Tag Archives: intel

Intel announce 510 Series SSDs

Today Intel officially announced the details of its next-generation of SSDs.

According to Intel the 510 series is being aimed at “gamers, media creators and other performance-intensive users..”. The 510 series takes full advantage of the SATA 6Gb/s connection to offer whopping speeds of “up to 500 megabytes per second (MB/s), the Intel SSD 510 doubles the sequential read speeds, and at up to 315MB/s more than triples the sequential write speeds of Intel’s current 3Gbps SSDs, to transfer more data in less time.”

But what about the price? The 250Gb version will set you back $584, while the 120Gb flavour is a little more tempting at $284. Both versions come with a 3 year warranty.

Check out the video above for a demonstration of load times when compared to a mechanical hard drive.

From the press release:

The Intel SSD 510 offers the fastest sequential read and write speeds of any consumer SATA SSD available today, providing industry leading performance that beats a traditional hard disk drive (HDD) by more than 50 percent.¹ In addition to better overall system responsiveness when compared to a mechanical hard drive, SSDs have no moving parts so are more rugged, consume less power and run quieter and cooler than HDDs. SSDs reduce boot times, launch applications and files faster and recover from sleep mode quicker, resulting in noticeable improvement. Conventional HDDs are also unable to effectively take advantage of 6Gbps platform technology, since HDDs fail to maximize even the current 3Gbps SATA interface.

Intel fires a Thunderbolt at USB 3.0

Intel's Thunderbolt promises speeds of 10 Gigabits per second at launch

Even though USB 3.0 is still a long, long way from wide-spread adoption, Intel has already hinted at something a lot faster. A new technology known as Thunderbolt is promised to bring connectivity between PC and peripherals to speeds double that of the USB 3.0 interface.

Despite the audacious claims the technology will not reach its theoretical maximum speed as Intel opted to use copper wiring instead of fiber optics. But Intel claims the technology will increase in speed over time. In fact it says future versions of Thunderbolt that use fibre optics will reach a staggering 100 Gb/s.

But at launch the current version of Thunderbolt will bring users speeds of 10 Gb/s, more than double that of USB 3.0 (4.8 Gb/second).

The faster data transfer rates are likely to be welcomed by those consumers who use high-definition video, said Sarah Rottman Epps, an analyst with Forrester Research.

Intel launching 510 series SSDs on March 1st

Intel 510 Series SATA 6 Gb/s SSD

Intel is all set to launch its next-generation of performance SSDs. The 510 series is being aimed at PC enthusiasts and the gaming demographic that has money to burn. The 2.5″ 9.5mm HDDs will come in 2 separate capacities; 120 Gb and 250 Gb and will be Intel’s first 6 Gb/s SSDs.

But the real meat and gravy comes in the HDD specifications. These bad-boys will feature read speeds of up to 470 Mb/s and write speeds up to 315 Mb/s (surpassing the current SandForce drives). The 510 series SSDs will be priced $366 and $767 respectively, which puts them in the almost-but-not-quite insanely expensive bracket.

Intel slashes price of i7 960/970, introduces i7 990x

Intel price-drop on i7 960/970

Intel has quietly introduced the i7 990x Extreme Edition CPU. The 32nm chip is pretty much identical to last year’s i7 980x in every way, except a small bump in core speed. The 990x, which fits in the LGA 1366 socket and has a core clock speed of 3.46 GHz (Max turbo frequency 3.73 GHz) is retailing for $900.

Also notable for anyone wanting to go with a 6-core processor but without the desire to shell out a thousand bucks is the i7 970, which has seen its price reduced by 34% from $885 to $583.

The CPU giant also slashed the price of the quad-core i7 960 processor. Once again the 960 has identical specs to the 950, which saw a similar price drop last year. The only difference is a 200 Mhz bump in core clock speed. The 960 is down 48% to $294.

With the recent troubles Sandy Bridge is having it appears Intel is unloading old LGA 1366 stock. It’s a good time to buy if you’re not sold on Sandy Bridge. The price-drop of the i7 970 hex-core will certainly win over a few hearts and minds of people who want a 6-core chip without breaking the bank. Those who spent nearly $800 dollars last year will be kicking themselves.

Gigabyte 6-series Replacement Program in full swing

Gigabyte

After Intel’s recent nightmare with the Sandy Bridge 6-series motherboards, Intel partners are letting customers know their intentions as far as returning the faulty chipsets.

A transistor receiving too high a voltage is to blame for the massive recall of P67 and H57 boards, causing SATA 2 ports to fail over the course of 3 years.

Gigabyte has announced it should have the updated motherboards ready for April. The company is accepting returns of all the B2 Series 6 chipsets, regardless of what condition they’re in.

If you’re among the unfortunate early adapters, (at least in the case of Gigabyte) you will have to go through your supplier and will not be dealing with the board manufacturer directly.

From Gibabyte’s website:

A recent statement from Intel indicates that they expect full 6 series chipset volume recovery in April, 2011. GIGABYTE will produce and deliver new motherboards with the updated Intel 6 series chipset when the new chipsets become available. GIGABYTE prides itself in having the highest service quality in the industry, and as such we will resolve this issue with minimal impact on our customers.

Notice: Motherboards Based on Intel® 6 Series Chipsets

A Sandy Bridge too far?

