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sandy_bridge-e

Today, November 14, we see the debut of the new Intel Sandy Bridge-E CPUs, based on the new Socket LGA 2011: they replace the previous LGA 1366 platforms. The architecture of these CPUs reflects what we saw about a year ago for the LGA 1155 CPUs, which marked an important milestone in the evolution of processors. Sandy Bridge LGA 1155, although belonging to the mid-range Intel platforms, has in effect meant the disappearance of the LGA 1156 CPUs, but also of the LGA 1366, going to compete with high-end CPUs such as hexa-core i7 980X and 990X, because of its excellent performance, both default and overclocked.

[VERSIONE ITALIANA]

 

 

Intel is preparing to renew then even the high end of its platforms, updating the Nehalem architecture (Westmere / Bloomfield) with Sandy Bridge. The CPU for LGA 2011 are called Sandy Bridge-E to highlight the distinction with the LGA 1155 CPUs, and with CPUs for servers that Intel will launch at the beginning of 2012. The latter will be called Sandy Bridge-EP.

As announced, the architecture changes are not many. Sandy Bridge-E LGA 2011 platform represents an incremental evolution of the previous LGA 1155 platform. We find therefore a greater number of cores, bigger L3 cache (up to 15 MB), a greater number of memory channels (4), a larger number of PCI Express links (40), some additional features such as a more flexible overclocking, supported memory frequency of 2400 MHz and the PCI Express 3.0. All taking advantage of the proven 32nm production process and a greater area available in the die, considering the absence (obviously) of the integrated graphics in this series of CPUs.

The LGA 2011 systems are dedicated to enthusiast users, the most hardcore gamer, and all professionals who want uncompromised performance, especially in price.

 front-lga2011

 

We will see in the following pages the features in detail by analyzing especially the CPU performance of the flagship Core i7 3690X belonging to the Extreme Edition series.


New second-generation Intel Core 3xxx CPU

The nomenclature of the new CPUs partly follows the approach taken with Sandy Bridge. This new series of CPUs, even if still belonging to the second generation will have a nomenclature which still provides the acronym Core i7 to distinguish the CPU belonging to the enthusiast series (in this case all), and the suffix X and K to indicate respectively the Extreme Edition CPU and the CPU with unlocked multiplier. The numbering currently provides 39xx numbers for hexa-core CPU and 38xx for quad-core CPU.

sandy_bridge__CPUs 

Intel has announced three new LGA 2011 CPU for the platform, two hexa-core processor, available from today. This is the Core i7 3960X analyzed in this review and the Core i7 3930K, both with unlocked multiplier, 6 physical cores and 12 logical and respectively 15 and 12 MB L3 cache. The CPU 3820, quad-core with HT, and 10 MB cache will be available next quarter. All CPUs will have a TDP of 130W, a quad-channel DDR3 memory controller with official support for 1600 MHz frequency. Obviously you can easily increase this frequency by multiplier, as already seen for LGA 1155 platforms. In this case, however, the CPU easily support memory frequencies of up to 2400 MHz, allowing for memory bandwidth previously unimaginable.

As for prices, as was expected, the processor is placed top of the range around $ 1000, while the Core i7 3930K is positioned at a price of $ 550, very similar to that of the Core i7 980, which is to replace. The price of the Core i7 3820 has not yet been defined.

The starting frequencies of these CPUs are positioned just below 2600K and 2500K but this time 2.0 Turbo Boost technology allows increases in frequency up to 600MHz (with only two cores active) due to the increased TDP margin. With all of the cores in active state, Turbo Boost can increase the frequency up to 300MHz.

Obviously worth all the considerations already made for LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge CPU, not only on the operation of the Turbo Boost, but also in respect of all architectural improvements introduced in the second generation of Intel Core. Please refer to the article for a fast refresh of some concepts which we will resume without going into detail in the next pages: http://www.xtremehardware.com/recensioni/processori/intel-core-i5-2500k-e-i7-2600k-su-piattaforme-lga-1155-e-chipset-p67-analisi-e-prestazioni-delle-cpu-sandy-bridge-201101094621/2/


Sandy Bridge-E: A die with record size

20.8 * 20.9mm, an area of ​​434.72 mm2 which contains 2.2 billion transistors. These are the numbers of Sandy Bridge-E. In fact it is the biggest die ever for a desktop CPU. For comparison Sandy Bridge LGA 1155 has an area of 216mm2 (complete of integrated graphics) and hexa-core Gulftown CPUs (i7 990X) an area of 239mm2. What Intel has done with well 200mm2 more than previous hexa-core generation? From specification we note 3MB more of L3 cache and a wider I/O section: 4-channel memory controller instead of 3 and as many as 40 PCI Express lanes managed on the X58 LGA 1366 platforms. This is not enough to justify a die almost double in size.

