Clarification on Future CPUs / Chipsets / Motherboards / ETC

[Erighan]

Hello everyone!

I’m going to build a new system within the next couple of months, but I need a few things clarified before I start purchasing components. Please correct, add or comment on the information below.

- P35 chipset is currently being released. The motherboards primarily support 1 GFX card (16x / 4x PCI-E slots). Some will support DDR2, DDR3 and/or some will support both options on the same board. Will these new boards support future CPUs like Intel’s Penryn? Or will the only upgrade path be DDR3 (assuming the board you purchase supports it)?

- X38 chipset will be released July/Auguest. They will support SLI in dual 16x PCI-2 mode. They will only support DDR3? They will definitely support Penryn later this year?

Basically, what will be the major differences between P35 and X38 with regards to making future upgrades?

Thanks!

 

[flooder]

Hello everyone!

I’m going to build a new system within the next couple of months, but I need a few things clarified before I start purchasing components. Please correct, add or comment on the information below.

- P35 chipset is currently being released. The motherboards primarily support 1 GFX card (16x / 4x PCI-E slots). Some will support DDR2, DDR3 and/or some will support both options on the same board. Will these new boards support future CPUs like Intel’s Penryn? Or will the only upgrade path be DDR3 (assuming the board you purchase supports it)?

- X38 chipset will be released July/Auguest. They will support SLI in dual 16x PCI-2 mode. They will only support DDR3? They will definitely support Penryn later this year?

Basically, what will be the major differences between P35 and X38 with regards to making future upgrades?

Thanks!

Please visit this site for in-depth detail.
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=409

You will be happy with either P35 or G33, because they will have more goodies and stuff for cheap in a few months vs the newer x38 chipset.

the P35, which will find its way into numerous enthusiast level motherboards. Supporting both current 1066 MHz Core 2 processors as well as the upcoming 1333 MHz bus processors, the front-side bus on the P35 will scale up to 10.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The north bridge still only supports a single x16 PCIe connection but does get a significant upgrade in the memory department.

The P35 will support BOTH the current DDR2-800 memory standard as well as support for new DDR3-1066 memory. DDR3 memory still operates at a double data rate, transfering data at both the rising and falling of the clock speed, but DDR3 is specified to scale up to 1600 MHz in the years to come. While current timings we are seeing on our DDR3 samples include CAS latency numbers of 7, the possibility is there for those to come down (as we'd expect from guys like Corsair and OCZ) and Intel even mentions the DDR3 memory could go as high as 2133 MHz. DDR3-1333 speeds are not OFFICIALLY supported but the boards we have seen here for testing are working with it fine.

Other changes on the ICH9 south bridge include new Quiet System Technology and even Intel Turbo Memory as optional features the motherboard vendors can implement. The Quiet System option obviously allows the motherboard to run cooler and thus with less (if any) active cooling while the Turbo Memory feature will allow boards to have on-board flash memory for faster boot times, etc.

The X38 chipset will offer a few new features over the P35 chipset that is being released today including support for PCI Express 2.0, support for Intel's upcoming 45nm processors and dual x16 PCIe graphics slots. Additionally, this slide indicates that Intel will be REMOVING the overclocking protection from the chipset and this should allow tweakers to really push Intel's core logic and CPUs to the limits.

 

[Erighan]

Thanks Flooder. That's what I more or less thought, just needed confirmation. I was hoping the P35 would support the next gen CPU, but that was more wishfull thinking.