Sandy Bridge Die

Intel launched its newest line of processors on the 9th of January this year (2011) bringing with it a change of socket and the addition of a GPU on the same piece of silicon (or die) as the processor. Under the code name ‘Sandy Bridge’ they released i7 2600k, i5 2500k & 2300 as well as a full host of slightly tweaked versions of the ones above (ie) more or less power and the same with the L2 cache, as Rodney Reynolds would say “far too many technology’s to list here”. If you are interested in the complete list of Sandy bridge processors you can find them HERE.

The Good: These chips are more power efficient and you get more bang from them too. Compared with the same priced i7 950, you get a more power efficient better performing chip for the same price!!!

This article may seem very late to the party given I’m writing it 3 weeks after the release date and in tech circles where ‘first’ is everything it may seem very tardy. The reason I held off this long is that I wanted to get a more ‘hands on’ feel for the processor before forming an opinion. My real pet peeve is knee jerk reactions to new hardware from people of the Internet, I think it’s short sighted and unfair to the product. That being said lets get into it shall we? I have a real love hate relationship with this new line of processors. I want to like them and on paper they do hold up well to the previous family of Clarkdale/Bloomfield processors. So why the mixed feelings I hear no one in particular ask?

First up the GOOD,

Power:

The i7 2600K is way down on power usage sucking less power than the i7 950 which price wise is its nearest rival (from Intel) meaning great performance with less drain on the system. Intel’s two fastest Sandy Bridge-based chips the Core i7-2600K and Core i7-2600 sit at 164 W when ran through 3D Mark Vantage, so does the Core i5-2500K. Compare those figures to the Core 2 Quad Q9550, which averages 161 W. Are these 32 nm chips more efficient ??? The straight answer would be YES.

Performance:

The i7 2600/2600K do brilliantly well in video encoding and file compression as well as gaming* beating out all but the very fastest Intel 970, 980 and the ridiculous 980X. Which I have to say is amazing! There is no point mentioning the AMD Phenom line of processors here, it has been shown in the past the Intel 900 range of chips beat out the AMD Phenom range in most if not all the benchmarks used to test processors so it goes without saying the new 2600’s would beat them too. These new processors are more power efficient and you get more bang from them too.

*using GeForce GTX 580 GFX card not on-die video chip

Price:

This is when during my research my jaw did fall open, the new i7 2600 can be purchased for the rather shocking price of £239.99 and the i7 2600K for £251.99. When compared to the i7 950 £239.99 or the obscene i7 970 £719,99 you really have to be impressed with the price of the new i7 2600’s. Just to clarify the i7 2600 was better or wiped the floor with the same priced i7 950, in conclusion you are getting a more power efficient better performing chip for the same price!!! It’s a very good deal indeed.

Next up the BAD,

Lack of Value:

There is some really weird things going on in the Intel HQ at the moment. Only last year they released a new socket 1156 and 1366. The new processors i7 2600, 2600K etc only run in an 1155 socket and Intel have not and will not offer an upgrade path to people who bought an i7 950 before January 2011. This might seem an unfair thing for me to expect from Intel but let me explain. If you bought an i7 950 you would also have to buy a compatible motherboard and guess who makes the chipsets on those boards????? Intel that’s who, all those motherboards run x58 chipsets so Intel makes money on the motherboard and the processor. That is business and I understand all that, my problem is that if I then want to upgrade from say an i5 650 to an i7 2600k I now have to replace my motherboard as well. Suddenly the £239.99 for the i7 2600 doesn’t look so nice when you have to add the cost of a new motherboard* to the equation.

*H67 Motherboards at an average price of £100
*P67 high end Motherboards at an average price of £150

Already out of date: Sandy Bridge processors are not compatible with Intel’s 5-series chipsets and do not support USB 3.0, they also only support DirectX 10.1. Ivy-Bridge is slated for release in Q4 2011 and it will use 22nm (to Sandy Bridge's 32nm) technology and a more powerful DirectX 11 GPU.

Who is its target audience?:

Intel are doing their marketing the way they always do with their new products, saying how hardcore and powerful this new generation of processors are, and aiming the advertisements at gamers first and foremost. But this is where I can’t make any sense of it. No PC gamer worth their salt would use onboard GFX so why market it at them? The only place I see the ‘Sandy Bridge’ being good and onboard GFX being useful is on laptops and tablet PCs.

Already out of Date:

Sandy Bridge processors are not compatible with Intel’s 5-series chipsets and do not support USB 3.0, they also only support DirectX 10.1. According to Intel “it wasn’t time to go for the newer DirectX 11 technology with Sandy Bridge”. Another BOMBSHELL to hit poor old Sandy Bridge is that Ivy-Bridge is slated to be release in Q4 2011 and it will use 22nm (to Sandy Bridge’s 32nm) technology and a more powerful DirectX 11 GPU. There are even rumors that it will support USB 3.0. Because of the above reasons I would find it hard to recommend the Sandy Bridge processor to anybody thinking of upgrading or buying a new PC.

