Wait for Bearlake-P boards in Q2 '07 or go 680i or 965?

[FryTheCpuOfBender]

I'm ready to built my next workstation rig for the next 2-3 years now, but I'm hesitating buying right now because, you guessed it Penryn knocking at my door.

Motherboards with 680i or 965 seem like the right choice for a E6600, but I want to be able to just switch the CPU to a Quad Penryn in a year or whenever it is affordable.
There is zero info about future compatibility of 45nm CPUs with this chipsets...could work, could not, who knows.

I could afford to wait another 1-2 months so I could get one of the first Bearlake boards. Now according to this:
http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=653301

there will be 4 different versions of Bearlake, with only two available in the near future (my window of opportunity).
It seems that one of the first ICH9 Bearlakes (the ones that are scheduled for Q2 2007) will be an integrated graphics chipset. Bearlake-G.
That would make it a Big No-Buy for me, as I want a G8800GTS or higher for Maya and Games.
The other one will be Bearlake-P with 1333Mhz fsb support but no mention about official support for DDR800 or higher speeds. No support for PCI-E 2.0 either.

Now would it even make sense to wait for a Bearlake P board? I read somewhere that it would improve Conroe performance by about 10% or something. But besides that, is a Bearlake a safe bet for Penryn support? That alone would make me wait for the first good ASUS or Gigabyte with Bearlake. I experienced the "no upgrade to Conroe" thing with my current Asus P5GD2 Deluxe (Intel 915P) , I don't want to have the same shit again in a year or 10 months when I want a QuadPenyrn and my old 965 or 680i doesn't work with it, despite 775.

Anyone know when the first bearlake boards will hit the street vendors? My 2000Euros want to be spent!

 

[dawgma]

*bump*

This is a good question. I would also like to know what's up with Bearlake. Specifically, when can we expect to see boards for sale?


@ FryTheCpuOfBender

You mentioned that the first ICH9 Bearlakes will be an integrated graphics chipset... does this mean you can't us the G8800's on it? Why is this? What kind of board should I be looking for that allows an 8800? And when would that come out?

 

[Stealth_JAG]

Yeah - Good question Fry. I am also in the middle of a new build and my motherboard purchase can be any month now. I didn't realize the Bearlake chips were here so quickly. If I read the digitimes article about the CeBit debut of Bearlake correctly, I think some of your questions were answered there.

1. Will the Bearlake chips support the 45nm chips better? You called the 45nm chips "Penryns", but I think the Penryns are the mobile version of the 45nm chips. The Desktop versions of the 45nm chips are the Wolfdale (Core2Dou) and Yorkfield (Quad). The Bearlake chips were specifically designed to support these processors so I think the answer to the first question is "Yes."

2. When are we likely to see the first motherboards with the Bearlake? It looks like MSI already is displaying some functional boards at CEBIT and the early estimates for consumer availability for the boards are April and May (a couple of months). However, this is only for the P35 chips. the "X" chips, which are more for the enthusiast markets, won't be till Q3.

3. Is it worth waiting for the Bearlake? I think so. Its what I plan to do. The CEBIT article says you might only gain 10% performance advantage with current processors and RAM, but 10% is 10%. Also, the fact you are a little more assured of dropping in 45nm chips and DDR3 RAM when it comes out later is a big positive. Besides the PCI thing you mentioned, the only negative I can see is the lack of SLI/Crossfire support in the P35 chips (Apparently this will be in the X35 chips).

You were probably hoping for more informed information from some of the real insiders and experts in the Forum. I thought I would just contribute what I could find so far and keep this thread alive. I would like all the information I can get about the Bearlake chipsets and Motherboards too.

Rob

 

[dawgma]

Thanks Rob... you definitely cleared a few things up.

You mentioned that we will see the P35 chips first... would overclocking still be possible with these? Specifically, boosting an E6600 to run at around 3.2Ghz?

Also, any idea what the expected cost for these boards would be when they come out? Would $200-$300 be a reasonable assumption?

 

[bullaRh]

DDR3 should come out before Q3 bearlake mobo's and some of the bearlake mobo's dont support DDR2 but only DDR3 so ya.

 

[dawgma]

DDR3 should come out before Q3 bearlake mobo's and some of the bearlake mobo's dont support DDR2 but only DDR3 so ya.

First of all, why do you believe DDR3 is going to show up before bearlake motherboards? MSI already showed functional boards at CEBIT this week.

Secondly, I can go without DDR3 for now. DDR2 6400 is plenty fast for me.

 

[diabloazul126]

They already showed 'functional' DDR3 in those functional P35's as well. over with ECS :twisted:

 

[bullaRh]

well for a mobo which only use DDR3 u will need DDR3 lmao i dont think they start selling the mobo before they have DDR3 on market.. anyway DDR3 comes in middle of 07 so ya there u go.

well maybe it is but im still on DDR so im waiting for bearlake and DDR3 when i buy rig :b

 

[dawgma]

well for a mobo which only use DDR3 u will need DDR3

You will be able to buy Bearlake boards that use DDR2. The Bearlake chipset does not mean the board has to be exclusively DDR3.

Bearlake boards with DDR2 support are expected to hit market in the next month or two.

However, comprehensive details about these boards have not been released yet... and I am intensely interested on what we should expect from the first release of Bearlake.

 

[bullaRh]

i know but they r gonna make one exclusively for DDR3
there r gonna be 2 waves of bearlake mobo's


ya i guess we just have 2 wait :b the cool thing is that they support 45nm which is a big factor for me

 

[Mandrake_]

I'm not certain on the Penryn processors. But, with the latest BIOS revision, the P5B range from ASUS officially support 1333mhz FSB processors. I imagine Intel will retain socket compatibility with current P965 motherboards. You could use a 65nm Pentium D on a 945 or 955 based board and those were designed for the 90nm Pentium Ds.

Besides, it would be stupid for Intel to require motherboard makers to update their boards with a new revision for Penryn when it will be replaced by Nehalem next year

 

[Slobogob]

3. Is it worth waiting for the Bearlake? I think so. Its what I plan to do. The CEBIT article says you might only gain 10% performance advantage with current processors and RAM, but 10% is 10%. Also, the fact you are a little more assured of dropping in 45nm chips and DDR3 RAM when it comes out later is a big positive. Besides the PCI thing you mentioned, the only negative I can see is the lack of SLI/Crossfire support in the P35 chips (Apparently this will be in the X35 chips).

They had a few of those on the cebit. Ran with DDR3 (at 1066 i think) and had two physical x16 slots. If that chip has the same quality as the 965 then it´s well worth waiting for it. I couldn´t take a closer look due to some chick that got some bodypainting about 20 meters next to it... 8O