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About one and a half years ago, Intel released LGA 1156, and plus three chipset P55/H55/H57.
As to CPU, main products are Core i3/i5/i7, and their obvious features are:
dual-core with built-in GPU, quad-core with built-in HT, and quad-core without built-in HT respectively.
As mentioned before, the primary goal of LGA 1156 platform is to replace Intel high-intermediate-level products;
besides, LGA 1366 is still the predominant platform for the high-level ones.

The product positioning of the new LGA 1155 is similar to that of LGA 1156.
To most users, they probably feel that the replacing is too fast. When facing three kinds of LGA platform, they even feel perplexed.
If future price of LGA 1156 can be lowered appropriately,
it is also a good trend that the platform becomes the mainstream for low-intermediate-level products.



At the beginning of 2010, Intel introduced 32nm CPU, and the related products are:
dual-core—LGA 1156 i3 and i5; six-core—LGA 1366 i7 980X Extreme, representing low and high-level CPU respectively.
As for 32nm quad-core processor, Sandy Bridge LGA 1155 will be released in 2011.

This article will introduce the latest LGA 1155 platform, and analyse important features about 32nm Sandy Bridge CPU.
As for the CPU, it is Intel Core i7-2600K, and “K” means that CPU multiplier can be unlocked.
The clock is 3.4GHz (maximum: 3.80GHz), and Turbo Boost 2.0 technology is supported.
There are 4 Cores and Hyper-Threading technology, so 8 Threading is supported, also abbreviated as 4C/8T.
And, the CPU uses 32 nm manufacturing process, with 95W and 8MB L3 Cache, is the highest-level specification amongst current LGA 1155.



Back side of 2600K D1 and 2400 D2:


The motherboard is BIOSTAR TSERIES TP67XE, and this brand’s products are famous for parity and overclocking.
The colour of the package is different; this time red makes the looking of the motherboard more distinguishing feature.


Accessories:
User’s Manual, Rear I/O Panel for ATX Case, Serial ATA Cable, CorssFire/SLI Bridge, Fully Setup Driver CD.


As for colour matching, PCB is black, and PCI-E or DIMM are matched red or white; the whole appearance looks not bad.


Red matching is an eye-catching design.
More and more electronic products are matched red and black,
the colour combination (similar to the colour used in automobile racing) that stresses speed or high performance.


Lower-left of the motherboard:
2 X PCI-E 2.0 X16: support 2Way CrossFireX and SLI technology, with bandwidth X8+X8
2 X PCI-E X1
2 X PCI
LAN chipset: Realtek RTL8111DL
Codec: Realtek ALC892, with 8+2 channels and supporting Blu-ray Codec technology


Lower-right of the motherboard:
3 X red SATAII: provided by P67 chipset, support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
2 X white SATAIII: provided by P67 chipset, support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
Power button, reset button, and debug indicators


Upper-right of the motherboard:
4 X DIMM DDR3, supporting 1066/1333/1600/1866/2133, maximum capacity of DDR3 is 16GB. Only by overclocking can DDR3 2133 above be achieved.
1 X IDE, 24-pin power connector

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Upper-left of the motherboard:
TP67XE adopts 10-phase power supply, the design that is enough for 32nm CPU. There are two 8-Pin power connectors,
which are usually seen only on high-level motherboard (such as for server).
The existence of dual 8-Pin is not aimed at high power consumption of P67,
but at LN2 users who have to consume more 12V under high clock (such as overclocking).


IO:
6 X USB 2.0 (Red/Black)
2 X USB 3.0 (Blue)
1 X eSATA/USB 2.0 (both Red)
1 X 1394
1 X RJ-45
1 X S/PDIF




In the past, I preferred not using a computer case when testing hardware.
But this time many net pals hope me to use a case so that the test result,
such as overclocking ability and temperature, will be more similar to most consumers’ condition.
The case is high-intermediate-level product
Antec DF-35, with 1 x top 140mm fan, 1 x rear white 120mm fan, and 2 x front variable-speed 120mm fans with white LED.
DF-35 has such advanced cooling system that it is helpful to keep the system steady after the computer is overclocked.


Test platform:
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K
MB: BIOSTAR TSERIES TP67XE
DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT4GX3M2B2133C9
VGA: GIGABYTE GTX460 OC
HD: Intel X25-V 40GB RAID 0
POWER: Antec High Current Gamer 620W
Cooler: Mega Shadow Deluxe Edition
Case: Antec DF-35
OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit


Whole LGA 1155 system in Antec DF-35:


BIOSTAR provides much software:


Energy-saving software has been very popular in recent years.
CPU can effectively lower power consumption according to user’s setting.


TOVERCLOCKER is BIOSTAR’s unique software
The software provides CPU, Memory information, and also shows H/W Monitor.


In TOVERCLOCKER, OC TWEAKER, which can adjust many clocks, is a useful tool to overclock.