Final thoughts:

I have to admit that I was impressed by Sandy Bridge’s performance. Existing Clarkdale and Bloomfield processors already offer strong performance compared to AMD’s Phenom lineup. Significant gains, clock-for-clock, compound in the face of notable frequency increases across the board (thanks to a mature 32 nm process), giving Sandy Bridge an even more commanding position. But I just can’t shake the fact that with the release of the 1155 socket it now means there are no less than three different processor sockets under the Core i7 brand: LGA1366, LGA1156 and the new LGA1155. I am someone who has been building PCs since the Intel 478 days, I’ve built AMD and Intel based PCs over the years and I would say I am more aware of new hardware and technologys than the average consumer and I have to say that at this point in time I find it way too confusing looking at Intel’s current line up.

McGriff – Follow McGriff on Twitter

Intel set to lose $1bn in sales over Sandy Bridge chipset flaw

The CPU giant has been forced to halt production of anymore Sandy Bridge chipsets. There is a design flaw in a support chip (on the P67 and H57 boards) that may cause the SATA connections on the motherboards to degrade over time and cause hard drives or optical drives to under-perform. This blunder is going to delay replacement boards until late February and cost the company a cool $1 billion in sales.

Intel started shipping the dodgy chips on the 9th of January and it appears both the next-generation i5 and i7 chipsets are affected. To be sure, there is no design flaw with the Sandy Bridge processor itself, rather a support chip on the motherboard that hosts the CPU.

Intel will be working with OEMs to take back the faulty chipsets and replace them for customers, but although they have already begun re-manufacturing the new boards it may take until late February before customers are sent out their replacements.

Has this new development cast a terminal sting for the much lauded Sandy Bridge? Only time will tell. One thing remains certain, AMD fanboys are going to eat this up like a t-bone steak.

Intel chipset flaw causes recall and reduced sales

Intel’s take on 12 Days of Christmas, be afraid

Set your toes to curl!

No more processor price-cuts until Sandy Bridge?

Consumers may have to wait until next month for further price cuts

If you were hoping for another processor price-drop from Intel, you might have to wait a little longer. Intel’s latest processor price-list shows no move in any quarter.

Late in August we saw a massive reduction in the cost of the i7 950, then in mid-October we saw a drop in the price of the i3 processor. But this month’s processor price-list reveals no such niceties. With next year’s Sandy Bridge processors on the horizon, it might be January 5, 2011 (or later) before Intel revise the current i3/5/7 range of CPUs.

Valve’s hardware statistics for October, has anything changed?

Valve's Hardware & Software Survey

It’s been a while since I’ve taken a look at Valve’s PC hardware statistics. As I’m sure most of you already know, Valve periodically releases results of a hardware survey they conduct from within the Steam software. Information is gathered from a user’s machine – like what processor they use, how much system ram they have, hard drive space etc. It can be fun to see the demographic you yourself fit into in the overall hardware pallet. Let’s take a brief look October’s results.

Processors:

Intel vs AMD

Unsurprisingly Intel has a monopoly on processors, but you might be surprised at just how much. According to Valve’s October Hardware & Software Study, 72.37% of its users have Intel processors. This dwarfs AMD’s small footprint of a mere 27.63%.

Processor Cores

As more and more PCs are equipped with multi-core CPUs, let’s take a look at the percentages. Single-core processors still make up 11.22%, that’s down from over 14% 2 months ago. Dual-core seems to be the dominant blend with a whopping 56.97% share. Quad-cores are on the rise but still only account for 33.13, up from 27.24%. With hex-core still in its infancy, only 0.57% (up from 0.43%) are booting up their Steam-based machines with 6 processing cores. This is obviously bound to change with AMD’s low-cost Phenom II x6 processors and whatever lower-priced variants Intel unleash next year.

Graphics Cards:

As with Intel, Nvidia also makes up a larger share of the pie with 59.11% of users having their GPUs, compared to AMD’s 32.98% market share. Tragically 6.22 % still use on-board Intel graphics. Maybe we should take a moment’s pause to reflect on their pain. Why are they even using Steam?

Interestingly enough only 0.56% of users have 1.5Gb of Vram. It looks like Nvidia’s GTX 480 is not too popular among users of Steam.

System Ram:

Ram is not quite as important as it once was when it comes to gaming with 4-6 Gb being the mainstay for most avid gamers. 24.04% (down from 26.9%) are still on 2Gb, with 27.02% using 3Gb. 4Gb users are a slightly smaller bunch with 26.00% (up from 22.9%) of the chart. Do you use more than 4Gb of ram? You’re in an illustrious club of 14.06%.

Operating systems:

It seems that Windows XP just won’t die. Microsoft has cut off the life-support machine, and many PC vendors have already stopped supporting the aging OS. But like a stubborn old man, XP fights on with 26.55% (down from 31.49%). I should note that Windows 7 64-bit has surpassed XP with 33.37% (up from 29.62%). The 32-bit version of Vista still has a surprising 13.65% of users, but this is on the decline as you would expect.

Conclusion:

Has anything changed? Well, not a whole lot since August. Single-core CPU usage is slightly down while dual-core hasn’t changed at all. Quad core has made a promising gain of 5%, although 6 core gaming clearly has along way to come.

No real push on the GPU front but this may change over the next few months with newer cards from both ATI and Nvidia already released with more on the way.

