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Dell unveils Alienware Aurora gaming rig, will serenade you for $2,200
Dell has just taken the wraps off a brand new addition to the Alienware family, hailing it, rather poetically, as "a serenade to raw gaming power." It's called the Alienware Aurora, and it's staring at you with a Cylon-like grin in the image above. Beneath its menacing veneer lurks Intel's six-core, 3000 series Core i7 CPU, an X79 Express chipset and quad-channel DDR3 memory, all of which are kept in check by Dell's liquid cooling and active venting technologies. The gaming rig also supports both multi-display and 3D configurations, with GDDR5 memory-laced graphics cards. In case you're not satisfied, you can always get under the hood and tinker with it yourself, without even busting out your tool belt. The Alienware Aurora is available now for prices starting at $2,200, so hit up the source link for more details.
Intel's Sandy Bridge E gets rounded up and reviewed, the E is for Excessive
You can guess how this one's gonna go: top marks for performance and a shriek of despair when it comes to value for money. Is there anyone out there who really needs an over-sized six-core CPU that requires its own chubby LGA-2011 socket and tailored X79 chipset before it'll even switch on in the morning? Could people seriously be persuaded to drop a grand on merely incremental improvements in technology, such as 15MB of L3 cache and a bigger 600MHz Turbo Boost for stock clock speeds up to 3.9GHz? Well now, let's not get distracted. Even if there were no market -- which there is -- Intel would probably carry on releasing world-beating desktop chips simply to remind us that its rivals can't, and we'd probably carry on reading about them. So here goes, a bunch of reviews covering both the i7-3960X and i7-3930K variants, which together represent the absurd awesomeness of Sandy Bridge E and are on sale at Newegg for $1,050 and $600 respectively: AnandTech: bemoans the absence of an on-die GPU, criticizes the X79 chipset, and dislikes the "performance/functionality tradeoffs" PC Pro: sedately noted that the i7-3960X shows an "improvement" over i7-2600K in real-world benchmarks, and that "AMD must be sweating." HotHardware: regards the 3960X as an "excellent overclocker" despite its vast power consumption, and says it combines with the X79 chipset to make "the most potent" desktop for gaming, content creation or productivity. Tom's Hardware: describes the 3960X as a "symbolic king in a crowd full of value," and the 3930K as the processor moneyed enthusiasts should be lusting over. ExtremeTech: says "the 3960X is a great chip on a solid platform," but cautions that only the most demanding gamers and content creators need this kind of power. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Intel Core i7-990X reviewed: best performance ever, but far from best value
As T-Pain once so wisely proclaimed, "it ain't hardcore unless it's hexacore." Intel should have no worries with its Core i7-990X, which has enough processing units to satisfy even the most demanding of hip hop moguls, but it pads out its extreme credentials anyway with an audacious 3.46GHz default speed. That can be Turbo Boosted to 3.73GHz (yes, we are talking about a CPU that can run at 3,730MHz right out of the box) and there's 12MB of L3 cache and three channels for DDR3 memory to justify the $999 price tag. Well, to partially justify it, anyhow. Tech Report and Tom's Hardware both ran this new chip through their benchmarking suites and both concluded it's the fastest consumer processor around, but neither was willing to recommend it as a terribly astute purchase decision. Then again, when has an Extreme Edition of anything ever been a good value proposition?
