Intel Dual Core: Pentium EE 840 Arrives

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Intel Dual Core: Pentium EE 840 Arrives

Post by LVCapo »

Nate's got the first actual dual core article with benchmarking up. Outstanding article with some fascinating results and impressions. Make sure you take some time and check out Intel's newest gem.

As always, come back here and tell us what you think of the product and our article.

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Dual Core has arrived!

For more than a year now the enthusiast community has been hearing the benefits of dual core processors. AMD was the first to announce their move to a dual core solution, and much was made of them beating Intel to tape, only one problem... On April 4th, 2005 Intel made it clear to the whole industry that they have dual core ready and that they will be launching parts this quarter. While in recent months it was clear AMD was not going to be the first to launch a desktop dual core part, Intel shocked even me when they told us to be ready to sample dual core in March! While Intel isn't officially launching dual core today, it is giving us a chance to "preview" these new processors now and share our thoughts with our readers. In the following weeks expect Intel to start shipping desktop dual core processors to the retail market. Pricing is not even set yet, but we expect them to be approximately the same price as any other Extreme Edition released from Intel.

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Post by Apoptosis »

After a night of 2 hours of sleep the article is as done as it's going to get as the embargo has already lifted. I hope you enjoy the article and from what I am seeing on the web Legit Reviews has some pretty good details on the motherboard and thermal properties that others sites didn't touch on.

Let us know what else you'd like to know and I'll answer all questions to the best of my abilities.

Nate
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Post by LVCapo »

Come on people...this is the biggest release in a couple of years...give us your thoughts/feelings on Intel's latest and greatest.
We've been waiting for this for over a year now!!!!
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Post by deadly-app »

Site is running too slow for me, i cant even load the review.
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Post by infinitevalence »

interesting read, nate. the cinibench performance is a real eye opener and shows you the power of multi-threaded apps. now if more programs can take advantage of multi-threading then Intel will hands down have a killer CPU. As long as apps are single thread only then i dont think we will see a fast transition to the DC platform.
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Post by Apoptosis »

looks like our dedicated quad xeon server needs more power. I've restarted the server andwill monitor it's status throughout the day. Sorry for the slow page loads.
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Post by gvblake22 »

deadly-app wrote:Site is running too slow for me, i cant even load the review.
Yeah, going really slow for me too...

But yeah, anyway!
That was an exiting review to read and I thought you guys did a nice job! As far as comments on Intel's first dual-core "preview": I think it definately has potential for some good performance over single core cpu's as seen by the first set of synthetic type benchmarks, but there are obviously still those bittersweet benchmarks (gaming) that show dual-core isn't really all it's cracked up to be quite yet. But a little more support from software will definately help that.

The other part of this whole thing that cought my attention was the fact that idle temps on the stock HS/F were 66C!!! Thats just insane!! What's the maximum temperature these chips are rated at? Did you get any load temps with the stock HS/F? What were your load temps with H2O?

And I am VERY curious to see how this chip fares in overclocking and the performance scaling with higher clock speeds!:?
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Post by deadly-app »

its sped up a bit now, im getting through the review relatively easily.

Looks amazing so far, and this is coming from an AMD fanboy too.

Heh, the price is going to be interesting to see :) I want to start seeing some amd ones out soon :P

Any idea on if you guys will be picking up a dual core amd proccessor anytime soon?
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Post by SlipSand »

Very sweet. Will read over the next few days. :mrgreen:
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Post by deadly-app »

Finished up the review, its moving much faster now. Beastly looking overclock, what are the temps you are getting currently at 4ghz?
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Post by PowerGlove »

I enjoyed the review, but looking more forward to the Nforce 4 SLI Intel Edition. mmmm Intel SLI, finally a reason for me to blow 500 bucks.
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Post by Angry_Games »

i love my Intel...but im not really impressed at all by dual-core Intel cpu's.

I have a feeling that the dual-core A64 cpu's will do exactly what the single core A64 cpu's did...drop Intel to the back burner in performance (especially with the addition of SS3 to the A64).

A64 is already the stronger, superior cpu. Only thing the Intel cpu's still have going for them is that software is still predominantly written/compiled for the P4 architecture. This is changing...and even if as of now, optimized for P4 architecture, the A64 can still beat the P4 in most tests.

Then there's the heat...Intel cpu's get hotter, while A64's get cooler (Winchester 90nm anyone? I can run a 3200+ 90nm on a Thermalright XP-90 without a fan and still not break 50°C...i can barely keep a Prescott under 50°C unless I am using watercooling).

I keep thinking that Intel will see the light and use all of their resources to come up with an A64 killer (not that i hate A64...all of my main rigs are A64's now, only my lab server is an Intel, and it is still a Northwood 2.8C). But they are like our local grocery chain, Albertsons...