I’m convinced there is a deity operating chest-paddles on Windows XP. Microsoft’s aging OS has had its life-support machine cut off, no more care has been given to it, but XP must have a stronger heart than Microsoft realized and is not looking likely to call it a day any time soon. I guess a lot of people running Direct x 9 titles are still happy with the plucky little senior citizen.

Windows 7 is on the rise, with a lot more people adopting the 64-bit variety to take advantage of all that RAM they invested in.

Best-selling PC hardware, this Black Friday

Intel Core i7

With Black Friday in full swing and everyone rushing for the best deals, I’ve taken a look at the top 5 best selling PC hardware components, right from Amazon’s statistics. I’ve included (practically) the full gamut of PC peripherals.

Intel processors:

No. 1: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366
No. 2: Intel Core i5 750 Processor 2.66 GHz 8 MB LGA1156
No. 3: Intel Core i3 Processor i3-540 3.06GHz 4MB LGA1156
No. 4: Intel Core i7-870 2.93GHz 8 MB LGA1156
No. 5: Intel Core i5 Processor i5-650 3.20GHz 4MB LGA1156

AMD processors:

No. 1: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition 3.2Ghz
No. 2: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8Ghz
No. 3: Phenom II X4 965 Black AM3 3.4Ghz
No. 4: AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0 GHz
No. 5: AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2 GHz

Video cards:

No. 1: EVGA nVidia GeForce GT 220 1 GB DDR3
No. 2: Sapphire Radeon HD4550 512 MB DDR3
No. 3: EVGA 01G-P3-N959TR GeForce 9500 GT 1GB
No. 4: EVGA GeForce GTX460 768MB DDR5
No. 5: ZOTAC nVidia GeForce 8400GS 512 MB DDR2

Motherboards:

No. 1: Intel DX58SO Extreme Series X58
No. 2: Intel DP55KG Extreme Series
No. 3: Intel Core i7/i5 LGA1156
No. 4: MSI G31TM-P21 LGA 775
No. 5: Intel DP55WB Media Series P55

RAM:

No. 1: Kingston Apple 2GB Kit (2x1GB Modules)
No. 2: Crucial CT2KIT25664BC1067 4GB 204-PIN PC3-8500 SODIMM DDR3 Memory KIT (2GBx2)
No. 3: Crucial CT2KIT25664BC1067 4GB 204-PIN
No. 4: Crucial 2 GB Kit (2 x 1GB) DDR PC3200 UNBUFFERED NON-ECC
No. 5: Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D Dominator 6 GB 3 x 2 GB PC3-12800 1600MHz

Mechanical hard drives:

No. 1: Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green
No. 2: Seagate Barracuda LP 2 TB 5900RPM
No. 3: Seagate Barracuda 7200 1.5 TB 7200RPM
No. 4: Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower
No. 5: Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB

Solid state drives:

No. 1: Kingston SSDNow V Series 64 GB SATA 3 GB/s
No. 2: Intel 2.5-Inch 160 GB X25-M Mainstream SATA II MLC
No. 3: Intel 80 GB X25M Mainstream SATA II
No. 4: Intel 40 GB X25-V Value SATA II MLC
No. 5: Kingston SSDNow V Series 128 GB SATA 3 GB/s

PC Cases:

No. 1: Cooler Master RC-922M-KKN1-GP HAF 922M ATX Mid Tower Case (Black)
No. 2: Antec Three Hundred Gaming Case External
No. 3: Cooler Master CM 690 II Advance ATX Mid-Tower Case
No. 4: Cooler Master HAF 932 High Air Flow ATX Full Tower
No. 5: Cooler Master Elite 310 ATX, MATX Mid Tower Case

Power supplies:

No. 1: Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750-Watt TX Series 80 Plus Certified
No. 2: Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650-Watt TX Series 80 Plus Certified
No. 3: Thermaltake W0070RUC TR2 Series 430W
No. 4: Cooler Master Elite 460W ATX +12V V2.31
No. 5: Corsair CMPSU-550VX 550-Watt VX Series 80 Plus Certified

Optical drives:

No. 1: Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive IHAS424-98 – Retail (Black)
No. 2: Samsung SH-S222L/BEBS Internal Half Height Supermulti PATA 22X
No. 3: Samsung SH-S222A/BEBE Internal Half Height Supermulti PATA 22X
No. 4: Buffalo Technology MediaStation 8X External Blu-Ray Burner USB 2.0
No. 5: LG Electronics GDR-8163B 16x DVD-ROM Drive

Sound cards:

No. 1: Creative Labs SB0570L4 Sound Blaster Audigy SE Sound Card
No. 2: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Wireless Audio
No. 3: Creative Labs SB1090 USB Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Audio System
No. 4: Creative Labs SB0880 PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
No. 5: PCISOUND4LP Pci 4CHANNEL Sound Card

LCD displays:

No. 1: ViewSonic VX2250WM-LED 22-Inch
No. 2: Viewsonic VX2450WM-LED 24-Inch
No. 3: ViewSonic VA2231W-LED 22-Inch
No. 4: HP 2010i 20-Inch Diagonal HD Ready
No. 5: ViewSonic VA2431WM 24-Inch

Lego-men assemble Dual GTX 580 gaming rig

Preparing the GTX 580 for water-cooling

Careful not to damage the pins lads

Why build a PC yourself when you can get a legion of lego workers to do it for you? Vector, from the PDXLAN user forums clearly had enough of manually assembling PCs, so he looked towards the cheap labour of lego-men.

