by Liquid3D » Thu Nov 11, 2004 6:00 am
Yes I really appreciated your focusing on the thermal aspects of this die shrink. It's difficult when there's not a large jump in performance, and in all fairness I can't blame the consumer for wanting to see it in every next generation. But as Overclocker's we understand all the other benefits of a die-shrink, especially when it WORKS, hehe. I sort of disagreed with all the criticism towards Intel because their Socket-478 Prescott overclocked very well for me. My 3.0E ran to 4GHz wil little Vcore.
I beleive the problems with S-478 Prescott were never really that severe where heat was concerned. Although most argue this point with me I believe the S-754 A64 ran as warm as the S-478 Prescott. I saw the trrue source of the problem was Intel's failure to implement motherboard CPU-power circuitry changes. Prescott for S-478 was launched on a motherboard which was not designed for it's power reuirements. Although the Vcore is lower on Prescott, current demands are much higher. The mosfetts on my Abit AI7 cooked at 70+ C. I wouldn't have even known this had Abit not made the AI7 their first board with uGuru. Luckily that chip read a diode monitoring power circuitry feeding the CPU. They really screwed themselves releasing Prescott onto the S-478 without beefing up the boards power circuitry.
My P4 530 (S-775) with the Abit AA8 having Mosfetts the size of small fridge's, easily clocks to 4GHz, and runs to 3600MHz without Vcore inscrease. My 3.0E S-478 Prescott would also run to 240FSB sometimes 250FSB without Vcore adjustment.
Why am I discussing alll this? because until AMD released this chip. no one had actually made SSOI technology work until now. So while Intel's chips did overclock well, they have been plagued with power circuitry problems where the mobo's are concerned. I understand the Silicon On Insulator Fab process was supposed to prvent electromigration, and junction capacitance and it seems like AMD has actually done it. When the right board come out, these chips may be the overclocking champions. And if AMD continues in this direction it seems their going to start getting some real high speeds out of them as well. Sorry about my long babbling reply here.
I was expecting to see a little higher FSB though. But the 90nm cores really do seem to rock and roll.
After reading this informative review, I'll definitely shell out the extra cash for the 90nm version.
I wanted the PCIE for the future as they'll prolly make the new cards for PCIE only and then I'll have to upgrade the mobo again. Although I'll prolly want to go the SLI route anyway and face the same predicament. 
