supports LGA775 socket processors, features four PCI Express x16 slots (dual x16 SLI support, quad x8 SLI support), one x1 PCI Express slot, and two PCI 2.3 capable slots. Besides the six native Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports, MSI has also included two Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports via the new Silicon Image 4723 chipset and one e-SATA port via the Silicon Image 3531. The board also features Creative's X-Fi 8-channel HD audio codec and has proven to be a welcome relief when compared to the Realtek codecs in gaming. In initial testing we have reached 9x420FSB with the QX6700 and 7x510 with our E6600. Overall performance has been very good although MSI is still tweaking the BIOS. We were hoping for beta Quad 8800GTX SLI drivers but gave up so the board review will be up shortly.
While the new product introductions always grab the lion's share of attention, it also means that today's top performing products are well on their way to becoming tomorrow's value based solutions. This is always good for those of us with limited budgets and the lack of desire to upgrade every six months but who want excellent performance per dollar. We are now seeing the second generation of P965 motherboards selling near the $100 mark and they are still providing very good performance and features.
More good news is that the products based on these now "mature" chipsets are well tuned and most of the bugs have been sorted out. Case in point is the Infinity 965-S from DFI and the P5B Premium from ASUS which are two excellent P965 motherboards that were recently launched. While targeted to different audiences and price segments, they both offer top performance and features with a certain level of maturity not found in earlier designs. In fact, our P35 motherboards will be compared and graded against these two P965 boards shortly.
Today we will present some of the motherboard products that we are currently testing and will provide reviews of in the near future. While this is not a complete listing and does not include all of the boards in the upcoming uATX opus, it should provide a good indication of the products we are currently excited about. If you can't wait for the full reviews and one of these boards has the features you're looking for, consider inclusion in this preview a general recommendation of the product. (Naturally, you'll still have to wait for the P35 parts.)
One of the most interesting articles we have worked on in a long time will be an upcoming chipset shootout with all currently available chipsets for the Intel Core 2 Duo product including the new Bearlake series. The chipset determines many of the features a board will include, as well as many of the performance aspects. As such, we think the chipset roundup will prove enlightening. With that said lets take a quick look at some of these product offerings.
Motherboards: Intel Performance
The continuing introduction of new chipsets from both Intel and NVIDIA for the Intel Core 2 Duo processor series has created an enormous amount of product introductions in recent weeks. So much so that our labs are once again stacked with motherboards that we are in the process of testing and analyzing. Intel currently holds the overall performance crown with the Core 2 Duo and the continued rollout of new motherboards for this impressive processor series is still amazing.
The DFI NF-680i LT is based upon the recently released NVIDIA 680i LT SLI chipset that we reviewed a few weeks ago. The board supports LGA775 socket processors, features three PCI Express x16 slots (dual x16 SLI support, x8 physics support), one x4 PCI Express slot, and two PCI 2.3 capable slots. Besides the six native Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports, DFI has also included two Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports via the Silicon Image 3132 chipset. The board also features DFI's new Karajan audio module featuring the Realtek ALC885 8-channel HD audio codec. In initial testing we have reached 9x420FSB with our retail QX6700 and general performance has been very good, although DFI is still tweaking memory performance and overclocking capabilities on the quad core and 4MB cache Core 2 Duo CPUs. We will be comparing this board to our other 680i and 650i boards shortly.
The MSI P6 Diamond is based upon the NVIDIA 680i chipset that has proven itself over the course of the last few months to offer excellent performance when tuned properly. As with most new Core 2 Duo chipsets introduced since last year, the 680i had a bumpy introduction but the latest boards based on this chipset have matured greatly since the launch. The P6 Diamond is no exception to this rule and early testing has revealed a board with a lot of potential and performance that scales very well.
The board supports LGA775 socket processors, features four PCI Express x16 slots (dual x16 SLI support, quad x8 SLI support), one x1 PCI Express slot, and two PCI 2.3 capable slots. Besides the six native Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports, MSI has also included two Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports via the new Silicon Image 4723 chipset and one e-SATA port via the Silicon Image 3531. The board also features Creative's X-Fi 8-channel HD audio codec and has proven to be a welcome relief when compared to the Realtek codecs in gaming. In initial testing we have reached 9x420FSB with the QX6700 and 7x510 with our E6600. Overall performance has been very good although MSI is still tweaking the BIOS. We were hoping for beta Quad 8800GTX SLI drivers but gave up so the board review will be up shortly.
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michal1980 - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
what was the point of posting this. to spit in our faces or something?'We know something you don't, nanananananana'
thats all I hear from this article.
should have just waited until you could have said something that was more usefull then a press release from a company.
plus over at hardforums, they are saying the p35 were moved up 2 weeks from may 21st to like the 7th.
xsilver - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
and why are you posting here?"I'm the biggest whinger here,,, nannanannana" ???
1) AT tries to pride themselves on being the best tech site out their, hence they usually need extra time to post articles or get very little sleep (anand/wes/derek/gary can probably speak for themselves)
2) In order to stay "bleeding edge" some "preview" articles may need to be written so that AT doesnt appear to be last on the bandwagon.
satisfied?
on a more pleasant note can anyone confirm whether this launch date of the 7th/21st is going to be a hardlaunch and some indications of what prices are going to be?
what about ddr3 availability?
