Intel Sandy Bridge Desktop and Mobile CPUs

Vigile writes "The new Intel Sandy Bridge architecture is being launched at CES this week but the reviews and benchmarks are out today. PC Perspective took a look at both the desktop and mobile variants, the former of which turns out to be quite an impressive processor for both highly threaded and single threaded applications. With some tweaks to the execution unit, a new Turbo Boost mode that increases clock speeds dynamically and a vastly improved integrated graphics implementation, the Core i7-2600K improves in every aspect. Also interestingly, the most expensive desktop part will start at $317, putting the screws to AMD yet again. On the mobile side of things, PC Perspective tested the quad-core Core i7-2820QM and the benchmark results are equally impressive; especially when looking at the gaming performance using integrated graphics. Sandy Bridge will no doubt put quite a dent in the discrete notebook graphics market for NVIDIA and AMD."

Comments

Beware if you want to install Linux!

[IYagami]

According to semiaccurate:

" If you try to use Sandy Bridge under Linux, it is simply broken. We tried to test an Intel DH67BL (Bearup Lake) with 2GB of Kingston HyperX DDR3, an Intel 32GB SLC SSD, and a ThermalTake Toughpower 550W PSU. At first we tried to install vanilla Ubuntu 10.10/AMD64 from a Kingston Datatraveler Ultimate 32GB USB3 stick. The idea was that it would speed things up significantly on install.
That's when the crippling bug surfaced. It seems the USB3 ports on the Intel DH67BL don't want to work. Ubuntu 10.10 installs fail during the install, no fix was found. Plug the same stick into a USB2 port, and it works fine. Alternately, install from a USB2 stick on a USB3 port, and things work fine."

source: http://semiaccurate.com/2011/01/02/sandy-bridge-biggest-disapointment-year/