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@ 2010/10/05Believe it or not, Intel's top-of-the-line Core i7-980X Extreme is a pretty compelling value, at least within the context of a high-end system build. That's uncommon for a halo product that costs an even grand, but we shouldn't be surprised. The 980X's Gulftown silicon is a native six-core design built using 32-nano fabrication technology, so it's as cutting-edge as desktop CPUs get.
Gulftown's arrival ushered in a renaissance of sorts for Intel's LGA1366 platform, which includes the X58 Express core-logic chipset. As the original launch vehicle for the first Nehalem-based CPUs, the X58 has been around for just about two years now. Intel's flagship chipset is still a competent competitor, but with Sandy Bridge lurking just over the horizon, rumors of a six-core derivative swirling, and motherboards based on new 6-series chipsets on display at IDF, the X58 is destined to be deprecated... eventually. Even after Sandy Bridge arrives, the X58 will reign as Intel's only desktop core-logic chipset capable of supplying a pair of graphics cards with 32 lanes of PCIe 2.0 connectivity.
Gulftown's arrival ushered in a renaissance of sorts for Intel's LGA1366 platform, which includes the X58 Express core-logic chipset. As the original launch vehicle for the first Nehalem-based CPUs, the X58 has been around for just about two years now. Intel's flagship chipset is still a competent competitor, but with Sandy Bridge lurking just over the horizon, rumors of a six-core derivative swirling, and motherboards based on new 6-series chipsets on display at IDF, the X58 is destined to be deprecated... eventually. Even after Sandy Bridge arrives, the X58 will reign as Intel's only desktop core-logic chipset capable of supplying a pair of graphics cards with 32 lanes of PCIe 2.0 connectivity.
