Corsair
Motherboard partners have been finding CeBIT a hard sell, not helped by
the lack of really new hardware on the market. There are a few AMD AM3
boards dotted around the show floor, sure, but the most-anticipated
mainboards remain the P55 chipset, providing support for Intel's
next-generation Nehalem-derived desktop chips.
Here's the Gigabyte GA-IBP, based on said chipset. The board should be
available to buy around the June/July time-frame, just when the Core i5
chips are out, according to the representatives we spoke to.
Core i5 can be thought of as incumbent Core i7 on a diet; stripped of
the QPI interconnect and the third memory-channel, for starters. That
should make supporting motherboards cheaper to produce, and we were
quoted a
price of $150 (US) for a mid-range P55.
Note the one-chip I/O and DVI output on the back? This board will be
compatible with 45nm Lynnfield and 32nm Clarksdale (w/IGP), we were
told, so
expect some reasonable chipset longevity out of P55.
We hadn't seen an LGA1156 socket up close and personal before, so here
it is, and it's a fair chunk smaller than the Core i7 equivalent. Not
too sure about how it secures into the socket area, though.
Cheap Core i5, plus board, plus 4GB dual-channel DDR3 should set you
back just over £300 in August. Sound tempting?
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Unless there's a quad-core Westmere further down the line that I don't know about?
No, there seems to be a very mysterious gap in Intel's road map for that. Either Intel are planning to continue offering 45nm Lynnefield derivatives alongside the life of westmere, or they're being sneaky to try and throw off AMD's intelligence (given this is the very segment AMD will be targeting the strongest).Quote
I'm not that knowledgeable there.
From what I understand with i7, that offers a lot more performance over LGA775.
And i5 is just a cheaper cut down version?
I'm guessing that these i5 must have a decent leap in performance over the current Quad Core.
Those chips are just two Dual Core processors stuck together?
Still, I'm not really convinced with this i5 range. Wouldn't it be wiser to simply wait for i7 to come down in price?Quote
I'm confused by this board...
It's being released around the same time as the Lynnfield processors, and yet it has a DVI output even though i5 won't have any IGPs until Westmere comes out months later - why not release a board with no IGP outputs (which presumably would be cheaper to produce) to coincide with Lynnfield, and then release a new range (complete with IGP outputs) to go with Westmere when that comes along??
Also, why does it have three PCI-E sockets when i5 only supports 16 lanes?
:confused:
Remember this is at cebit so companies are demonstrating the products they feel will be most interesting and advanced.
What do you guy's think this will offer performance wise?
I'm not that knowledgeable there.
From what I understand with i7, that offers a lot more performance over LGA775.
And i5 is just a cheaper cut down version?
I'm guessing that these i5 must have a decent leap in performance over the current Quad Core.
Those chips are just two Dual Core processors stuck together?
Still, I'm not really convinced with this i5 range. Wouldn't it be wiser to simply wait for i7 to come down in price?
Im *guessing* the performance to be inbetween i7 and higher end C2 parts. Its not quite just a cut down version if you read the article it explains some of the differences briefly.
These are native quad parts and not just duals stuck together
i7 probably wont come down in price too far, its a higher end part and intel probaly intend to keep it up there. The only reason i can see them dropping the price is if AMD really hit the floor with something interesting but iv seen no wind of this, we will have to wait and see i guess.Quote
Come on I'm still waiting on a budget AM3 or i5 mATX board!
you will be waiting untill the recession is over mate. migth as well grab a i7 now mateQuote
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