HP unveils new Pavilion desktop lineup, packs new Intel and AMD chips
It's a song as old as rhyme, as Mrs. Potts would say: new AMD and Intel chips are out, and there are new desktops to take advantage of them. HP's playing its part with three new budget-friendly Pavilion desktop series: the p6700 (starting at $300), s5700 ($330), and HPE-500 ($600). They all offer a wide range of configurations, with the standard-sized p6700 starting out at a Pentium E5700 proc and ranging up to an Athlon II 445 triple-core processor, the slim s5700 ranging from Athlon II 260 dual-core up to Phenom II 511 dual-core, and the HPE-500 blazing away with Phenom II 1045T six-core chips and discrete Radeon HD 6450 graphics, on up to Phenom II 1090T six-core and Radeon HD 6770 graphics. All of the desktops have "Beats Audio," an Envy feature that HP is spreading out across its product line. Other than that little perk, there are few surprises in any of these when it comes to specs and options: prepare to be generally nonplussed. Still, with these new (cheap!) chips from AMD and Intel, budget buyers should get a lot more power for their buck when these desktops land on January 9th... until the next round of procs comes out, of course. %Gallery-112424%
Dell Studio XPS 9100 arrives with six cores, little fanfare
AMD had its turn in the high-end Dell desktop spotlight, but it's time for another Intel beast, as the company's quietly upgraded its tower lineup to support Intel's consumer-grade champion chip, the 3.33GHz Core i7-980X. While the new Studio XPS 9100 looks just the same as its predecessor on the outside and sports the same basic options and ports, internally there's a 525W power supply with enough juice for a Radeon HD 5970 2GB graphics card (a $580 option) and slots for up to 24GB of DDR3 memory. You won't be getting any of this pixel-pushing goodness on the $950 base model, of course, which has only a (respectable) quad-core 2.66GHz Core i7-920 and an Nvidia GeForce G310 512MB, but the machine looks like it could hold its own with low-end Alienware cousins if you get into $2,000+ territory. Call us crazy, but we think there's a configurator session with your name on it.
Apple Mac Pro line overhauled with 12 processing cores, arriving in August for $4,999
So shall it be written, so shall it be done. The Mac Pro has at long last proven rumors of its impending refresh accurate, as Apple has just updated its most powerful hardware with even more grunt. As we'd heard previously, that means you can now get dual-CPU rigs that offer a full dozen cores to play with, courtesy of Intel's Xeon server-class chips, though in order to get in on that game you'll have to splash a cool $4,999 entry fee. The quad-core starting price is still $2,499, though the eight-core machines have jumped up to $3,499, with both variants getting mild speed bumps to 2.8GHz and 2.4GHz, respectively. Perhaps the most welcome upgrade is on the graphical front, where the Radeon HD 5770 takes up the mantle of default GPU, with additional options for a pair of such cards or a step up to a 1GB HD 5870 alternative if you're keen on maxing out those frame rates. Memory isn't neglected either, with choices ranging all the way up to 32GB of RAM, 4TB of conventional HDD storage, or an array of four 512GB SSDs -- though you're probably better off not asking how much that last one will set you back. The comprehensive specs can be found in the full press release after the break.%Gallery-98277%
Intel's 3.2GHz hexacore i7-970 now shipping
Just this once, DigiTimes has turned out to be spot on with its prognostication. The six-core Core i7-970 rumor we heard earlier this month has now transmogrified into a retail product, and just as promised, it brings most of the goodies of the sublime i7-980X at a moderately more affordable $899 price point. Based on the same 32nm Gulftown architecture as its costlier brother, the 970 will run at 3.2GHz by default, though presumably it too will be able to crank up speeds using Intel's Turbo Boost. Aside from that, you get a healthy 12MB of on-chip cache and the standard triple-channel DDR3 memory controller. UK speed freaks can order one up as well now, clearly a tiny bit ahead of Intel itself making things official, so we'd advise checking with your nearest super-CPU purveyors in case they too have received some early units of this multithreaded code cruncher. [Thanks, Polytonic]
Intel set to overhaul desktop CPU range with new models, lower prices
This might be about as shocking as sunny weather in España, but Intel appears set to slash some prices and bump some speeds in its desktop CPU portfolio this quarter. According to DigiTimes and its beloved motherboard maker sources, the desktop dominator intends to introduce a six-core Core i7-970 chip, at a $885 bulk purchase price that should bring the hexacore entry price down from the i7-980X's $999 perch, along with a 2.8GHz i5-760 priced at $205, and -- intriguingly -- a quad-core i5-870S designed specifically for small form factor machines and costing an appropriately inflated $351 a piece. Finally, there's word of a most welcome price tumble for the 3.06GHz i7-950, which moves down to the $294 slot currently occupied by the 2.8GHz i7-930. All this crazy talk seems to reiterate earlier suggestions coming out of HKEPC, so we advise hitting both source links and drawing your own conclusions.