Albertsons still thinks that brand name is going to sustain them through the price/options wars with WalMart supercenters...and Albertsons is learning a hard lesson right now as Walmart is destroying them (along with everyone else) because of their superior pricing and inventory schemes.

The same is starting (finally) to happen to Intel...the market share they once dominated is being eroded (slowly at first, much more quickly now) by AMD. People do not care about name brand as much these days...they did at first, but after many good years and many good reviews, the AMD platform is quickly becoming the platform of choice. AMD even forced Intel to release a desktop 64-bit extension cpu (which is still inferior to the Athlon64) when Intel said they would NEVER have a desktop 64-bit cpu (ie: they tried to force their Itanic on everyone, and it bombed pretty heavily, especially when you compared the ability of the A64 to run 64-bit Linux/Unix software at superior performance levels and the cost was much much less than the Itanic).



so again, my opinion, (and remember, I love my Intel stuff), is that this is just not impressive. Its not going to raise performance over the Athlon64. It might win a few benches here and there, but you have to figure that the Athlon64 can practically match any current Intel cpu in any benchmark, and beats the Intel cpu in any FPU-intensive benchmark. And it runs about 30% to 50% cooler, and for the moment, the fact that it is able to do this at 1000Mhz lower clock speeds...(crank up any A64 cpu to 3Ghz and watch it annihilate any Intel cpu).

What is (hopefully) impressive is going to be the dual A64 core cpu's. If an A64 had Hyperthreading....I think Intel would be incredibly scared (though they would never come out publicly and say this, but it would force them into action just like it did by making them release an EM64T extensionable cpu).

I'm not an Athlon fanboy, nor an Intel fanboy (nor NV nor ATI). I have to use all, and I enjoy all as they all have pro's and cons. But for me, there is a big shift lately, and its all shifting towards the AMD cpu's as they are just superior in every way...once their popularity gains a bigger foothold than it already has, then EVERY software will have its own compiling specifically for the A64 architecture, which is the only thing that the AMD cpu's lack...*and again, remember, that without optimized compiling, they can still match any Intel cpu @ much less clock Mhz!!!*

as far as we know at this time (rumors and speculation, not to be taken at face value), the A64 dual core cpu's will work in current motherboards (939 pin sockets) with a bios update. Whether this holds true or not remains to be seen...but if it is true, it is another poison dagger in Intel's heart (who wouldn't love to put a HT-enabled, dual-core, 2.4Ghz 939 A64 cpu in their current AN8 SLI or DFI LP SLI-DR???).

anyway, thats my $.02 as an insider of sorts.

btw, great review. I've come to rely on Legit for unbiased reviews, and I appreciate that if they make a mistake, they are quick to take action to correct it, and are open to other points of view about a subject ;)
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Post by infinitevalence »

AG great comments, i think the thing to look at here is not how good the first gen of DC is from intel but think about its potential, start imageing DC pent-m with hyperthreading and now your talking about a A64 killer, less heat, more IPC, and still keep the multi-tasking that makes the Intel platform so good. I think we all know that the P-4 arch as we know it is in its last days. i would be willing to predict that Intel will kill any p-4 based revisions after springfeild. they may not know they are going todo it yet but the will when AMD gets DC 2.2x2ghz out the door, because NO 3.2x2 p4 will compeat with that.
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Post by gvblake22 »

Well, what does MSRP look like for these beasts?? I'm gonna guess not too many people are going to be able to afford a first generation DC chip :(
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Post by deadly-app »

well its not released yet, but expect in the threshold of 1000 minimum.
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Post by infinitevalence »

For starters yes, Intel has indicated with roadmaps that they will transition most of their cpu's to DC over the next year so if you wait you could get DC in a year for ~150.
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Post by NAiLs »

infinitevalence wrote:For starters yes, Intel has indicated with roadmaps that they will transition most of their cpu's to DC over the next year so if you wait you could get DC in a year for ~150.
Too bad I couldn't stick one in my laptop! :shock: :lol:

Great review, Nate! I enjoyed reading that very much! I too am not impressed with the DC Intels thus far, but it's only the beginning. Intel has some pretty cool stuff, as does AMD.
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Post by deadly-app »

Most likely when DC is perfected they will be mostly found in laptops due to the ability to run them at less hz but equivalent performance at a much lower power usage and heat output.
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Post by NAiLs »

I'm thinking along the lines of my laptop having a 2.8GHz Prescott core. I don't think you'll just be able to slap a dual core in. I'd need a new motherboard the way it sounds. I doubt Dell would update their BIOS (if it were possible that way) to accept DC CPU's.
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Post by Apoptosis »

You are correct. Dual Core processors need a chipset that has been designed to support them. All the current Intel based chipsets do not.

The just released ones do:

VIA PT894 Pro
Intel 945/955X
nVIDIA C19

In terms of heat alone you wouldn't want one of these desktop DC parts in your notebook. I was hitting 66C at idle in a case with 3 80mm fans and decent airflow through the PSU!
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