Core_I7_LGA_2011_Die 

The image of the die provided by Intel is quite enlightening. These CPUs have 8 cores (including its L2 cache), of which two are disabled. Considering the image of a 2700K die, Sandy Bridge-E seems got from the displacement of two Sandy Bridge CPU, where the graphic has been replaced by the larger memory controller. The modularity of this solution is guaranteed by the token ring bus for access to the shared L3 cache, introduced about a year ago and in which they were already highlighted the clear benefits for CPUs with more cores.

ipotesi_ringbus 

We tried to outline in an image a hypothetical ring-bus operation in Sandy Bridge-E albeit with some uncertainty as to the direct access to the cache by the Uncore and memory. This is in fact managed by Sandy Bridge System Agent, who died in the LGA 2011 platform.

But let's try to shed light on the reason for the deactivation of the two cores. The first reason is certainly the TDP, 32nm process is really to the limit in order to ensure a TDP of 130W at a 8-core CPU. This is possible, limiting the frequency and operating voltage, but at the expense of performance in single-threaded applications. Given still the lack of optimization of a lot of software and even some games, it would be a counterproductive move to the main targets of these CPUs, the enthusiast users and the more demanding gamers. Another reason for the deactivation of two cores (and maybe even 1MB of L3 cache, 16MB compared to the theoretical two side by side Sandy Bridge) is certainly due to the problem of yield production of a chip that big. In a 435mm2 chip is easy to detect errors or manufacturing problems of any transistors that could jeopardize the entire operation of the CPU. Intel recovers not working CPUs in this way by turning off those core with manufacturing problems. Similarly they may select the most overclockable core, providing users with high-quality CPU.

The 8-core versions may instead be used in servers, where multithreading is better utilized to possibly lower operating frequencies. Images of some LGA 2011 8-core Xeon have already appeared on the Internet.

Finally, as we shall see, even with only 6-core the Sandy Bridge-E CPUs still provide high-level performance, improving substantially performance compared to Sandy Bridge in multi-threaded applications. The gap with Gulftown is instead evident in all applications. On the other hand, competition seems far from the performance of Intel's top of the range, so there is not great competition in this market segment such that they should push for further improvements of the "flagship" solutions.

The LGA 2011 platform offers significant improvement over the LGA 1366, we will analyze in the next section.


LGA 2011 and x79, the features of the new Enthusiast platform

We analyze the characteristics of the new Intel platform starting from the block diagram.

X79_blockdiagram 

The main change compared to the LGA 1366 is the shift of the PCI Express controller directly into the CPU, as in all other LGA 1156 and 1155 Intel platforms, the x79 chipset is also in this case a Platform Controller Hub (PCH) that covers the basic functions of the old south bridge.

The PCI Express lanes dedicated to graphics climb up from 32 of the X58 to over 40 of Sandy Bridge-E CPU each operating at 1GB/s. The configuration options are 2x16 +1 x8, 1x16 +3 x8, or 1x16 +2 x8 +2 x4.

With regard to the scheme we must make an immediate clarification. The PCI Express 2.0 is reported, while the support for PCI Express 3.0 seems to be confirmed both in the datasheet of Intel 3960X CPU both in the specifications of the motherboard, on the characteristics of supported processors. The same block diagram present in a preliminary version of the DX79SI motherboard reports support to the new standard, which allows to reach a total bandwidth of up to 8GT/s or 1Gb/s (as shown in figure). The block diagram is therefore correct and the PCI Express 2.0 wording probably refers to the standard supported by current graphics cards. The PCI Express 3.0 uses a new 128bit/130bit encoding scheme which greatly reduces the overhead compared to 8bit/10bit encoding of previous versions. The effective bandwidth is therefore still about double that of PCI Express 2.0 at 5GT/s operation that guaranteed only 500MB/s.

