Vampyromaniac

"All of this means that Intel plans to change almost everything about your PC. With all the new slots, sockets, peripherals and connectors, we take a closer look at whether the new also means improved performance. How does 925X perform compared to 875p? What are the performance differences in the 925X and 915 chipsets? Does DDR2 really perform better than DDR?"

Review: AnandTech.com

IamLakota

Nice review from anandtech,and nice to see my current Asus P4C800-E is on par or better
than the newer up-coming board/chipset. I think I'll stick with what I have for another year or so.

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Vampyromaniac

I wonder what all those extra pins are for?

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Tipstaff

Stupid Intel. What if, by Satans left testicle, someone bends the pin on the socket? It means instead of getting a simple CPU replacement you now have to replace the whole mobo! If it's an actual Intel mobo, no problem. Their RMA is unequal in the business. What if it's from Asus, Gigabyte, or, god forbid, ECS or IWILL? Asus and Gig RMA = 2 months. ECS/IWILL RMA = uh. yeah.. right. What RMA?

At least if you bend/break a pin on an Intel CPU you have a good chance to get an RMA on it.. maybe not 100%, but shit, better odds than the mobo.

One thing I didn't like about the review was that they used an Nvidia 6800 PCIe card. We all know this to not be a true PCIe card. In this case graphics performance would undoubtedly be nearly identical to the AGP8x card, and is useless to test. Hell, you'd be unexcited about the 915/925 too if you were a gamer and saw those scores! They should have taken the opportunity to do at least a comparable test, like a side note, with an ATI X800 PCIe alongside the Nvidia 6800 PCIe card.

Nice "preview", but I'll wait a little longer to decide "how long" it will be until I upgrade. At least until after someone uses a real PCIe card on one of the 915/925 boards, and not some "bridge-chip" wanna be.

Logla

Judging by the way the cpu mounts to the board, it looks like it will be very difficult to bend or break a pin on the mobo.

dj_stick

logla, according to some reports, the testers and manufacturers have been bedning these pins quite often, not a good sign

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dipstick

Are the pins on the mobo? That has to be, by FAR, the worst design I have ever seen in my life. No way this is true, it can't be. What a way to put the all the weight on mobo makers shoulders Intel, very nice indeed

Zardon

This seems to be quite an issue for alot of people. I cant honestly say I see a problem myself, I quite like the design, having used it. Of course if people are reporting there are problems with it, then of course ive no right to argue, but from my own personal usage of the board and the new cpus, it seems really strong. The pins dont actually "slide into" the cpu, they just touch the contacts on the underside of the processor. Tthe actual board stops the pins from going too tight, i mean you cant break them by "overtightening" a HS for example.

dipstick

Well, I've never even seen one myself but from where I'm standing it doesn't look like the best idea. If the pins don’t actually have to go into tiny little holes in the cpu it should be better than what I first thought. I will look for more pictures though, it's a very intriguing design none the less.

Zardon

You see the funny thing is, ive been somewhat in "isolation" here for a while reviewing hardware and ive just been chatting to my mate stuart (veridian3) and he has shown me links on inquirer etc about this and the reckoning that intel are moving the RMAs to the mobo makers.

I have to admit ive just found out the concerns today and I can honestly say I dont see any issues unless you put the cpu in at an angle or try and bend the pins on the mobo. I posted a clear picture in my review http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/x600xt/index.htm of the new mobos and CPUS specifically this picture http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/...underbelly.jpg which you can see the "contacts" on the underside of the extreme edition, the pins on the mobo dont actually slide into anything they just touch. and on the mobo you will see from my review there is a lip which holds the cpu, so you cant actually force it below a certain point to bend anything.

Im really at a loss to how this could be an issue, but as I said, im coming into this from my own perspective of spending the last while testing the hardware not reading what others say about it. ive emailed my friend in ABIT to ask him about this, so if I get an educated viewpoint of an engineer ill share with you guys.

dipstick

I was just reading through that Having looked at your pictures it does not seem as bad as I had first made it out to be. The pins seem to be thick enough to handle some weight. I was expecting something like the bottom of an A64 which would have been a total disaster in a setup like that lol. I guess we’ll find out over time how it works out for the end user but it doesn't seem like a bad design/idea to me anymore. It will definitely reduce Intel RMAs considerably though, that is for sure, so hopefully the cpus will cost less because of that.

Necrosis

I still think the 915 would be the way to go especially from the DDR/DDR2 comparison. Now I just want to see all the latest & greatest CPU"s againt one another on the new chipsets.

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Zardon

915 chipset seems like its going to be the best value.

Danhill

Looks like I'm going to have my 875P board for another year or so.

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Tipstaff

It's an interesting design, to say the least. We use Intels actual boards in our store for 3 reasons: RMA, stability, quality. It literally takes 2-3 days to get an RMA from them. With them, I have very little concern. It's with the 3rd party guys. Sure it's cheaper to replace a mobo than it is the CPU (cost wise), but from an installation standpoint, if they buy cheap parts, specifically the socket parts, there could be loads of pooched boards. Improper pin length, wrong tension, whatever, and you will see bent pins.

I should note that Asus' Intel based boards are the only other boards we use in our stores. After the capacitor fiascal last year Asus stepped up their quality. They've gotten better (and we've had less RMA with them too). Time will tell if it was a wise move, or not.

No_Style

The first paragraph of the conclusion summed it up pretty nicely. But these are truely the baby tests to new standards and future expansion. I'm also glad for my two 3.2 GHz CPUs even though they're B rev. Northwoods. It'll be another year and a half at least before I upgrade. (After Longhorn is released seems like a good guess)

As for the pin thing. The last time I checked, motherboards are cheaper than processors. So If I had the highest end CPU and a motherboard...I'd rather replace the board when the pins are bent. Besides, if you end up bending a pin, you shouldn't be handling PC parts anyways. With electronic parts and expensive parts like these, utmost care is REQUIRED! Harsh, but true.

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