With the annual Consumer Electronics Show right around the corner and the industry’s marketing efforts going into overdrive, what is it that we will likely see next week?

It’s a safe bet that if will be a week of opposites.

From hardware going to both larger and smaller designs, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) G-Sync versus AMD (NYSE: AMD) FreeSync, small displays with massive resolution, and gaming notebooks of both massive and diminutive sizes.

Small form factor hardware as is one of the fastest growing areas in the hardware segment, and no doubt there will be a lot of it on display at CES.  With hardware becoming so powerful and small we are seeing a lot of really powerful builds that can be done.  With even MATX X99 boards we are seeing that there is a move toward making things small and potent.  On the other side there is a lot of huge pieces of hardware showing up on the market, namely 4K and ultra wide monitors.  They are becoming even more prolific and the ultra wide monitors are drawing a lot of interest from gamers and power users who were once planning on going for a 4K monitor or two.  There will be a lot of talk this CES about AMD’s FreeSync for enthusiast gaming monitors as it is the newcomer challenging Nvidia’s established G-Sync.  FreeSync will draw the attention of monitor manufacturers since it is less costly to implement and license than the G-Sync solution.  The LG 34UM67 will be a curved ultra wide monitor that will feature AMD’s FreeSync, and should definitely steal a lot of the spotlight next week.

The mobile computing segment is also something to watch next week as we will see a lot of small notebooks with very high resolution displays.  It is easy to say that there will be a number of notebook models that will feature 3K and 4K screens, even at the 15.6-inch sizes.  There will also be a movement with ultraportable gaming notebooks of small size that can be docked with a desktop graphics card for superior gaming ability while at a desk.  With the shrinking of parts that make up computers we will be seeing a drastic reduction in size and weight of these ulta portable notebooks.  Not only will they be smaller but they will be potent and even come equipped with quad-core Intel i7 processors and decent graphics.  On the other hand you will also see that there is a move to the opposite extreme as there will be new 18″ gaming notebooks that will be the true embodiment of the “desktop replacement” name.  Some of these huge notebooks will even sport gaming grade mechanical keyboards featuring Cherry MX Brown switches.

Be sure to check back throughout next week as CES 2015 kicks off in Las Vegas.

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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.

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New benchmark/system utility offers plethora of information...

New feature is also Alert – sensor monitoring utility that triggers audio visual alert on overheating, voltage drop, overvoltage or cooling fan failure. This might prove quite useful in checking is your power supply good enough. Standard features include support for the latest processors and chipsets, such as  Core i7, Atom, Phenom II and others. Support for OpenAL and High Definition Audio were also added. UI also underwent some changes – Windows 7 users should be happy, and if you use Vista Sidebar, you should like the newly designed information “widget”.

Everest 5.0 is available now at www.lavalys.com.

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But also, I failed to find a good Core 2 vs. i7 vs. Phenom shot on the internet, so there you go.
On the left, we have AMD Phenom X4 9850+ Black Edition, middle spot is taken by Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 and Core i7 Extreme 965 is on the right. As you can see in the picture above, this is one of largest Intel CPUs, if we exclude Slot 1 processors.
But even more important than Socket LGA-1366 is the fact that this baby packs some serious horsepower. I will deploy this Core i7 as the main rig from now on, and my Spider system (Phenom 9950BE, ASUS 790GX) is going to take a role of development server for the new site. This weekend will be fun, putting 64-bit Windows Server 2008, Adobe’s Creative Studio 4 Master Collection, .NET 3.5, Eclipse and Silverlight 2 SDK and other shenanigans.

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I won’t go into fashion decisions, as I am not a big fan of acrylic cases, but I wish my friend all the best when it comes to cleaning up.

When it comes to the CPU itself, Intel Core i7 965 (codename: Bloomfield) works at 1.6 GHz in SpeedStep mode, and works at 3.4 GHz by default. E.g. it works in ASUS motherboard at 3.4 GHz by default, since the board came with Turbo mode on.

Intel Core i7 965 works at 1.2 Volts, the board was feeding the CPU with 1.208V, bus speed was supposed to be 133 MHz, the board was giving out 135.9 MHz (which means QPI is clocked at 3.23 GHz instead of 3.2 GHz), but if you want, you can turn the Turbo mode off. Since Core i7 Extreme is made for overclocking anyways, expect that this system will undergo a nice air cooling upgrade and then target 4 GHz on air.

One thing is certain: somebody is really, really lucky

You are free to use images from the gallery, just please link to this post. If there are interested, resolution is 2048×1536, since all pics were taken with a Sony Ericsson phone. And yes, my Nokia N93i would make way better ones

P.S. If you wonder why Intel chose the name 965 for its Core i7 series, reason is very simple: company wanted to revisit its failed NetBust marchitecture and relive the glory days. Pentium EE 965 was a 150W consuming (that was advertised, reality was a bit different… for the worse) monster that failed to beat AMD processors that worked at much less clocks… now, Intel is challenging AMD with the new 965.

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