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Asus Demos First Intel P55

Posted by Soulskill on from the zoom-zoom dept.

adeelarshad82 writes "Intel's X58 chipset is the platform of choice for enthusiasts, but Intel serves a heck of a big audience. To please that larger crowd and bring down prices, the company is planning a mainstream iteration of its Nehalem architecture: the P55 chipset. It's designed to work with the forthcoming Lynnfield CPUs, and offers performance close to LGA1366 chips at a much cheaper price. Recently Asus demoed its first intel P55 chip and released exclusive photos. Asus claims to have run its new boards with engineering samples of the Core i5-750 at a 77 percent overclock, boosting speeds from 2.66 GHz to 4.7 GHz. Asus admits this wasn't necessarily stable, but still — that's fast. And on liquid cooling, the boards reportedly hit speeds of 5.1 GHz."

48 comments

  1. No benchmarks? by clang_jangle · · Score: 1

    Clockspeed can be so misleading, benchmarks are what we need to see. TFA is woefully short on substantial info.

    --
    Caveat Utilitor
    1. Re:No benchmarks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's no such thing as "chip performance". All that matters is tastiness.

    2. Re:No benchmarks? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Funny

      There's no such thing as "chip performance". All that matters is tastiness.

      You say that, but then someone hands you a bag of chips made with Olestra and sure they're tasty but in about half an hour you'll be feeling the importance of chip "performance".

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  2. and STABLE too by loVolt · · Score: 1

    lets see them bring down costs and hold stability

    --
    Darwin Enforcement Agent
  3. And it's got Turbo Boost by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Working article link (from Google)
    http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=752

    Now all I need is a molecular bonded shell and a Super Pursuit mode, and I'd be ready to go.

    1. Re:And it's got Turbo Boost by therocketdog · · Score: 1

      The use of a turbo button actually makes sense - "most" users are only likely to need OC'd settings for games and other high-performance applications. By being able to change between OC and non-OC at the flick of a button, it limits the amount of damage to components caused by overclocking a system over an extended period of time.

    2. Re:And it's got Turbo Boost by TheBig1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      While I agree that changing speed makes sense, why have it in the form of a Turbo button? Software CPU scaling (present in my 2 year old laptop, probably was around for some time before that) allows the machine to run at a low frequency (e.g. I have mine defaulting to 800Mhz) until the CPU usage exceeds a threshold; it then steps up progressively to the max speed. If you set your max speed to be OC'd, and include some thermal limiting to step down if sustained max speed is too fast, then you really have the best of all worlds.

      Cheers

    3. Re:And it's got Turbo Boost by Bruiser80 · · Score: 1

      So, it's not like the old turbo buttons? That thing NEVER got turned off :-)

      50Mhz was soo slow.... (Ah, good old 486-DX2 processors)

      --
      Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling a pig in the mud. After a while, you realize the engineer enjoys it.
    4. Re:And it's got Turbo Boost by bdcrazy · · Score: 1

      Back when I had a 286, the turbo button was turned OFF so the games would play. A lot of time based games from those days and other interactive games were based off the system clock. Turning the turbo on boosted clockspeed high enough to make those games unplayable.

      --
      Tonights forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely-scattered light towards morning
    5. Re:And it's got Turbo Boost by Peter+La+Casse · · Score: 2, Insightful

      While I agree that changing speed makes sense, why have it in the form of a Turbo button?

      Nostalgia.

    6. Re:And it's got Turbo Boost by TheBig1 · · Score: 1

      Touche ;-)

  4. So.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does this mean I can keep my kidney and STILL get a CoreI7 mb?

    1. Re:So.. by JCSoRocks · · Score: 1

      Possibly. Just stay away from Candy Mountain.

      --
      You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
  5. WHOOORAAYYY! by Icegryphon · · Score: 1

    4~5Ghz speeds? Guess they manage to figure out the P4 diagrams.

  6. I don't overclock by anss123 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My computer @ 2.4Gig spews out about 120Watt.

    To cool it I use five big fans, making the noise out of this setup is a bit loud but acceptable (a little less than the noise out of a Nintendo Wii perhaps, though a Wii's noise is thinner and more annoying).

    The only thing that interests me about this new CPU is if I can bring down the power usage to about 100 watt (like my former computer) while keeping the perf, but pretty much all that is reported these day is how much so-and so chip overclocks.

    Annoying, but that's where the money is I guess.

    1. Re:I don't overclock by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      My computer @ 2.4Gig spews out about 120Watt.

      To cool it I use five big fans, making the noise out of this setup is a bit loud but acceptable (a little less than the noise out of a Nintendo Wii perhaps, though a Wii's noise is thinner and more annoying).