It took them a little longer, but they were able to assemble this Dual-GTX 580 rig with time for tea and biscuits at the end.

Check out their progress.

Best-selling AMD processors

Thinking of building an AMD rig this Christmas? Interested in which processors are the best/worst selling? With all the hoopla around Amazon’s Black Friday deals, I’ve taken a look at which AMD chips are selling more units.

Top-selling AMD CPUs:

No. 1: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition

No. 2: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T

No. 3: AMD Phenom II X2 555

No. 4: AMD Sempron 140

No. 5: AMD Phenom II X4 955

AMD’s flagship CPU, the hexacore Phenom II X6 1090T has the top spot, with the slightly slower 1055T coming up the rear. These chips offer a much lower price than their Intel counterparts, and would suite anyone looking to get the best bang for buck without sacrificing much on performance. Dual-core ain’t dead just yet, with third place being filled by AMD’s X2 555 CPU. In last place we see AMD’s 3.2Ghz quad core chip the Phenom II X4 955.

Don’t forget to keep an eye on Amazon over the coming days, as they slash prices in every product category for Black Friday.

Top-selling Intel processors this Black Friday

With Amazon in full-swing with Black Friday and all that jazz, I thought I’d take a look and see which Intel processors are coming off Amazon’s shelves the fastest.

Top-selling Intel processors:

No. 1: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366

No. 2: Intel Core i5 750 Processor 2.66 GHz 8 MB LGA1156

No. 3: Intel Core i7-870 2.93GHz 8 MB LGA1156

No. 4: Intel Core i3 Processor i3-540 3.06GHz 4MB LGA1156

No. 5: Intel Core i3 Processor i3-530 2.93GHz 4MB LGA1156

No surprises with the number one spot. After the i7 950′s price was slashed a few months back, it has become a much sought after CPU, ideal for single and multi-GPU gaming configurations. The much-loved i5 is doing well in second place – if you’re not into shelling out the cash for an i7, this chip is a solid alternative. The dual-core i3 recently saw a decrease in price from Intel, so in 4th and 5th we see budget gamers are whipping these processors up.

Don’t forget to keep an eye on Amazon over the next 5 days, as they offer daily deals from all their product categories.

Intel say a 1,000 core processor is possible

Intel Single Chip Cloud Computer An interesting tidbit via 3DGameman: the architecture for the experimental Intel 48-core Single Chip Cloud Computer is arbitrarily scalable and could in principle scale to 1,000 cores according to Intel researcher Timothy Mattson,who spoke at the Supercomputer 2010 conference in New Orleans. After the one-thousandth core is added (in theory) performance is impacted:

“This is an architecture that could, in principle, scale to 1,000 cores,” he said. ” I can just keep adding, adding, adding cores.”

Only after 1,000 cores or so, the diameter of the mesh, or the on-chip network connecting the many cores, will grow to such an extent that it would negatively impact performance, Mattson said.

Intel: 1,000-core processor possible

Best CPU Cooler Performance: Intel Q3-2010

Best CPU Cooler Performance: Intel Heatsinks Q3-2010

Motherboard sockets come and go, but processors can always be depended on the create heat. For a short while longer, Intel’s LGA1366 socket on the X58-Express remains the platform of choice for hardware enthusiasts and performance overclockers. Heatsink manufacturers haven’t made much noise recently, holding back CPU cooler announcements until after Intel’s Sandy Bridge LGA1155 socket is launched. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests a few newcomer heatsinks against a collection of solid past performers in this Best CPU Cooler Performance: Intel Heatsinks Q3-2010 article.

Enthusiast overclockers demand only the best performance from their computer hardware, which is why the aftermarket heatsink industry is thriving with fierce competition. Using an overclocked Intel Core i7 processor on the X58-Express platform, only the very best CPU coolers will endure. This article introduces the CoolIt Vantage ALC, Deep Cool Gamer Storm, TITAN EVO TTC-NK85TZ/CS2, and Xigmatek Aegir SD128264 to the collection. We overclock our Intel Core i7-930 processor to 4.0 GHz using 1.40 volts to see which CPU cooler can make it into the top with the ProlimaTech Megahalems, Thermalright Venomous-X, and Scythe Mugen 2 heatsinks.

This is a guest article written by our content partners at Benchmarkreviews.com

Read on @ Benchmark Reviews

Seeing a CPU under an electron microscope

No, that's not the latest strain of swine flu..
Ever wondered what a CPU looks like under an electron microscope? A PhD student in nanotechnology decided to salvage a Pentium III that was going to find its way to the trash. He put the processor under an electron microscope in order to get an intimate view of the hardware that the naked eye just cannot capture; and posted some interesting images.

Asus reveal pics of Sandy Bridge capable motherboards

The ASUS P8P67 Deluxe

Over on the Asus Facebook page, they have given a sneak peek at their next-generation Sandy Bridge capable motherboard, the ASUS P8P67 Deluxe. Intel will be releasing the Sandy Bridge processor early next year, but in the meantime manufacturers are getting their boards ready for early adopters. These new processors will have Intel’s on-board video built onto the same die as the CPU, in what Intel promises will eliminate bottlenecks of a discrete graphics processor.

