Intel Core i7 CPU

For the last several months the hottest topic on just about every venue for computer product information has been the forthcoming release of the new Intel Core i7, the first series of processors in the new Nehalem product line. There's not been a day out of that time frame that some prognosticator has not forecasted when we would see this product on the store shelves. Why so much fervor and hype? Well that's very simple, the Core i7 processors are reputed to literally smoke the current Core 2 Quad 45nm processors which literally rule high-end computing. Talk about getting an enthusiast's adrenaline flowing!

Fast forward to Sunday, November 2, 2008, which by the way happens to be today and also very special date in time both for all computer enthusiasts and also for us at Benchmark Reviews. At 9:00 PM PST we're finally able to put all the hype, myths and rumors to rest as the embargo on product information on the forthcoming release of the Intel Core i7 processor series has officially been lifted. Notice I used that word again, "forthcoming" and not that doesn't mean tomorrow this product will be available on the shelves of your favorite distributor on Monday morning. What it does mean is that because is that the sheer magnitude of launching an entirely new product line of this scope is a daunting task to the very least. Intel and their partners have chosen to phase in the launch meaning you should see it available for purchase sometime later in November.

Rather than allowing consumers to continue speculating about just what this new product line has to offer Intel has chosen to take the high road and has sent pre-release samples of the entire Core i7 system to selected review sites. It was then the job of these sites to garner as much information regarding this product line as possible in a relatively short time span and pass it on to our readers.

DX58SO Smackover X58 Platform

We at Benchmark Reviews consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have been chosen by Intel as one of those review sites to showcase the Core i7 prior to its official launch. Once chosen our dilemma was how to best convey the myriad of information we ascertained to our readers. Obviously the best plan would be to release one all encompassing review of the entire product line. Because of time constraints this plan was impossible. After much deliberation we decided our best recourse was to present a series of reviews on this product line. In today's segment we will cover an overview of the technological aspects of the Core i7 processor series and the X58 motherboard that supports it. We'll test all three of the processors using a succinct series of benchmarks run a stock processor speeds and draw the necessary conclusions from their results. What else is left you might ask? Believe me when I say that's only scratching the surface. In future reviews we'll concentrate on individual product components and expound in much greater detail on that product's performance capabilities including overclocking.

About the Company: Intel

Intel Corporation is the world's largest semiconductor company founded by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, and widely associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove, Intel combines advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing capability. Originally known primarily to engineers and technologists, Intel's successful "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s made it and its Pentium processor household names.

Intel pushes the boundaries of innovation so our work can make people's lives more exciting, fulfilling, and manageable. And our work never stops. We never stop looking for the next leap ahead-in technology, education, culture, manufacturing, and social responsibility. And we never stop striving to deliver solutions with greater benefits for everyone. Intel is making PCs more accessible and affordable through innovative PC purchase programs. Through public and private collaboration, Intel has worked closely with government and industry leaders to develop more than 200 programs in 60 countries. With the onslaught of wireless broadband communication technologies like WiMAX, Wi-Fi, and 3G and wireline ADSL and cable, Intel in collaboration with local governments is connecting more people in more places than ever before-no matter how remote.

Intel is committed to improving education on a global scale. With an ongoing focus on students and teachers, we're making an impact with technology solutions that support the development of 21st Century skills, including digital literacy, problem solving, and critical thinking. As citizens use the Internet, the need to create localized content is the key. Intel-sponsored programs provide localized content and services to connect technologies to villages, suburbs, and cities around the world to deliver access to community information, education, and healthcare.

Intel Core i7: Platform Information

What is Nehalem Technology?

Before going into the specifications and features of the entire Intel Core i7 processor series we thought some background information about the new Nehalem technology might be in order. While doing research for this review I came a cross a very useful document on Intel's website entitled: "First the Tick, Now the Tock: Next Generation Intel Micro-architecture (Nehalem)". This white paper article helped me to gain a much better understanding of not only the features we'll see today in the Core i7 series of processors, but in future product releases we're likely to see that will implement other aspects of the Nehalem architecture. The article itself is 8 pages long so I'll leave it to you to read it in its entirety, but I will share a few excerpts that may help you to gain a better understanding of the products we'll visit today.