      Your rig needs five fans, but makes a little less noise than the Wii? I can't even hear my Wii's fan from across the room, especially not over my computer's fans even when idling and the CPU and graphics card fans are at their lowest speeds.

      The only thing that interests me about this new CPU is if I can bring down the power usage to about 100 watt (like my former computer) while keeping the perf, but pretty much all that is reported these day is how much so-and so chip overclocks.

      Yeah, I specifically buy chips made for lower power grades than the top end (e.g. I have a 60W Athlon X2 instead of the 95W version). Unless I'm playing a game, my CPU fan barely needs to move. Which is why I'm surprised you say your Wii is louder than your PC...

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    2. Re:I don't overclock by A+Friendly+Troll · · Score: 1

      120W? Is that on idle, or full load? BTW, dropping the power consumption down by 20W through buying a new CPU would pay itself off in about a decade.

    3. Re:I don't overclock by dr_wheel · · Score: 1

      The snippets that I've read about the core i5 750 in TFA mention a possible TDP between 82-95W. Under load, you'd easily be over 100W.

      If your main focus is green computing, you're looking in the wrong direction. There are several, very capable cpu's from AMD and Intel right now that are rated at 65W TDP (even fast Core 2 Duo and Phenom II X3 parts). With speedstepping, an energy-efficient power supply and green HD, you should be about to hit your 100W mark or atleast get very close to it.

    4. Re:I don't overclock by blahplusplus · · Score: 1

      "Your rig needs five fans, but makes a little less noise than the Wii? I can't even hear my Wii's fan from across the room"

      Maybe not the fan, but some Wii drives are LOUD I know one of the first Wii's I owned had a really loud drive.

    5. Re:I don't overclock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      * Intel Core2 Duo E8400
      * Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H (GeForce 9400 HDMI micro ATX)
      * 2GB DDR2 800
      * Western Digital 640GB Greenpower WD6400AACS
      * Seasonic PSU

      Idles around 45W and stays below 80W under heavy load.
      (Boot-up spikes past 120W)

      So it is easy to get well under 100W, however this is with integrated graphics. Discrete video cards can be power hogs.

    6. Re:I don't overclock by robthebloke · · Score: 1

      Your rig needs five fans, but makes a little less noise than the Wii? I can't even hear my Wii's fan from across the room, especially not over my computer's fans even when idling and the CPU and graphics card fans are at their lowest speeds.

      My PC is *almost* silent. It can be heard if you listen carefully, but it's quieter than ambient background noise. Assuming you have decent silent fans, a silent power supply, and an aftermarket CPU cooler, the addition of:

      a fan controller (any will do)
      acoustipack-ultimate

      will pretty much silence any PC. The only remaining noise i have a few frequencies from the hard drives, but it's now so quiet that it no longer bothers me. If i had money to replace my hard drives with SSD's, my PC would actually be quieter than my wii......

    7. Re:I don't overclock by anss123 · · Score: 1

      I can't even hear my Wii's fan from across the room

      Doubt I'd hear a Wii across the room either but the fan noise is still about the same as my comp (Measured by my trusty ear :-)

      CPU and graphics card fans are at their lowest speeds

      I don't buy GPU's with fans. Even the "quiet" ones are dreadfully noisy. My CPU fan is noisy though, noisiest fan in my comp by a good margin... Costliest too. Grr.

      Yeah, I specifically buy chips made for lower power grades than the top end (e.g. I have a 60W Athlon X2 instead of the 95W version). Unless I'm playing a game, my CPU fan barely needs to move. Which is why I'm surprised you say your Wii is louder than your PC...

      For a long while the HDD was actually the noisiest part in my comp. I bought quieter fans and... well. The noise was deceptive, didn't sound like it came from the HDD. Anyway, it has taken me a few tries and failures to get my comp down to the current level. I'd like to try water cooling, but that will have to be when I settle down permanently somewhere.

    8. Re:I don't overclock by anss123 · · Score: 1

      120W? Is that on idle, or full load?

      I'm 120Watt at idle, 130 almost idle, 200+ on load, and even more when running that Furmark thingy + StessCPU.exe. It's the GPU that's the biggest sinner, but I don't want to replace it just yet.

      BTW, dropping the power consumption down by 20W through buying a new CPU would pay itself off in about a decade.