Shuttle opens US pre-orders for pricey Core i7-based J3 SFF PC
Shuttle teased us just under a month ago with its Core i7-powered J3 desktop, and now that little bugger is finally up for pre-order in the States. The J3 5800P workstation is easily one of the most powerful small form factor PCs this planet has ever seen, boasting a six-core Core i7 980X Extreme Edition CPU, your choice of NVIDIA Quadro or ATI FirePro professional graphics, up to 16GB of DDR3 memory, room for two SATA hard drives, an optional Blu-ray drive, plenty of ports and a 500-watt power supply. Somehow or another, all of that fits into a chassis that measures just 8.5- x 7.5- x 13.1-inches, and if you've been looking to downsize without taking a hit in the performance department, you can finally do so starting at $1,899. The journey begins right there in the source link -- good luck keeping it below three large, Yes Man.
AMD comes real clean with 2010 desktop platform: Phenoms, Athlons, Radeons, oh my!
AMD got serious with its VISION guide to buying PCs last September, but we've yet to see it actually put into practice until today. In addition to a new spate of laptop chips, the company is finally coming clean with the desktop CPUs that we've seen whispered about, touched and even benchmarked for weeks now. Frankly, there's not much here we didn't know already, but we're guessing that AMD's just aligning its official launch with the plans of Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and all the other big names that'll be introducing rigs based on this silicon in short order. Regardless, bargain gamers should greatly appreciate having the dual- and quad-core Athlon II range as well as the quad- and six-core Phenom II crew hitting the scene in official fashion, offering plenty of performance (for most, anyway) at a fraction of the cost of Intel's swankest Core i7 chips. And yeah, we're pretty stoked to see AMD getting its chips into so many desktops -- it's been awhile since there was even a semblance of an AMD / Intel balance in the customize-to-order sections of the world, and it's about time that changed.
AMD's six-core Phenom II X6 1055T CPU now shipping, 1090T up for pre-order
We'd been assured that AMD's days of missing ship dates ad naseum were over, but there's nothing like a little action to prove that your words mean business. Just a month after unearthing clock speeds and proposed release quarters for AMD's gaggle of six-core Phenom II X6 processors, two of 'em have already popped up on Amazon. The 2.8GHz Phenom II X6 1055T is actually shipping as we speak for $222.29, while the 3.2GHz Phenom II X6 1090T is up for pre-order at $324.65. The lower-end 2.6GHz 1035T and 3.0GHz 1075T are both nowhere to be found (yet, anyway), and the mysterious 1095T isn't even supposed to pop up anywhere until Q4. So, who's getting themselves a new slab of silicon? Don't be bashful. [Thanks, Brian]
AMD's hexacore Phenom II X6 will offer Turbo Core automatic overclocking
AMD might be playing catch-up with Intel at the moment, but at least it's keeping the distance fairly close. Intel has yet to fully transition its desktop line over to its Turbo Boost-boasting Core 2010 series, yet its competitor has already announced its own, imaginatively titled, competing technology in the form of Turbo Core. It's a less sophisticated auto-overclock, whereby three of the six cores are decelerated in order to give the other trio some extra voltage and speed for more serialized workloads. The truly impressive thing is that operation under the Turbo Core mode and the default hexacore arrangement will fit within the same power envelope as current Phenom II X4 CPUs, while AMD also reassures its loyal users that the new Phenom II X6s will be compatible with existing AM3 and AM2+ sockets. Nice. The table above, provided by AnandTech, confirms the models we heard about a couple of weeks ago, though we'll have to wait a little bit longer to get confirmation on pricing.
