Alderwood and Nocona Woes; Intel Updates
by Kristopher Kubicki on April 11, 2004 1:08 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
As we continue to receive more information about Alderwood (also known as i925X), we continue to hear disappointing news about the upcoming product launch. Recently, motherboard manufacturers have confirmed with us that 925X will not launch with ECC support as originally planned. We have previously stated that while 915 supports DDR2 and DDR1, 925X supports only DDR2 memory. Thus, the lack of initial ECC support on 925X will only affect DDR2 ECC memory.
From what manufacturers tell us, the B-0 stepping of 925X in production samples currently has an "intermittent issue which occurs under certain boundary conditions." Since the B-1 stepping of 925X have already been taped out, ECC support will be disabled. The next 925X stepping, B-2, will support ECC again but does ship until after the June 15th launch. According to the Intel roadmaps, we should see ECC support for 925X launch around July; although the B-1 chipset will obviously linger around for some time. If ECC is important to you and you aniticipate buying a 925X board, know in advance which stepping the board uses.
Unfortunately, it also seems that Intel's Nocona (800FSB IA-32e processors) have also been delayed until Q3'04. x86-64 computing for Intel will have to wait a few more months it seems.
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OldWiseOne - Monday, April 12, 2004 - link
I think Cramitpal is an Iraqi Information Minister Wanna-be... just a thought.Staples - Sunday, April 11, 2004 - link
Looks like it is the 915 for me beucase DDR2 costs an arm and a leg.jensend - Sunday, April 11, 2004 - link
Sounds like the only new chipset Intel will put out before their revamped processor roadmaps and the migrations to PCI-E and DDR2 (both of which Intel wants to move immediately but very few people will see any reason to move to for at least a year) sort themselves out (timeframe - who knows?) which will be worth buying at all will be the revamped 855 for Dothan.AlexWade - Sunday, April 11, 2004 - link
Whats the big deal about Intel's problems? Okay, it seems to me Intel is trying to rush PCI-Express and these chipsets. But I think they are trying to rush them out the door to get the flaws out. Everyone knows none of the stuff it supports will be mainstream this year. So what if they are having problems? Talk to me next year if they are STILL having problems.KristopherKubicki - Sunday, April 11, 2004 - link
Yeah, Opteron is pretty cheap, but FX is cheaper in the long run if that is your plan (at least for socket 939). Opteron requires you to use registered memory which is expensive and hard to find :(Kristopher
newuser12 - Sunday, April 11, 2004 - link
looking at the realtime pricing I'd say opteron is cheaper....but i'd say tha while the opteron is a better server CPU the xeon is better if you are going fro desktop apps.......but then, just get a desktop CPU.....I would be interested to know what prices and 'apps' you are talking about.Doop - Sunday, April 11, 2004 - link
Intel is still competitive at most price points for both single and dual systems. 875 is a sweet chipset making an Intel 'system' more appealing than an Athlon/Opteron 'processor'.It's great to see AMD do well but for me an Opteron system is way too expensive and slow in my specific apps.
Anemone - Sunday, April 11, 2004 - link
Hard to argue that something is definitely amiss in Intel land. The FX-53 is leaving them choking save when we consider HT, but HT isn't going to save that comparison much. DDR2 at $600 for a GB? Words don't even begin to say what a rotten sell that is. 925X to use only DDR2, and it doesn't even support 667 DDR2 which "might" give it some life. I think the delays are significant indicators of serious performance issues at Intel, or the lack thereof. Now I'm ok with that if they are going to be fixed, but by all appearances I'm not so sure they are really going FIX them till late in 04 or probably 05. If FX-55 with PCI-E and 939 comes before that, I think Intel's classic cash cow, the high end, is going to take a furious beating. The supposed "ramp up" isn't really happening, 939 is likely to be around long enough to give current users a dual core 64bit option in the future on the same socket, just no DDR2 option. But that's ok because DDR2 533 isn't really a future enabling option anyway, since you'd have to replace the mobo and memory to use the DDR2 that everyone will want which is 667 and 800 in 05.Aside from HT, Intel is sucking dust and looking like a mega billion dollar pathetic child. Worse, in 64 bit, that supposed "we'll do it for you later just wait" they may quite well lag even further behind the AMD option in terms of performance. Its not looking pretty at all.
Mind you I'm not entirely pleased that either mfg has a good upgrade path much beyond a year from now, reusing old stuff is going to be impossible with the changeover to DDR2, but given that's true and the price premium for a given performance Intel charges, the flag is favoring AMD by a fairly large margin. Add to that, "delays in 925x due to performance issues" and gone is the classic "Intel chipsets are more durable" advantage. This is great news for AMD, but none of it seems to be good for the consumer after a year from now :(
raskren - Sunday, April 11, 2004 - link
CRAMITPAL,Please list some of these "design and operational defects" for us naive sheep without a clue.
Thank you.
retrospooty - Sunday, April 11, 2004 - link
why is there no choice "d)" that includes choices b and c? :pLOL !
I am assuming that if "B" is true, there is still a chance that he may develop into a decent human. :D