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  • randercol - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link

    stop smoking and drinking guys and girls.its not wrote in any bible that our next generation will in future will take smoking and drinking.its our bad manners and we grow it very fast when we were small then we were alive without that things so why should now?
    http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2236...">http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2236...
  • alimaamoser - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link

    i think 55 is best anand....
    http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/dentas...">http://www.articlesbase.com/health-arti...-does-de...
  • jed22281 - Friday, March 19, 2010 - link

    looks like this users acct needs to be deleted for spamming
  • randercol - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link

    i think 53 is best for you and it is the best for you .
    http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/ther...">http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-ar...eanse-re...
  • alimaamoser - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link

    i think 55 is best.......
    http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/dentas...">http://www.articlesbase.com/health-arti...-does-de...
    dentasmile md
  • Nomale - Thursday, February 18, 2010 - link

    Is there any difference with h57 and p55 regarding xeon support? I don't think it's supported officially since it's aimed at the server market, but since it's based on lynnfield there seem to be no problem with p55 at least.
  • Mrkock - Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - link

    The first time I read this article, I got the impression that the H55/H57 boards don't support a Pci16x Video card.
    The second time I read this article, I was pretty sure about it.

    So is that true, that the H55/H57 can't support additional Video cards (like a Nvidia or ATI graphics card)?
  • Rajinder Gill - Thursday, February 11, 2010 - link

    Hi,

    H55/H57 will support a single GPU only for Clarkdale processors (so any 8x or 16x PCI/e GPU is fine).

    If you want to run dual GPU configurations you have to use a Lynnfield series CPU.

    regards
    Raja
  • jtsh0ck3r - Friday, February 5, 2010 - link

    Raja,

    For someone looking to upgrade an old system with an older PS with just the 4-pin 12V ATX connector, should they upgrade the PS as well?
  • Rajinder Gill - Friday, February 5, 2010 - link

    Hi,

    You should be fine on 4 pin with Clarkdale, unless you plan on very heavy overclocking. Load power draw is under 100 watts in most scenarios when you run these CPU's at stock (around 8~10 amps from the 12V connector).

    Hope the helps
    Raja
  • just4U - Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - link

    Ever since I read about there being problems on the 1156 boards with certain sockets... I've been leary about buying any 1156 boards. I'd heard reports that it was happening even to those not overclocking and for me that's cause for concern. I look at all the offerings and wonder..

    Is it fixed? Which boards would be effected? I'd like more info on that before I even consider purchasing the i5/i3 etc. Perhaps Anand can include information on all this in part2 or 3?

    Thanks.
  • Rajinder Gill - Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - link

    Hi,

    There have been no official updates from socket vendors/intel/board vendors as to the exact cause of socket burnouts we experienced on some fo the early 1156 boards. To date, it appears the majority of issues reported have been on boards that were manufactured pre September 2009.

    FWIW, all of the sample boards I've had for H55/H57 have arrived with Lotes sockets so far, although I'm not sure if that means vendors are not using Foxconn altogether. We have not seen any issues in testing thus far.

    regards
    Raja
  • just4U - Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - link

    Yeah that's another thing that keeps me put off. Is I don't know which boards are using the Foxconn. Anyway thanks for the reply back.
  • thaze - Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - link

    I just received a Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 and an Intel Core i3-530.
    An interesting feature seemed to be the Dolby Home Theater (i.e. Dolby Digital live encoding). However its software is hard to find, there's no reference in the Gigabyte CD's main menu. I eventually found it at \utility\dolby\. Install went fine but the program is crashing when executed. Maybe someone could confirm the same problem running Win 7 x64.
  • thaze - Friday, February 5, 2010 - link

    "I've forwarded your problem to our HQ, and your problem is duplicated.
    A solution will be provided by HQ very soon.
    Please just wait for my further information later."
  • Rajinder Gill - Friday, February 5, 2010 - link

    Hi Thaze,

    Gigabyte messed up on this one, their engineers forgot to add the BIOS string to unlock the Dolby features on the H55/H57M-USB3 models. BIOS F3a beta (Jan 8 dated I think) was pulled a couple of days ago from their support page and is due to be replaced with an F4 BIOS fixing the problem.