AMD six-core CPU prices and clock speeds unearthed
The gang at DigiTimes have always struck us as processor obsessives -- constantly out on the streets, roughing up mobo manufacturers, getting them to spill their secrets (they probably look like Gene Hackman in Night Moves). And they've sure been busy, this time digging up some dirt on AMD's six-core Phenom II line. Hitting shelves as soon as the second quarter this year, the X6 1035T will clock in at 2.6GHz, the 1005T at 2.8GHz, and the 1075T at 3GHz. There is also a Phenom II X6 1095T possibly coming to fruition in the fourth quarter of the year, but we don't have any data on that one yet. According to Alien Babel Tech (where we did our undergrad, by the way) the 1055T is will retail for $199, while the as-of-yet unknown 1090T black edition will retail $295. As always, we recommend that in lieu of an official announcement you take all this with a grain of salt. [Thanks, Blurib]
EVGA Classified SR-2 fits two Xeon CPUs for 24 threads, exemplifies overkill
Remember EVGA's seven-GPU motherboard monstrosity, the W555? That experimental beast of a board just got declassified -- and given immediate launch orders. Under the new "Classified SR-2" callsign, the board's layout has hardly changed since CES (though the heatsinks certainly got a makeover) but the big news here is that each of its two CPU sockets will support those fancy new six-core Xeon processors. As you're well aware, two times six is twelve -- and since each of the Xeon 5600's cores can handle 2 threads, you're looking at the basis for a 24-threaded powerhouse for mondo multitasking performance. Factor in enough slots for 4-way SLI, CrossFireX and 48GB of RAM, and it's not hard to figure out why the red-and-black HPTX (15- x 13.6-inches!) creation commands a $600 price point. The only questions are how much a full system will deplete your wallet, and how many fuses your house will blow after pressing the power button. Correction: Just a note that Intel's Core i7-980X isn't supported here, but the new Xeon 5600 CPUs are. %Gallery-88469%
Intel's Core i7-980X Extreme Edition hits a slew of new gaming desktops
Intel's six-core, twelve-threaded Core i7-980X Extreme Edition has turned the hardcore gaming community on its head, and just about everyone is scrounging around in a (mostly futile) attempt to locate $999. For those in dire need of an entire system replacement, it seems that today's the day to start looking. Shortly after we heard that this 32nm Gulftown chip would be landing with Alienware and Origin PC rigs, a veritable plethora of other outfits have shown up to make similar announcements. Digital Storm has popped an overclocked (4.4GHz) version into its Black|OPS machine (which conveniently starts at $5,642, while CyberPower is now offering the silicon in its Black Mamba, Black Pearl and Gamer Xtreme 3D machines. Maingear's also sliding said CPU into its world-beating Shift "supercomputer," and anyone shopping a high-end Velocity Micro system will also see the option. We suspect most every other PC maker in existence will be following suit soon, so if your prefab PC builder hasn't yet jumped on the bandwagon, just hold tight. Real tight.
Alienware sneaks Core i7-980X Extreme Edition into Area-51 ALX desktop
We heard at Intel's GDC press event that Alienware would be one of the first PC manufacturers to ship systems with the newest six-core consumer processor, but neither company's representatives would confess to "when." Now, we've our answer... sort of. Hot Hardware has received a shiny new Alienware Area-51 ALX, complete with twin ATI Radeon HD 5970 GPUs, a self-contained LED system that stays lit even when the rig is unplugged (could be a great or awful thing, actually) and Intel's Core i7-980X Extreme Edition to boot. We're told that a full review is on the way, but in the meanwhile, you can hit the source link for a few more looks at this here monster -- you know you'll be ordering one in a few days, anyway.