      Hmmm... who knows with the ever rising energy costs :-)

    9. Re:I don't overclock by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      He said five big fans. Big fans spin more slowly to move the same amount of air and the noise output is related to fan RPM. I don't use desktops anymore, but my last one became a lot quieter when I replaced the small CPU fan with a big heatsink and a large case fan.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    10. Re:I don't overclock by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      This kind of number really makes me wonder if anyone at Intel has a clue when they shout about performance per Watt. A typical ARM Cortex A8 SoC uses around 250mW for the entire chip (including RAM, flash, GPU and DSP, as well as the CPU core). Is the i5 really 328-380 times faster? Given that the i.MX515 can encode H.264 in realtime in under 1W, what on earth can the i5 do with 82 times as much power?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    11. Re:I don't overclock by anss123 · · Score: 1

      Idles around 45W and stays below 80W under heavy load.

      Impressive. I'm a bit of a gaming addict so I'm keeping my power hogging 9600GT - which I think pushes 100Watts alone at full load.

      Discrete video cards can be power hogs.

      I'm hoping that in the future on can turn off the discreet GPU when not using it, then one could get the benefits of both.

    12. Re:I don't overclock by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      He said five big fans. Big fans spin more slowly to move the same amount of air and the noise output is related to fan RPM. I don't use desktops anymore, but my last one became a lot quieter when I replaced the small CPU fan with a big heatsink and a large case fan.

      Yeah and I use big fans too and yet still...

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    13. Re:I don't overclock by anss123 · · Score: 1

      ARM seems to be good at hype and engineering, but they need a user-friendly OS to go with it. Linux is still a disappointment in the user friendly department, for no good reason really as it's not like Windows sets the ball so impossibly high, but Google Android and that Intel job (ironically) may change things... exciting times ahead.

    14. Re:I don't overclock by markov_chain · · Score: 1

      I usually put a big aftermarket cooler on the CPU and disconnect its fan. It still barely gets warm and is 100% silent.

      --
      Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
    15. Re:I don't overclock by TheLink · · Score: 1

      > what on earth can the i5 do with 82 times as much power?

      Run Crysis? Boot Vista?

      --
    16. Re:I don't overclock by TheLink · · Score: 1

      > I'm hoping that in the future on can turn off the discreet GPU when not using it, then one could get the benefits of both.

      You could in the past too. Nvidia calls that "HybridPower".

      --
    17. Re:I don't overclock by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Try running big 12V fans at 5V. They blow more than half as much air for less than half as much power. It might serve your cooling needs. Keep internal fans at 12V, but anything on the case at 5V. Probably a bad idea to do to your power supply, I did it to a 250W that was running a 10W AMD Geode, but that's it.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    18. Re:I don't overclock by anss123 · · Score: 1

      You could in the past too. Nvidia calls that "HybridPower".

      I've read some reviews on that and the conclusion was pretty much that one was better of getting a single card. HybridPower does not turn off the discreet card, just lowers the clock.

    19. Re:I don't overclock by anss123 · · Score: 1

      Yeah and I use big fans too and yet still...

      There's a huge difference between fans. My first "big" fans were from Antec tri-cool and a single of those fans running at its lowest RPM made so much noise I had to turn off the computer and use the laptop. Not I got one CPU fan, one PSU fan, one 600 RPM HDD fan, one 800 RPM case fan and one 800-1000 RPM back fan, all inside a "silent" case. Most laptops make more noise than my box now, though I'm not quite happy yet.

    20. Re:I don't overclock by TheLink · · Score: 1

      Dunno these reviews seem to say something different:

      http://www.legitreviews.com/article/708/5/

      http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3305&p=7

      But anyway, seems Nvidia has discontinued HybridPower for the desktop. Nvidia's excuse is that the newer cards will idle more efficiently. Not sure how true that will be in the near future :).

      --
    21. Re:I don't overclock by evilviper · · Score: 1

      Is the i5 really 328-380 times faster?

      Yes... Yes it is.

      Given that the i.MX515 can encode H.264 in realtime in under 1W, what on earth can the i5 do with 82 times as much power?

      Multimedia operations are performed by integrated DSPs on the chips, so the fact that it can decode H.264 tells you NOTHING about the speed of the processor, any more than the speed of your GPU tells you how fast the CPU is.

      And before anyone starts yelling that desktop CPUs should have DSPs in them, as ALWAYS happens on /., go look it up. The pros and cons have been known for decades, and it has been tried over and over again.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    22. Re:I don't overclock by Rudeboy777 · · Score: 1

      Time for a trade-in? nVidia has released a low-power 9600GT that doesn't even need the PCI-E power connector anymore.

      http://www.tomshardware.com/news/inno3D-GTS-9600GT,7165.html

      The difference with this card in comparison to the GeForce 9600GT is that it uses a G94-350/359 55nm GPU and has the ability to switch into "idle" mode. Additionally, a new PCB design now allows for phase switching, no longer has a 6-pin power connector, and runs a 1.0v core at ultra low voltage. In 3D mode, the card's power consumption can be reduced down to 40 percent, and 60 percent in normal idle mode.

