Intel 925X/915: Chipset Performance & DDR2
by Wesley Fink on June 19, 2004 3:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Intel Socket 775 Chipsets
You're looking at the new 775-pin socket T, which reverses the Socket 478 by putting the pins in the socket on the motherboard. The 775 processor has no pins at all; it has 775 small 'cups' that make contact with the pins in the socket.
The new chipsets for Socket 775 range from the 925X at the top to a full range of mainstream 915 chipsets, both with and without the new Intel Integrated DirectX 9 graphics.
The 915/925X are updates to the current 865/875 chipsets, which will continue in the Intel line for the time being.
All of the new 775 chipsets are paired with the updated ICH6 Southbridge. The ICH6 integrates the new 24-bit 192kHz High-Definition Audio. Intel HD audio also features eight independent DMA audio engines. This can enable multiple separate, simultaneous audio streams.
The new Southbridge also supports four SATA ports, which double the available SATA ports from ICH5. The new SATA ports can support either hard drives or optical devices with hot plug capabilities and Native Command Queuing (NCQ). While the SATA support is still SATA 1 (150MB/s), Intel claims that the new NCQ feature allows faster boots and increases file transfer speeds.
As we first saw on 875/865 family, there is also an ICH6R that can be paired with the new Northbridge chips to provide Intel Matrix RAID capabilities. The new Matrix Raid supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, and an interesting option that allows combining both mirroring for security and striping for speed using only two drives.
New for 925X/915 is a new "W" Southbridge for ICH6 that supports Intel Wireless Connect Technology. This is designed to simplify wireless networks and connections. The W option is available with the regular Southbridge as ICH6W, and with the Matrix RAID version, ICH6RW. Consider the "W" in ICH6W and ICH6RW a future feature, however, because Intel does not yet have the wireless feature working. The accessory cards for wireless are not available at launch either.
The new Intel chipsets only support one IDE controller, so two IDE devices on the same channel is the only option for IDE. With SATA optical drives only just starting to appear, that means your IDE hard drive and optical IDE device will have to share a single channel. Even if you have SATA drives, your two IDE optical devices will have to share a single IDE channel. It is abundantly clear that Intel is trying to accelerate the move to SATA by limiting IDE options on the new chipsets.
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Wesley Fink - Saturday, June 19, 2004 - link
#22 & #23 - This will all make more sense when Derek's companion piece is posted later today, which compares the 3.6, 3.4EE, and AMD chipsets.There is no 3.6EE, and we considered comparing the 3.4EE, but the early benches showed the 3.6 to be a fairer comparison. The 3.6 is the only new Intel chip and the top (3.4EE is just a new 775 package launch) and the FX53 is the top AMD chip. The FX53 runs at the same speed as the 3800+ (2.4GHz) but has twice the cache, and both are Dual-Channel Socket 939. The FX55 will not be released until late this year.
Comparing last year's 3200+, the first Socket 754 Athlon 64 and single-channel, to the just-released 560 (3.6GHz) compares nothing.
Bozo Galora - Saturday, June 19, 2004 - link
If the chipset supports only one IDE channel, why does the Gigabyte board have two green IDE sockets.Am I missing something?
I really wanna know, because only one IDE means I dont buy this stuff.
shabby - Saturday, June 19, 2004 - link
So when are the dual core cpu's coming out? Think ill wait for those.SDA - Saturday, June 19, 2004 - link
That's just it, though, the FX-53 is just a few tens of dollars more than the 3800+, so some people figure why not? AMD is overcharging because they know they can get away with it..stephenbrooks - Saturday, June 19, 2004 - link
Maybe replace '3500+' by '3800+' above.stephenbrooks - Saturday, June 19, 2004 - link
One interesting thing is the difference it makes which AMD chip people compare the 3.6E to in these reviews. Before coming here I read the one at http://www.bit-tech.net/review/326/ and came away thoroughly impressed. The clincher was that they compared to the A64 3200+ whereas this review compared to the FX-53.I'm not totally sure if the 3.6E _should_ be compared to the FX-53, being as it is marketed as a '560', in the 5xx 'mid-range' desktop segment for Intel. A better comparison for the high-price-end might be 3.4/3.46EE vs. FX-53 or '720' vs. FX-55 later on.
I'd think 3.6E vs. A64 3700+, or even better the 3500+ (as it's on AMD's new socket too) would be an informative comparison. It's just a shame Intel's high-end offerings are a bit thin on the ground right now.
Staples - Saturday, June 19, 2004 - link
Good review. I wish you had compared the 875 with the 925x however both using a Presscott CPU. With one using a Northwood and one using a Presscott fails to show which chipset optimizes the power of the CPU. The fact that you didn't further inphasises that Intel is in one hellava drought. The 3.2 Northwood/875 combo that came out like 8+ months ago is still faster than ANYTHING they have released.I am waiting for a reason to upgrade but this sure isn't something I was looking for. With Intel having these troubles, AMD is going to take their sweet time putting out anything faster.
Pumpkinierre - Saturday, June 19, 2004 - link
It would be great to see the 915 with Skt478- best of both worlds. I know that Skt775 is appearing on 865 mobos (Abit AS8). At that last Taiwan computer expo they had dual intel Sckt mobos but were they 915s?rjm55 - Saturday, June 19, 2004 - link
#16 - I disagree with you. I think Northwood on 875 is exactly the right comparison to Prescott 775 on 925X. Both at the same speed as done in the review. Prescott was not designed for 875, so comparing the best last generation 875/Northwood to the new 925X/Prescott is extremely fair. I'm sure Intel would have preferred a comparison of Prescott to Prescott, because they would have looked better. I think that was #4's point, which you apparently missed.Doormat - Saturday, June 19, 2004 - link
Now I dont feel so bad about buying that P4-3.0C/i875 combo last month...