Almost all new x79 motherboards implement the new standard, which appeared some time ago in some LGA 1155 motherboards to ensure compatibility of future Ivy Bridge CPUs. Obviously, to exploit the new standard will also need a video card that implements this technology. The PCI Express 3.0 video cards will be introduced on the 28nm next generation planned for December 2011 (AMD) and February 2012 (Nvidia). The expected increase in computational power is impressive, but the bandwidth made available by a PCI Express 2.0 x16 link should still be more than sufficient to ensure no performance drop even with top of the line video cards.

The compatibility of these CPUs with PCI Express 3.0 should therefore be guaranteed, as one might expect from an enthusiast CPU designed for demanding gamers.

The CPU, as now known, has also a 4 channels memory controller, each with a bandwidth of 12.8GB/s.


X79-left-side-clean 

The x79 chipset is connected to the CPU via a DMI bus operating at 20Gb/s, which handles SATA ports, 14 USB 2.0, High Definition Audio, a further PCI Express Link, Gigabit Ethernet, and an SPI link to the BIOS.

With respect at what might be expected (even from the earliest descriptions), the x79 chipset is definitely the most disappointing part of the platform. Still absent native support to USB 3.0 standard, although Intel was one of the first promoters. The SATA connectivity does not bring anything new compared to the LGA 1155 platform, too. Only 2 the SATA 6Gb connections and 4 the 3Gb/s SATA connections. The motherboard manufacturers will have to rely on third-party controllers for both USB 3.0 and SATA for additional ports.

Finally, we report the block diagram of the DX79SI motherboard illustrating in detail the operation of an LGA 2011.



lga_2011-_DX79SI 

 


DX79SI Siler, the Intel proposal for LGA 2011 motherboards

In the press kit arrived to us the motherboard is "Siler" DX79SI, the Intel proposal for LGA 2011. Despite the wide range of x79 motherboards made today by Intel partners, the Santa Clara company has not declined to propose his own model, dedicated both to the enthusiast market and both professionals.

Intel_DX79SI-018 Intel_DX79SI-019 Intel_DX79SI-020thumb_Intel_DX79SI-009 

The packaging is attractive and presents a window that appears, opening the box like a book. The bundle is not complete, at our office has arrived only the mask for the rear I/O panel, some SLI bridges, a temperature probe and an Intel mousepad.

Intel_DX79SI-b002 Intel_DX79SI-b003
Intel_DX79SI-b001

The layout is characterized by the typical black and blue colors and a skull accompanying the very top of the range motherboards since the release of Intel Skulltrail platform.

Intel_DX79SI-022Intel_DX79SI-023
Intel_DX79SI-001Intel_DX79SI-002

Intel_DX79SI-003

We begin the analysis of the card from the top, where the 8 DDR3 slots stand, arranged on both sides of the socket and capable of supporting up to 64GB of memory. The proximity of the slots to the socket, requires the use of modules with low-profile heat sink, or special heat sinks, and so with liquid, tower like but narrow or with horizontal orientation. The LGA 2011 socket is always of Land Grid Array type, then with 2011 pins which sprout from the socket. The so high number of pins is due to the quad channel memory controller and the high number of PCI Express lanes. The LGA 2011 has a new docking system, equipped with a thread through the socket's holes, allowing a more practical and reliable attaching system than the old push-pin.

 

Above the socket is the powering system, covered by a heat sink with written DX79SI. LGA 2011 CPUs require a very efficient power supply system, because of the power required in oveclock and reduced space available, occupied on two sides by the memory modules. Therefore we almost always find "Driver" phases type MOSFET (DrMOS) accompanied by Hi-C cap type capacitors.


Intel_DX79SI-025 Intel_DX79SI-026
 

As expansion slots there are 3 PCI Express 3.0 x16, including two x16 electrical and one x8. There is also a PCI slot and two PCI Express 2.0 x1.


Intel_DX79SI-030 

For the storage connectivity side there are two 6Gb/s SATA ports (blue) and 4 3Gb/s SATA (black), managed by the x79 chipset that is cooled by an aluminum body, printed with a skull symbol of the Extreme Desktop Board, and by a heat pipe connected to another passive dissipating body.


Intel_DX79SI-027 Intel_DX79SI-028

As for internal headers we have 4 pairs of USB 2.0, a pair of USB 3.0 supported from NEC D720200AFI controller, 1394 port and audio connectors. In this area we also note two onboard power and reset buttons and a display for debugging.


