Anyone else waiting for the i850E and PC-1066?

[sep]

I'm currently holding my breathe and waiting for motherboards (Abit, Asus or Gigabyte) to ship the Intel i850E chipset. I was going to get an Abit TH7-II Raid board, but it's not guaranteed to allow OCing to a 533FSB. That goes the same for the memory (Samsung MR16R0824BN1-CK8). I don't think I'll get a Nortwood B processor, but want the hardware to back it up or almost guarantee a Northwood A (1.6a or 1.8a) to get a 533FSB.

Just want to see if anyone else is following the same madness...

 

[boyRacer]

Me. What comes after 1066? 1200? Whoa. :Q

 

[TechMasterChen]

I'm waiting as well Sep though I know we'll have to pay a premium for the memory and probably the processor/motherboard combo as well. I'm thinking I may wait for Nvidia's GeForce 4 refresh later this year to jump into a new setup, I'll just tweak my PIII 733 and GeForce 2 Pro until it pops. I can still play most games at a respectable frame rate, it's when the next gen game engines come out like Unreal 2 that I think will burn my system up and force me to upgrade finally.

 

[zzzz]

I am just happy running th7-2/1.6a at 133 fsb.

 

[Ajay]

I am. I'm looking to replace my KT133A/TBird 1.2(OCed to 1.33 at the moment). I've had too many problems with Via chipsets and have had enough so I'm going back to Intel. Seems like the best boards are the ones built on the i850. Hopefully the i850E will be even better (maybe it will get a die shrink and some architectural enhancements like the i845D). The only thing that would change my mind would be if PC1066 turned out to be astonomically expensive.

-AJ

 

[sep]

zzzz: I would be 2, but your not guaranteed with every board/cpu/memory configuration to hit that speed. What's your hardware part number (CPU, MEMORY & MB).

I will be trying to tweak my Gainward G2Pro450 as much as possible (see post in video), but Know I can't get the processor to OC AT ALL!

The price will be the facture for me also. If Premium is going to be 30% or higher for the new memory technology then I'll get PC-800 and just the MB. I expect the new i850E boards to come with USB2.0 and ATA133. When the i850 came out with RAID the price was $198 and now you can pick one up for $165. That's not too bad.

 

[PowerEngineer]

I'm holding my breath too... Like you, I had just about settled on a TH7II-RAID, but the BIOS and DRCG issues have put me off some. And like you, I'll also be looking at 533 Mhz FSB P4 prices and 1066 RDRAM prices to see which (if either) seem worthwhile -- and then hopefully overclock the other stuff back up to 533 Mhz FSB (or better )

 

[dbal]

What I found out after buying my P4T-E 1 month ago is that there is NO perfect mboard or manufacturer in this world.... So don't fall in any hypes about the i850E ASUS or ABIT mobos...

 

[sep]

I agree, there is no perfect motherboard manufacture. Each definitly has thier share of problems and success. These names where just some I would definitly look at first. I would hope that Anandtech would provide some reviews before anyone starts buying and getting disapointed.

What do you think we'll see first? Memory Motherboards or CPU?

 

[DKMIK]

When can we buy it. anyone

 

[KenAF]

> So don't fall in any hypes about the i850E ASUS or ABIT mobos...

Ohh, but the Asus i850E board (P4T-533) is great...official support for PC1066, bios options with all appropriate dividers, voltage settings, 600MHz DCRGs, at least 166x4=664FSB=PC1328 RDRAM supported, improved memory performance over the 850 chipset at the same RDRAM speed, uses 32-bit RIMMs don't have to be installed in pairs, etc. The Abit TH7-III should offer similar options.

Coming to an online store near you in late May....

 

[Ajay]

I think I read that boards would be out in May, don't have a link though. I've also read that PC1066 will come at the same time (makes sense, especially since I hear that most Samsung PC800 modules already overclock that high). I don't know if Intel, motherboard manufactures or Samsung have given any official dates yet. I want to build starting the end of June, so I'm likely to be all set.

 

[Ajay]

<< > So don't fall in any hypes about the i850E ASUS or ABIT mobos...