The first chapter is all about scalability. Next generation Intel micro architecture (Nehalem) is a dynamically scalable and design-scalable micro architecture. At runtime, it dynamically manages cores, threads, cache, interfaces, and power to deliver outstanding energy effciency and performance on demand. At design time, it scales, enabling Intel to easily provide versions that are optimized for each server, desktop, and notebook market. Intel will deliver versions differing in the number of cores, caches, interconnect capability, and memory controller capability, as well as in the segmented use of an integrated graphics controller. This allows Intel to deliver a wide range of price, performance, and energy efficiency targets for servers, workstations, desktops, and laptops.

To extract greater performance from this new micro architecture, in targeted market segments, Intel is also introducing a new platform architecture: Intel QuickPath Architecture. Through integrated memory controllers and a high-speed interconnect for connecting processors and other components, Intel QuickPath Architecture delivers best-in-class performance, bandwidth, and reliability. In turn, it truly enables systems to fully unleash the new levels of performance that new and more powerful next generation micro architecture-based processor cores will deliver.

Next generation Intel micro architecture (Nehalem) marks the next step (a "tock") in Intel's rapid "tick-tock" cadence for delivering a new process technology (tick) or an entirely new micro architecture (tock) every year. The first Nehalem-based processors are expected to release in the latter part of 2008. The family will grow to include server, workstation, desktop, and mobile processors.

The next generation micro architecture's performance and power management innovations include:

• Dynamically managed cores, threads, cache, interfaces, and power.
• Simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) for enabling a more energy efficient means of increasing performance for multi-threaded workloads. The next generation micro architecture's SMT capability enables running two simultaneous threads per core-an amazing eight simultaneous threads per quad-core processor and 16 simultaneous threads for dual-processor quad-core designs.
• Innovative extensions to the Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4) that center on enhancing XML, string, and text processing performance.
• Superior multi-level cache, including an inclusive shared L3 cache.
• New high-end system architecture that delivers from two to three times more peak bandwidth and up to four times more realized bandwidth (depending on configuration) as compared to today's Intel Xeon processors.
• Performance-enhanced dynamic power management.

Nehalem Architecture

With more powerful processors, a potential bottleneck can form anytime a processor or its individual cores can't fetch instructions and data as fast as they're being executed. Whenever this happens, performance slows. Of particular importance to the performance of a system is the speed at which a microprocessor and its execution cores can access system memory (in addition to internal cache). In multi-processor systems, not only is the actual access to data important, but also the multi-processor communication required to ensure memory coherency (also called snoop traffic).

For years Intel kept instructions and data flowing quickly to the processor through an external bi-directional data bus called a front-side bus (FSB). This bus performed as a backbone between the processor cores and a chipset that contained the memory controller hub and served as the connection point for all other buses (PCI, AGP, etc.) in the system. In turn, this has delivered industry-leading processor performance on the Intel Core micro architecture family of processors.

In its long-range planning, Intel has long anticipated that the development of a high-performance, dynamically, and design-scalable micro architecture like next generation Intel micro architecture (Nehalem) would lead to moving beyond FSBs to a new system architecture. The result was the development of Intel QuickPath Architecture, a new system architecture that integrates a memory controller into each microprocessor, dedicates specific areas of system memory to each processor, and connects processors and other components with a new high-speed interconnect. Previously referenced under the code name Common System Interface or CSI, Intel QuickPath Interconnect unleashes the performance of next generation micro architecture-based processors and future generations of Intel multi-core processors.

Intel QuickPath Architecture is a platform architecture that provides high-speed connections between microprocessors and external memory, and between microprocessors and the I/O hub. One of its biggest changes is the implementation of scalable shared memory. Instead of using a single shared pool of memory connected to all the processors in a server or high-end workstation through FSBs and memory controller hubs, each processor has its own dedicated memory that it accesses directly through an Integrated Memory Controller on the processor die. (For dual-core desktop and mobile processors, the memory controller will be implemented in the processor package.) In cases where a processor needs to access the dedicated memory of another processor, it can do so through a high-speed Intel QuickPath Interconnect that links all the processors.