Check out more pics over on Facebook.

Overclocking the MSI N460 GTX Cyclone

Despite all my inner voices trying to persuade me this was a bad idea and I didn’t need to do it, I ended up venturing into overclocking for the first time. After reading up on how well these cards overclock and how easy the software makes it these days, that coupled with the fact that I can practically cool beers in my Cooler Master HAF 932 full-tower case, I figured I’d give it a shot. I wasn’t prepared for how easy it was to get this card stable at the overclock I attained.

Another reason to pair this card with the HAF 932 is the lack of a shroud on the Cyclone 460 leaves it open to all the incidental air flow coming from the gargantuan case fans.

The default specs for Nvidia’s GTX 460 are 675MHz on the core, 1350MHz on the shader clock and 3600MHz (effective) for the 1Gb of GDDR 5 VRAM. The MSI Cyclone comes with a small overclock, giving you a bump of 50Mhz on the core. With a little voltage increase I was able to bring the core to 925MHz, shader clock 1850MHz and 4200MHz (effective) for the VRAM.

This overclock, that more than past my expectations is completely stable under Furmark, Unigine’s Heaven benchmark, 3Dmark Vantage and Metro’s own benchmark tool. I have also stressed it with hours of gaming and it hasn’t crashed once. I got the core up to 950MHz at one stage but the drivers crashed on some of the test benchmarks so I settled on 900MHz.

I must also stress that even with this aggressive overclock in place, the card idles around 26 degrees while on the desktop, and even after a few hours in game it never goes over 52 degrees. Even after stressing it under benchmarking suites like Heaven and 3DMark Vantage the core temps never exceed 52 degrees.

If you want to know how well this card performs with the overclock (and without) then keep reading.

Test system:

CPU: Intel Core i7 950
Mobo: Asus P6X58D-E
GPU: MSI N460 GTX Cyclone
RAM: Corsair Dominator 3x2GB 1600MHz
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 6GB/S
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M850

My overclock:

Drivers used for the benchmarks are the very latest from Nvidia, released only 3 days ago (260.99). The operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

Metro 2033:

An average of 52 fps on High settings, tessellation enabled

THQ’s Metro 2033 makes formidable demands on today’s PC hardware, more so than probably any game released in 2010. This first-person shooter follows the story of Artyom, a young Russian male with a band of survivors living in an underground Metro station in Russia, after a Nuclear war. Humanity’s very existence is under threat by a new breed of predator.

The game comes with its own built-in benchmark tool so that’s what I used. With the graphics settings on very high and a resolution of 1920×1080 and tessellation enabled, it was a bit too much for the mid-range card. But just knocking the settings down to high made all the difference in the world. With settings on high and tessellation enabled I was able to achieve very fluid game-play.

As you can see from the graph above, the card with its overclock in place managed an average of 52 frames per second. Remember that’s with settings on high at a resolution of 1920×1080, with tessellation enabled and advanced physX disabled.

Enabling advanced physX doesn’t hamper the performance all that much, I was surprised to find. A very acceptable average frame-rate of 48fps is what I got in the benchmarks after re-running the test with physX.

To give you an idea of how much the card benefits from the overclock, 10 frames per second are lost on the benchmark when running the Cyclone 460 at the default settings.

Unigine Heaven:

Overclocking the Cyclone 460 gave a performace increase of 12 fps in Heaven

The overclocked card breezed through Unigine’s Heaven benchmark at a resolution of 1920 x 1080, with tessellation normal, shaders high, anisotropy x 4 with no AA. To give you an idea of fps gained, without the overclock in place I lost 12 frames-per-second in Unigine’s Heaven.

3DMark Vantage:

The overclocked Cyclone is within a stone-throw away from the GTX 480

21,137 is a pretty impressive score for the mid-range GTX 460. I chose performance mode with all the default options left alone, and a resolution of 1280 x 1024. With this overclock in place the Cyclone GTX 460′s performance is easily on par with the more expensive, hotter and louder GTX 470.

It still can’t touch the GTX 480 but it costs less than half the price of Nvidia’s current high-end GPU. When I add another MSI Cyclone to the mix for an SLI configuration, I have no doubt they will absolutely smoke the GTX 480, given how well these cards scale in an SLI configuration.

Without the overclock, 3DMark Vantage score was 18,728.

Conclusion:

Well what can I say, this card cost me less than 200 euro and it can easily handle Metro 2033 on high at HD resolutions. With the overclock in place an average of 10 frames per second is achieved in games, putting it right up there with the performance muscle of the GTX 470. If you have good air-flow in your case, MSI’s Cyclone edition of the GTX 460 will benefit from the air flow in your case, as it is an open design with no shroud. Even with an overclock so aggressive the card stays cool and never goes above 52 degrees while in game.

I cannot recommend this card enough. It can handle any game out there right now with ease. And given the fact that the GTX 460s have already come down in price, adding another card to the mixture at some point in the future will send your system into overdrive. If only 1 of these cards performs this well, I look forward to revisiting the benchmark suites with a second 460 in SLI.

If you’re in the U.K. you can snag the Cyclone for as low as 164.99 Pounds Sterling. For those in the U.S. Amazon.com have them listed for under $200.

