The platform

The Intel V8 “Media Creation PC” isn’t actually a new platform. In fact, it’s nothing more than an Intel workstation motherboard paired with a pair of 3GHz “Clovertown” Xeon CPUs. The Clovertown CPU is based upon Intel’s Core 2 platform with the key architectural advantages being a 1333 MHz FSB, and quad core. Unlike the Apple Mac Pro, Intel’s reference motherboard designs have a single PCIe x16 slot. For this reason, Intel positions the V8 as a Media Creation PC although comparison to AMD’s 4x4 (two dual-core CPUs with four PCI Express graphics slots therefore effectively giving you Quad Core with Quad SLI) can be made.

Motherboard: Intel S5000XVN dual-socket motherboard

The Intel S5000XVN is designed as a motherboard that provides server-class performance and reliability while providing PCIe x16 support for high-end graphics. This isn’t just marketing speak.

Most significantly, the S5000XVN has a Serial Attached SCSI controller. Although SAS features similar connectors to SATA, there are several improvements to the interface. Like the SCSI vs IDE debate, SAS is all about higher performance and higher reliability. Although SAS is 3.0Gbps, communication can be performed in full-duplex mode, allowing a maximum of 6.0Gbps/sec transfers. You can have 128 devices on a single bus, and most importantly, it implements the SCSI TCQ protocol.

Like SATA NCQ, SCSI TCQ allows multiple I/O requests to be accessed in an optimal fashion on a drive. What makes TCQ better are deeper queue lengths and queue prioritization, allowing more efficient data access. Besides the performance benefits, SAS also features more robust error recovery and reporting and 8m cable lengths. The debate between SAS and SATA is no different from UW-SCSI and the IDE generation; SCSI is always better, but the price/performance ratio puts it out of the reach of consumers.

The S5000XVN also features many of the same capabilities as the Intel vPro platform, namely Intel Gigabit Ethernet controllers with hardware TCP checksum offload, receive-side scaling (allows packet processing to occur across multiple CPUs), fully integrated server management capabilities (remote power on, flash the BIOS over the network, etc.) and a Trusted Platform Module.

Memory: 4GB Samsung DDR2 FB-DIMM @ 667MHz

Although DDR-2 from companies such as OCZ and Corsair DDR-2 run up to 1GHz, servers and workstations continue to run at slower rates. This has less to do with reliability than it has to do with capacity.

FB-DIMMS are a natural evolution of Registered DDR. Traditional RAM requires that the data lines from the memory controller (be it the CPU or North Bridge). When dealing with capacities with 32GB, and the like, it becomes a problem. In fact, during the Opteron’s hey-day, one of the strengths of the platform was its ability to “seamlessly” handle large memory capacities as compared to the Intel platform. With FB-DIMMs there is an intermediate chip, the “Advanced Memory Buffer” or AMB. The memory controller speaks to the AMB, which can then buffer and resend the signal in a serial fashion on its own. This repeater function makes it possible to handle larger memory capacities (imagine the difference between memorizing every telephone number in your company and calling the operator). Unlike AMD’s Direct Connect architecture and integrated CPU memory controller, the Xeon may run into memory bandwidth problems earlier and face higher latency.

CPU: Dual Xeon quad core X5365 @ 3.0GHz, Clovertown cores. FSB 1333MHz

The chips in this setup are difficult to find as Intel has been giving Apple priority. They run at 1333MHz bus and draw about 150 watts a piece, more than other Clovertown CPUs. The included heatsinks are a little wimpy, compared to what we can get on the aftermarket for Core 2 Duo and Athlon64. It’s just a solid chunk of copper with thin fins and a loud fan. You would think that if you paid $1200 for a CPU that it would come with something better than a $20 heatsink and fan.

Power Supply: OCZ ProXStream 1000W Power Supply

Normally, beefy power supplies are overkill for gamers. In this case, we definitely needed more power. The Clovertown CPUs pull a peak of 150W. We have a pair so that sets our power budget at 300W from the get go. Compare this to the Core 2 Duo’s which only require 65W.

If you’re going to have a Octo-core system, you might as well have a flagship GPU. Right now, that means you’re looking at another 175 to 185W. Each FB-DIMM runs a little over 10W, and the 750GB perpendicular recording drives from Seagate in our system eat up another 13W each during seek. You’re looking at about 75W for the motherboard, case fans, keyboard/mouse, USB hubs, etc. That’s about 625W of potential peak load. Add in 15% for surge compensation and 20% “fudge factor” for electrolytic aging and the need for a 1kW power supply seems pretty clear. Remember, we’re not even using 10,000 or 15,000 RPM drives in this machine.

Several manufacturers have kilowatt power supplies, but we’ve gone with OCZ for now. Although OCZ had a bit of a slow start with their original power supplies, the new ProXStream and EvoStream are engineered by 3Y Power Technology, a California based company that was recently acquired by Forton in order to gain the R&D experience for producing high-end PSUs. Remember, Forton is one of the better PSU manufacturers and is behind PSUs such as Zalman’s.

One drawback of the TJ07 chassis is that is works best with a standard sized power supply; the kilowatt OCZ ProXStream is a perfect solution as it fits in an ordinary form factor. In contrast, although we love PC Power and Cooling power supplies, their kilowatt power supply is too big for standard cases.

Chassis: Silverstone Temjin TJ-07

The TJ-07 continues to be the Bugatti Veyron of the PC chassis industry. The monoblock unibody design has no trouble supporting all the components, and the extensive cooling zones keep everything running within spec.

Video Card: ATI Radeon X1950 XT

Vista x64 has compatibility issues with NVIDIA GPUs, the latest Forceware Drives (including 158.18) and our professional-grade NEC LCD Monitors. If you use a different LCD monitor, it’s OK. If you use the Vista-bundled drivers, it’s OK. If you use regular Windows XP, it’s OK too. It’s just this combination of Forceware 100+ and Vista x64 and certain monitors that causes problems. The Radeon has no such problem, so we’re going with the fastest ATI card on the market (at the time of this article)

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB SATA2 x2

Going with Serial Attached SCSI would have offered the best performance with our system, however the argument for high-capacity 7200rpm SATA drives is hard to beat. We keep bouncing back and forth between Seagate and Hitachi drives in our system. Currently, we like the 7200.10 Barracuda’s with perpendicular recording.

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

As if we were going to run anything else…

The system build went relatively smoothly. Besides the NVIDIA problem with the NEC monitor, we also ran into a problem where the system would suspend but never wake up. We were never able to fix that problem.

I will also have to add that I do not now how Microsoft calculates its performance index as the V8 system generated a score of 5.9 while an Intel Core 2 Duo 4300 PC gets a 5.2 at stock speed. Unless this is a log scale, the numbers are quite misleading. Since you cannot spec a similar system on a PC, we spec’d it out on a Mac and it came out to $5,743.

The CPUs

Eight cores and 4GB of processing power

The V8 system