Intel Skulltrail Out in February 2008

[Fitseries3]

hmm how would skulltrail do with 2 Nehalem-EX (Beckton) cpu

nehalem chips are gonna be entirely different from anything thats out right now. it's a completely different platform with a different socket. in other words... they wont work on anything thats out or is coming out this year.

 

[Deleted member 3]

hmm how would skulltrail do with 2 Nehalem-EX (Beckton) cpu

These are Xeon DP's, Beckton is Xeon MP. Completely different market. Besides, Beckton won't work on these chipsets, doesn't even use a FSB.

However, you made me recheck the roadmap, seems it's Q3/4 2008, not 2009. So end 2008 early 2009 would make Nehalem available. Perhaps I should just wait a year and go for some fancy machine then. Only do small upgrades until then.

 

[Wile E]

Fully buffered DIMM's in a performance board? Are they retarded, or did they get high off the glue for the 10 layers of PCB? But with 10 layers can you imagine how tough that board will be?

I agree with you 100%. I've been complaining about their choice of memory on this platform in almost every thread about it. It's just plain dumb for an enthusiast class product. Even DDR3 would've been a better plan.

These are Xeon DP's, Beckton is Xeon MP. Completely different market. Besides, Beckton won't work on these chipsets, doesn't even use a FSB.

However, you made me recheck the roadmap, seems it's Q3/4 2008, not 2009. So end 2008 early 2009 would make Nehalem available. Perhaps I should just wait a year and go for some fancy machine then. Only do small upgrades until then.

That probably wouldn't be such a bad idea, Dan. There are sure to be some killer boards for it, and possibly a transition to faster ram?

 

[Deleted member 3]

I agree with you 100%. I've been complaining about their choice of memory on this platform in almost every thread about it. It's just plain dumb for an enthusiast class product. Even DDR3 would've been a better plan.



That probably wouldn't be such a bad idea, Dan. There are sure to be some killer boards for it, and possibly a transition to faster ram?

Funny thing how everyone complains about FB-DIMM's, they are highly inefficient, true. However normal DDR2 doesn't offer that much more. And since there isn't another 1600MHz FSB chipset with support for 2 CPU's there really isn't a choice. Only crap choice is the dimm sockets, at least 8 are needed. Features like simultaneous read/write can be used then.

 

[Steevo]

We do? I recall being a hardware site mainly, could be me though. Also, these products aren't meant for Joe Average in the first place, which most of our users are. ATI cards might scale better, the interesting thing however would be if the extra 4 cores make the SLI system faster. Have to wait for some real benchmarks I guess. And even if it is faster, 2000 units make it pointless, I just hope that Asus Z7S really exists.

Overclocking Gaming Hardware. At least that is what I feel we are as well as the majority of the people here. Mebey management has clouded your view of the ground down here. You know, with us lowly dirtbags.



But it will be interesting to see what extra CPU HP will do for some of the cards in SLI/Crossfire, I guess that setup and handoff for four cards might be different than for one, but for now it seems that larger displays are GPU limited not CPU. So it could make little difference in realworld gaming.

 

[Morgoth]

Codename Market Segment Process Cores (Threads) Cache Memory Controller Bus Interface GPU Core? TDP Socket Preliminary Release Timeframe
Nehalem-EX (Beckton)[7] MP server 45 nm 8 (16) 24 MB in the last level (L3 or L4) Quad channel FB-DIMM2 4x QuickPath No 90/105/130 W Socket-LS (LGA1567) Q4 2009

 

[Steevo]

Funny thing how everyone complains about FB-DIMM's, they are highly inefficient, true. However normal DDR2 doesn't offer that much more. And since there isn't another 1600MHz FSB chipset with support for 2 CPU's there really isn't a choice. Only crap choice is the dimm sockets, at least 8 are needed. Features like simultaneous read/write can be used then.

It does offer some advantages. But not enough to overcome the price/performance ratio for all but those who are somewhat clocked themselves.



That board with DDR3 goodness and overclocking features would rox deh sox.

 

[OrbitzXT]

I might buy one to sell later brand new on eBay, regardless what the item is...whenever there are a limited amount like this its almost always instant profit.

