Darn delays after delays are pissing me off!

When can I complete my build?!

According to some reports, Intel's "Q" series quad core chips are slowly being shipped. This code-named Yorkfield series of processors have been delayed since December last year. Yes, it has been an excruciating 4 months, especially for people like me who have been waiting for the bloody chips to hit the shelves. If it wasn't for this 'delay', I'll have my rig by now. Sighz...

Well, there are many reasons (or excuses) this delay. For one, some are saying that this is due to the lack of competitive pressure from its arch rival, AMD. I just love the good old days where both companies just battle it out and push their products' prices to record low ones. Competition is SO nice... Next up will be the incompatibility issues of the Yorkfield processors with various motherboards. Hmm.. This sounds kind of fishy. If the EXTREME EDITION of this series (the QX9650 to be precise) can indeed be released months earlier, I don't see why there are incompatible issues with the non-extreme ones which are also built on the same manufacturing process.

Worse still. Currently, these Yorkfields will be shipping in limited quantities for the time being. They will first be shipped into pre-built systems, so people who wish to pick one up for their custom PC are unfortunately, out of luck. Previously Intel promised that the Yorkfields are slated for release in Q1 2008. It's now the 29th of March for crying out loud! It seems like Intel is dragging it on till the final day of Q1 2008.

How disappointing
T'ang

It's SLI-ck!

Most causual gamers feel that SLI (two or more graphic cards running in parallel) is a waste of resources. This includes Bryan who had just bought his new rig. What's with SLI anyway? Most casual users give the "excuse" that you don't get x2 the performance when you double the cards. I think that this reason is quite invalid. I mean, it is uncommon that you can buy technology where performance is directly proportional to it's price. Take for instance a television set. Is the price of a 32 inch LCD half the price of a 65 inch one? I think not. The price of the 65 incher is a great deal more than the 32! Or more specifically, LOADS more than double the price of the 32 incher (~US$9,999 vs ~US$1,299)!

OK. To be fair, most users do not require such a beefy graphics component. This gives them little reason to do so. Nevertheless, I still insist that SLI-ing 2 mid range cards (e.g. x2 8800GTS 512MB) is cheaper alternative and is much more worth than dumping all your cash on a single extreme version (e.g. 9800GX2). In fact, the performance of the dual GTSes can rival the ludicrously pricey GX2! Just take a peek:

A real-time benchmark that you can trust

Finally, with the advent of one of the finest BftB (Bang for the Buck) cards, the 8800GT and maybe the 8800GTS 512MB as well, there's no better time to get your grip on an SLI rig.

Note: The same goes for AMD/ATI's Crossfire.

Impressed now?
T'ang

(benchmark results from http://www.extremetech.com/image_popup/0,1694,iid=203330,00.asp)