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Confucius once wrote “The will to
win, the desire to succeed, the urge to
reach your full potential... these are
the keys that will unlock the door to
personal excellence.” Today we have
seen from within a marvellous array of
choice, superb overclocking potential
and finally a solution that will suit
the needs of many a pocket looking for
that all important upgrade they have
been holding back on. On the arrival of
new technology of this magnitude, it is
sometimes hard to sit back and gather
thoughts after witnessing some pretty
remarkable performances being produced.
After all that we have collated today;
the results speak very clearly, this is
without doubt yet another winner that
Intel has brought to the fore.
From a Multimedia aspect, this mainboard
has got a whole load of bang to it. Overclocking potential is great and we
are sure that many will bring to the
fore some remarkable results. There are
several outstanding reviews out on the
world wide web that have covered this
points with some substantial depth. Here
we maintain stock levels as part of the
SPEC remit and accuracy in reporting is
of a paramount as results must be
clearly and precisely re-enacted. Though
with the mainboard and CPU at stock
level’s the synthetic results gained
from both Nvidia’s® GTX580 and the
Sapphire Technology® Radeon 6970 are quite
astonishing to say the least. Therefore
both companies must be rubbing their
hands with glee at what has been
achieved. However, one must take into due
consideration the helping hand within
the systems I/O from Crucial’s supply of
its superfast C300 SSD and the almighty
new Crucial Ballistix, DDR3 PC3-17000.
We took the system to the
maximum at stock and ran it without
falter for 10 days flat out. Therefore
to conclude this sector; kudos and a hands down
winner for all the supplying
manufacturers concerned.
After many years of paying premiums for
mid entry level workstations we have
solutions that are affordable and have
the power within to provide the
end-users a substantial stable
workstation that will last for sometime
to come. We have over the last few month
completely stressed this unit to it's
fullest without any complications. The
mainboard has to offer plenty of room
for expansion in whichever way it is
utilised; as a home gamer, SoHo
Workstation. Or, and more probable
within the corporate market place as a
stand alone desktop unit as there is so
much power within. More probable the
studios, CAD/CAM and DCC market as the
system shown within fully combined and
once more reiterating, a sound solid
fast system.
Onboard Audio replay was very good
producing a crisp pleasant sound back to
the ear. The onboard LAN, fast and
efficient as we did not encounter any
problems whatsoever hooked up within our
tasking units here. A couple
of additional points of note here also,
the supplied SATA cables are of very
good build quality and great to here the
resounding "click" of the cable firmly
locked into place whether on the
mainboard or the actual hard drive.
The retail packaging that the mainboard
was delivered in was resilient and held
all the components firmly in place.
The bundled software that came with the
mainboard is a respectable set of
packages, though time did prevent us
from investigating them as the mainboard
extreme tuning utility and monitoring
package both look very good.
Therefore a good overall bundle
supporting the mainboard.
Switching stances each of the
professional graphic's card performed
well above everyone's expectations
returning results from the SPEC tests
some very impressive results. Within
SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007™ we
witnessed what has to have been the
fastest result to date by Nvidia’s
Quadro® 5000. The driver optimisations
from both ATI and NVIDIA has embraced
the new technology marvellously. One
point of note is that ATI’s drivers are
now catching up, so we should see a
change here soon on previous results. Though once more we have to take into
consideration the whole systems I/O,
without this we would not be seeing such
excellent performing scores from both
companies supplying the professional
graphic cards.
Consequently and once more we have to
reiterate the objectivity of choice. Choice to the budget user that sees the
complete unique benefits this mainboard
has to offer - Firewire and Bluetooth on
the same mainboard. This novel concept
we see normally upon notebooks therefore
the beneficial choice to the end-user
means more simplistic productivity. Choice in CPU, whether budget entry or a
more upscale CPU that brings them in
close proximity to to the high-end i7
chips. We must recount just how much
Turbo boost is hidden under the hood at
default – yes 3.8GHz is something to
behold. So once more "bang for buck" is
here without spending a fortune for
those on a budget. Those wishing to move
up a gear but have not got the funds to
reach the high-end i7 CPU's then without
doubt the Intel® Core™ i7 2600K
Processor is tremendously powerful and
will last the end-user for many years to
come.
We also see choice within our multimedia
graphic cards. Whether ATI's CrossFire
or NVIDIA'S SLI both multi card
scenario's will keep many a gamer happy
for hours. Though those wishing to use a
single GPU solution from either of the
latter companies will see huge
differences in performance uptake. As
for the professional cards, in a tandem
array, we need to further investigate,
so watch this space for more news. Whichever way this is article is
perceived, the purchaser is on a "win
win" solution. By means of
importance we have to remember that the
Dual Channel memory choice means a
upgrade path when the timing and budget
is right as the baseline memory
bandwidths we have shown presents a very
respectable result.
Penultimately we come back to the vogue
"need for speed and the option of
choice". Previously this was for the few
who could afford, now it is well within
the reach of the many.
Finally we return for one last recount. We have just skimmed over the iceberg of
what really lays underneath, as the
timescales shifted we had to work to
meet the new deadline so a more in-depth
article will follow soon covering much
more than today’s brief appearance. We
have fast affordable CPU's, Mainboards
with a whole remit of functionality
which will flummox many. Upgrades are
easily achievable and, the "need for
speed" is there now for everyone to
enjoy. An exceptional piece of
post-Christmas marketing by Intel’s
public relations team. Overall Intel has
surpassed itself with this technology
upgrade allowing many to have what they
could only read about or place on their
wish lists. Sandy Bridge is without
doubt the fastest CPU on the block
within this sector of CPU's and for a
reasonably priced CPU you get that
superb performance we all dream about. Putting your confidence in motherboard
auto-overclocking and the i7 2600K and
4GHz is easily reached. For those
who want more it’s all within your
grasp, and yes on fresh air, without any
fancy cooling arrays. |