DX79SI_Siler_Cityscape

Going back to the rear connections we see from the left, the Back to BIOS button, 2 USB 3.0, 6 USB 2.0, 2 Gigabit LAN, Firewire 1394a, and finally the usual audio connections.

 

Interestingly, all 4 fan connectors on the motherboard are PWM.

The BIOS interface is classic. The options and overclocking modes are similar to those of Sandy Bridge, but more about that will be detailed in the following pages. For now we merely point out a feature of this motherboard called Fast Boot able to speed up boot time by skipping the POST, if the system has no changes since the last working version.


Core i7 3960X and RST2011 LC: details

Retail versions of the LGA 2011 CPU, probably for the first time ever, are not equipped with stock heat sink. In the package, therefore, we will find only the CPU and the heat sink will be chosen among the various aftermarket models, including two proposed by the Intel itself.



Core-i7-E-EXT-box-1to1

In addition to a traditional stock cooler, oriented to the professional world (and to all those that do not overclock) and which is available at about $20, Intel also offers a high-performance liquid cooler, built on an Asetek basis. Equipped with a single 2200rpm fan with PWM control, the RST2011 Liquid Cooling has performances which may be comparable to the Antec 620. The fan is also equipped with LEDs to provide aesthetic appeal. It will be marketed at a price of about $100.

RTS2011LC_Product Intel_DX79SI-011 Intel_DX79SI-012 Intel_DX79SI-014 Intel_DX79SI-015 Intel_DX79SI-016 Intel_DX79SI-017

The LGA 2011 CPU present 645 more contacts than the LGA 1366, because of the 40 PCI Express lanes and quad channel memory controller. The mounting of the heat sink to the socket has been modified also to address any potential distortions of the pins in the socket.

 Sandy-Bridge-E-back-SHR
3960X 3960x-2

CPUz 1.58 correctly detects the 3960X and DX79SI motherboard data, even if it fails to collect data related to the RAM installed on this platform. We expect a new version with better support for new platforms.


cpuz-cpu 
cpuz-mobo 

Note the lowered multiplier from 33x to 12x in idle mode to reduce power consumption during non-use of the CPU. Without manually set the frequency in the BIOS, it's unlikely we will see in CPUz the frequency of 3.3 GHz. In fact the multiplier is raised in full load on all cores to 36x.

cpuz-full_load 


Platform and testing methodology

 

We performed the usual tests on the Core i7 3960X CPU. To this we added additional processors in our possession, we performed comparative tests on all of them with the default frequency and for further comparison we also performed a 'clock to clock' test at a frequency of 4.0GHz in order to have a better performance comparison of the different analyzed architectures. The overclock to 4GHz has been made only by the multiplier, trying to maintain the base clock, so you can better assess the intrinsic potential of architecture.
All tests were undertaken on the following platform:

 

platforms

So, in this review we have focused our tests to quantify the potential of the CPU benchmarks tested on the following tools:

SYNTHETIC

  • 3DMark Vantage: produced by Futuremark, 3Dmark Vantage is a useful tool to test the performance of your system. Primarily designed to track the performance of the graphics card, the 3DMark Vantage is suited for testing of the CPU that are increasingly a bottleneck in the system when it comes to graphics applications. The test was carried out only in relation to the CPU, disabling the 2 steps related only to vga.
  • AIDA64: AIDA64 is a software product from FinalWire that monitors the system by providing detailed information on hardware components. The software includes a utility inside the bench capable of testing memory and cache inside the processor.

DATA COMPRESSION AND MULTIMEDIA

  • 7zip 9.20: this well-known archive software contains within it a tool that can analyze system performance, reporting a value expressed in MIPS (million istruction per second).The test includes compression, decompression, and overall value.
  • Winrar 3 Beta 4: Another famous compression and decompression software for data archives. Inside it there is a benchmark utility that compresses a standard file suitable for this purpose; the software will return the compression speed in KB/s.
  • Cinebench 11.5 and 10: Software products from Maxon that allow, through the development of three-dimensional images and content, to test the CPU performance. Both the release allow to test the CPU using a single core, or all the cores inside the processor.
  • X264 HD Benchmark 3.0: software to measure the performance of the CPU using the x264 video encoding.
  • Handbrake 0.9.5: Multi-threaded video encoding software with which we will transform a file (a movie) to MP4; the process includes x264 video encoding, FAAC audio encoding and muxing into final MP4 container. The time it takes for the CPU to perform this task will be taken into consideration.


