{"id":22,"date":"2007-11-13T00:45:29","date_gmt":"2007-11-13T07:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/2007\/11\/13\/new-intel-xeon-cpus\/"},"modified":"2007-11-13T00:45:29","modified_gmt":"2007-11-13T07:45:29","slug":"new-intel-xeon-cpus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/2007\/11\/13\/new-intel-xeon-cpus\/","title":{"rendered":"New Intel Xeon CPUs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Intel<\/a> has released a major update to their Xeon<\/a> family of CPUs and Chipsets.\u00c2\u00a0 At the peak of the performance spectrum,\u00c2\u00a0the 5400 Harpertown series of Quad-Core\u00c2\u00a0Xeons will replace the previous 5300 Clovertown\u00c2\u00a0series released last November.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0In the middle level,\u00c2\u00a05200\u00c2\u00a0Wolfdale series of Dual-Core Xeons will replace the\u00c2\u00a05100 Woodcrest line of Dual-Core Xeons\u00c2\u00a0that were released back in\u00c2\u00a0June of 2006.\u00c2\u00a0 To accompany these new CPUs, Intel has also announced a new series of chipsets.\u00c2\u00a0 The 5400 Stoakley chipset will power\u00c2\u00a0the highest end systems, with the 5100 CranberryLake chipset being a more economical option.\u00c2\u00a0 A single socket CPU for ultra high end consumer systems was also released, the QX9650<\/a> Core2 Extreme.<\/p>\n

The biggest change in the new generation, is that these\u00c2\u00a0chips are\u00c2\u00a0based on\u00c2\u00a0Intel’s new 45nm<\/a> process.\u00c2\u00a0 This will allow them to run much more efficiently, requiring less power, and generating less heat.\u00c2\u00a0 There are also some marginal\u00c2\u00a0increases in maximum clock speed,\u00c2\u00a0but it is rumored<\/a> that the new process has much more headroom for future speed increases.\u00c2\u00a0 The primary reason I can imagine why Intel might be waiting to push the speeds higher, is that the competition from AMD<\/a> doesn’t require them to increase speeds to stay ahead, and they are holding that capability in reserve, in the event that AMD does release something powerful, so that they can respond quickly with a faster product.\u00c2\u00a0 Regardless of how far Intel is currently pushing the envelope, they currently provide the most powerful processors for most applications and uses.\u00c2\u00a0 The new release bumps the top models from the X5365’s 3.0Ghz to the new X5482’s 3.2Ghz\u00c2\u00a0(or 3.4Ghz for a Dual Core X5272).\u00c2\u00a0 The highest end chips also have a FSB increase from 1333Mhz to 1600Mhz (333Mhz to 400Mhz if you don’t count Intel’s Quad Buffering marketing terms).<\/p>\n


\nThe new line of CPUs<\/a> are cheaper than the older generation at equivalent speeds, which is always an advantage\u00c2\u00a0for end user.\u00c2\u00a0 Having new products on the market should also bring down the prices on the older generation of CPUs, which will hopefully lead to some bargains in the near future.\u00c2\u00a0 The new processors are pin compatible with the previous three generations of Xeons, all using the LGA771<\/a> socket, so it should be possible to upgrade existing Xeon workstations and servers with the new chips, but the FSB will be limited to 1333Mhz.\u00c2\u00a0 Any 5000 series Xeon system or above should be compatible with some of the new chips.\u00c2\u00a0 There are also some new single socket CPUs that use the more common LGA775 socket.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Many more LGA775 compatible 45nm\u00c2\u00a0varients will be released early next year under the “Core2” label.As of today, it is very difficult to find any way to actually purchase these new units, as both HP<\/a> and Dell<\/a> have not begun to include them as options on their current systems.\u00c2\u00a0 HP has announced that it will soon be\u00c2\u00a0replacing their XW8400<\/a> series workstations with the\u00c2\u00a0XW8600<\/a> series, which will bring all of the advantages of the new CPUs and chipsets to their line.\u00c2\u00a0 I expect a similar announcement from Dell, replacing their current Precision<\/a> 490 and 690 lines in the near future.\u00c2\u00a0 The new XW8600 will be based on the 5400<\/a> chipset, and will offer 2 PCIe x16 slots for dual graphics, as well as an x8 and\u00c2\u00a0dual x4 PCIe slots, and an older PCI-X slot for compatibility with older components.\u00c2\u00a0 It currently lists\u00c2\u00a0a maximum FSB of 1333Mhz, but I expect that to be upped to 1600Mhz as the CPUs that support that speed\u00c2\u00a0become available.\u00c2\u00a0 RAM will still be based on fully buffered\u00c2\u00a0DDR2 technology at 667Mhz, with up to 128GBin 16 DIMM slots, but still limited to 4GB for 32bit work.<\/p>\n

Currently, information on HP’s site<\/a> implies that the new systems will not be compatible with XP, and only with Vista, but I cannot confirm that.\u00c2\u00a0 I have\u00c2\u00a0seen it implied\u00c2\u00a0elsewhere that Intel’s new chipset will have Windows XP support.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Windows XP still offers many advantages, especially when viewed in light of current post-production software options, so that is an important question that remains unanswered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intel has released a major update to their Xeon family of CPUs and Chipsets.\u00c2\u00a0 At the peak of the performance spectrum,\u00c2\u00a0the 5400 Harpertown series of Quad-Core\u00c2\u00a0Xeons will replace the previous 5300 Clovertown\u00c2\u00a0series released last November.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0In the middle level,\u00c2\u00a05200\u00c2\u00a0Wolfdale series of Dual-Core Xeons will replace the\u00c2\u00a05100 Woodcrest line of Dual-Core Xeons\u00c2\u00a0that were released back in\u00c2\u00a0June of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[25,35,27],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}