At an overclocking event during last month’s IDF in San Francisco, VR World reported on the mystery of the extra pins on Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) Haswell-E CPUs — known as socket 2084 — and what exactly the corresponding sockets on motherboards are supposed to be used for.

Asus (TPE: 2357) claims that these pins are for overclocking, giving users increased reliability. Industry sources that spoke to VR World claim otherwise, stating earlier that these sockets and pins had the more mundane purpose of CPU debugging and testing. Intel, for its part, remains silent on the topic repeatedly directing the press to board partners for further comment.

Now a report from Hardware.info citing German overclocker Roman Hartung, better known by the handle Der8auer, claims to have the answer to this mystery. Hartung modified his Gigabyte board (TPE: 2376) (Gigabyte does not currently utilize the socket in question on its respective boards for overclocking) to deliver power to the specific pins, and found out that post-modification higher uncore overclock speeds were indeed possible.

(Photo credit: Roman Hartung)

While its clear now that the potential use of this socket was not entirely a figment of the Asus marketing department’s imagination, Intel has yet to publicly give a definite answer on whether utilizing this socket for overclocking would void the CPU’s warranty.

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Intel has just released the X99 chipset and the s2011-3 CPUs that goes with it, ushering in the age of DDR4.

The top of the line unlocked CPU is the 8 core/ 16 thread 5960X that has quad-channel DDR4 and 40 lanes of PCI-E 3.0. The 5960X comes in with a base frequency of 3GHz with up to 3.5 Turbo frequency.  The 8 cores have a shared 20MB of cache, and the CPU has a TDP of 140W.  This is no doubt the most powerful enthusiast CPU available and will be crushing the performance of the previous generation.  On release day HW Bot was flooded with new submissions and the world records were falling like dominos.  The records were set with the engineering samples that were sent out to Overclockers and Reviewers.

i7 5960X – bottom

This will be a look at the previous king of the hill, the 4960X while comparing it to the 5960X. The highest stable clock achieved with the 5960X will be put in there as well.   Take a look at what can be expected from actual usage.  The 4960X and the 5960X were both ran at 3.6GHz with the NB at 3600MHz, while the memory was running at 2133 on both the DDR3 and DDR4.

Test System

• Intel 5960X 3625MHz (125MHz x 29) and 4500 (125MHz x 36)
• Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5
• Corsair LPX DDR4-2666 4x4GB  15-17-17-50 ( @ 1T w/ NB @ 3600MHz  / @ 2133 15-15-15-35 1T for 3.6GHz)
• MSI R9 290X Lightning
• Cooler Master V1200 Platinum PSU
• Corsair V64 SSD
• Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme cooler
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Compared System

• Intel 4960X 3600MHz (100MHzx36)
• Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3
• Kingston DDR3-2400 4x4GB @ 2133 11-12-12-30 2T
• Patriot 128GB SSD
• R9 295X2
• Thermaltake 1475 Platinum
• Corsair H100 CPU cooler
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

SiSoft Sandra – Memory Bandwidth

The 4960X’s IMC still can hang with the 5960X in the integer memory bandwidth

AIDA64 – memory benchmark

While the 5960X beats the 4960X in read and copy it really loses it in writing.  The 4960X also beats the 5960X handily in latency which was 59.7ns compared to 61.5ns when at at 4.5GHz.  This is in due to the much tighter timing that the DDR3 has, so we can hold out hope that we will see some DDR4 kits out that will have tight timing to be more competitive in this area.

SiSof Sandrat – Arithmetic

It is very visible here that the extra cores are helping to provide some extra muscle, the jump to 4.5GHz really shows the improvement.

SiSoft Sandra – Cryptography

Hashing power more than doubles from the 4960X to the 5960X and almost triples when it is overclocked to 4.5GHz

3DMARK – Physics

The improvements are very noticeable in the 3DMARK tests and  it is visible that it scales nicely with the increasing speed.

Super Pi 32m

The 5960X at the same speeds handily outpaced the 4960X in super pi , and it only gets stronger with the increased speed thanks in part to the massive bandwidth at 4.5GHz

WPrime 1024M

Here the power from the extra cores is extremely visible in this benchmark at the same speeds.