    regards
    Raja
  • thaze - Saturday, February 6, 2010 - link

    Thanks again for the details. F4 is out now and I can finally use Dolby Home Theater. :)
  • Rajinder Gill - Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - link

    Hi,

    Just testing the GB boards now, so will get back to you with an answer on this asap. I'm on Win 7 64 bit.

    regards
    Raja
  • Rajinder Gill - Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - link

    Hi,

    It appears you are correct. I just installed the Dolby X64 package and when I try to run the software, it crashes.

    regards
    Raja
  • thaze - Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - link

    Thank you for your reply.
    I also sent a message to GB support yesterday, will inform about their statement here.
  • crochat - Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - link

    In my opinion testing H5X boards should focus on IGP. Isn't that the aim of the chipset to use CPUs with IGP? Instead of the gaming benchmarks I'd be much more interested in multimedia and peripheral (firewire, esata, usb, networking) performance.

    Regards
  • thorgal73 - Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - link

    Just to let you know, Massman found the solution to the IGP overclocking problem :

    http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&ar...">http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&ar...

    Cheers!
  • Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - link

    Thanks for the link.

    That actually makes a lot of sense and explains the extra IGP voltage you have to pump - even though BIOS shows a fixed IGP freqeuncy.

    Probably a good idea just to make it into an Excel calc so people can use it easily.

    http://www.mediafire.com/file/2go0yotyz5z/quick">http://www.mediafire.com/file/2go0yotyz5z/quick igp calc.xlsx

    later
    Raja


  • Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - link

    This one's a bit better, easy to work out the required BCLK for and equivalent IGP frequency at various IGP multiplier ratios.

    http://www.mediafire.com/file/nhfnnedgzwb/quick">http://www.mediafire.com/file/nhfnnedgzwb/quick igp calc.xlsx
  • yuhong - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    "If you're going to use the IGP, you don't really need the extra PCI-E lanes, which essentially means that you're paying for the option to run RAID on the H57 PCH. "
    Well, USB 3.0 and SATA 6GBps takes 4 PCIe lanes.
  • Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    You're looking at $200 boards that offer both SATA 6G and USB 3.0 in tandem unfortunately. USB 3.0 can be had under $130, with enough PCI/e left over for upgrading IMO.
  • Nataku - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Just wondering (may be I'm just being dumb)

    Do you know if any or all of the h55 boards support dual screen?
    I've been wanting to build a HTPC and dual screen it with my TV and a touch screen, but wasn't sure if the video out can actually work in dual screen mode.(ran into one that only ran in clone long ago =.=)

    Also, this is off topic but, will you guys be making some reviews on touch screen monitors? HP and Dell are selling 20"+ touchscreens at around 300CAD but Firebox and Elo are selling 15" at 4~500CAD. Just curious how that part of the industry are coming along (20" too big imo to be beside a TV...)
  • Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Hi,

    Yes, dual display options are offered as part of Intel's drivers for the IGP. So you should be able to setup both options. I've tried with DVI and HDMI outputs simultaneously and it recognises both fine and allows you to set them up.

    Jarred's the guy for monitors and such, so I'll pass the info over to him.

    Hope this helps..

    Raja
  • Nataku - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link

    Thanks :)
  • Rick83 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    I am currently looking to upgrade my server and the savings from replacing the old nv 6200 with on-chip graphics are attractive.
    Now, normally this would be a done decision, but I am planning on running quite a few drives in that box, 14 to be precise. Currently I have one RAID 5, one RAID 1, one root disk and one optical drive, I will add another RAID 5 and another RAID 1 as part of the upgrade. All except 5 drives are attached via SATA. I already have an IDE-controller installed via PCI, but I'd like to avoid installing an extra SATA controller, as it seems much cheaper to just go for a board with 10x SATA on board.
    But due to my use of full-disk encryption, I'd really like to be able to access AES-NI, so it will have to be a clarksdale i5. There are P55 boards with 10 SATA ports, and X58 boards too, but I'd really like to go with the on-chip graphics, both to save what little pci-e I have on these boards, as well as to save the space and energy.
    Does anyone reasonably expect Asus or Gigabyte or MSI (as those are the usual suspects for 10x SATA) to release such a board based on H5x? If not, I'd best grab an old Gigabyte P55 UD5 soon...
  • Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Hi Rick,

    I have not heard of or seen anything that offers 10 onboard SATA ports on H55 yet. If I hear of anything, I'll let you know.

    regards
    Raja
  • Rick83 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Many thanks :-)
  • marc1000 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Bottom line: DON'T BUY anything from Intel this generation. If you are not an advanced user who knows exactly what you are doing, then it is best to skip completely the current products.