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Default performance:
CPU 100.1 X 35 => 3502.7MHz (Turbo Boost enabled, C1E disabled)
DDR3 2135.2 CL7 10-7-27 1T 1.650V

The architecture of Sandy Bridge CPU is different from that of previous Core i7. The bus speed is changed to 100MHz.
And about other frequency information, the highest ratio of 1366 CPU is 133/1866, 1156 CPU is 133/1600.
Now the default frequency of 1155 CPU can achieve 100/2133, making DDR3 clock show better performance.

Hyper PI 32M X8=> 14m 57.750s
CPUMARK 99=> 540


Nuclearus Multi Core => 22513
Fritz Chess Benchmark => 27.58/13236


CrystalMark 2004R3 => 332817


CINEBENCH R11.5
CPU => 6.83 pts
CPU(Single Core) => 1.43 pts


PCMark Vantage => 19941


3DMark Vantage
CPU SCORE => 53268


The default clock of 2006K is 3.4GHz. After Turbo Boost 2.0 is enabled, the clock can achieve 3.5~3.8GHz by CPU usage.
Hence, the test figures above are great, so the result means CPU can easily deal with many tasks under any circumstances.
And as to CPU performance under the same clock, I find that LGA 1155 is about 10% higher than LGA 1156.
As to DDR3 bandwidth, probably with more advanced Memory Controller technology, I find there is 20~30% performance improvement in much software.
Therefore, about basic performance and DDR3 bandwidth, Intel Sandy Bridge CPU with latest architecture has made great progress.

Temperature:
System standby: 33℃~37℃
[IMG]http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/6573/bp67dt1.pngCPU in full usage: 44℃~47℃
Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum


Hence about the temperature of 2600K:
Standby: about 3℃~5℃lower than the temperature of 1156 45nm CPU.
Full usage: about 10℃lower than the temperature of 1156 45nm CPU.
It goes without saying that as to testing temperature, different motherboards display divergent results.
But through the comparing, we can observe the temperature difference between 32nm and 45nm of 4C8T.

Power consumption:
Standby: 84W


CPU full speed: 125W


As to power consumption, with 32nm manufacturing process technology, the power saving of this CPU is 30~50W more than that of 45nm Core i7.
So obviously Sandy Bridge CPU can save more energy, and this is also one of the reasons why consumers may prefer quad-core platform.

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Please refer to my BIOS setting:
Boot logo:


Main page:
Compliency is AMI UEFI X64 2.0


O.N.E page:
The default setting of Turbo Mode is 38, 37, 36, and 35, with better CPU speeding up mode in version 2.0.
As to DRAM frequency, 1066~2133 modes are supported, so users can enjoy better DDR3 performance.
CPU Base Clock shows 10000, which means current bus speed is 100.00MHz; if it shows 10560, which means 105.60MHz.
Therefore, the item may not show an integer, such as 133, 166, 200MHz.


The setting above is DDR3 arguments, providing users to choose faster arguments; of course, making the system steady is also important.
There are 4 modes for CPU VCore Mode: SPEC Volgate/Auto/Offset Mode/Fixed Mode
CPU VCore Offset +0.010~+0.520V
CPU VCore Fixed 1.000~1.790V


DRAM Voltage 1.300~2.200V


CPU Configuration:
Some functions about CPU, such as common HT technology; you also can choose how many cores you want to activate.


PC Health Status:
With built-in monitor chipset, you can know main voltage or temperature information.


As to overclocking, this time it is not necessary for LGA 1155 to adjust too many items.
So just focus on CPU voltage, clock multiplier; and DRAM clock, arguments, voltage.
Due to the limited scope of bus speed (about 5~7%), using K series CPU would be a better choice to overclock substantially.

As to DDR3, I use US brand CORSAIR high-level DOMINATOR-GT series—the latest CMT4GX3M2B2133C9.
GT series use red and black as colour matching; in recent year, more and more motherboard and DRAM also use the two colours.


The argument specification is CL9 10-9-27 1.50V.
Compared with DDR3 voltage specification (1.650V) recommended by Intel, 1.50V only of GT 2133 can make the system steady.
AIRFLOW of Red-black version with DOMINATOR-GT makes the appearance quality nicer.


CPU 3502.8MHz DDR3 2135.2 CL7 10-7-27 1T 1.650V
ADIA64 Memory Read: 22132 MB/s
Sandra Memory Bandwidth: 28132 MB/s
MaXXMEM Memory-Copy: 21755 MB/s

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CPU 5020.4MHz DDR3 2142 CL7 10-7-27 1T 1.650V
ADIA64 Memory Read: 25582 MB/s
Sandra Memory Bandwidth: 28475 MB/s
MaXXMEM Memory-Copy: 28139 MB/s


After CPU clock rises, the test figures of memory bandwidth in ADIA64 and MaXXMEM also rise obviously,
but not in Sandra Memory Bandwidth; this is the main difference amongst the three software.
And about the test figure of bandwidth, even if LGA 1155 and LGA 1156 are both dual-channel design,
the former shows about 20% greater performance than the latter does.
Although Sandy Bridge CPU only uses dual-channel design, its memory bandwidth can compete with that of LGA 1366.

