So what's the story with bearlake?

janitor53

Weaksauce
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May 23, 2005
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I am right on the cusp of a new/upgrade build and was going to buy a mobo this weekend. Then I hear bearlake might be coming next week? What advantages will this afford me? I was going to go with the badaxe 2 and the 6600, is there an reason I should wait a week?
 
If you want first gen chipset with new memory support, go for it.

As I recall, the first DDR chipsets:

Apollo Pro 266 (Intel Socket 370)
ALi MaGIK-whatever (AMD Socket A)
VIA KT266

Sucked.

I dunno how the first DDR2 chipsets did, but..
 
Stop spreading FUD. The bearlake boards will have both DDR2 and DDR3 models.
 
Stop spreading FUD. The bearlake boards will have both DDR2 and DDR3 models.

Let me get this right before I look like a moron later. bearlake boards support both DDR2 and DDR3 on the SAME board or no?? :eek:
 
I think what he is saying is that the first generations generally are not that great, because, well, they are first generation. It would be better to buy the 6600 now rather than getting a possibly buggy chipset. I think that is what he is getting at.
 
I still want to see some results with those things, and them available in the US.
 
Nothing sexier than a wet bear. Anyways they are suppose to clock up to 575FSB. Also the main thing is official Penryn support as its still unkown how backward compatible it is with older chips.
 
so, does anyone know if a BIOS update will allow current badaxe2 owners to run a penryn?Will it be that simple or will it take a whole new board?
 
I strongly suspect that current 975X & 965 mobos will be incompatible with Penryn ....
 
so, does anyone know if a BIOS update will allow current badaxe2 owners to run a penryn?Will it be that simple or will it take a whole new board?

Didn't see anything in the last BIOS release notes. Could be another coming though, you never know. They may even do some "revisioning" to the current boards if it's cost effective.
 
Let me get this right before I look like a moron later. bearlake boards support both DDR2 and DDR3 on the SAME board or no?? :eek:
No, the boards are either one of the other. Both are 240 pin memory, but the key notch / slot is located different on the DDR3.
 
No, the boards are either one of the other. Both are 240 pin memory, but the key notch / slot is located different on the DDR3.

If this is true then I'm definitely not waiting. No way can I afford DDR3.
 
so, does anyone know if a BIOS update will allow current badaxe2 owners to run a penryn?Will it be that simple or will it take a whole new board?

The same socket 775 is used but their is an electrical modification needed for the Penryn:

"with regards to motherboard support, Intel isn’t making any guarantees about Penryn’s backwards compatibility. While Penryn will still use the LGA-775 socket that Prescott and Conroe have used, motherboard support will require more than just the presence of the socket. If the appropriate VRM spec is implemented, then Penryn will work on your LGA-775 motherboard, the problem is that motherboard manufacturers haven’t yet released information on which of their boards will support the Penryn VRM changes. If history repeats itself, you can expect very limited official support for Penryn in currently shipping motherboards and guaranteed support with boards based on Intel’s new 3 series chipsets (e.g. P35). We did see Penryn up and running on an Intel BadAxe2 board, but it had a hardware VRM modification done to it in order to properly support Penryn. Penryn may also be able to work on boards without a VRM mod, however at increased (potentially out-of-spec) voltage settings."

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=2968&p=2
 
No, the boards are either one of the other. Both are 240 pin memory, but the key notch / slot is located different on the DDR3.

Not true, the chipset supports both on the same board, but it's up to manufacturers to choose whether or not to put both on the same board:

MSI P35 - Has a close up picture of the 4 memory slots side by side with different notches.

The P35 Neo Combo is a hybrid motherboard with both DDR2 and DDR3 slots. Memory is configured for dual-channel operation, but you cannot mix DDR2 and DDR3 memory, they are exclusive to each other.
 
No, the boards are either one of the other. Both are 240 pin memory, but the key notch / slot is located different on the DDR3.

We will actually probably see both. High-end boards will be DDR2 only or DDR3 only, but there will certainly be some low-end boards that support both memory types (but only one at a time, of course).
 
How about any multi-gpu configuration, does bearlake support dual pci-e x16 slots ???
 
I was asking because those Asus motherboards linked to have 2x pci-e x16 slots, so it's fair to assume that this is classic 1x pci-e x16 + 1 x pci-e x4 buswidth on the x16 slots.
 
Not true, the chipset supports both on the same board, but it's up to manufacturers to choose whether or not to put both on the same board:

MSI P35 - Has a close up picture of the 4 memory slots side by side with different notches.
Well I stand corrected. Thanks. :eek:
 
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