Overclocking to 4.5 was a very easy to do, I was running it a bit higher than I wanted to, at 1.3v due to lack of time to tune down the voltage before writing needs to be done. It is evident that others are getting  4.5GHz at 1.25v and around 5GHz at 1.4v though proper cooling for that would involve at least a single stage phase change system for full 8 core/16thread operation.  There are a handful of LN2 results on hwbot currently for CPU test that range between 5.7-6.1.  Cooling is most definitely going to be the limiting factor should these be overclocked and pushed to the max.  Having said that there would be no reason to skimp on the cooling setup that would be paired with the CPU.

Do I really need this?

If you want the most powerful system you can build presently than this is the key part right now. The bottom line is that this CPU is a beast and it is hands down the best you can get, with that said if your budget allows for one of these then it should be in your cart at your online retailer.  The price is steep indeed, but there isn’t anything that can challenge the 5960X.  The key to this cpu is keeping it cool and that is something that should not be skimped on.  With a nice watercooling loop there is no doubt in my mind that 4.7GHz would be achievable for a system.  With a closed loop or really good air would likely be around 4.3-4.5. There will be more testing of the 5960X and that will involve sub-zero testing and a DDR4 roundup, as well as a look into other X99 motherboards.  The new stuff is definitely a blast to work with and I personally can’t wait to get more testing done as I have had a taste and now I am hooked.

The post Intel i7 5960X: The New King Is Crowned appeared first on VR World.

As more and more X99 motherboards leak, it only made sense to release a portion of the trove of boards that haven’t already been announced or leaked.

The Asus X99-E WS, a Bright Side of News* exclusive, is a particularly interesting one because it is Asus’ (TPE:2357) latest high performance motherboard for workstation users. Because X99 is an entirely new platform there are very likely going to be a lot of people searching for new workstation boards like the X99-E WS to upgrade their workstations.

In terms of features, you get all the expected things like Haswell-E support, a plethora of PCIe 3.0 slots, which includes support for 4-way CrossFireX and SLI with X16 links. This board is specifically designed to support both Core i7 and Xeon E5 class chips (including the E5-1600, thanks to retailer leaks) thanks to being only a single socket workstation board. Because this is a workstation board, ASUS also talks about the boards overall power efficiency focusing on their Dr. MOS, 12k hour capacitors, ProCool power connector and beat thermal choke.

The Asus X99-E WS also has a Q-code logger and Dr. Power, even though it also has a plethora of connectivity which make it all the more attractive. That includes dual Gigabit NICs, a whopping 10 USB 3.0 connectors on the rear IO alone, not to mention the standard audio connectors, eSATA and the expected IO. You will get the full 8-slot DDR4 configuration, which is to be expected even though you very likely won’t get much memory overclocking support like the Rampage series of boards.

Asus X99-E WS IO

In addition to all of this, you will be getting backed by an Asus 3 year warranty which brings the MSRP price of this board to a whopping $519. Yes, this is a fairly high price for a single socketed board that isn’t an overclocking board, but X99 is a performance platform and this is a workstation board which should mean you are paying for higher quality components and reliability.

In fact, some retailers already have it available for pre-order but don’t really have any details or pictures of the board. So, you can already get it for $499 via some retailers, already lower than the $519 MSRP.

The post Asus X99-E WS Motherboard Leaked appeared first on VR World.

Or… The Vendors Never Learn

It’s been a full 2 weeks now since the end of Computex, and the associated roaming around Greater China and certain (mostly Chinese speaking too) neighboring realms. This being at the very least fifteenth Computex for me, I didn’t bother much with press conferences and such, but checking the show floor to see what’s really going on, and then do a real check with selected vendors after the event is done with.

The Taiwanese, with diminishing focus on high end ‘added value’ PC stuff, moving towards mainstream consumer things with corresponding reduction in differentiation and ability to charge larger margins, in some cases increasingly relying on reference designs – tablets could be a repeat of the same story as graphics cards here. The Asus Transformer tablet range is still one of rare exceptions to at least aim there where higher margin Samsung or LG offerings are entrenched, for example.

