Intel Channel Confrence Spring 2008

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Layzie Bone
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I attended the ICC Spring 2008 and here I'm going to tell you all about all the good stuff that is coming from Intel, from server applications, mobile innovations and the new architechure design for desktop computing.

Firstly I'd like to brag, because this was my first time I been to this event. Intel gives away a lot of merchendise, from the "space man" to the Core 2 Extreme. They give you a raffel ticket and if they call your number, bingo, you win a prize. Boy I got lucky! I won a Core 2 Extreme QX9650! Which is probably the highest end desktop processor currently. The specs on it are:

Clock Speed: 3.0 GHz
Cores: 4
FSB: 1333 MHz
Cache: 6M + 6M (12M)

The package comes with a 120 mm fan, real nice heatsink and fan, better than the BluOrb I bought for my pentium D which is what I'm currently running.

Ok, done with my bragging rights. Moving on.

Intel has developed a modular server which is a intergrated solution for pretty much all your server needs. It's a very nice design, where redundancy is in the design, meaning failure in any one of the componets wont leave you screwed. The server supports RAID 0/1/5 or a combonation. The server has 4 power supplies, so if one quits, you're still ok. The server has space for 4 blades and assuming one of the blades quits, your can re assoctiate the hardware to another blade and everything is fine. This was one thing I was certianly impressed with.

The next thing mobile stuff. Intel is coming out with Centrino 2 and Centrino 2 vPro. Don't know what vPro is? We'll discuss it later on. Intel is coming out with a Quad Core processor for notebooks, it's great! Worried about battery life? Worry not, these quad core processors only use 25 watts of power! The key to the Centrino 2 technology is the mobility, the wireless in these guys supports up to 450 mbps, because there are basically 3 recievers. The next best thing Intel in unleashing is solid state disks, and they're better designed than Super Talent's. One thing you must know about flash memory is that it wears out. What is different with Intel's SSD is the wear and tear is distributed evenly and also has extra space for blocks that are failing, basically in thier 80 GB SSD, they're actually more than 80 GB of space just for that reason. They'll be releasing an 80 GB SSD and smaller sizes, the 80 GB will cost aroun $600, still expensive, but much cheaper than Super Talent. The next question is the performance that much better? YES. I watched a demo showing the time it took to copy a 680 MB file, open programs and a few other things all at the same time. The time it took the SSD to do the job was 22 seconds, a 7200 RPM drive took 1 minute, 37 seconds.

The Atom processor, not so much for performance, but you'll be seeing these guys in PDA's, Nettops, and Netbooks. First question is what the hell is a Nettop or a Netbook. Nettops are low end mobile computers that typically sit on the counter, and are designed solely for surfing the web. Netbooks are low end, inexpensive notebooks that were designed for the underprivlaged, such as 3rd world countries, now more adults and the elderly are buying these netbooks. The reason? They're eaiser to use, and people dont have to learn how to operate a PC to get on the net, most of these people use thier computers for email and surfing the web. The coolest thing about the atom processor is it's size, it's about the size of a pencil erasier and it is also on the 45 nm process, however the performance is only sub-celeron.

Desktop stuff is only getting cooler. Next year expect to see more cores and even more power. Intel is going to release 32 nm processors, that means the parts in the processor are smaller and the circuits are only 32 nm apart, so that means they can essentially fit more transistors on a chip. Right now there are 800 million transitors in a single processor.

Wondering about AMD? HA! They're no where close. Performance, intel has about a 65-100% performance gain, and on battery life, intel lasts almost 6 hours on a 6 cell battery. So if you're buying a notebook or a new desktop computer make sure it has an Intel inside! :)
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moongirl
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Layzie Bone wrote:I attended the ICC Spring 2008 and here I'm going to tell you all about all the good stuff that is coming from Intel, from server applications, mobile innovations and the new architechure design for desktop computing.

Firstly I'd like to brag, because this was my first time I been to this event. Intel gives away a lot of merchendise, from the "space man" to the Core 2 Extreme. They give you a raffel ticket and if they call your number, bingo, you win a prize. Boy I got lucky! I won a Core 2 Extreme QX9650! Which is probably the highest end desktop processor currently. The specs on it are:

Clock Speed: 3.0 GHz
Cores: 4
FSB: 1333 MHz
Cache: 6M + 6M (12M)

The package comes with a 120 mm fan, real nice heatsink and fan, better than the BluOrb I bought for my pentium D which is what I'm currently running.

Ok, done with my bragging rights. Moving on.

Well done Layzie. It is nice to have a win. Particularly such a good one!! :wink:
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Layzie Bone
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I'm trying to sell my old system, not really old, it's just become mediocre, and plus I aint letting stuff sit....

If anyone is interested please PM or email me. But here are the specs of my old system:

Pentium D 925 / 3.0 GHz (Dual Core, 1 + 1 MB Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
2 GB DDR2 667 MHz (PC5300) Kingston
80 GB SATA2 Seagate Barracuda
DVD R/W (18x Sony, Dual Layer, 48x CD)
Adaptec SATA Host RAID Card
Windows XP Pro (SP3) OEM License

Now comparing that to what I'm building out, which I'm still waiting on the PSU and video card...

Core2 Extreme QX9650 / 3.0 GHz (Quad Core, 6 + 6 MB Cache, 1333 MHz FSB)
MSI P7N Diamond Mainboard (CircuPipe)
2 GB DDR2 1066 MHz (PC8500) Mushkin
250 GB SATA2 Seagate Barracuda
750 GB SATA2 Seagate Barracuda
DVD R/W (20x, AOpen, Dual Layer, Multi Recorder, 48x CD)
Sound Blaster XFi 8ch (96kHz Quality)
4 eSATA, 2 FireWire
Dual Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000, Realtek)
MSI NX8600GT TD1GEZ (nVidia, 1 GB DDR2, Silent Heatsink)
600W CoolMax Power Supply

That's what I'm building out, and hopefully encoding DVD's will only take 15 minutes instead of an hour. The Pentium D isn't slow by any means, doing typical stuff it runs great. A lot of the time depends on the hard drive, you'll see what I mean when SSD are affordable, there's a big difference in the performance. But as far as what this new machine would normally cost if you bought it you would be looking around $1900 to $2300, just for the tower, depending on who you get if from and what kind of markup. The funny thing the CPU is more than half the value... Crazy, but 6 months from now the CPU wil cost less than half. Intel is coming out with 8 core CPU's for desktops, now I'm not sure what one would do with 8 cores, I could see 6, maybe it's 6...not sure now lol. But all in all I'm just glad the CPU isn't on my bill, and some of the stuff I'm using from my old machine, likewise who would leave a 750 GB in the machine they're sellng? Especially when all my ***** is on there :P What I'm waiting for is Intel to start selling SSD's (Solid State Disk), but I'm also waiting for them to come down in price, Super Talent is around $1400 for an 80 GB SSD, Intel's, when they come out, are supposed to be around $600, and they're probably going to be another solid product.

So yeah, this ought to last me for a long ass time...
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Layzie, congratulations on your win! That's great news! :D =D> :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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Layzie Bone
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Thank you Battye :)

I got all the stuff for building the computer, except the power supply. But I got some concerns that the board might be DOA. I tried to test the machine, I used a 450w PSU, only plugged in the mainboard power connectors, no video, swapped memory and video card, still nothing. So I'm going to wait until monday when, hopefully, my power supply gets here to officially determine what's going on. It is possible that the 450w PSU might have not had enough to power up the board. Not the first time I've seen a bad board out of the box, just wish it wasn't mine :x
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congrats on that win!
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Congrats on that win! :)
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