      The sweet spot is still the ATI 4670 IMHO

      --

      From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc

    23. Re:I don't overclock by default+luser · · Score: 1

      I'll back this. The seek noises on the Wii are loud-as-hell compared to the Gamecube's optical drive. This noise is present even when using old Gamecube discs.

      In terms of purse fan noise, the Wii and Gamecube are similar, but the Wii seeks can be heard clear across the room! Sure, it's quiet compared to other consoles, but it's a step back for Nintendo.

      --

      Man is the animal that laughs.
      And occasionally whores for Karma.

    24. Re:I don't overclock by A+Friendly+Troll · · Score: 1

      Man, 120W at idle is horrible :(

      Drop by at SPCR forums - I've been lurking there for a while and I've learned an incredible lot. They have people building sub-30W HTPC machines, and idling at over 100W is practically considered a sin. Using as many fans as you do will probably get you burned at the stake, though ;)

    25. Re:I don't overclock by Knara · · Score: 1

      Yeah it's pretty amazing what careful selection of fans can do for acoustics in a PC.

  7. Not fast enough, yet. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    Quote from the Slashdot summary: "Asus claims to have run its new boards with engineering samples of the Core i5-750 at a 77 percent overclock, boosting speeds from 2.66 GHz to 4.7 GHz."

    Translation: "Intel's fastest processors are not fast enough. Intel's processors are so slow that even a 77% increase in speed is worth sacrificing stability and risking hardware failure."

    Oh well, things will be better when we get the 22 nanometer parts.

    Question: Is Intel deliberately creating confusion when the company uses the concept of 2 multiple times, as in "Core 2 Duo"? Or, is Intel marketing unaware they are creating confusion? Wikipedia quote: "There is also some confusion with Core 2 Duo and Centrino Duo."

  8. flash from the past by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Intel P55 ? Why is this news? The Intel P55 came out in 1997.

  9. Lokking forward to the "P55C" version of this. by forkazoo · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's the version that will ship with MMX, which I am very excited about!

    Seriously, I love when big companies start recycle product names / numbers fifteen years later.

    1. Re:Lokking forward to the "P55C" version of this. by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      Seriously, I love when big companies start recycle product names / numbers fifteen years later.

      My phone is a Nokia 6110, which must be a rather ancient model, since their new 6110 Communicator has been out for a couple of years. Another stupidity is with Nokia 3110, from around the same time as my 6110, as they have a relatively new model called 3110 Classic. So the new version is the classic one.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  10. ...not stable? by TimothyDavis · · Score: 1

    Asus admits this wasn't necessarily stable, but still - that's fast.

    Car analogy: Isn't this like having a really fast car with really shitty steering? Great, you go fast - up until you don't.

  11. Intel product confusion by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    Note that everyone is expected to know about the "P55" already. It is assumed that no explanation is needed.

    Here is a fairly typical article: Intel P55 Ibex Peak Chipset Features.

    Intel marketing words:
    Ibex Peak
    P55 Express
    Lynnfield
    Havendale
    Penryn
    Montevina
    Cantiga
    Core 2 Duo
    Centrino 2

    You can mix and match them. For example, this random article I found with a Google search says: 'The processor specifications for the Pioneer DreamBook Style 9008 speak for themselves: "Intel Core 2 Duo Centrino 2 processors (45nm Penryn CPU, Montevina Platform)." '

    Maybe they "speak for themselves", but I can't hear them.

    I like "Core 2 Duo Centrino 2". Not one, not two, but THREE uses of the concept 2 in five words. Awesome!

    Okay, I will try some Intel-speak myself: "Ibex Peak Core 2 Duo Centrino 2 with Lynnfield and Core 2 Quad with Havendale are together known as Summitlake". How did I do? I have no idea.

    Does Intel take the position that it doesn't matter how disfunctional Intel marketing is, because you have to buy from them?

  12. "Super-Charged" too much... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Car analogy: Isn't this like having a really fast car with really shitty steering? Great, you go fast - up until you don't."- by TimothyDavis (1124707) on Wednesday July 29, @02:58PM (#28871195)

    More like having one with a 'blower' on it, way over pressure in lbs. per sq. compression, & that is constantly out of tune because of it, + hard to get to hold a tune & get to start up or run smooth once "fired up".

    APK

    P.S.=> GM-671 + V8 - "Accept NO substitutes"... apk