Intel gets official with Skulltrail, gives it an incredibly dull name

We actually thought Skulltrail was a pretty slick name for a gaming platform, but it looks like the suits at Intel were afraid of having too much fun -- say hello to the "Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform." Yep, it's official, just announced at GDC. Based on the new $649 D5400XS mobo and a pair of $1,499 3.2GHz QX9775 Core 2 Extreme chips, Intel says prototype machines have been the fastest ever tested, with 3DMark06 scores of 6481 and Cinebench 10 scores of 20,160 when configured with a pair of CrossFire'd ATI Radeon HD 3870 cards -- but don't fret, the platform also supports NVIDIA SLI cards. It looks like a variety of high-end system builders will be shipping Skulltrail (sorry, that's what we're calling it) machines over the next 30 days, including Falcon Northwest, Voodoo, and Velocity Micro -- better start saving those pennies.

[Matt @ Feb 19th 2008 1:09PM]

I'll keep Skulltrail, thank you very much.

[Kiwi616 @ Feb 19th 2008 1:10PM]

Yup, me too.

Sounds evil and perfect for a gaming rig.

[Blackstar @ Feb 19th 2008 1:17PM]

Well, the thing was "Wii" was already taken so...

[Zzephyr @ Feb 19th 2008 2:22PM]

I'm still holding out for "groin-kicker".

[E71 @ Feb 19th 2008 7:57PM]

You can keep whatever you want, this is still a doomed motherboard thanks to FBDIMM and PCI-Express 1.1

Now, how about they make one FOR GAMING this time. We don't need the stinky slow-downs of data integrity checks.

[Denver_80203 @ Feb 19th 2008 1:10PM]

Not in love with the new name but, "Skulltrail" sounds a little like a path to the restroom at the Disney Pirate Ship ride.

[BeforeISleep.net @ Feb 19th 2008 1:12PM]

Well, skulls technically have two eye sockets, so it's still acceptable.

[Scott @ Feb 19th 2008 1:18PM]

News from the future: Mac Pro gets Skulltrail board option?

[Matt @ Feb 19th 2008 1:27PM]

Probably not. Apple likes to keep their mainboards nice and proprietary. That way when it dies on you in a year after your warranty expires, you're forced to buy a new one from them for $650.00 even though a comparable dual socket 771 server class board using the same chipset with comparable features comes in at $350.00.

[Ken @ Feb 19th 2008 6:24PM]

The Mac Pros and Dell Precisions are pretty much already SkullTrail minus a few details. I'd bet that SLI support will float over to the Macs and Dells shortly.

[bob @ Feb 19th 2008 10:05PM]

you mean apple makes its own boards (though pretty much none of the chips these days) but intend to word it badly, remember they choose efi over bios for a start, apple dont hold back, they exactly what they think makes their product better regardless of conciqences, sometimes this costs them, somtimes it costs us, thats why i love apple as nothing stops them doing it there way, sure a lot of people dont like that way for their products but if you do and the products suit your needs they are the best damn company out there.

[Kalen @ Feb 19th 2008 1:24PM]

Companies today are way too dull with their product release names. Revolution became the Wii and now Skulltrail becomes...i forgot it already

[gfar @ Feb 19th 2008 2:41PM]

It became Exxxxxxtreme!
I'll buy one and then pound back some fucking Mountain Dew!

[ZeitgeistXIII @ Feb 19th 2008 1:29PM]

Very cool Maybe its time to upgrade. The marketing guys really oughta starts showing a spine and fight for good names like it had. lol (too much white shoe and kahkis I suppose)

[mcdj @ Feb 19th 2008 1:35PM]

It looks like Sim City.

[MosquitoControl @ Feb 19th 2008 1:43PM]

HAHAHAHAHAHA, yes, yes it does.

[ByteCrawler @ Feb 19th 2008 3:55PM]

best comment ever, took the words right out of my mouth

[Frankenstein Black @ Feb 19th 2008 1:59PM]

Hum! To ditch or not to ditch the 4x4 (MB and CPUs)?
DDR2 or DDR3?

[Iain @ Feb 19th 2008 2:18PM]

It's neither really - it's DDR2 FB-DIMMs.
Slow and expensive, not worth the hassle.

[Darkest Daze @ Feb 19th 2008 2:02PM]

Guess Intel doesn't realize that using the word EXTREME in a name doesn't make it sound cooler.

[ReggieXuk @ Feb 19th 2008 2:07PM]

Dual socket extreme is better than Skulltrail.

WTF is Skulltrail, please someone tell me!

[phanbouy @ Feb 19th 2008 2:17PM]

it's the road to Castle Agggghhhhhh

[Cesar Cardoso @ Feb 19th 2008 2:08PM]

Thanks to the Copy-Paste wonders of interfaces, now I can write that Skulltrail is now "Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform". Not that I'll remember it, so I saved the name on a scrap.

[engadget @ Feb 19th 2008 2:15PM]

Most Gamers cant justify 4 Cores when 2 does just fine for most games, why on earth would they upgrade to 8 cores?

This product will flop and will just be a way for the 1%ers to show each other who has a bigger rod.

