New Intel chips hit the market

INTRODUCTION:

2010 has the IT world at a turning point and we are not surprised to see Intel step up and deliver once again. Computer chips are evolving at an astonishing pace and manufacturers from different fields are working together to bring us faster, more economical, more reliable components. When new technology is being introduced in one field, the other fields are racing to adapt and provide support and this leads to further expansion.
With the introduction of DDR3 motherboards, QPI (quick path interconnect), SATA 2 Hard Drives, USB 3.0, PCI Express 2.0 Graphic Cards, 2way-3way-4way SLI/CrossFire Graphic Card Support we are seeing a revolution. This happens once every 5-7 years. After this turning point, manufacturers will continue to improve and work on the same platforms and standards until they are fully used.

DETAILS:

New 2010 Intel® Core™ i3 processor
New 2010 Intel® Core™ i5 processor
New 2010 Intel® Core™ i7 processor

Here at Aliencore Computers we like to keep things simple. So we will let the numbers speak for themselves and not worry too much about definitions and technical information.
Let's have a closer look at the differences between the three new processor families and how they affect our computers:

i3 Family

*source: http://www.intel.com/en_AU/consumer/products/processors/corei3-specs.htm

i5 Family

*source: http://www.intel.com/en_AU/consumer/products/processors/corei5-specs.htm

i7 Family

*source: http://www.intel.com/en_AU/consumer/products/processors/corei7-specs.htm

*1 WHAT IS INTEL TURBO BOOST? It is a revolutionary technology that allows 4core CPUs to boost or increase their clock speed by shutting down 2 cores and becoming 2core CPUs. This is done automatically according to the system demand

*2 WHAT IS INTEL HYPER-THREADING? It has been used in Intel chips since Pentium 4 and it allows one give core to accept two simultaneous commands. In other words a core can multitask. That is why you can see a 4core CPU having 8 threads.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT ME OR MY PC:

What we are experiencing here is revolutionary technology made affordable. So given 2010's environment where we have all of the above mentioned technologies come together, it makes sense to implement state of the art Central Processing Units (CPUs) in our computers. That must be done in order to prevent bottle necks and performance waste.

So you are faced with two scenarios at this milestone:

i. Upgrading your old system: let's say your computer runs the "old" 775 pin intel socket on a DDR2 platform. You can upgrade to another better 775 pin socket CPU and face the same scenario in the next year or so. Or you can upgrade your computer to the new 1156 or 1366 pin socket CPUs according to your needs.

OUR PROFESSIONAL OPINION: As stated in the DDR2 vs DDR3 article, you are better off investing your money in a current, brand new technology that will be here for quite a while. A technology that will allow you to bring your computer back up to speed with only a couple of hundred dollars. So in the next 4-5 years when you'll find yourself in an upgrade scenario your cost will be minimal because you have the latest and current sockets. But if you stick to 775 pin sockets it is guaranteed that you will have to upgrade one or more parts within 1-2 years. And at that point an upgrade in the same family or socket will be too costly (that means you'll need a new motherboard because the 775 pin socket doesn't match the 1156 or 1366 pins of the new CPUs), so you will consider renewing your entire system. Your cost will be sky high considering the mistake done 1-2 years before when you didn't choose the new sockets over the old 775 pin.

ii. Building a brand new system: let's say you are on your way to the shop looking for a new computer system. The choice is still out there... Do you choose Intel's new range of CPUs or stick to the "old" Core2Duo and Core2Quad families. And this is where we have to issue a warning: 80%-85% of the computer systems found in the shops at the moment are still based on the old 775 pin sockets.

OUR PROFESSIONAL OPINION: If you fall in the trap and buy one, when the time comes and you have to upgrade in the next 1-2 years, you won't be able to fit the new generation chips onto the same motherboard because those new families (as seen above) have either 1156 or 1366 pins. So you will be FORCED to upgrade the motherboard which means you are upgrading the RAM too. And all of that means you are buying another computer. And all of this means that you have just wasted a lot of money.

CONCLUSION:

Please remember one thing... this is the turning point in technology. It is seen in Cameras, TVs, Camcorders, everywhere. Now we have it in computer technology.

And that is why you will see Aliencore Computers implement the new Intel chips in 95% of our computer systems that have not yet been redesigned or already changed to it. We will keep another 5% on Intel's old 775socket for the businesses and residential customers that require that kind of technology due to specific software or miscellaneous restrictions.

Please keep an eye on our website for those changes and be amazed on how we can keep the prices close to the same level but still offer state of the art, 'our-of-this-world' computer systems.