Wesley Fink - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
According to Intel, the 7th is an OEM "stocking" date and the NDA lifts on the 21st. In fact Intel has not yet sampled their own versions of the Bearlake boards and the 21st NDA applies to people like Asus/Gigabyte/ECS/MSI/Abit/DFI/etc.yacoub - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
Dude, just use "whiner" like normal people. "whinger" looks so smarmy and a bit too much like Winger. =Pmichal1980 - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
bleeding edge does not = press release.or wait, is every site just a shile for the companies making the product.
At least label it as such. 'non paid ad for companies xyz'.
And they threw that line in about performance them selves.
Thats where the nannannana comes from.
"Surprising .. performance.. results... can not saying anything ethier way, or hint"
NANNANNAANA We know stuff.
Boushh - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
Besides the normal test you do, could you also check if coolers like the Thermalright Ultra 120 fit on the motherboards ? I think that many people that fit after market cooling solutions are interested in this information. Specially the MSI P35 Platinum has some odd looking contraptions in the CPU area...Besides that I'm still disapointed that so many manufactures have such a poor layout of the expansion slots. Specially the PCI slots. I personally need a minimum of two. And I also no the my gfx card will be a double slot one. I also want at least one slot between the gfx card and the other cards. That does not leave me with much options.
I'm disappointed that many manufactures are going for dual gfx solutions whil I recon that only a few people actualy make use of it. The dual PCIe slots eat up room. And many boards that do have a decent layout miss extra features (many current P965 boards with a decent layout miss the ICH8R). Some how people that want all the options but no dual PCIe slots messing up the layout are left in the dark.
Maybe something you could mention to the manufactures ?
Stele - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
Actually it's more of marketing hype - making mountains out of molehills as is unfortunately often the case with some manufacturers, who try to capitalise on the fact that your average PC buyer is not electronically-inclined.
Choke coils on motherboards, for example, have generally be wound on ferrite cores for the longest time! Same goes for 'low RDS MOSFETs'... by the way, it should be 'low RDS(ON) MOSFETs', which means MOSFETs with low Resistance, between their Drain and Source, when they are in the 'ON' state (i.e. when current is flowing through them). This allows minimum obstruction to current flow, which translates into higher efficiency and lower power dissipation (the higher the resistance, the more power is lost as heat). Again, MOSFETs with low RDS(ON) have been pretty much standard on decent motherboards for some time now... the difference is that top manufacturers use MOSFETs with very low RDS(ON), which are of course better but cost more.
As such, these claims are about as big a deal as saying that the new motherboards feature onboard 10/100Mbps NICs and onboard audio....
To be fair, Gigabyte probably meant that they're using higher-quality ferrite-core coils, and especially-low RDS(ON) MOSFETs. However, from experience, it'd most likely turn out that the components they use aren't super-outstanding as their marketing hype makes it out to be.
TA152H - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
Gary,There is a slight contradiction in your article. On one hand you mention how people should be interested in the motherboards you're testing based on the old chipsets, and then you mention how surprising the P35 (they are beginning to sound like fighter planes!) was for you. Hmmmm, if you were buying and you read something like that, how inclined would you be to buy the current stuff? Agreed, most people don't need the latest and greatest, but with a motherboard it's often worth it because of the technologies it supports. It's not at all clear the P35 will be expensive, at least I've heard nothing about that (maybe you know the prices better though), although it is very clear the performance is outrageous, particularly paired with DDR3. I wouldn't even consider a P965 anymore, and never would consider that rubbish NVIDIA sells at all. I think most people, particularly people reading this site, are going to feel the same way. DDR2 was a crappy technology, but from all indications DDR3 is a pretty good one, and it's becoming common knowledge the P35 is going to be the next "BX". It's worth waiting a few weeks. But then again, outside of companies like Intel and Supermicro (and even with them, to some extent) you take a risk when something new is introduced. So, that's something positive for the older stuff; you can buy stuff from second rate companies like Asus and Gigabyte and they'll probably be pretty stable by now. Buying a P35 from them would entail a lot more risk, so I guess there should still be interest in the P965, particularly since Intel and Supermicro can be quite expensive, and generally do not have the best performance.
ss284 - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
There have been plenty of performance reviews of the bearlake platform. Most of your post is pretty much useless.http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1062/1/page_1_p3...">http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1062/...earlake_...
Xtremesystems forum also has some ddr-3 testing.
The point is, performance wise bearlake will make little to no difference. Maybe 2-3% at most. ddr-3 performance suffers from high latencies and poor initial performance, much like ddr-2 when it came out. The chipset itself will be more expensive than the p965, which isn't exactly cheap right now.
TA152H - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
Are you crazy? So far no chipset has been able to show broad superiority over the P965, not anything from NVIDIA, or even the 975. They win at some, and lose at others. Now you see a preproduction motherboard, that is far from running optimally, and it's already outperforming it in every way! No, that's not impressive. Even with final silicon, you see improvements in performance just from changes in the BIOS, so to beat a mature design so early on is very, very impressive. When the intial boards come in, the difference will be pretty startling, unless you really have no perspective. Also keep in mind that improving performance on something with a 4MB cache is a lot harder than improving it on something with a 512K cache. Hopefully they'll test the Core 2 with the smaller cache here to show the memory controller differences a little better.I'm not going to go into all the technical merits of DDR3 because there are enough articles out there that do. It's what DDR2 should have been. DDR2 sucked did nothing but disappoint, and I'm still scratching my head as to why they released this half-baked technology instead of going straight to DDR3 like AMD wanted to. Then again, we saw RDRAM for the Pentium III, so weird things do happen.