For some strange reason I'm excited about these processors coming out...I've already got a blazin' quad, and only use the four cores when I actually need them. I think my lust for hardware is just kickin in or something, because these just have a special allure to them right now.
I'm very curious to see the clock speeds for the other models, and more importantly than anything to me...how well with these undervolt! The mad scientist in me is hungry again, I'm curious as to how well you could run a game or heavy program with these underclocked since there are 6 to use now. With that many cores you're bound to have plenty of free cpu to use which in turn would allow you to use lower clock speeds to accomplish the same task...which in turn would allow you to use less voltage...which in turns means less heat.....which means yea you get my point.
Depending on the pricing (more like timing) I just might do something crazy and pick one of these up.
Another thing that we can imply from the information that we're given already is that the Northbridge/memory controller will have to be default at 2400Mhz!
With the current architecture of the Phenom you cannot have the HT Link set to higher than the Northbridge, and I assume without any doubts that it will be the same for these. Now I'm wondering whether or not the voltage requirements will be larger for the memory controller or be just like the pattern we have now.
Previous Phenom models needed more voltage to achieve the same Northbridge speeds than their later counterparts, which hasn't changed patterns since the introduction of the Phenom. If things stay that way we could very likely see some TREMENDOUS flexiblity with the Northbridge on these processors. Board dependant on each Phenom II I've owned/tested I can set 2400Mhz NB @ 1.10v-1.15v (for lower specced chipsets). That is totally unheard of for previous model Phenoms to have the voltage set that low achieving that kinda speed. If the voltage is indeed lowered (1.10v is current default) slightly that could be truly exciting. It may also push us closer/above the 3000Mhz NB mark without needed larger amounts (1.3-1.45v+) which may potentially help us enormously as well depending on system ram configurations.
Processor speed and voltage I imagine will also be roughly as flexible as we have now with the Phenom II series. Each generation/revision has given us the ablity to run higher clocks with less voltage, or more importantly to me the stock clocks with FAR FAR
FAR lower voltage. Each Phenom I've tested since the very first models has been able to dramatically lower the voltage needed to run the stock speed, even the latest Phenom II 955 C2 stepping in my case is able to run it's default 3.2Ghz @ 1.168v which is simply staggering dropping from 1.35v. These X6's of course will have their own requirements, but if we are able to run them at default speeds (or better) while dropping the voltage roughly 10-18% like that would be truly insane! That's the range I've been able to drop all previous Phenom processors from their default voltage at stock speeds (13-18% actually), which is pretty fantastic I'd say. It helps an enormous amount with keeping the processors cool (which already isn't a problem), and allowing you to run even a stock cooler on low fan settings without any worries whatsoever. Depending on the cooler you can choose to not run the fan at all honestly, my V8 if I set fan control to enabled on the board doesn't even run the fan until it hits a certain temp (~25C) and the speed never needs to run more than ~400 - 500 rpm.
I totally should've never posted this....now I'm getting even more excited just with the possiblities!
Kei