D0 Stepping

[spud]

Word, Playa.

 

[Kari]

mmkay...

edit: oh lol, you hid the link in that bouncing smiley

edit2: that looks nice indeed

 

[jimmysmitty]

Wow. Not a bad step up from the first batch.

 

[Shadow703793]

lol. What's with you embedding links with emicons?

 

[jed]

whats that about a 500mhz increase, D0 = pretty sweet
overclock.

 

[spud]

Wow. Not a bad step up from the first batch.

Very I have to admit Intel continues to exceed my expectations, I thought for sure one die new arch maybe 2% in power reduction and maybe 15% in clock speeds. But I only have AMD steppings of large dies to compare to.

Oh as for the emo links, I am trying to revamp my persona on THG more friendly not soo crabby, trying is key word here.

Word, Playa.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Well good luck SPud. I like ya for who you are. Everything ends with Word, Playa.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Looks like the reports from last month were on the money - D0 is gonna be the new G0, for i7. 4.3GHz on air - that'll put a frown on some of the AMD fanbois around here, right Enny??

I see Tankguys still want $320 for a guaranteed D0 stepping. However I'll follow the advice of one of the posters and visit my local Microcenter to look for S-SPEC SLBEH or just wait until all the C0's are out of the market.

 

[BadTrip]

word, playa

sorry couldn't help it

 

[salsoolo]

^^its SLBEJ

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Any word on the review date? This actually has me excited. Im thinking if there was a delay on this, its the damned economy to blame.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

^^its SLBEJ

Really? I've seen 2 different forum posts where they state its SLBEH. I just now went to Intel's Processor Finder but all they have listed is the old SLBCH C0 stepping.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Any word on the review date? This actually has me excited. Im thinking if there was a delay on this, its the damned economy to blame.

According to the article's date it was 3 days ago - 4/6/09. And Anandtech got the CPU "a few days ago" which I presume means less than a week, or the beginning of this month.

Personally I would just wait until the C0's are pretty much out of the market, to ensure getting a D0 stepping. Besides, AMD or possibly even nVidia might actually release a 40nm GPU in a couple months, so might as well sit on my keester a while longer .

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Loking forwards to the actual review. Looks like a oc monster, and much better thermals.
As for the 40nm gpus, latest word is May for the 4770, but its been quiet from nVidia, tho theres a few rumors of their 40nms coming maybe in June, but it wont be a top card either, as the 295 will be til we see the next gen cards, or DX11 compliant

PS, wont arrive til Q4 for those either, at least for nVidia, ATI may show sooner

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Loking forwards to the actual review. Looks like a oc monster, and much better thermals.
As for the 40nm gpus, latest word is May for the 4770, but its been quiet from nVidia, tho theres a few rumors of their 40nms coming maybe in June, but it wont be a top card either, as the 295 will be til we see the next gen cards, or DX11 compliant

PS, wont arrive til Q4 for those either, at least for nVidia, ATI may show sooner

Yes, despite the thread over in XS (?) stating that D0 was merely 'cosmetic'. Seems you need the proper BIOS update to get the full potential. There's a guy over on Roborat's blog who ordered a build from Newegg and is getting 12 GB of OCZ platinum DDR3 for $185. So prices there are falling quickly. Wish the mobos would fall a bit faster too - would like to get the P6T for under $200 - currently it's $240.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Itll be awhile for the mobos to do so, and then theres the bottom line thatll always be higher with a tri channel solution. That will always be a hindrince for the cost conscious for i7

 

[one-shot]

I think I'm just going to wait for Gulftown instead. I'm hesitant to buy a new board now with fear of incompatibility with Westmere->Gulftown CPUs. Maybe it's just my own paranoia, but maybe not.

 

[Huttfuzz]

Question :

Most motherboard come with older bios that dont officially support the D0 stepping. Example : Gigabyte ex58-UD3R only supports it with the F4 bios release. If you get your D0 stepping and the bios on the motherboard does not already officially supports D0, will it boot?

Thanks.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Question :

Most motherboard come with older bios that dont officially support the D0 stepping. Example : Gigabyte ex58-UD3R only supports it with the F4 bios release. If you get your D0 stepping and the bios on the motherboard does not already officially supports D0, will it boot?

Thanks.

I would think so - the Anandtech article said they flashed the new BIOS after installing the D0 stepping, so obviously it booted with the prior version. However they found that after the flash the C0 stepping would not boot at certain voltages, so it may be a one-way street unless you keep both CPUs around or reset the BIOS to the defaults.

But, I would check with your mobo manufacturer first. The X58 boards are pretty new so there should be lots of update activity going on..

 

[jimmysmitty]

I think I'm just going to wait for Gulftown instead. I'm hesitant to buy a new board now with fear of incompatibility with Westmere->Gulftown CPUs. Maybe it's just my own paranoia, but maybe not.

Haven't heard of Gulftown. I know after Westmere it goes Sandy Bridge unles Gulftown is the DT variant of Sandy.

Compatability is going to be hard to say. I mean Westmere is supposed to have a 6 core variant and Sandy is supposed to start with 8 cores. But the possibilitiy of that plus the chance of DDR4 coming out near then is hard to say.

I read that Intel plans of starting DDR4 support in 2011 or 2012 (if the world doesn't end).

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Haven't heard of Gulftown. I know after Westmere it goes Sandy Bridge unles Gulftown is the DT variant of Sandy.

Compatability is going to be hard to say. I mean Westmere is supposed to have a 6 core variant and Sandy is supposed to start with 8 cores. But the possibilitiy of that plus the chance of DDR4 coming out near then is hard to say.

I read that Intel plans of starting DDR4 support in 2011 or 2012 (if the world doesn't end).

IIRC Gulftown is the 6-core 12-thread Westmere first for desktops and then a server variant, based on Nehalem but with a die-shrink. At this point nobody knows if it'll be a drop-in replacement on the X58 mobo however. Would be nice, esp. if you get an i920 D0 for under $200 like the recent sale at MicroCenter (only that was the C0 stepping).

 

[Huttfuzz]

No i7 sales here in Canada. They sell it for 360 CAD shipped. Which is about 290 USD...Not worth the drive south of the border for 90$ though...

 

[jimmysmitty]

I balme the French for the high prices in Canada.

j/k

 

[Huttfuzz]

Hehehe , go in England an try to buy anything, everything is soooo expensive. A 1000$ machine end up costing 2500.

 

[one-shot]

Haven't heard of Gulftown. I know after Westmere it goes Sandy Bridge unles Gulftown is the DT variant of Sandy.

Compatability is going to be hard to say. I mean Westmere is supposed to have a 6 core variant and Sandy is supposed to start with 8 cores. But the possibilitiy of that plus the chance of DDR4 coming out near then is hard to say.

I read that Intel plans of starting DDR4 support in 2011 or 2012 (if the world doesn't end).

Fazer is correct. Gulftown is the HEDT Codename for a 6 core 12 thread 32nm CPU. It is supposed to be released next spring. Hopefully Q2 at the latest. With Sandy Bridge following so close to Westmere, I find it hard to commit to a die shrink of Nehalem->Westmere and maybe go with the new CPU design that Q4. Maybe 6 CPU cores will be enough , or again, maybe not. Can't make up my mind.