New Nvidia WHQL drivers, 260.99

Nvidia 260.99 available for download

Yes that’s right, just when you were getting comfortable with your 260.89 WHQL drivers, released only 1 week ago.

Nvidia just announced via its Twitter page the release of driver version 260.99. This new release brings with it performance gains in a few choice titles like: Civilization V, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, and Fallout: New Vegas. There’s also an upgrade to 3D Vision game profiles for Call of Duty: Black Ops and Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2.

One nice new feature with the 260 series is in the installation menu – you are given the option to perform a “clean” install, which completely wipes your PC clean of any trace of the previous driver. No more using CC cleaner.

You can grab the new drivers here.

EVGA GeForce GTS 450 FTW Video Card

EVGA GTS 450

With the launch of AMD’s next generation of graphics cards looming, most everyone’s eyes are on the upcoming HD 6000 series. Today, however, we turn our attention to the NVIDIA camp. While it’s still unclear what NVIDIA is preparing in response to this new generation, it’s worth pointing out the GTS 450 is just barely a month old. As we witnessed in our last GTS 450 review, the overclocked variants can easily keep up with the HD 5770 and will still have a role to play in the mainstream segment for the foreseeable future. In this article, Benchmark Reviews looks at EVGA’s fastest GTS 450: the GTS 450 FTW.

The For-the-Win edition represents EVGA’s highest factory overclock, surpassing their Superclocked and Super-Superclocked models. It comes in at 920/1840 MHz for the core and shader clocks, and 4104MHz for the 1 GB of GDDR5 memory. This is comparable, and a bit faster when in terms of memory speed, to the ASUS ENGTS450 TOP that we looked at last month. Considering both cards represent the highest overclock for their respective companies, it’s not surprising the clock speeds are so similar. Unlike the ASUS card, though, EVGA opted for the reference design.

This is a guest article written by our content partners at Benchmarkreviews.com

Read on @ Benchmark Reviews

Futurmark release teaser trailer of 3DMark 11

Over on the official Futurmark Youtube page, the company that brought us 3Dmark Vantage has released a very short trailer of their upcoming Directx 11 benchmark suite. Most people are familiar with 3DMark Vantage as the gamer benchmark of choice to test your PC’s gaming capabilities. 3DMark Vantage however, is limited to Directx 10. With more and more dx11 titles coming out soon or in the works, Fururmark are in the process of developing new software to take advantage of the new features of dx11, such as hardware tessellation.

There is no concrete date of release just yet. The video says “coming in 2010″ just like their previous clip. Here’s hoping there won’t be a delay until next year, given the fact that we’re fast approaching November.

Intel staff should be thrown from the top of a building

At least that seems to be the prevailing view in Romania. In a grandiose publicity stunt, employees base jump off a six story building. They are strapped in a harness at the top of the building and then free-fall onto blown-up cushions designed to mimic different sections of the famous Intel chime, when they are compressed by the employee’s fall.

I’m not sure I could ever be so dedicated to a job to pull something like this off, but these Romanians are made of stronger stuff.

Top 5 best-selling processors

Intel vs AMD

With a new slew of CPUs promised next year from Camp Intel and AMD, who’s buying what when it comes to the current line of Core i7/5/3s and AMD Phenoms?

According to Amazon.com, the 5 best-selling processors right now should give AMD cause for concern.

No. 1: Intel Core i7 Processor i7-930 2.80GHz 8 MB LGA1366

No. 2: Intel Core i5 750 Processor 2.66 GHz 8 MB LGA1156

No. 3: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366

No. 4: Intel Core i3 Processor i3-530 2.93GHz 4MB LGA1156

No. 5: Intel Pentium Dual-Core 2.93GHz 1066MHz 2MB LGA775

I guess it’s not too surprising to have AMD CPUs absent from Amazon’s top 5 but an AMD executive might leave room for reflection. Surprising to see the i7 950 not top of the list. That processor has seen the largest price reduction of any of Intel’s lot lately. To favour the i7 930 which saves you only $15 is a bad move in my opinion. 15$ more and you have a 200mhz speed increase.

Free Ubisoft game download when you buy Intel solid state drives

Amazon have a special offer on two Intel solid state drives. Anyone who buys either the 160 GB X25-M Mainstream or the 80 GB X25M Mainstream will receive a free download of one of a selection of Ubisoft games.

The games are Far Cry 2, Assassins Creed II, RUSE, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas, Call of Juarez Bound in Blood and CSI: Deadly Intent.

To avail of the offer just buy the drive as usual on Amazon and they will email you 1-7 working days after it ships with instructions on how to download your game.

Hurry though, the offer ends on the 15th of September.

The Top Gaming Processors on the Planet

AMD PhenomII x6 1090t

Processors have come a long way since the days of Pentium 3 and Windows ME. Today
we are spoiled for choice, lost in a luxurious sea of hex and quad core processors
capable of so many calculations a second it’s enough to make your head spin.

For anyone interested in building the ultimate gaming rig, I’ve compiled a
list of the hottest hexa and quad core processors from camp Intel and AMD.

If money is no object, the Intel i7 980x Extreme Edition is the current best on
the market, but the price leaves a lot to be desired. The rest of the CPU’s in
the list offer top of the range power for your gaming rig while not breaking the
bank.