    I'm saying this because there is a great chance you will pay more for something that offer less, or will get a crappy product, or will buy something believing it was "awesome" only to latter find it was actually "mediocre".

    This is because the RIDICULOUS naming scheme Intel has chosen to use in the current CPU+Chipset.

    Like some other user pointed here already: there is not ONE way to know if you are buing a dual or quad-core CPU simply by looking at it's name. You MUST know the exact specification based on model number (that does not mean nothing more than an obscure performance indicator).

    And the trend seems to continue with the chipsets... you get a chipset that is more expensive and with less resources but the name makes it "look" like it is better!
  • HobHayward - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Unless I'm mistaken your description of the instant boot utility is misleading. At least on my ASRock x58 extreme, the instant boot function overrides the standard shut own procedure, and instead causes the system to restart, boot all the way back into windows, and then put the system into sleep mode. This way you have a fresh boot when you return to your computer, without having to wait for a full boot.
  • Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Sorry, you are correct, I've added some text. The latter feature is akin to hibernate (suspend to disc) for fast boot.
  • michal1980 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    I'm waiting for an editorial. The fact that you had to wait for multiple bios revisions for a STABLE build, is imho unaccetable.

    I almost bought one of these boards, and then remebered my rule, wait at least 6 months. Because mobo makers release CRAP. And no one in the industry seems to call them on it. People that work for anandtech have an insider edge for support, end users get fu*ked with shitty parts.

    Is it really that hard to launch with a stable OS? If the end user is to be a fu*king beta tester, then I want free boards.
  • YellowWing - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    I am interested in seeing more power figures for these boards with only the IGP. One of the unknowns in building a small HTPC with these boards is sizing the power supply. Many of the smaller cases come with small wattage power supplies.

    Power figures for each board with only the IGP will help size the minimum supply needed for these boards.

    I would also like to see the figures for the i3-530, which may be the most popular CPU for a HTPC build on Clarksdale
  • Bloodx - Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - link

    1080P/24 does not work correct. Until Intel releases a driver that corrects there is no point using this for an HTPC.

  • piasabird - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    So why not just use an E7500 and an integrated MATX motherboard?
    I have not seen any real comparison between that and an I3 entry level processor. My guess is besides HDMI there is not much difference. One advantage is with an older chipset you have more stability.
  • hyvonen - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Why i3/i5 + H55/H57?
    1) Higher performance (both CPU and IGP).
    2) Lower power consumption at load.
    3) DTS-MA/Dolby TrueHD Bitstream support through HDMI.
    4) Dual hardware HD decoding.

  • Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Hi,

    For i3 530 results, you can compare the i3~i5 deltas in Anand's coverage here;

    http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...

    That gives as a basic idea of what to expect. The actaul IGP consumption variance from board to board will be aroud 10~15w I'd expect. I can run some fo this stuff in the follow up.

    regards
    Raja
  • hyvonen - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Hi Raja,

    The MSI H55M-ED55 looks awesome for low-power HTPC, but the lack of undervolting is an incomprehensible miss on MSI's part. If they are as gung-ho about low-power as they claim, they should most definitely offer undervolting too.