An advantage of Intel QuickPath Interconnect is that it is point-to-point. There is no single bus that all the processors must use and contend with each other to reach memory and I/O. This improves scalability and eliminates the competition between processors for bus bandwidth.

Features & Specifications

Intel DX58SO Motherboard

The DX58SO motherboard platform consists of the Intel Core i7 processor (CPU), Intel X58 Express Chipset (IOH) and the ICH. The CPU now incorporates the system memory controller and accesses DDR3 memory through three independent memory channels. The IOH provides support for the two PCIe graphics slots and connects to the CPU via the Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) bus. The ICH provides the support for the SATA, USB and other system interfaces and is connected to the IOH via the DMI bus.

All motherboard busses and components are driven from a single 133.33 MHz base clock. The resulting component speed values are generated by applying a multiplier value to this base clock. There are four multipliers on the motherboard which are used to set the system speed:

1. CPU Speed: When multiplied by the system base clock speed (default 133.33 MHz) gives the CPU frequency. Four multipliers are used to define different speeds based on the number of active CPU cores.
2. Memory Speed: When multiplied by the system base clock speed gives the memory frequency. For example a memory multiplier of 10 times the base clock of 133.33 MHz results in a memory frequency of 1333 MHz.
3. Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) Speed: Selectable transfer rate of data transferred between the CPU and the IOH.
4. Uncore Speed: This multiplier applies to the non-CPU related items in the processor. The limit on this multiplier is set by the memory multiplier.

Intel DX58SO Smackover Motherboard Kit

DX58SO 'Smackover' Features

As you can readily see the design of the Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO is radically different from anything you've been used to up until this point. The primary differences are component placement. The memory sockets are moved to the top of the motherboard in a area that heretofore has been allocated for the CPU socket. The north and southbridges that we have grown used to are now essentially a thing of the past as memory management is now an on die process. The QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) assumes most of the balance of of these two components tasks.

Intel Extreme Motherboard Features

Testing Methodology

After all the equipment for this article was sorted out we had four distinct systems to test. Three of the four systems we tested were supplied by Intel. We chose our fastest quad core system for comparison purposes. We overclocked the X3350 to 3.2 GHz to emulate the fastest Core i7 processor in the mix and used the standard components that we use with this system on a daily basis. Intel supplied both the Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition and the Intel Core i7-920. They asked if we'd down-clock the i7-965 to 2.93 GHz to emulate the performance of the Intel Core i7-940, and we were more than happy to oblige.

Unfortunately when testing systems of this type there is not set of "grass roots" tests that will completely speak to the to the system's overall performance. It is therefore necessary to comparatively test the performance of the CPU, Memory, Hard Drive(s) and Graphical Rendering and then draw your assumptions from the results of these tests. We chose an array of benchmarking tools (captioned below) that we felt would give our readers a complete of a picture of each system's performance. Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. We then ran each of the tests a minimum of three times and them reported an average of each test's results.

Test Systems

System #1

• Motherboard: Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO
• Processor: Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition [3.20 GHz clock speed]
• Processor Cooling: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme RT
• System Memory: QIMONDA 3 x 1GB DDR3 1067 CL7 non-ECC UDIMM
• Disk Drive: Intel High Performance SATA SSD X25-M 80GB MLC

System #2

• Motherboard: Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO
• Processor: Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition [2.93 GHz clock speed]
• Processor Cooling: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme RT
• System Memory: QIMONDA 3 x 1GB DDR3 1067 CL7 non-ECC UDIMM
• Disk Drive: Intel High Performance SATA SSD X25-M 80GB MLC,

System #3

• Motherboard: Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO
• Processor: Intel Core i7-920 [2.66 GHz clock speed]
• Processor Cooling: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme RT
• System Memory: QIMONDA 3 x 1GB DDR3 1067 CL7 non-ECC UDIMM
• Disk Drive: Intel High Performance SATA SSD X25-M 80GB MLC,