Ohh, but the Asus i850E board (P4T-533) is great...official support for PC1066, bios options with all appropriate dividers, voltage settings, 600MHz DCRGs, at least 166x4=664FSB=PC1328 RDRAM supported, improved memory performance over the 850 chipset at the same RDRAM speed, uses 32-bit RIMMs don't have to be installed in pairs, etc. The Abit TH7-III should offer similar options.

Coming to an online store near you in late May.... >>



How do you know all of this? By the way, with 600MHz _DRCGs_ a 664MHz FSB won't be "supported", but maybe it'll overclock that high, though I think that 1300MHz+ will be pushing it for most RIMMS. I haven't heard anything about an Abit TH7-III. The only company who's shown a proto board publicly is Asus (AFAIK).

 

[sep]

I would also like to hear what about Abit and the, guessing, TH7-III. It makes sense to keep this naming convention for the i850 chipset. It also helps understanding all the boards they offer.

I know this all of new technology with Processors, Chipset and Ram is scheduled to be released this year, these are the ones I'm ready for and want...NOW!

I was ready to upgrade my system in Feb. After reading or someone here posting about PC1066 I investigated and put sewed the hole in my pocket. It's defiantly ready to rip again. These are the items I going to try for.

Gefore4 ti4200 [Video] No Less!
Abit i850E RAID[MB] *opt without RAID
Samsung 2x256MB PC1066 [RAM] *opt for PC800
Intel X.Xb [CPU] *opt for 1.8A
*Price will play a facture for these decisions.

 

[Ajay]

Well sep, here a new Asus i850E pic from Cebit (got it at Digit-life.com):

P4t533

 

[Ajay]

It will only take RIMM 4200 modules (32bit RIMMS). Here's some good info:

Asusboards

Tomshardware

I still haven't seen anything anywhere about any other vendor producing an i850E based board (well, I'm pretty sure Intel will).

 

[THUGSROOK]

Ajay - lol! lmao! hahaha!



<< P4T533 to support 32BIT PC1066mem only!! >>


sounds like a rambus rippoff again :disgust:

i thought intel dumped rambus?

 

[Ajay]

Well, it delivers great bandwidth in a cost reduced package and takes up less mobo space. Unfortunatel, they'll probably be pricey out of the gate. Rambus is a pretty good idea, Rambus the Company are a bunch of freaking sharks, too bad. It's going to take 6 months for DDR Ram to catch up to PC1066 as far as bandwidth goes in production quantities.

 

[sep]

I also read this from Anandtech last week. What's unclear is what the i850E chipset will offer. Does this mean all i850E chipset will require 32bit RDRAM or is this like the preferred and dual 16bit boards will be available?

I do think RDRAM is going to look for premium pricing and if that's the case it will hurt them again!

 

[DKMIK]

<< P4T533 to support 32BIT PC1066mem only!! >>




Take a look at this link no pict ,but it is asus's Cebit site.

Asus Cebit site

 

[sep]

Thanks for the link. This looks like an awesome mb. Anyone know if Abit or other's are offering information like this?

The ASUS P4T533 incorporates the Intel 850E chipset with high-bandwidth 1066MHz RDRAM support to deliver the best performance for latest 533MHz FSB Pentium 4 processors. A maximum 2GB of RDRAM is supported with a peak bandwidth reaching up to 4.2GB/s. Play the most advanced 3D games without a glitch, and get the best performance out of today's memory intensive applications. The ASUS P4T533 and Pentium 4 combine to provide an ideal scalable, high performance platform for desktops and workstations.

 

[Ajay]

Well here's some useful info from EET. Apparently Asus is the only tier 1 mobo manufacturer producing an i850E/PC1066 board:

"But SiS' battle may prove no less difficult than Rambus'. "The high-speed memory controller for Rambus won't be easy to develop," said Joe Hsie of Asustek Computer, the only top-tier motherboard maker that plans to come out with a 1,066-MHz board. SiS would have to prove its reliability and show a substantial performance gain to woo motherboard makers into using the chip set, Hsie said."

There is some real interesting info here eetimes.