3DMark Vantage

The second last born of the 3DMark series (the software house Futuremark) highlights the processor performance especially in gaming, but in this case we have only carried out the tests on the CPU (2 tests), for which we can see that as regards to the default frequency testing, the brand new Sandy Bridge-E CPU is the best.


3d_mark_vantage

Performance of absolute reference for the new Intel Sandy Bridge-E, who, with his cpu i7 3960X conquer the primacy of performance.


 


AIDA64 EXTREME ENGINEERING

AIDA64 is the latest release of the test instrument and control FinalWire produced by the test in this case concerns the memory controller, the RAM and the CPU cache.

aida64_read

aida64_read

aida64_write

aida64_write

aida64_copy

aida64_copy

aida64_latency

aida64_latency

Looking at the bandwidth of memory and various caches, we can see how the new Intel CPU performance is almost always the ruler.

 


7zip 9.20

7zip is a great tool that allows compression and decompression of files.

7-zip

7zip

The chart speaks for itself, both to default and when is being pushed at a frequency of 4 GHz, the new Intel CPU top range is second to no-one with respect all the other CPU.


WINRAR 4.01 stable

Classic tools also dedicated to the compression and decompression of files in his stable version.

winrar_4.01

winrar_4.01

In this benchmark run with the well-known program a pretty obvious thing is noted. The scalability of the new 6core cpu based on new Sandy Bridge-E architecture did not allow a perfect performance scaling by the change from the 4 cores of 2600K to 6 cores.  Although the margin of increase from 2600K i7 CPU Intel is substantial. It is still worth noting that the CPU manufactured by AMD and current range can be very close when they are at the default frequency, while the gap increases when you compare them clock to clock to 4 GHz.


WINRAR 4.10 beta

Tool in beta version of the known file compression and decompression program.

winrar_4.10_beta

winrar_4.10

As in the stable version, even in the beta version of WinRAR the same considerations apply.


Cinebench 11.5

With the Maxton Cinema 4D software dedicated to the production of movies, we can detect all the computing power of the new Intel esacore.

ciinebench_11

cinebench11

In Cinebench we see how the new Intel CPU scores a really high score, especially in the total score, thanks to the strength of its 6 core. It's interesting to note that in the 4 GHz comparison to test the efficiency of the different CPU architectures, in the single core score, the 3960X gets the same score of the Intel i7 2600K CPU: 1.62 points.

 


Cinebench 10

Older version of Cinebench above, in this test we can see the result on the 'Processor Speed-up':

ciinebench_10

cinebench10

Again, as in the previous version of Cinebench 11.5, very similar considerations apply.


 

X264 Benchmark HD

Instrument that measures how quickly our system encodes a small movie in HD quality, this benchmark shows how accurately and efficiently (in Frames Per Second) can be the encoding.

x264hd

x264hd

It can be extensively seen in the 1st Pass the difference with all other CPUs, it becomes very substantial. The presence of 6-core in the new CPU united to the new Sandy Bridge-E architecture allows you to get the top performances.


Handbrake

We performed this conversion test of a 714MB DIVX movie (.Avi), turning it into Media Player format (.Mp4) employing this excellent piece of 'free' software.

handbrake

handbrake

In this test, the strength of the Intel's 6-core with the debut of this new CPU is felt without a shadow of doubt. The difference with the other CPU is really high.