System #4

• Motherboard: ASUS P5E3 Premium WIFI-AP @n, BIOS 0503
• Processor: Intel X3350 Core 2 Quad 2.66 GHz [Overclocked to 3.2 GHz]
• Processor Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P
• System Memory: 2GB Patriot Viking DDR3 PC3-1500, running at 8-7-7-24
• Disk Drive: Seagate 1 TB Barracuda ES.2 SATA Drives

Common Components

• Graphics Card: Zotac GTX 260 Amp²!
• Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-2014L1T SATA Optical Drive
• Enclosure: Lian Li PC-A7010B Black Aluminum Full-Tower ATX Case
• PSU: Thermaltake W0132 Toughpower Cable Management 1000 Watt
• Monitor: Dell 24-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor 2407FPW
• KVM Switch: ATEN CS1782 USB 2.0 DVI KVM Switch
• Operating System: Windows Vista 32-bit Ultimate SP-1 with all current updates

Benchmark Applications

• PCMark Vantage (Default settings)
• 3DMark Vantage v1.01 (Performance Mode/1920 x 1200 No AA/AF)
• 3DMark06 v1.1.0 (1920 x 1200 No AA/AF)
• SANDRA 2009 (CPU, Memory & Storage System Tests)
• EVEREST Ultimate v4.60.1500(CPU & Memory Tests)
• HDTach RW v3.0.1.0 (Storage System Tests)
• POV RAY v3.7 Beta 29 (Single & Quad Core Rendering Tests)
• WinRar v3.71 (File Compression Tests)
• World In Conflict (4 x AA/16 x AF)
• Crysis v1.21 Benchmark (DX9 High Settings, No AA/AF)

3DMark Vantage System Tests

3DMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX10 performance of your graphics card. We've been making 3DMark for over 10 years, with each new edition using the latest 3D technology to determine real-world performance.

A 3DMark score is an overall measure of your system's 3D gaming capabilities, based on comprehensive real-time 3D graphics and processor tests. By comparing your score with those submitted by millions of other gamers you can see how your gaming rig performs, making it easier to choose the most effective upgrades or finding other ways to optimize your system.

3DMark is widely used by the PC industry, press and media as well as individual users and gamers, for comparing performance levels between whole systems or even specific components.

3DMark06 System Tests

3DMark is a computer benchmark by Futuremark (formerly named Mad Onion) to determine the DirectX 9 performance of 3D game performance with graphics cards. 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests.

3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today. Some enthusiasts may note that Benchmark Reviews does not include CPU-bound tests in our benchmark battery, and that only graphic-bound tests are included.

We ran both of these tests even though they are primarily because they are very popular with enthusiasts and to see if raw, unadulterated CPU processing power does in fact play a role in graphics performance, all other factors being equal. As evidenced by the results, the overclocked X3350 actually surpasses the Intel Core i7-920 primarily because of its overclock. The X3350 is certainly outperformed by the two higher end Core i7 processors.

SANDRA 2009 System Tests

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what's really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

As might be expected the Intel Core i7 based systems literally trounced the X3350 based system by a margin of around 40% for the Core i7-920 to greater than 60% for the Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition.

The on die memory processor incorporated in all of the Intel Core i7 based systems really shows its merit by more than doubling the score of the X3350 based system which uses the conventional motherboard based northbridge controller.

Of course it's not fair to compare a standard hard drive to a solid state drive! Again I repeat we're looking at what is obviously going to be the future and comparing it to what is currently the status quo. The Intel High Performance SATA SSD X25-M 80GB drive more than triples the performance speed of today's average conventional platter based drives. The current drawbacks to solid state drives is that they are still extremely expensive and their size can't near the storage capability of today's conventional drive.

EVEREST Ultimate System Tests

EVEREST Ultimate Edition is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems. Furthermore, complete software, operating system and security information makes EVEREST Ultimate Edition a comprehensive system diagnostics tool that offers a total of 100 pages of information about your PC.

