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Intel builds upon
its success, and today has be no
different than any previous viewing we
have seen. The improvements are not only
successful but delver with them a whole
load of improvements across the remit.
To quote Albert Einstein; Any
intelligent individual can make things
bigger and more complex... It takes a
touch of genius - and a lot of courage
to move in the opposite direction.
Today this has been most certainly the
instance, There have been many rumours
flying around of what this new i7 CPU
can do and cannot do. What it cannot do,
we have not been able to find - it has
in every which way we turned, shown us
differently. The results shown within
speak very evidently for themselves as a
picture paints a thousand words.
Notwithstanding we have to take a moment
to reflect on the new mainboards
performance. The slick black PCB of
course not forgetting our friend the
“Skull” is feature rich in many aspects
which should keep many happy for a long
time as we see so much versatility laid
out on the mainboard. The heatpipe
cooling which covers the key components
is a very welcome addition to this top
end mainboard and should ensure
longevity of those critical success
factors of the mainboard, especially
when operating at peak outputs. There
are many routes of upgrades, too many to
mention here though many readers will
have thought through already very
carefully their chosen paths. One final
point is that the mainboard does come
supplied with a WiFi/BlueTooth Module.
This will be for many a most welcome
addition and a great saving.
The supplied components to back up the
mainboard are up to Intel’s normal high
standards, our recent outing with Sandy
Bridge we did like the new SATA cables
and once more pleased to see these
resilient parts in place. The supplied
software CD came with a good decent
bundle of Intel’s own proprietary
overclocking tool (Intel® Extreme Tuning
Utility (Intel® XTU))and system
monitoring which is a good bonus for the
overclocker. Other packages included AV
software which meant for those not
having any form of protection can get up
and running straight away online doing
what needs to be done. What did take our
attention was the updated and upgraded
supplied and online manuals. These have
been smartly updated and more precise
for many beginner on their first outing
of building their own. |
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The need for speed. Yes it’s
continuously there, as the facts within
are indisputable that this is without
doubt a much faster CPU and the
significant gains are to be seen. Many
though will argue that price is a
contributing factor, not so. Take into
account a mainboard that now supports
much faster stock memory and double the
capacity, SATA 6.0 Gb/s and USB 3.0 we
have something to sit back and admire in
complete awe. It brings forth the next
question just how much faster can we get
at stock, is it all worth you ask. Our
automatic answer would be yes in our
opinion. This just could be an answer to
many walks of life looking for the
ultimate in system performance,
maximising complete productivity output
- after all that is what we all strive
for. Time will tell so our crystal ball
advises us.
Within the multimedia aspects of the
mainboard both the Sapphire Radeon 6970
and Nvidia Geforce GTX 580 performed
explicitly. So we have once more an
option of choice, not only with a single
high performing GPU but the choice of
Crossfire and SLI modes, a most welcome
sight to be seen. Once more we see that
the target markets have been addressed,
balanced equally and a gamers delight
most certainly.
The Professional Cards from both ATI®
and Nvidia®, well these both have taken
significant leaps forward in
performance, not only from the offerings
that the whole system has to offer but
the actual driver packages recently
released. We did stipulate in our last
article that ATI® has improved in
certain areas, now they have excelled
in their own rights across the board
which will regain confidence of many end
users. Nvidia® has achieved the similar
results also with their new driver
package, though what we do note is the
significant leap up in OpenCL
performance. Double the OpenCL
performance, a significant achievement
in such a short time scale and quite an
accolade. This did catch us totally
unawares as it will with our readers.
Moving up a gear and the section most
will have been waiting for, this has
been a dream to see at work.
Notwithstanding we must suggest that a
mission critical systems should be
balanced accordingly on an Intel
platform that supports ECC and a Xeon
CPU. However there are those who proceed
down the route of having the most from
both worlds allowing shift hardware
changes on the fly, therefore here we
see the success factors of the
configurations within. The DX58SO2 does
offer the option of both ECC and Non ECC
memory configurations and supports the
almighty Xeon, though in ECC mode you
are limited to a maximum of 24GB. Once
more options for choice and
affordability for those on tight
budgets.
Within
many previous articles we stipulated,
fast is good, we want fast. There will
be a cry of "what of the cost" from many
consumers and analysts, if you wish
bleeding edge technology of this
magnitude then we do most certainly have
to pay - though once more to reiterate -
fast is what we certainly have here
today. Therefore cost is most certainly
not a factor anyone would care to
consider in gaining the superb bound in
technology and performance output.
Intel have brought to the fore a
combined magnificent set of components
which will have many happy waiting
purchasers lining the doors waiting to
fill their pockets with the goodies.
Finally we have to take away the
unmistakable facts that Intel has
produced a successor to the throne in
the top bin CPU ratings.
Yes a premium price has to be paid, it
has to be reiterated time is money and
the least hindrances in completing a
monstrous render/redraw output, here is
where the precise well-groomed will win
out. The Intel® Core™ i7-990X , this is
the beginning of something phenomenal,
the unequivocal evidence prevails. |
