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AMD puts the kibosh on Quad FX platform
Now that Spider's hogging the limelight, the question inevitably had to be asked, and it seems the answer is no. The inquiry, of course, is whether or not AMD would keep on keepin' on with the lukewarmly received Quad FX platform, and judging by comments from the chip maker's own Suzy Pruitt, the end for it is nigh. More specifically, Pruitt stated that AMD had "discontinued future planning and development" for the Quad FX platform, and also noted that it had shifted most of the effort over to initiatives such as the aforementioned Spider. Notably, it was stated that the outfit would continue to support customers that have existing Quad FX-based hardware, and while specifics weren't doled out, we did hear that upgrade options for those individuals would likely not include a Phenom-branded product. So much for unwavering dedication to its enthusiast-class dual-socket technology, eh?[Via DailyTech]
HiPe intros K-Tana 2.0 gaming rig, two-in-one Daisho 2.0 Dual PC
HiPe PC is no stranger to the land of excessive power and unorthodox construction, and the firm's latest two gaming rigs are no exception to either. The K-Tana 2.0 can come stocked with your choice of an overclocked 3.2GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme or dual liquid-cooled AMD Athlon FX-72 / FX-74 processors, an overclocked NVIDIA 8800 SLI graphics setup, 1,200-watt power supply, up to 8GB of DDR2 RAM, up to 4TB of HDD storage, acoustical dampening, colored neon lighting systems, and the ability to order up a customized paint scheme if the early 90s vibe isn't really workin' for you. The real head-scratcher is the Daish? 2.0 Dual PC (shown after the jump), which as the name implies, sports a duo of networked PCs within a single vertical chassis. The primary PC is a GeForce 8800-equipped gaming rig with up to 4GB of RAM and 4TB of HDD space, while the secondary computer is a "personal media center or server" powered by either VIA's Epia C7 or Intel's Merom processor. Additionally, the secondary unit is connected to a motorized touchscreen LCD and responds to your voice thanks to the included speech recognition software. Notably, both machines can be configured to include a Blu-ray writer, and while both systems manage to start around $2,600, the sky really is the limit when adding in luxurious extras.
Faith-go's Inspire X does quad-core AMD style
Lest we forget, Intel's QX6700 isn't the only quad-core game in town, and while AMD's Quad FX platform might've been edged out by Intel in benchmark land, there's still plenty to love about the power chompin' beast. Faith-go is putting those cores to good use in its stylish new Inspire X FX70XN/DVR-88GTX setup, which sports an Athlon 64 FX-70 processor, along with GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB graphics, 2GB of RAM, a 10k rpm 150GB HDD, and a super multi-DVD drive. All of this (literal) hotness resides on a NVIDIA nForce 680a SLI chipset, with the chutzpah to support up to four graphics cards. Considering the bleeding edge components on display here, the $3,253 pricetag doesn't sound too ridiculous, though we're not positive this box will be making its way to the US anyways, so perhaps the point is moot.