Six Core Monsters

If you want to make your gaming rig future-proof for six-core based applications and games then the hexa-core processors are the way to go. For most people however, the quad cores should suffice.

If you want bang for buck, the AMD Phenom II x6 1090t is a no brainer weighing in at $279.99, but if money is no object, hands down the king of the hill is the Intel i7 980x Extreme Edition. But this processor is pretty overpriced and you can get acceptable performance from the AMD six cores.

Personal six-core recommendation: AMD Phenom II x6 1090t

Intel i7 980x Extreme Edition

	Number of cores	6	$999.99
	Clock speed	3.33 GHz
	Cache	12 MB SmartCache
	Socket type supported	FCLGA1366
Complete spec sheet

Intel i7 970

	Number of cores	6	$899.99
	Clock speed	3.2 GHz
	Cache	12 MB SmartCache
	Socket type supported	FCLGA1366
Complete spec sheet

AMD Phenom II x6 1090t

	Number of cores	6	$279.99
	Clock speed	3.2 GHz
	Cache	L2 3MB, L3 6MB
	Socket type supported	AM3
Complete spec sheet

AMD Phenom II x6 1055T

	Number of cores	6	$199.99
	Clock speed	2.8 GHz
	Cache	L2 3MB, L3 6MB
	Socket type supported	AM3
Complete spec sheet

Quad cores for us lesser mortals

Lower on the food chain, we have the four core processors.

The current spate of DX11 games rarely (if ever) use more than 4 cores, so at this stage it might be more prudent to stick to these quad cores. Six cores won’t mean a lot, unless you’re involved in heavy video editing and multitasking.

Of those listed below, the i7 950 processor has dropped in price by 50% in the past few days, so without hesitation, that is our recommendation if you’re building your new gaming pc or just upgrading your processor.

Intel i7 960

	Number of cores	4	$569.99
	Clock speed	3.2 GHz
	Cache	8 MB SmartCache
	Socket type supported	FCLGA1366
Complete spec sheet

Intel i7 950

	Number of cores	4	$331.28
	Clock speed	3.06 GHz
	Cache	8 MB SmartCache
	Socket type supported	FCLGA1366
Complete spec sheet

Intel i7 930

	Number of cores	4	$289.99
	Clock speed	2.8 GHz
	Cache	8 MB SmartCache
	Socket type supported	FCLGA1366
Complete spec sheet

AMD Phenom II 965

	Number of cores	4	$165.99
	Clock speed	3.4 GHz
	Cache	L2 2MB, L3 6MB
	Socket type supported	AM3
Complete spec sheet

AMD Phenom II 955

	Number of cores	4	$149.99
	Clock speed	3.2 GHz
	Cache	L2 2MB, L3 6MB
	Socket type supported	AM3
Complete spec sheet

Honourable Mention

I’d look out for a price drop of the i7 920, Intel will surely have to slash the cost of this two year old processor with the recent drop in price of the i7 950. So keep an eye on that one.

How much would you spend on your dream rig? Are you sold on six cores?

Visit us on Facebook and let us know which direction you’re headed in.

Amazon.com Chimes in with i7 950 Price Drop

I wrote just over a week ago about Intel’s massive price cut of their i7 950 processors. It was due to drop from around $600 to under $300. A pretty unbelievable cash-saving that I think many people needed to see before they believed it. I already pointed out that U.K. retailer Overclockers.co.uk were/are taking pre-orders for the much talked about i7 950. But what about everyone else?

Well, some good news for anyone in North America, Amazon.com has now officially slashed their pricing of the high-end chip. The Core i7 950 is now retailing for $308, down from $629 dollars a few days ago. For anyone that was holding off on their new gaming rig, this is a bolt of glorious lightening out of the blue. Now you can fit an i7 950 into your dream rig for half the price. It’s so amazing I feel like saying it again, you can now get a Core i7 950 for half price!

Intel i7 Massive Price Cuts

If you’re planning on building a gaming PC anytime soon, you will be pleased to know of Intel’s upcoming price reductions for some of their flagship processors. In just seven says time on the 30th of August, the Core i7 950 (LGA1366, 3.06 GHz, quad-core) which is currently retailing for $564 on Amazon.com will be slashed to $294, effectively replacing the i7 930.

OverClockers.co.uk already has the processor listed for £234.99 on pre-order.

The 950 performed extremely well in benchmarks with plenty of room for overclocking. Tom’s Hardware pitted it up against the 975 Extreme Edition and it certainly held its own against the $1,000 processor.

First up the GOOD,

Power:

Performance:

Price:

Next up the BAD,

Lack of Value:

Who is its target audience?:

Already out of Date:

Final thoughts:

Processors:

Graphics Cards:

System Ram:

Operating systems:

Conclusion:

Intel processors:

AMD processors:

Video cards:

Motherboards:

RAM:

Mechanical hard drives:

Solid state drives:

PC Cases:

Power supplies:

Optical drives:

Sound cards:

LCD displays:

Top-selling AMD CPUs:

Top-selling Intel processors:

Best CPU Cooler Performance: Intel Heatsinks Q3-2010

Test system:

My overclock:

Metro 2033:

Unigine Heaven:

3DMark Vantage:

Conclusion:

Six Core Monsters

Quad cores for us lesser mortals

Honourable Mention

Update Aug. 31st 2010: