If you thought the 5800 had a big fan...

[nonamer]

Wait till you see the Prescott fan. Let's just say "big" would be a heck of an understatement.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

That's tiny compared to most aftermarket CPU coolers. You should see the Thermalright SLK-800 with the 80mm Thermalright SmartFan I have sitting on my Athlon. It's a massive chunk of copper that's so heavy they recommend you take it off before you move the PC.

 

[Natoma]

My heatsink is bigger.

It also happens to weigh about 1.5 pounds. Yes, pounds.

 

[Florin]

Certainly surprising to see them use a fan without any sort of fingerguard. Curious if the production model will be like this.

 

[nonamer]

That's tiny compared to most aftermarket CPU coolers. You should see the Thermalright SLK-800 with the 80mm Thermalright SmartFan I have sitting on my Athlon. It's a massive chunk of copper that's so heavy they recommend you take it off before you move the PC.

I've certainly seen bigger. A lot bigger. But this is by far the biggest stock cooler I've seen. Not to mention that if you read to article from Xbitlabs.com, it says the fan never slows down because it would get too hot. So it could've been bigger.

 

[3dilettante]

That looks like it could be one of Intel's BTX form factor mock-ups.

Theoretically, that big fan is supposed to double as a fan for the case and CPU, which is why the CPU has been moved to the "front" of the motherboard. It even gets a duct to the outside of the case.

It looks like Intel wants to rearrange the entire motherboard layout in order to allow stock cooling to work on next-generation processors. It should theoretically allow better cooling of memory and other onboard components, assuming the processor doesn't cook all the incoming air.

 

[Sxotty]

my heatsink is smaller... well it is.

What is with the inquirer and the 64bit and prescott is this all fluff?

 

[Loek Frederiks]

Nothing new, just the pure speculation starts again ;-)

Someone from The Inquirer heard somewhere that there could be 64-bits instructions in the Prescott core... hidden away.

Officially Intel is allowed to use AMD64 extensions in their CPUs, but some people wonder if they want to copy AMDs approach. Then they are a follower....

 

[patermatrix]

Certainly surprising to see them use a fan without any sort of fingerguard. Curious if the production model will be like this.

Apart from beign dangerous for yourself and your computer's inside (cables etc.): Isn't this strange construction much more ineffective than the normal fans we use today? There'll be a lot of air flowing away to the sides instead of flowing through the cooler's fins, won't there?

 

[Pete]

Looks like ATX to me. I thought BTX flipped the expansion slots to the other side of the MB, with the PCI-X slot in line with the CPU?

 

[Fruitfrenzy]

I can't see where you attach the power to that board. Is it hidden behind the cpu or is the board a mock up like 3dilettante suggested above ?

 

[3dilettante]

I think the power connector is supposed to be between the ram slots and the edge of the board. This definitely has the look of a mechanical model, since there are few motherboard traces and a whole lot of empty space and pads for on board chips. A southbridge is conspicuously absent, and for all we know there is no northbridge underneath that heatsink.

 

[Pete]

Not to mention no IDE/SATA connectors.

I'm still not sure what makes it BTX. From Anand's pics, it almost looks like BTX is flipped from ATX. This looks like bog-standard ATX.

 

[3dilettante]

Not only that, but I don't see any jumpers on that board either. As legacy-free as BTX may be, they better not do anything to my beloved CMOS clear jumper.

 

[stevem]

This is a mockup Prescott ATX motherboard. BTX boards are mirror images of ATX. They hang vertically on the left side of an upright case vs the right side (FV). As noted, the CPU is positioned (& rotated) in the middle/front of the board for access to cool air via the "thermal module". It will suit cooling for CPU, but bathe the PCI-Express graphics card, VRMs, chipset & RAM with warm air. HDDs may also suffer given their notional positioning. I much prefer cold intake from the from the bottom/front of the case with convection assisting exhausting at the top/rear. Perhaps I, too, worry that they may have gone down the path of the original positive pressure ATX PSU again...

BTW, my Zalman CNPS7000 coolers are bigger. Good engineering re: bifurcated radial heatsink, though.