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It has been without a doubt an
exceptional day of reckoning for both
Intel and ATI as each major component
has performed impeccably. Within the
whole article each company who supplied
equipment for today, should be extremely
pleased with the overall performance of
their parts shown.
Though lets first start with the i7 CPU
and X58 Mainboard from Intel. The
stock level supply of mainboard, CPU and
cooler are very good indeed. The
mainboard has some nice finishing
touches which are aesthetically pleasing
and will not look out of place to those
wishing to show their new wears for the
first time. The black finish to the PCB
most certainly gives Smackover that fast
feel good factor. Intel's own stock CPU
cooler gives you 2 options of "quiet"
and "performance" for those of you
wishing to overclock. Its simple to
set-up, and for the complete beginner
the bios really does it all for you so
within minutes you will have a complete
high-speed system ready to install your
required operating system. The overall
performance of the mainboard has been
superb, and has many options for
upgrades at a later date. But for now
its more than adequate for most. The
new triple channel memory controller
most certainly has the required bang
needed. The unequivocal evidence shown
within proves just how much raw
performance is hidden under the hood.
Therefore for those of you wishing a
merry Christmas with a new build - then
look no further as Intel has done the
job.
With the aid of the Raid 0 array from
the WD VelociRaptors configuration on
the ICH 10 chipset, applications have
never loaded so quickly, it will have
taken most breathes away. Seeing is
believing, the WHOW factor is colossal.
We have never seen the overall PCMark
2005 scores break the 10K mark across
the board until today. Mind boggling to
say the least.
The ATI FirePro V8700, the performance
shown today has been well worth its
wait. The results shown within have
been extra-ordinary to say the least.
SPECviewperf® 10 scores have never been
so high from a single socket CPU. This
card most certainly has overtaken its
predecessor in many ways, faster memory,
the aid of 800 unified shaders - this
will help many in complex drawings.
Life in the professional graphics card
market has just shifted up an a
incredible gear. Today's outing has
been the tip of the iceberg. Cost and
availability of the ATI FirePro V8700,
currently the card fires in at an
MSRP of
approximately $1499
this
is a very respectable price bracket for
something which performs so well in all
areas. Shipping of the FirePro V8700,
in the next two weeks it should be with
all good distributors and then making
its way out to the OEM's and SI's. We
would suggest getting your order in
quickly as they are going to sell like
hotcakes. We have tested the FirePro
V8700 within other systems here and the
results are very good. Actually
much better than we had first imagined.
On a further important note which you
the reader must take fully into
consideration.
The FirePro V8700 shown here
today is an early shipping sample and
used within are extremely raw but
nevertheless the performance is
exceptional. The WHQL drivers used
should be here within the next 2 weeks
and we will see a improvements on what
has been incredibly shown here today
therefore;
we should see some remarkable
improvements within many areas.
To roll back very so slightly and focus
on the SPEC results shown. Yes they are
very fast indeed and what was to be have
been expected from a platform of this
magnitude. Though not far away we will
be seeing the next generation of SPEC
benchmarks which will bring a major leap
forward in measuring professional
graphic card systems. We will see
the ability to measure performance for
applications incorporating vertex buffer
objects (VBOs) and the latest OpenGL
(GL2) shaders, and updates to more than
half of the viewsets, including those
based on traces of 3ds Max, Catia,
EnSight, Maya and Siemens PLM NX. The
updates range from new traces that add
GL2 and VBO functionality to test files,
to completely new models that provide a
greater challenge to the latest graphics
systems. There is much more to these
new benchmarks than meets the eye, so
watch these spaces soon for more
information.
Its also worth noting that when we
completed the 3D Studio Max scenes a few
months back upon Intel's own SSD we
thought then that the results shown were
fast. Fast indeed they have been.
Today's performance has utterly blown
them all away with the combined force of
all the components here. With this in
mind its well worth a revisit to this
and see just how well the SSD will run
on the X58 mainboard with the i7 3.2GHz
CPU.
Its an absolute shame that the 2GB
memory modules did not make it here on
time as these would have made
substantial improvements across the
board within all the professional
tests. Although the returned results
are exceptional, they are limited to
what the full complement of memory would
have brought. It would have been nice
to see the ultimate scores. We will
have to wait for a few more days to see
this now. Therefore when something else
hits the desk here in a few days time
(oh yes and this is going to be very
good) hopefully the full array of
memory will be in place. |
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Acoustics, well we have shown plenty
of options within on how to keep the
system quiet and cool - to the end user
looking for the chassis with the flair
of "looking good" then the Akasa
Infiniti ZOR has achieved this. Tons of
storage space and most certainly looks
the part. This chassis will not look
out of place in many environments. The
HSF choice well we leave the reader to
make their own decisions here as what we
have shown has been quiet and keep the
CPU nice and cool. All have their own
merits. Its worth pointing out at this
stage that the current users of the
Noctua
NH-C12P CPU coolers will be able
to obtain the LGA1366 Mounting-Kit free
of charge via a form on their website
as soon as Core i7 CPUs and mainboards
are available in stores. A proof of
purchase (photo, scan or screenshot of
the invoice) of both a Noctua CPU cooler
and either a socket 1366 mainboard or
socket 1366 CPU will be required. Kudos here for Noctua in taking
such an innovative step of this nature.
Articles and first outings of this
nature always have a few hiccups and it
goes without saying the unsung heroes of
these exclusive reviews come from the
respective companies technical support
guys and girls. Thank you all.
In a previous article we stipulated,
fast is good we want fast. Oh so very
fast is what we most certainly have here
today. Though the cry of but the cost,
once more if you wish bleeding edge
technology of this magnitude then we do
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 huge bound in
technology and performance output.
Intel have brought to the fore a
combined magnificent set of parts which
will have many happy waiting purchasers
lining the doors waiting to fill their
pockets with the goodies. In
conjunction with the ATI FirePro V8700
we have in our hands a seriously
supersonic piece of equipment. For
those of you who have been awaiting the
upgrade path, now is the time. |