Although not as dramatic as in SANDRA 2009, we still see a rather significant margin of victory for Intel Core i7 based systems. The only saving grace for the X3350 based system was its performance in CPU AES, but this was only by a narrow margin over the Core i7-920. A probable reason for this is that the CPU AES test only use the core X86 instructions which narrows the playing field a bit.

Again not as quite as pronounced as in SANDRA 2009, we still see a rather significant margin of victory for Intel Core i7 based systems.

Even the memory latency tests for the Intel Core i7 based systems surpass the X3350 based system by > 30% and this is running the two sets of memory at virtually the same timings.

POV Ray System Tests

The Persistence of Vision Ray-Tracer(tm) was developed from DKBTrace 2.12 (written by David K. Buck and Aaron A. Collins) by a bunch of people (called the POV-Team^TM) in their spare time. The POV-Ray package includes detailed instructions on using the ray-tracer and creating scenes. Many stunning scenes are included with POV-Ray so you can start creating images immediately when you get the package. These scenes can be modified so you do not have to start from scratch.

In addition to the pre-defined scenes, a large library of pre-defined shapes and materials is provided. You can include these shapes and materials in your own scenes by just including the library file name at the top of your scene file, and by using the shape or material name in your scene.

We used the predefined benchmark included with the software and reported the rendering scores for both a single core (1 CPU) as well as all four cores (All CPUs).

SuperPi System Tests

Super Pi is used by many overclockers to test the performance and stability of their computers. In the overclocking community, the standard program provides a benchmark for enthusiasts to compare "world record" pi calculation times and demonstrate their overclocking abilities. The program can also be used to test the stability of a certain overclock speed. If a computer is able to calculate PI to the 32 millionth place after the decimal without mistake, it is considered to be moderately stable in terms of RAM and CPU. However, longer tests with other CPU/RAM intensive calculation programs will run for hours instead of minutes and may better stress system stability. While Super Pi is not the fastest program for calculating Pi (see software for calculating π for faster alternatives), it remains very popular in the hardware and overclocking communities.

We ran and reported calculations for 1M, 2M, and 4M.

WinRar System Tests

WinRAR is a powerful compression tool that allows you to create and manage archives in the .RAR format. WinRAR also supports the unpacking of other popular compression and archiving formats such as ZIP, TAR, and 7z.

For this test we used five high-resolution, 48-bit TIFF images whose file sizes average around 70MB which we then compressed into a single file for archiving. The time for the archival process was then recorded and reported

Crysis System Tests

Crysis uses a new graphics engine: the CryENGINE2, which is the successor to Far Cry's CryENGINE. CryENGINE2 is among the first engines to use the Direct3D 10 (DirectX10) framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX9, both on Vista and Windows XP.

Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA, has spoken on the subject of the engine's complexity, stating that Crysis has over a million lines of code, 1GB of texture data, and 85,000 shaders. To get the most out of modern multicore processor architectures, CPU intensive subsystems of CryENGINE 2 such as physics, networking and sound, have been re-written to support multi-threading.

Crysis offers an in-game benchmark tool, which is similar to World in Conflict. This short test does place some high amounts of stress on a graphics card, since there are so many landscape features rendered. For benchmarking purposes, Crysis can mean trouble as it places a high demand on both GPU and CPU resources. Benchmark Reviews uses the Crysis Benchmark Tool by Mad Boris to test frame rates in batches, which allows the results of many tests to be averaged.

We ran the Crysis benchmarks in DirectX9 only with all settings at high. We are reporting results at resolutions of 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 with no anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering utilized.

World in Conflict System Tests

The latest version of Massive's proprietary Masstech engine utilizes DX10 technology and features advanced lighting and physics effects, and allows for a full 360 degree range of camera control. Massive's MassTech engine scales down to accommodate a wide range of PC specifications, if you've played a modern PC game within the last two years, you'll be able to play World in Conflict.