Core i7 3960X overclocking

The Sandy Bridge-E platforms overclocking incorporates many of the factors already introduced by the LGA 1155 platform, but it introduces new variables into play. The easiest way to overclock is via the Turbo multipliers. Thereby let's increase the current limit of the Turbo Boost technology to overcome the TDP of 130W and avoid dips in frequency at full load, and set the turbo multiplier at the desired frequency divided by 100, which is still the basic clock pulse. In previous generations many "old school" users have complained of the impossibility to increase the base clock (corresponding to the former FSB). The main reason was attributed to the external clock generator adopted by the LGA 1155 platforms. Although in the LGA 2011 clock generator has been integrated into the x79 chipset, possible changes of the base clock without running into instability directly remain in a maximum range of +/-10 MHz. Nevertheless, Intel has introduced a new degree of freedom that consists of a multiplier of the FSB, settable to the values ​​of 1.25x and 1.66x The effect is to actually change the base clock bringing to 125 MHz and 166 MHz, respectively, which can be further modified with baseclock adjustments through the generator. Recall that the increase in baseclock also involves the inevitable increase in the frequency of RAM, this usually leads to an increase in overall system performance, but also to an instability of the system components associated with the base clock. To avoid this, there have been some fixes both for the PCI Express (PEG Link), both for the communication bus to the chipset (DMI link). Through these fixes you can stabilize the operating frequency to the one defined by the standard to avoid possible malfunctions and damage, especially if overclocking the base clock. We had no way of testing the 3830K CPU, but considering the classification as a partially unlocked, we can expect the lack of the basic clock multipliers and their fixes. In the coming days we will perform thorough testing to understand the impact of the increase in base clock on performance, with the same frequency of the CPU and RAM.

 

Due to the limited time available (the platform has come to the office a few days ago) we made only a quick overclocking test, cooling the Core i7 3960X with a dedicated liquid cooling system. We have achieved quite easily the 4.8GHz frequency, changing the Turbo multiplier and the vcore.

 



CineBench_4800 Spi_1M_4800
  

Conclusions

We conclude this first part of the analysis of the new Intel platform, appreciating the excellent performance of this CPU, as indeed one would expect from a esacore based on Sandy Bridge architecture. The LGA 2011 platform presents some very interesting aspects, but also some negative aspects. The introduction of PCI Express 3.0 is definitely a great news, especially for the large number of lines present, which makes the platform suitable for high-level gaming systems, with the possibility of having up to 4 video cards with high bandwidth up to well 500MB/s (PCI-E 3.0 x8). Very good the operation of the Turbo Boost technology that allows the frequency increases up to 600 MHz for single-threaded applications, making the CPU very efficiently in even the older generation application, where the multi-core is not exploited.

Intel still has room for improvement, because, as mentioned, the Sandy Bridge-E CPUs integrate 8 cores already inside them, although two have been disabled. The position of advantage over the competition allowed it to not speed up the development too much, giving up to many features of the x79 chipset to avoid potential errors such as happened with the bug of the P67. Precisely under the aspect of storage connections, the x79 chipset is very poor, resulting in fact similar to the Z68 and P67 chipset, with only two 6 Gb/s SATA ports. The Intel controller is among the fastest embedded controllers, but AMD had already in his chipset up to 6 6Gb/s SATA ports and up to 4 USB 3.0.

Before making a final evaluation on this platform, the staff of XtremeHardware have decided to make more extensive testing, which previously were not possible because of the short time available. These tests will assess the SLI performance, the impact of the memory frequency and number of channels, and finally the impact of overclocking on the performance.


Leonardo Angelini
Valter d'Attoma
Translated by Marco Comerci
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Conclusions

We conclude this first part of the analysis of the new Intel platform, appreciating the excellent performance of this CPU, as indeed one would expect from a esacore based Sandy Bridge architecture. The LGA 2011 platform presents some very interesting aspects, but also some negative aspect. The introduction of PCI Express 3.0 is definitely a great news, especially for the large number of lines present, which makes the platform suitable for high-level gaming systems, with the possibility of having up to 4 video cards with high bandwidth up to well 500MB/s (PCI-E 3.0 x8). Very good the operation of the Turbo Boost technology that allows the frequency increases up to 600 MHz for single-threaded applications, making the CPU very efficiently in even the older generation application, where the multi-core is not exploited.

Intel still has room for improvement, since as mentioned, the Sandy Bridge CPU-E integrates 8 cores already inside them, although two have been disabled. The position of advantage over the competition allowed it to not press the accelerator too much, giving up to many features of the x79 chipset to avoid potential errors such as happened with the bug of the P67. Precisely under the aspect of storage connections, the x79 chipset is very poor, resulting in fact not unlike the Z68 and P67 chipset, with only two 6 Gb/s SATA ports. The Intel controller is among the fastest embedded controllers, but AMD had for long in his chipset up to 6 6Gb/s SATA ports and up to 4 USB 3.0.  

Before making a final decision on this platform, the staff of XtremeHardware decided to make more extensive testing, which previously were not possible because of the short time available. These tests will be to assess the SLI performance, the impact of the memory frequency and number of channels, and finally the impact of overclocking on the performance.

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