Intel's 925XE is an updated version of 925X, which was the top model back at the 775 chipset launch a year ago. The main difference between 915 and 925 is a feature called Enhanced Memory Pipelining that claims to increase efficiency. While it certainly does the, the impact on benchmark results is rather pathetic.
The XE version is capable of running 266 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB1066) speed, while the other 915 and 925 chipsets are only validated to support FSB800. Intel targeted it to support the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition at 3.46 GHz (512 kB L2 plus 2 MB L3 cache) and 3.73 GHz (2 MB L2 cache). Unfortunately, 925XE was the platform that consumed most energy. Consumption of 157 W when the system is idle and a maximum of almost 240 W without graphics is far too much!
Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.