World in Conflict offers an in-game benchmark; which records the minimum, average, and maximum frame rates during the test. Very recently another hardware review website made the assertion that these tests are worthless, but we couldn't disagree more. When used to compare video cards which are dependant on the same driver and use the same GPU architecture, the in-game benchmark works very well and comparisons are apples-to-apples.

We ran the World in Conflict benchmarks in DirectX9 only with all settings at very high. We are reporting results at resolutions of 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 with 4 x AA and 16 x AF utilized.

Intel Core i7 Final Thoughts

After spending the better part of the last three days testing all of the components included in the Intel Core i7 kit, I'll reiterate what I said earlier in this article; we've only scratched the surface of what this technology has to offer. Given the sheer number of components involved we decided that it was virtually impossible to do them all justice in one review. For that reason we've decided to publish this as an informational article and not score any of the components. We fully intend to break the component systems down into more manageable reviews which we will present in the very near future. This approach in no way precludes me from giving you some more information couple with my true thoughts about each of the system's components which I plan to report categorically.

Intel Core i7 Processor Series

To say I liked the Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition would be a vast understatement as when it is released it will the fastest consumer-grade processor currently available. It is trailed very closely by the Core i7-940 processor which performance wise is within about 10% of the Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition with both running at stock speeds. Finally the Core i7-920 which is consistently within 15% of the Core i7-940 processor again running at stock speeds. One thing to remember is that term "stock speeds" as we didn't have the opportunity as of yet to overclock any of these processors or even try Turbo Mode which is available on the Intel DX58SO Extreme motherboard.

Now that we've discussed performance let's talk value. Just what are these new processors going to cost you and are they worth the cost? Intel has supplied us with the suggested MSRP and it breaks down as follows: $999.00 for the Core i7-965 Extreme, $562.00 for the Core i7-940, and $284.00 for the Core i7-920. From what I can tell the price breakdown is almost identical to the last major quad core release and the Core i7 processors will literally smoke them. From a value standpoint, if you're utilizing some heavily graphical intensive programs such as Photoshop, Auto CAD, or video editing software, these processors are just what the Doctor ordered. If you're a computer enthusiast that has to have best then these processors are right up your alley. If you're a general consumer that simply wants to upgrade your current system to something a bit faster, anything more than the Core i7-920 would probably be a waste of your hard earned dollars.

What about cooling? All three of the processors have a die size of 263 mm², transistor count is 731M and a TDP of 130 Watts. Even with the 45nm die processing in use all of these factors still generate a lot of heat. In my testing of the Core i7-965 Extreme Edition I opted to try the stock Intel cooler which was provided in addition to the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme RT. The stock cooler yielded idle temps in the mid 40° Celsius range and load temps approaching 70° Celsius. The Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme RT kept temperatures in a much more reasonable range with temps in the low 30° Celsius range and load stayed well below 60° Celsius.

Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO

All of my previous experiences with Intel manufactured motherboards have been quite pleasant and the time I spent Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO was even better. Without having another X58 motherboards to compare it to I can't in good conscience say whether it's a great performer or not. Recent Intel manufactured motherboards have all been top tier and we have every expectation that this board will be as well. I can say that the DX58SO is manufactured quite well as it uses 8 layers for better rigidity and conductance. The board functioned flawlessly during testing but remember all three of the processors were tested at stock settings.

The overall layout of the board takes a bit of getting use to as a number of the component locations have changed. The only really objectionable location was that of an auxiliary 4-pin power connector which is located immediately adjacent to and just above the primary PCI-e slot. This location really wreaks havoc in connecting to if you have a case where the power supply mounts on the bottom.

Intel's BIOS options on the DX58SO 'Smackover' motherboard are as per usual well laid out, quite simple, and minimalistic in scope You can expect much more in the way of information concerning the Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO when we really put it through its paces when we begin the individual product reviews.

We at Benchmark Reviews would like to remind you that while this may be the end of this article it is the beginning of an exciting new era in computing. The Intel Core i7 Processor Series takes up where the Core 2 Quad and will firmly strengthen Intel's lofty position in the processor industry. Also remember to visit our site on a regular basis as we have a number of intense product reviews yet to come on this extremely exciting product line.

Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.

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