 

[AddSub]

I'm not impressed. I mean, I can see what they(Intel) are aiming at with the whole limited supply deal and the whole (and pretty transparent) “bizarre for the sake of bizarre” layout but even after all this time and the relative success of their Core architecture, Intel is still struggling to be seen as "kewl" by the enthusiast community. This motherboard proves it. I’m surprised they didn’t bundle some action figure of an Intel mascot with some miniature Uzi’s so kiddies can play or some other lame miscalculation you can expect from Intel as far as enthusiast community goes. One only needs to browse Newegg for several minutes to realize that with few DFI exceptions most Intel based high-end offerings (motherboard-wise) look so very 1998. Let's face it, P35, their all-purpose ass-kicker of a chipset was and is a joke and Intel right now is like GM trying to dump some latest Buick monstrosity onto some Gen Y kiddies in hope of stealing the market share from Toyota’s Scion line up. It ain’t gonna happen.

That thing looks like it belongs in some industrial scale server/terminal machine, in some damp dark basement of some ball bearing factory in backwater China where it would help crunch numbers and complete mundane industrial tasks.

 

[Steevo]

Or in Dans dark basement with all the trannie hookers.



I love you Dan, you know I do. Now come here and give daddy some sugar.

 

[ShadowFold]

Imagine crysis with all those slots filled up two QX9650's at 4ghz 4gb DDR3, 4 8800ULTRAS, I would sell my soul for that

 

[DaMulta]

What about 4 R680 x2 cards, and two QX9650s?

 

[ShadowFold]

What about 4 R680 x2 cards, and two QX9650s?

You cant do 4x HD 3870X2

 

[DaMulta]

They have talked about doing two cards by bus, and the other two together.

All they need is a driver to do it with they have said.

 

[Fitseries3]

you cant do qx9650's either. it's a 771 board not 775. xeons only.

 

[DaMulta]

Oooo

 

[ShadowFold]

you cant do qx9650's either. it's a 771 board not 775. xeons only.

Thats pretty dumb, Xeons are pretty tough anyways.

 

[btarunr]

2000 units

I bet they'll price it $800~$1000 initially, make huge profits telling "limited quantity". Few months later bring it back telling "We're back with the Skulltrail" and sell them for $500 a unit.

 

[DaMulta]

I wonder how many review samples they will hand out.

 

[maxtoons.com]

I was really looking forword for an octo system
Can any one sudgest a system for me? I work with muti midea not a gamer.

 

[btarunr]

^Octo system? lol you can't have four HD 3870 X2 units in CrossFire X. If you're hinting at a dual-quad-core system then right, taken.

 

[Deleted member 3]

Overclocking Gaming Hardware. At least that is what I feel we are as well as the majority of the people here. Mebey management has clouded your view of the ground down here. You know, with us lowly dirtbags.

The site is aimed at hardware enthusiasts and gamers, the fact that most of us are gamers is not relevant. Russia apparently has a shortage of men, ie most of the people there are women. That doesn't mean every issue should be looked at from a womans perspective. In other words, don't look at everything from a gamers perspective just because gamers are a majority.

It does offer some advantages. But not enough to overcome the price/performance ratio for all but those who are somewhat clocked themselves.



That board with DDR3 goodness and overclocking features would rox deh sox.

You actually think price/performance is relevant when there are only 2000 boards to be sold? It's like buying Alienware, Armani or Rolex. It's about the exclusive part. If you want a nice price/quality ratio you should buy a $20 videocard, it shows internet explorer splendidly and is cheap at the same time. You're missing the market they're aiming at. Creating exclusive things is a way to advertise yourself.

 

[maxtoons.com]

^Octo system? lol you can't have four HD 3870 X2 units in CrossFire X. If you're hinting at a dual-quad-core system then right, taken.

Of course dula quad

 

[Deleted member 3]

I was really looking forword for an octo system
Can any one sudgest a system for me? I work with muti midea not a gamer.

Get some Tyan board. ie something like the i5400xt, has a great feature set and i/o options.

 

[btarunr]

Wow...career openings for me in Russia and I'm off. Aren't we forgetting this board uses DDR2 Fully-buffered?


The term "limited quantity" is very deceptive. Nobody actually keeps an eye on how many units are actually made/sold and companies use this as a USP for their products as it adds to the exclusivity of the product. Using this "limited quantity 2000 units" to sell the thing for $800 would be filthy wrong on Intel's part.