    Could you guys suggest to MSI that they should add undervolting options to their future BIOS releases? I know Anand's team has a lot of influence on manufacturers, and this could really help out MSI and their customers alike.
  • Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Sure thing, I'll pop it in a message to them.

    regards
    Raja
  • hyvonen - Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - link

    Thanks - this is much appreciated.
  • YellowWing - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Thanks for the link to Anand article, but all of his power figures are for a machine using a graphics adapter. The i5-661 and i3-530 clock the graphics at different rates. So... imho it would be ideal to see idle and load figures for the i3-530.
  • hyvonen - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    SilenPCReview has a pretty good review on i5-661, where the system is configured for HTPC purposes (i.e., IGP & superlow power). They even touch on PSU efficiency at low power levels (the efficiency is pretty awful, even for a 450W 80plus PUS).

    http://www.silentpcreview.com/intel-clarkdale">http://www.silentpcreview.com/intel-clarkdale

    I've already decided to go with a PicoPSU that should give me about 80% efficiency at 20-30W idle.
  • hyvonen - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Oh, and I wanted to point out that i5-661 was idling at extremely low power levels in that review. Moreover, I've seen another review somewhere comparing i5-661s and actual i3-530s - in that review, the i3-530 idle power was higher! My guess is that the idle power levels are so low in both that it's all within measurement noise.
  • nuudles - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Hi Anand,

    Any news on when we will start seeing mini-ITX H55/57 boards? With more and more mATX boards mini-ITX is becoming the mATX of a couple of years ago.

    I know that there is one DFI mini-ITX p55 board at Newegg, but it is $147 with shipping, plus something like a i3 530 would be an ideal match for a mini-ITX H55 for a very small + low power system (HTPC, etc).

    Or if you add a small-ish video card like a 5750 then you have a nice and small (non-hardcore) gaming system.

    Thanks!
  • Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Hi,

    We expect some of these vendors to have M-ITX boards somewhere over the next few months (hopefully).

    Zotac have a H55 model that should be on sale soon:

    http://pden.zotac.com/index.php?page=shop.product_...">http://pden.zotac.com/index.php?page=sh...mp;optio...


    Nothing concrete yet from the big players in terms of release dates/models etc unfortunately.

    regards
    Raja
  • AstroGuardian - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Hello Raja and everyone:

    Would you be so kind and point me to a site or anything that has Intel and AMD chips compared? Live Lynnfield vs Clarkdale vs everything?

    I have been into hardware for a loooong time but i was doing some science work lately and i am out of grip with latest chips.

    Thanks everybody. This review was great
  • Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    Hi AG,

    I think Anand touched on some AMD/Intel compares in his Clarkdale articles. Have a look at these and see if they offer some of what you are looking for;

    http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...
    http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...

    regards
    Raja
  • Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - link

    Forgot to mention, check out the Anandtech bench beta for CPU performance compares:

    http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=2">http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=2

    regards
    Raja
  • JonnyDough - Thursday, February 11, 2010 - link

    Will there be a graphics chart beta soon too? Please say yes. :)
  • Rajinder Gill - Thursday, February 11, 2010 - link

    Hi JD,

    Can't give you a time frame on it yet unfortunately, but yes, we will be adding GPU's at some point..

    regards
    Raja
  • JonnyDough - Friday, February 12, 2010 - link

    That's fantastic news, there are other sites I just don't trust to do it right. :)

    I'm sure you'll be deliberating what test beds to use, and so on. We really need to see both dual and quad core, with at least a couple of older processors (939 athlons?) thrown in for reference. Or let us know the best card that those platforms can realistically support as many of us still use these PCs for gaming.

    Many basic users fail to understand resolution and their game settings. It can be tough to know just what your card is designed to do within any certain application. For instance, some cards run higher frame rates than others with AA turned off, but then with it turned on they the cards will switch. What would be nice is to see a chart that shows checkmarks and X's for "above X-fps" for games. Allow me to better describe what I mean:

    I don't honestly care if a card does 60 vs 65 fps in Fallout 3, just whether or not it can play Fallout 3 with max settings, and also play Bioshock 2 at max settings.

    Rather than tell me what FPS a card gets, just simplify by showing ranges. If my card can't get "above 30fps" put an X for that game on the table. If a game isn't playable below 45FPS, then you won't need to list it for any cards unable to do that many. Above 40fps for the next box, and so on.

    This sort of testing might not only make it easier to create your tables, but be more useful to shoppers. I don't need to know if a 5770 can do 120FPS in WoW because quite honestly, it doesn't matter if it can only do 60. I just want to know, can it play it with the eye candy on, or not?
  • deputc26 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link

    You run a tight ship Anand! :)

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