Final words and verdict

Final words and verdict

With the new processors introduced by Intel today they finally bring something new and refreshing to an otherwise slightly dull 2009 processor market, well let me rephrase that and apply it to the technology sector as a whole. From what we have seen, Lynnfield proves to be a very promising processor series offering a grand user experience. The performance certainly is there, the flexibility you seek most definitely is and the tweaking potential didn't disappoint either. I mean this is just the reference review, go check out our P55 motherboard reviews and see what happens there. As extension of this artcile, please read our MSI P55 GD80 review posted today as well (highly recommended).

When it comes to performance the new 800 series are really really good. I mean, Intel cut away features yet was able to get even more out of the architecture. As such, the new Lynnfield processors really shine. One thing kept haunting through my head though. This processor series is meant to be introduced as a higher class mainstream processor series and that seems to be a bit of a paradox. Let's analyze final pricing and expenses for a minute:

• Core i5 750 [2.66 GHz] 199 USD
• Core i7 860 [2.80 GHz] 285 USD
• Core i7 870 [2.93 GHz] 555 USD
• Add a P55 motherboard -- range 150 to 250 USD

These processor prices are the prices per 1000 units excl VAT

Now as you can see, the Core i7 870 is priced at a beefy 550+ USD. And sure it is a grand processor that overclocks really well. But that 870 is actually competing with Core i7 940 / 950 which have their multipliers unlocked and come triple-channel memory, allowing more flexibility all for the same money. As much as I like the product, I find the 870 hard to position at that price level.

Next in line is the Core i7 860, and at sub 300 USD this is the one. It is here that I strongly feel the Core i7 860 might become the real sweet spot processor, it is the exact same product as the 870, yet only has one multiplier step lower resulting in a base frequency of 2800 MHz. Since that multiplier is locked your overclocking experience might be hindered a little bit, but 3.8 to 4.0 GHz should be manageable on air-cooling. Price / performance wise this is going to be one of the most interesting processors in the Lynnfield series. But still... locked multipliers, and it lacks triple-channel memory. Something a similar priced Core i7 920 doesn't have. But the Core i7 860 at that price versus performance is easily my favourite product today.

Then the more mainstream Core i5 750. For roughly 200 USD this processor is truly grand and will compete with AMD's latest Phenom II 955 and 965 processors. It's priced right and opens up a nice can of processing power. Now I'll be very fair here... my money would still be going to a Core i7 920 which has an unlocked QPI/memory multiplier and triple-channel memory. And I know that doesn't make sense money wise, but just look at the benchmarks, the lack of Hyper Threading really kills off performance in situations that demand it.

On that topic, yeah... what puzzled me somewhat about the Core i5 750 is that Intel decided to cut away Hyper Threading from the Core i5 700 series. I mean, when Nehalem was introduced, next to the architecture, two things really popped out as classy and exciting: these were triple-channel memory and Hyper Threading. Now, the dual-channel memory controller is point-to-point based and really... offers so much bandwidth and tweaking flexibility that really, the lack of triple-channel memory is not at all that important. But the lack of Hyper Threading on the Core i5 750 I feel is a bit of a missed opportunity. Likely Intel did not want the 750 to compete with the 920 too much.

Why this long and somewhat incommodious conclusion you might ask? Well, the problem is that everything, and I do mean everything, needs to be compared in a price / performance ratio. As good as this series is, the new Lynnfield based processors all have to be matched with P55 chipset based motherboards, and the dilemma is... these won't be that cheap at all. We expect most motherboards to sell in the 150~200 USD price range with an exception here and there at the 100 to 150 USD mark, for the really high-end we even expect to see 250 USD motherboards. Very similar to X58 motherboards, yet you gain some more restrictions.

When you sum prices up, that makes it P55 / Lynnfield a pretty posh combination. The difference in-between an X58 / 920 and P55 / 750 could be as little as 50 to 75 USD depending on your choice of motherboard. And for that difference X58 / 920 just makes more sense performance and features wise. Choose a dirt cheap P55 and then that's of course the big winner. It's all a little relative to each other really.

We feel prices for the P55 chipset and Lynnfield processors will need to come down a little bit further in order for this series to really shine. I mean, don't get me wrong here... it is worth the money, heck every penny... but yeah, Core i7 series 900 and X58 are smack down in the middle dominating that Lynnfield/P55 crossroad.

But enough on that.

If we weigh out the price and compare more to the performance and features of the Lynnfield based processors and look purely at the hardware, then most definitely we like the Core i7 800 series the best. The Core i7 870 really took me by surprise in both performance and overclockablility. However, especially that 860 processor will be really interesting. The processors offer fantastic performance and have Hyper Threading which helps out in a lot of CPU intensive applications. For example if you transcode videos a lot... you have no idea what's coming at you.

For gaming all of the processors shown today are plenty beefy enough, you'll enjoy them very much. Hyper Threading doesn't matter much in gaming (yet), so the sub-200 USD Core i5 750 would make a marvelous solution for your gaming needs. Bear in mind though that if you decide to go SLI or Crossfire, your two PCIe slots will be split up in x8 / x8 PCIe lanes on P55, cutting down a little bandwidth. We doubt you'll notice a difference anyway, but still noteworthy.

Overclocking wise you guys need to keep in mind that on all processors your multipliers will be locked at a certain maximum. However, increase the 133 MHz CPU base frequency and rest assured that reaching 180 to 200 MHz x your CPU ratio multiplier is a viable and doable option without too much effort. As such the Lynnfield processors will offer a strong overclock.

So we really need to wrap things up. The Core i7 870, 860 and Core i5 are all truly fast processors within this specific segment. The main differences in-between the i7 920 / 950 / 975 are of course dual-channel memory, locked multipliers, Socket 1156 and, for the Core i5 750 processor, the lack of Hyper Threading. Other than that it's Nehalem at its best running inside that processor with new five step Turbo modes that give it a lot of extra bite.

A big plus is the lower TDP of this processor range at 95 Watts, we like that very much as saving energy is important anno 2009. Not only is that green, it also saves you money on your power bill. That's win-win. If you decide to overclock, be careful though as power consumption (as shown) will get out of hand real fast.

Overall the Lynnfield processors offer tremendously good performance. We do hope to see the prices on the announced products and P55 mainboards drop a little, once that happens this will be a much welcomed and embraced platform. The Core i5 750 is a very interesting and seriously fast processor. Priced really fair at sub 200 USD, though we would have loved to have seen Hyper Threading on it.

Core i7 870 is a downright beefy and sexy product, but its price tag at roughly 550 USD is too steep, we'd go for Core i7 940 / 950 or even 920 really, with triple-channel memory and unlocked multipliers it just makes more sense.

Our shiny star of the day however will be the Core i7 860. Priced just under 300 USD and with Hyper Threading this truly is a gem of a processor. We have no doubt that you'll love it to the end of time, and with a realistic overclocking baseline of roughly 4 GHz on air cooling, this processor is in our honest opinion the ideal matching processor for the new P55 motherboard platform.

So there you have it: The Lynnfield series processors come very much recommended. The Core i5 750 and Core i7 870 come very much recommended, but that Core i7 860 makes the most sense price performance wise.

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Bottom line: Lynnfield rocks  -- Bring it on, we love hardware like this!