ADIA64 Memory Read: 26605 MB/s
Sandra Memory Bandwidth: 29903 MB/s
MaXXMEM Memory-Copy: 29007 MB/s


Due to the limited scope of bus speed of Sandy Bridge architecture, about only 104~108MHz can be adjusted (depending upon each CPU).
The default CPU bus speed can contribute to achieve DDR3 2133 clock rate, so overclocking would not be a big problem.
If DRAM quality is good enough, performance over DDR3 2200 is not a difficult challenge.

Overclocking performance:
CPU 100.4 X 50 => 5020.2MHz(Turbo Boost disabled; C1E disabled)
DDR3 2142 CL7 10-7-27 1T 1.650V

Hyper PI 32M X8=> 12m 06.384s
CPUMARK 99=> 774


Nuclearus Multi Core => 32585
Fritz Chess Benchmark => 39.29/18859


CrystalMark 2004R3 => 427585


CINEBENCH R11.5
CPU => 9.82 pts
CPU(Single Core) => 2.05 pts


PCMark Vantage => 25062


3DMark Vantage
CPU SCORE => 65044


After 2600K is overclocked from 3.5 GHz to 5GHz, performance increases 20~30% in most software mentioned above.
When CPU is in full usage, voltage only needs 1.392V; hence, 32nm manufacturing process makes overclocking ability much better.
According to the related information I acquired on the Internet, 2600K over 5GHz is not commonly seen;
generally, the scope 2600K D1 is about 4.7~4.9GHz under air-cooling system.
The performance of Sandy Bridge is still better than 45nm 4C8T CPU (overclocking scope is 4.1~4.3GHz).

Temperature:
System standby: 43℃~46℃


CPU in full usage: 74℃~83℃
Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum


If you want to overclock over 5GHz, you have to increase voltage, and note that temperature also rises much.
If you prefer low voltage and temperature for long-time using, 4.5GHz can be steady under 1.272V only.
Users can set personal setting by their preference.

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Power consumption test:
System standby: 139W


CPU in full usage: 257W


Compared with power consumption of default clock rate:
Power consumption of system standby: 65% higher
Power consumption of CPU in full usage: 105% higher
It seems that the consumption increase so much, but as far as 5GHz high clock rate and high performance platform is concerned, 257W can be acceptable.

By the way, is 5GHz the maximum for 2600K under air-cooling? If fortunately, 5.1GHz can be achieved steadily.
CPU 100 X 51 => 5100.4MHz(Turbo Boost disabled; C1E disabled)
DDR3 2133.6 CL7 10-7-27 1T 1.650V

Hyper PI 32M X8=> 11m 48.382s
Fritz Chess Benchmark => 40.11/19251


As to the latest Sandy Bridge LGA 1155 CPU in 2011, 2300~2500K all use L3 Cache 6MB, and only 2600/2600K is equipped with 8MB.
K series are 2500K and 2600K, but other Sandy Bridge CPU, with limited scope of bus speed, may only have 5~8% overclocking scope.
Therefore, LGA 1155 is categorised definitely.
To the consumers who want to overclock, choosing K series is suggested, but with higher prices.
And most of the other Sandy Bridge CPUs may be suitable to the consumers who don’t overclock.
About the consideration above, I’m not sure that Intel is overconfident with Sandy Bridge performance, or that Intel wants to let LGA 1156 survive.

Originally, I thought that the reason why clock rate and power consumption of LGA 1155 platform made great progress was that 45nm manufacturing process became 32nm.
However, afterwards I find that all Sandy Bridge CPUs are built in GPU,
so it will be more convenient for users in future to use the chipset with display output function, such as H67.
Moreover, another advantage of this new platform is that it has higher performance of DDR3 and Turbo Boost 2.0 technology.



I use new generation P67 chipset in the test.
When manufacturers release P67 motherboards in the market, their prices, I estimate, will be a bit expensive than the prices of P55 motherboards.
BIOSTAR TP67XE is still featured parity, and the price is about US$160.
The motherboard supports the latest USB 3.0 and SATA3; unique BIO-Remote2 multimedia software; and THX TrueStudioPRO sound effects technology.
Furthermore, TP67XE also shows great performance of overclocking, so it can be a high C/P P67 product.
BIOSTAR now also aims for supporting multimedia software and hardware technology, making its products more competitive in the market.

I shared much overclocking experience about X58 and P55 before,
and I shall continue overclocking and analysing P67 motherboards from various brands in future.
If there is something this article doesn’t mention, I shall renew related information in the future reports.
Finally, I hope with the release of new generation products, the prices of previous generation platforms can be lowered faster.
So, consumers can choose more platforms with good quality at bargain prices.

This article is also in my blog WIND 3C. Any comments are always welcome

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Update
BIOSTAR TP67XE 1/3 BIOS - Internal PLL Voltage Override


2500K D2 OC 5404MHz


Thanks