Intel's Core i7-980X Extreme Edition 'Gulftown' review roundup
Six cores. Twelve threads. A new flagship processor in Intel's stable. Here at GDC in San Francisco, the world's most widely recognized chip maker is dishing out its latest desktop CPU, and to say it's a niche device would be greatly understating things. We spoke to a number of Intel bigwigs at tonight's media event, and everyone confessed that the Core i7-980X Extreme Edition was a low quantity, high performance device aimed specifically at gamers and content editors that simply refuse to live anywhere other than on the cutting edge. Intel's planning on selling these in retail, standalone form for $999 (MSRP), while they'll soon be available in a variety of gaming rigs from the likes of Dell, Alienware and whoever else wishes to keep with the times. As for Apple? The company stated that Steve and Company "sort of call their own shots," and that we'd have to dig at Apple if we really wanted to know what their refreshed Mac Pro would hold. We chuckled, nodded in understanding, and then learned that this here slab of silicon is a bit ahead of the software out there, with Intel noting that only games optimized for 12-thread use and benchmarking utilities that did likewise would really demonstrate the performance boost. 'Course, anyone who spends a great deal of time multitasking will appreciate the extra headroom, and power users can always find ways to make use of more horsepower. Oh, and for what it's worth, the company stated that this will be its lead desktop chip for some time to come, and if you're looking for a mobile version in the near future, you can keep dreaming. As for the critics? Just about everyone with a benchmarking license managed to get one of these in-house, and everyone seems to feel (mostly) the same way. There's no denying that this is Intel's speediest consumer chip ever, but you won't find 50 percent boosts just anywhere. Yet. When the software catches up, though, there's no doubt that this chip will make even the other Core i7s look downright sluggish. 50 percent more cores and 50 percent more threads than the prior kings of the line leads to fantastic gains when serious number crunching is involved (audio and video editors, we're staring at you), with some tests showing upticks in the 30 to 50 percent range. As a bonus, the power consumption here is also extremely reasonable, with the shift to 32nm enabling it to even use less power in some circumstances when compared to the Core i7-975 Extreme Edition. Dig into the glut of reviews below if you've got a cool grand with "chip upgrade" written on it -- you'll be glad you did. Read - Hot Hardware Read - AnandTech Read - Techgage Read - Computer Shopper Read - Bit-Tech Read - PC Perspective Read - Neoseeker Read - Hardcoreware Read - TweakTown Read - PC World Read - TechReport Read - Benchmark Reviews Read - Hardware Canucks Read - Overclockers Club Read - Hexus Read - Legit Reviews
Intel's six-core Core i7-980X Extreme Edition 'Gulftown' chip goes on sale in Germany
Intel's existing line of Core chips just not potent enough for your tastes? Sicko. For those who just can't sleep without longing for the next best thing, it seems that said "thing" is just a few days away from a proper reveal. Germany's own Alternate has already listed Intel's six-core Core i7-980X Extreme Edition chip for sale, enabling moneyed consumers to snap up a piece of Gulftown for the princely sum of €1,049 ($1,430). Yeah, that's a stiff premium for a six-core chip that's ready to do more than sit snugly within some under-appreciated server box, but do you have any idea how much more bodacious you'll be than your dual- and quad-core owning contemporaries? Way. [Thanks, Peter]
Intel teases six-core Gulftown, discusses tera-scale computing
The 32nm dual-core Clarkdale processors that recently made their debut are about to pave the way for Intel's next performance crown chaser, the six-core Gulftown. You might've known that already, but Intel's decided to furnish us with the above slide detailing the particular differences between the two dies, with the most notable being the whopping 1.17 billion transistors that the new CPU will be composed of. The major attraction of Clarkdale chips lies in their power efficiency and competent integrated GPU, but the Gulftown focus will be firmly on the high end. Hence, there's no integrated graphics, but the built-in memory controller supports three channels of DDR3 RAM and even plays nice with lower-powered 1.35-volt sticks. There's also confirmation that the forthcoming hex-core chip will fit inside the familiar LGA-1366 socket, so if you bought a high end Core i7, worry not, you'll be able to replace your still blisteringly quick CPU with an even faster beast. Quad-core variants -- by virtue of disabling a pair of cores -- are on the cards as well, while Intel also took the opportunity to delve into questions of 1Tbps+ bandwidth interconnects and its 80-core processor project, but you'll have to hit up the links below to learn more about those.
AMD and Intel's six-core CPU plans revealed by mobo makers
You have to love DigiTimes and those loquacious sources it seems to keep finding. The latest word from the Taiwanese grapevine suggests that both Intel and AMD will be bringing out six-core CPUs to the consumer market by the middle of this year. We're using the term "consumer" rather loosely here as Intel's first Gulftown chip is expected to be priced north of $1,000. The Core i7-980X is slated for a March release, which just fits inside the Q1 window that earlier rumors had suggested. If you butter your bread on the AMD side, you'll have to wait a while longer as those 45nm Thuban chips -- hereafter to be known as the Phenom II X6 1000T series -- won't be landing until at least May. The usual caution when dealing with anonymous sources is advisable, but this sounds like a roadmap with a high likelihood of being accurate.
