INTEL Z68 EXPRESS CHIPSET PREVIEW: SSD CACHING AND QUICK SYNC

Enthusiasts were forced to strike a brakes upon Sandy Bridge when motherboard vendors massively removed platforms formed upon Cougar Point. We take a Z68 Express-based house for a turn to see if we should wait for for for Intel’s loyal LGA 1155 fan chipset.

At a risk of sounding similar to a damaged record, Intel's Sandy Bridge-based CPUs have been great. But a initial turn of chipsets enabling a brand new LGA 1155 interface (H67 as well as P67 Express) is not.

I aired my list of grievances in Can Lucidlogix Right Sandy Bridge's Wrongs? Virtu, Previewed. And- we listened by a grapevine which there were even folks over during Intel who concluded with me—the dual Cougar Point chipsets shouldn't have been differentiated a approach they finished up.

In short, H67 Express gives we entrance to a HD Graphics 2000/3000 engine built in to each second-gen Core CPU, whilst motherboards centering upon P67 Express need dissimilar graphics cards. H67 lets we overclock a HD Graphics member (golf clap), whilst P67 facilitates CPU-based overclocking.

The enthusiast's preference should be simple. But there's a pass member of Sandy Bridge scored equally to HD Graphics: Quick Sync—Intel's fixed-function engine able of accelerating video transcode workloads (for some-more about what Quick Sync does, check out Intel's Second-Gen Core CPUs). That's a decidedly performance-oriented underline done untouched by P67 Express. So, we drew a end in which Lucidlogix Virtu preview: if Quick Sync is as critical to we as dissimilar graphics and- processor overclocking, wait for for for Intel's arriving Z68 chipset.

Z68 Express: What P67 Express Probably Should Have Been

The Z68 chipset enables integrated graphics and processor-based overclocking. So, we can feasible dump in a Core i5-2500K as well as offshoot a arrangement up to a HD Graphics 3000 output. But because would we wish to do that? No self-respecting fan is starting to revelry in a 4.5 GHz Core i5 which tops out during 1680×1050 in a simple diversion similar to World of Warcraft.

That's where Virtu comes in to play. You supplement a dissimilar card, bond to a HD Graphics-enabled outputs upon a Z68-based motherboard, and- Lucidlogix's program facilitates a most appropriate of Quick Sync and today's fastest GPUs. It's a matrimony of P67 as well as H67, with coexisting 3D as well as transcoding acceleration.

But there's a single some-more underline we left out of my Virtu preview: Z68 additionally supports SSD caching—the capability to supplement a tiny solid-state expostulate to a complement already using a incomparable automatic hoop with a role of speeding up review opening of interpretation cached to a SSD. The aim marketplace for this underline is substantially starting to be rather limited. However, for a folks who can't means 80 GB or incomparable SSDs as well as still need additional user storage, caching does work…and- flattering painlessly, too.

We additionally have an refurbish upon Lucidlogix's Virtu software. In my preview, we identified a handful of viewed weaknesses, as well as it looks similar to a association took notice. It not long ago delivered an updated chronicle of Virtu with my greatest censure addressed.

Which was it? Is a program better? Patience, fan grasshopper. Let's have a demeanour during a ramifications of SSD caching, first!

Patrick 14 May, 2011


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Source: http://www.digdod.com/intel-z68-express-chipset-preview-ssd-caching-and-quick-sync-1032023.html
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