Asus doesn’t seem to be so lucky with the ROG enthusiast board line, where Gigabyte has, according to more than one insider, claimed the quality prize and is now at the very least on an equal footing for the high end PC market board dominance race prior to the September Haswell-E next-gen Socket 2011 platform launch (the socket is NOT compatible with the current Socket 2011, just to state one more time).

So… The Big Four: Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm and (still for now) AMD, all US vendors, still carry the innovation torch and, willingly or not, have to lead the OEMs into what to design and manufacture to a great extent. Ultrabooks and 2-in-1 convertibles were just an example, other stuff is just the same. Intel lost billions in the last financial year investing in an attempt to lead the mobile phone and tablet segments. Of course, they have the size & strength to ride over it without much impact thanks to over divisions, but a loss is still a loss, something very uncommon for Intel.

It’s funny… even despite all the Computex announcements, the best tablet announced at the time was not in Taipei, but in New York – Microsoft Surface 3 Pro (which we’re currently reviewing). It sports a proper Intel Core processor, proper 3:2 ratio display, proper (for tablet at least) keyboard cover, and proper OS, as much as one can call Windows 8.1 that – at least vs Android. Even though, Intel did have a Surface Pro 3 at their suite at Computex.

Then we come to the sea of mainland China vendors from Shenzhen, Dongguan and other cities, in their little booths at the old Taipei WTC hall. Plenty of them offering plenty of stuff, but it seems they aren’t willing to learn the key lesson from their Taiwan brethren: don’t you all want to avoid making the same cheap crap, trying to make a dollar a piece and then bleeding each other’s margins to death with endless fights for every customer? While only the SoC and IP license owners make any money from it all?

When I asked Intel if they have a role to play in this situation, one of their regional honchos in-charge, Leighton Phillips, Director Product Marketing, Intel Asia Pacific & Japan, explained that Intel is not the one restricting the components ecosystem for Intel-based tablets and such, but the choice is mostly on vendors themselves. After all, in his words, “Shenzhen city is like one really big company itself.” where certain “departments” decide to focus on repeating the low-cost stuff en masse and, hopefully, some bigger boys – or the daring ones with guts – decide to do unique things. Like it or not, after being in that city for years now on-and-off, I find it hard to disagree with this: many attempts to convince even the large groups there – even with ready buyers – to do something beyond the el cheapo fare, hit the risk-aversion wall. It’s a pity, as the Chinese government itself is more strategically focused on developing core technologies than, say, Taiwan.

After all, even outside the Intel world, a good example where a ‘me too’ strategy leads long term is one really big long time OEM in Hong Kong that survives – pitifully at that – basically selling their boards and cards at material cost. Yet, for years now, their very survival depends on their single principal vendors’ marketing money – which could be shut off anytime knowing that principal’s own survival issues.

Intel is, of course, investing a lot in Shenzhen: having (quite rightfully) selected it to be their next major hardware design center worldwide, after the USA and Taiwan. The rumors I hear from the insiders are for close to 700 engineering staff to be hired in Intel’s coming new space, likely in one of city’s many modern science & tech parks, within this year and early next – far more than the official 150 staff mentioned up to now. Whether this will encourage the local companies to do more daring product designs as Intel helps them offload the engineering risks to some extent, remains to be seen soon. The city really must not repeat the mistakes of Taipei, cornered now into doing low-margin ecosystem stuff for the real technology principals.

They aren’t the only ones – Nvidia is also strongly present here, even organizing organic farming fun for its Shenzhen staff, and Qualcomm is preparing their positions in the new hardware Mecca. After all, everything from smartphones to supercomputers are both designed and used here. Only AMD is missing, without even an office to call home here… tells you something, doesn’t it?

That also serves as a warning to Taipei, that – irrespective of the simple cheap stuff shown in their little booths – Shenzhen is on target to take more and more of Taiwan’s IT pie in the near future; you will be looking at reports from their IT fairs here in the next year and beyond as well. So, Taiwan must do what Japan did as well, and boldly go to the top end of technology and produce stuff for the top tier of the users, willing to pay stuff for it. A good reference are Japanese products shown at Singapore’s BroadcastAsia show last week – cameras and monitors for US$ 30K and above EACH, and workstations controlling them costing not much less. And, they sell well… why bother selling million Fiats when thousand Ferraris could make more?

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