SUMMARY: The latest processor from Intel has been released today which means our NDA has lifted and reviews of the new 2.8GHz monster is making appearances all over the Internet on various hardware sites, including ours. Cameron "Sov" Johnson gives us a look at the fastest Pentium 4 processor to date which is bridging the gap to 3GHz.
First off we see the Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz CPU back and front compared to the AMD Athlon XP CPU's that are currently in circulation. The Intel Pentium 4 is considerably smaller than the Athlon XP. Intel's Heatspreader on the die of the CPU is a very good addition, something that should be added to all new AMD processors as it does prevent chipping the die of the CPU and turning your shiny CPU into a very expensive key ring.
Heatsink, Socket and Retention Mechanism
Well, the CPU's may be getting faster but its good to see some things stay the same. Intel has been in the past notorious for changing its chipsets and even its sockets to accommodated its new processors where there hasn't been any need (remember Socket 423, how long did that last?). The 2.8GHz uses the same Socket 478 mPGA connector, Heatsink unit and retention mechanism as all the previous 478 class CPU's.
Intel, in order to achieve 2.8GHz, have raised the CPU core voltage from 1.50v up to 1.525v. Very small change but its still starting to show the 0.13um process is needing more power to push more speed.
The Test System
Our test motherboard for this review is the Soyo P4S645DX Dragon Ultra board. We chose this board for two reasons. First, it looks great and second, it supports DDR-333 memory officially.
As mentioned above, the Soyo P4S645DX Dragon board uses the SiS 645DX chipset. Currently, the best DDR-333 platform for Intel Pentium 4 (actually the only DDR-333 platform for Intel). While the Intel i845G chipset does have DDR-333 ratio dividers, only a few motherboard manufacturers have decided to implement them so we decided to show Intel Pentium 4 in an official rig. While VIA does have the P4X400 motherboard, there is still a huge debate going on between Intel and VIA, so once again, for sake of being official we are choosing SiS to power our rig.
