a little sneak peak ..... skulltrail

***Zardon*** · Feb 1, 2008, 04:51 PM

I cant divulge figures or benchmarks as im under NDA with INTEL, however here is a little taster

These things overclock like crazy and the motherboard is a beauty. now I just need to get 4 8800 ultras in the mobo

Review on DH in February at some stage, although ive a hell of a lot still to do with the review.

***Zardon*** · Feb 1, 2008, 08:03 PM

**Vikingod** · Feb 1, 2008, 08:10 PM

Holy cow, that is beautiful. Can't wait to see that review.

CDsDontBurn · Feb 1, 2008, 09:31 PM

i want one!!!

will there be a DH competition for one of these?

lol, jk Z. i know DH has many good competitions already

**ChaosMinionX** · Feb 1, 2008, 10:10 PM

Cant wait to see it Alan

EDIT: Love the use of the snippet tool in vista as well for benchmarks, dunno where id be without that its great for stuff like that.

Judas · Feb 2, 2008, 01:11 AM

smoken..

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · Feb 3, 2008, 02:53 AM

Mousey · Feb 7, 2008, 07:00 AM

That's hot Z, what kind of memory speeds will it support? Or does the NDA not allow you to tell us?
Yeah i looked it up, i finally know what NDA Means ;p
(Non-disclosure agreement)

**ChaosMinionX** · Feb 7, 2008, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mousey

That's hot Z, what kind of memory speeds will it support? Or does the NDA not allow you to tell us?
Yeah i looked it up, i finally know what NDA Means ;p
(Non-disclosure agreement)

It uses FBDIMMs which in short can be best described as this

Quote:

"Fully Buffered DIMM architecture introduces an Advanced Memory Buffer (AMB) between the memory controller and the memory module. Unlike the parallel bus architecture of traditional DRAMs, an FB-DIMM has a serial interface between the memory controller and the AMB. This enables an increase to the width of the memory without increasing the pin count of the memory controller beyond a feasible level. With this architecture, the memory controller does not write to the memory module directly, rather it is done via the AMB. The AMB can thus compensate for signal deterioration by buffering and resending the signal. In addition, the AMB can also offer error correction, without posing any overhead on the processor or the memory controller. It can also use the Bit Lane Failover Correction feature to identify bad data paths and remove them from operation, which dramatically reduces command/address errors. Also, since reads and writes are buffered, they can be done in parallel by the memory controller. This allows simpler interconnects, more memory bandwidth, and (in theory) hardware-agnostic memory controller chips (such as DDR2 and DDR3) which can be used interchangeably. The downside to this approach is that it introduces latency to the memory request."

Source: Fully Buffered DIMM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This sort of RAM puts out a TON of heat... so you dont really see much overclocking done on them. However Skulltrail I believe is able to take them pretty far, I dont OC server boards, so I only know some basics, but from what I understand they are very hard to OC when it comes to memory.

Neshi · Feb 8, 2008, 04:11 PM

how come there are already several reviews of this board out there, but Z isn't allowed to tell us anything?

**Vikingod** · Feb 8, 2008, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neshi

how come there are already several reviews of this board out there, but Z isn't allowed to tell us anything?

It's all in the DH review, which Z is neck deep into right now. Keep your eyes peeled, you won't be sorry

Neshi · Feb 8, 2008, 07:29 PM

can't wait

RoyBatty · Feb 8, 2008, 08:16 PM

Who cares about these monsters (though I wouldn't mind winning one

), get the Q9450 released already!

**ChaosMinionX** · Feb 8, 2008, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoyBatty

Who cares about these monsters (though I wouldn't mind winning one

), get the Q9450 released already!

Q9450 is very disappointing.... low multi, needs high FSB

RoyBatty · Feb 9, 2008, 09:55 AM

I know, but I don't plan any massive overclocking anyway...

Mousey · Feb 9, 2008, 11:47 AM

What i don't get is why people spend all the money on a cpu that allows them to lower the multiplier? Surely lowering it means LESS performance? That's what i just fail to see, unless it's bragging rights of course >_>

**ChaosMinionX** · Feb 9, 2008, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mousey

What i don't get is why people spend all the money on a cpu that allows them to lower the multiplier? Surely lowering it means LESS performance? That's what i just fail to see, unless it's bragging rights of course >_>

Lower Multi = Higher FSB = More performance from the system across the board, FSB is one of the major choke points of a system

Its also very good for highend benching with LN2 and Dry Ice and whatnot where you can use a lower multi and crank the FSB some, but usually you cant drop the multi too much, because boards/chips hit FSB walls.

CDsDontBurn · Feb 9, 2008, 07:20 PM

the problem i see with high FSB and low mulitpliers though, is that in order to maintain a 1:1 ratio, you gotta have some good RAM that can keep it at the 1:1 ratio.

**ChaosMinionX** · Feb 9, 2008, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

the problem i see with high FSB and low mulitpliers though, is that in order to maintain a 1:1 ratio, you gotta have some good RAM that can keep it at the 1:1 ratio.

Of Course, most enthusiasts will have D9 anyways, and it is more than capable of handling that.

kmonica · Mar 23, 2008, 03:10 PM

Nice! Is skulltrail already out?

***Zardon*** · Mar 23, 2008, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmonica

Nice! Is skulltrail already out?

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=524