AMD's fancy new Quad FX chips smeared by single Intel CPU
With as much AMD fanfare as there was leading up to this release, you'd think they would've managed to drum up a bit better showing. After running up against a battery of benchmark tests, AMD's Quad FX dual CPU platform has been throughly trounced by Intel's QX6700 2.66GHz processor. While things looks great on paper for AMD, with exciting amounts of bandwidth between the two processors, and dedicated memory for each chip, in practice the Quad FX platform is an utter power hog (double that of the QX6700), and only squeezed by Intel in a handful of tests, while for the most part racking up loss after loss, trailing from 10 to 40 percent behind the Intel's 65nm quad-core chip. Price is also a concern, since even though AMD is pricing the actual chips aggressively, you'll still have to spring around $480 for the only motherboard that can handle 'em, and those 1000W power supplies don't really come cheap. Of course, AMD does have 65nm chips on the way, which should do better against Intel on a clock-to-clock basis, and Windows Vista will include lots of mult-thread enhancements to "even the playing field," but there's still no denying that AMD got spanked in this round, and we don't suppose Intel will just be sitting around while AMD plays catch up.[Via ZDNet]Read - FiringSquadRead - [H] EnthusiastRead - TomsHardwareRead - Hot Hardware
Maingear offers up Quad FX-powered BEAST, throws in 1,000 watt PSU
Aw yeah, just hours (nay, moments) after AMD's Quad FX chip went official, we've already seen
IBuyPower offers up sub-$2,000 AMD Quad FX rig, undercuts Intel
Alright, so you knew very well the micro-sized 4x4 was on the way in, and we even filled you in on the nitty gritty a bit earlier, but before all that silicon-based information can even sink in properly, IBuyPower is already dishing out a very tempting way to blow two grand (or much, much more). Hot off the manufacturing lines, you can get your very own AMD Quad FX-based machine for around $2,000, which is monumentally less than the first few systems we noticed packing Intel's oh-so-pricey QX6700 processor. Granted, the $2k version is relatively stripped down, especially compared to the souped-up Intel counterparts, but you can certainly max out that increasingly large spending limit if you try. The firm offers the FX-70 in the low-end flavor, while you can opt for the speedier FX-72 or FX-74 should you so desire, while complementing it with a kilowatt-draining 500+ watt power supply, 512MB to 2GB of RAM, your choice of NVIDIA graphics card, and a bevy of various sized HDDs. Considering the likely stagnant retail prices of this fresh chips, the overall pricing isn't too outrageous, but we all know how things will look just a few months down the road anyway.[Via TGDaily]
AMD's Quad FX platform: some details and doubts
So we know AMD was launching the Quad FX platform this week (that officially happened in America today), but we were a little hard up for info on what that actually entailed. Well, here's what's what: the obviously enthusiast platform aims to please by eschewing AMD's own lower performing (yet wholly owned) ATI products for NVIDIA and its nForce 680a-based chipsets (yes, we know), and will feature quad and octo-core support (yep). They're touting twelve SATA connections for up to 9TB of storage, 20 USB 2.0 channels, four gig Ethernet ports, four or eight monitors powered by up to four PCI-E cards, and Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) Architecture designed for optimized performance (or so they tell us). What wasn't clear, however, is that US pricing on the FX-70 series chips are for bundles; helping put one of those fours in 4x4, AMD's FX-70 (2.6GHz), FX-72 (2.8GHz), and FX-74 (3.0GHz) processors -- which use the same Socket F previous Opterons have -- will be sold in pairs for $600, $800, and $1000, respectively, literally doubling the value. Affordable is, of course, par for AMD -- except for one thing. Although we haven't tested these new chips ourselves, PC Perspective is reporting that an Impress study showed these new FX-series processors to be monstrously less efficient in cycles per watt of power consumption than Intel's. One graph (shown after the break) has an FX-74 gobbling what looks like near double the juice of a Core 2 Extreme QX6700 chip for comparable (or lesser) performance values. Whether that will hold you back from (re-)investing in AMD's new platform is up to you, but we know you're not the type to buy blind anyway.Read - AMD Quad FX releaseRead - Impress tests [Via PC Perspective]
Here comes Quad FX: AMD's 4x4 platform gets "official"
Sure, we knew 4x4 was on the way, and we had an idea AMD was prepping a fancy new "Quad FX" moniker for the spankin' new chipsets, but we were still waiting for the stamp of legitimacy, which just came in the form of an AMD unveil this morning in Japan. The new chipset integrates NVIDIA's nForce 680a SLI chipset with AMD's fresh Athlon 64 FX-70 dual-core processors to great effect, with clock speeds hitting 2.6, 2.8 and 3.0GHz for the FX-70, FX-72 and FX-74 processors. The 90nm chips include 2MB of L2 cache, consume no more than 125W of power, and can support 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM, all based on AMD's Socket F workstation infrastructure. Of course, all this integrated action doesn't come cheap -- or tiny, as the picture above proves -- since the CPUs will run you $599, $799 and $999 respectively. By the time you buy two of 'em, plus 4 NVIDIA cards and a motherboard to hold 'em all, your bank account will be hurting mightily, but if cost is no concern, there's no arguing with the power potential here.[Via El Reg]
