Intel X38 High End Chipset Launch and Benchmarks

MojoKid writes "Though many leaks of the product have been circulating for some time, Intel officially took the wraps off and launched their new X38 Express chipset for the high-end desktop motherboard market. With this launch, the Intel desktop chipset line-up gets a new flagship. Intel's new X38 chipset encompasses all of the technology advances that have made the P35 a success and adds a slew of new features designed to increase memory and graphics subsystem performance, like PCI Express 2.0 SerDes and Intel Extreme Memory technology in the new X38 MCH. The Asus motherboard tested by HotHardware even features an embedded Linux-based OS that boots in a matter a seconds."

Comments

Re:DDR3 ECC supported!

[Anonymous Coward]

It may support ECC DIMMs, but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll use the ECC feature of those DIMMs.

Intel and Linux

[Simon (S2)]

I just love Intels commitment to linux lately. They release open source drivers for their chipsets, and now an integrated linux os on the firmware of this mobo. The last notebook I had was all Intel chips (IPW2200 for wireless, GM945 graphics) and just everything worked out of the box without proprietary drivers. Really, thanks Intel, I am a happy customer.

Re:Intel and Linux

[Justus]

Although Intel's Linux driver support is pretty good on the whole, the integrated OS is a feature of the ASUS motherboard and isn't a product of Intel's good will toward Linux.

There was a previous Slashdot feature specifically covering that, if you want more information.

Re:I thought high end meant Xeon?

[morgan_greywolf]

No. Xeon is the name of the processor chip used in both high-end desktops and servers. X38, FTFS, is a chipset.

Cool, but...

[niteice]

does it run...oh

Re:I thought high end meant Xeon?

[tjstork]

It's a high end Desktop chip, Xeon are server chips.

You can have a Xeon desktop. Hell, I have a dual Opteron desktop. It would be called a "workstation".

Re:Icarus

[Anonymous Coward]

lack of any useful office applications. If you need to touch Word/Excel/PowerPoint more often than once a month, your job sucks.

A Gamer's Dream?

[abirdman]

Observations from reading the article:

1. The two MB's they reviewed are going to be incredibly expensive (over $300) when they hit the streets,
2. the only one that survived overclocking the already insanely fast CPU (the other one died and could not be revived), takes ridiculously expensive DDR3 memory, and
3. when run at their max (optimal, i.e. stock) settings showed no difference in performance from their "hopelessly outdated" predecessors, the P35 chipset boards.
4. Only one game benchmark (F.E.A.R.) showed any measurable difference at all from one to the other.
5. All the video and audio encoding benchmark results were identical, which only proves those tasks are processor bound (all the test systems used the same CPU-- only the chipsets and/or memory differed).

I find it odd the reviewers even recommended the board (the survivor-- they were skeptical of the dead one). I don't understand the attraction of a board/chipset like this! It's going to take another generation of hardware to take advantage of the 32 simultaneous 32 bit video data "lanes" on each PCI-E (or X or whatever) slot. And eventually, maybe DDR3 will drop in price when there's some demand for it. And all the I/O (8 USB 2.0 ports and external SATA ports and optical and coax digital AV) seem like they could come in handy. But seriously, why are they making these now? Is it for the quad-core support? Do other chipsets support quad-core Intels? Or is it because they allow plugging in not one but two $500+ dollar video cards?

I look forward to lots of serious gamers buying these, devising new benchmarks to prove their efficacy, and bringing down the cost for this point of entry into the market for the rest of us. But gamers! Read the review and benchmarks. This chipset does not, at least based on this review, demonstrate a big leap forward.