PS: The Picture makes the mobo look Square, so keep in mind this may also mean you need an EATX/SSI EEB Compatible Case. I can only imaging lugging that huge machine with 2 big ole tower coolers stuffed with drives and video cards to the local LAN Party. Might be better off finding a 1U Server with an x16 slot. :)

[phanbouy @ Feb 19th 2008 2:25PM]

engadget, how do you post on yourself? are you self aware?

[ben @ Feb 19th 2008 2:26PM]

I feel sorry for the people that spend over $3000 on a computer.

[Esat @ Feb 19th 2008 2:30PM]

I feel sorry for the people that miss their train resulting in them being late for work and getting a formal warning from their boss, only to come home and find that their roof has been leaking all day and the new carpet they layed down last weekend that cost $2000 dollars is ruined.

This never happened, I'm just making it up because I have work to do and I love procrstinating*


*Actually, procrastinating eats me up inside, but I can't help it.

[Silly Sauce @ Feb 19th 2008 2:31PM]

Anandtech.com did an excellent review/preview of the Skulltrail platform and after reading it, I'm still terrified of the power requirements...

[phanbouy @ Feb 19th 2008 2:51PM]

dude, you look a bit like the villain in "no country for old men".

[CraigJ @ Feb 19th 2008 2:56PM]

before anyone asks, yes, it plays Doom.

[Mindfield @ Feb 19th 2008 4:25PM]

Wait, what? "3DMark06 scores of 6481"? Is this a typo? I get over 7,000 on an Athlon 64 X2 4200 with GeForce 7950GX2 -- and that's a few hundred points slower than the SLI config I had with two 7800GTXs.

[dustandechoes91 @ Feb 19th 2008 8:11PM]

yea its gotta be a typo, thats the score of a mid-range(but in the end crappy) dell.

[Nick @ Feb 20th 2008 12:13PM]

That score is likely just the cpu side of the score (3dmark06 total scores are video card+cpu scores) My budget c2d e6750 OC@2.87 and a XFX 8800gt don't do better than mid-11k total score, and the cpu is only pulling a 2500 score on its own, so a 6k score for just the cpu is decent.

[THastings @ Feb 19th 2008 4:27PM]

I want one!!! where can i buy one?!?!? I'm looking around but finding nothing! Someone help me I'm dying I need one!!! GRAHHHHHH

[DSP wannabe @ Feb 19th 2008 4:31PM]

Doesnt anyone read the reviews? Skulltrail is a flop, failing to be what the boys at Intel claimed it would be, a gaming juggernaut.

The use of buffered memory, a jerry-rigged SLI chip, and the inability of games to make use of 4 cores, much less 8 on an SMP rig, make this a total waste of money for gamers.

[THastings @ Feb 19th 2008 5:06PM]

why do I refuse to believe you? Everything I've read about it makes it sound awesome.
feh to you good sir.

[DSP wannabe @ Feb 19th 2008 5:23PM]

Dont believe me silly. Believe the professionals that reviewed the actual product itself:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ1OCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Their conclusion?


"For the gamer I do not recommend the Skulltrail as it is going to be too expensive and it simply won't provide a better gaming experience than a more conventional gaming PC will. If you want super high end luxury gaming, go for 3-Way SLI or 4 GPUs worth of ATI CrossFireX. High end gaming is still GPU limited and Skulltrail does nothing to remedy that beyond the solutions we already have available."

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/08/intel_skulltrail_part_3/page25.html

Some snippets from their conclusion:

"The Skulltrail system is unable to keep up with current desktop systems with a single quad-core processor by a long shot. We are not considering workstation applications here, since such applications are simply not the focus of the platform at this time. The main performance problems can be attributed to how Intel chose to use a chipset from the workstation segment, from the use of FB-DIMM memory and from the lack of widely multi-threaded software. Most applications can take advantage of four processors at most, meaning that the second quad-core CPU is practically never in use.

"The performance weaknesses of the Skulltrail motherboard's workstation chipset are its downfall. With games, the system falls behind the two single-CPU desktop systems by up to 45%.

"In the end, a single QX9650 is only 3.9% slower overall than the two QX9775 Skulltrail chips together."
Yeah, the thing can crunch numbers like a champ, but today's games are A.) GPU limited and B.) unable to make use of 4 cores, much less 8.


Again, it is supposed to be a system aimed at gamers, but it doesnt appear to help gamers in the slightest. Trust me, I wish it did, as I'd be in line behind the fan-boys to get one. I want to play Crysis on full detail at high resolutions too! But it's not yet to be. GPU technology is what is holding us back right now, so Intel cant really help us out with Skulltrail, no matter how great it might become with newer BIOS's.

[Oliver Jones @ Feb 20th 2008 12:36AM]

All well and good...but will it play crysis?

[Blankooie @ Feb 20th 2008 9:19AM]

This was a triumph...

[Jake Cohen @ Feb 22nd 2008 9:37AM]

Jeez, that name is dull. It makes me want to puke in disgust!

http://www.talkprice.net/

[Junkie @ Mar 26th 2008 8:11PM]

"3DMark06 scores of 6481 and Cinebench 10 scores of 20,160"
must be
"3DMark06 scores of 20,160 and Cinebench 10 scores of 6481"

Somebody mixt the numbers...