Intel's P55 chipset brings Nehalem into the mainstream

But then, can one disable caching and run that little Flash DIMM - a very cheap and very fast solution, since the controller is in the P55 chipset - as a mini-SSD boot drive anyway? After all, EVGA's Shamino, the famous overclocker, was hinting at a 16GB rather than 8GB Flash DIMM in that slot, and even overclocking that! Overclocking or not, 16GB is sufficient to keep the OS and maybe a basic desktop suite in memory for instant boot. And, if the caching functionality is disabled, yet the BIOS is allowed to see the ONFI flash port as a boot drive, there's far less testing and validation to do.

There is good news of course. CPU overclocking on this box, whether with locked or unlocked CPUs, should be just as good as for the equivalent LGA1366 Core i7 CPUs. The reduction of memory access to two channels will only impact synthetic memory bandwidth tests, otherwise the results of most applications benchmarks won't really change much. And, it is expected to be a good "green computing" platform, as you'll see some record low-power consumption scores on this. How about less than 80W actual measured at the plug power use for a quad core box with basic discrete graphics? The problem, again, is that these are all already built-in into the basic feature set for everyone. The Taiwanese will have a hard time extracting a further few per cent performance, whether with 2-ounces of copper like Gigabyte and now Asus, or by using super-duper capacitors, chokes and such to improve the electricals and overclocking potential a bit more.

In summary, yeah yet another round of mainboards with ever-lower margins for their Taiwanese makers, and worries about disposing of the old Core 2 board stocks now that the replacement for those is arriving in the P55. Some vendors did grumble about that. Despite the traditional Taiwanese thriftiness that makes the Scottish look generous by comparison, even they are feeling too squeezed here.

Also, there's no new interface benefit here. Just like with the X58, external PCIe chips will be needed for USB 3.0 or SATA-6, so you may actually see those uber-interfaces on the high end X58 mobos first anyway. There will be more margin to be made there, and the Gulftown 32nm six-core 12MB cache Westmere drop-in upgrade in the LGA1366 is just about six months away.

As for the users, yes, the P55 with the Lynnfield chips will give you a very decent power, performance and price combination - lower power than even E-step Core 2 quads coupled with somewhat better overall performance and a Phenom-busting price point. Their upgrade story may be a bit more tricky, as the Sandy Bridge 32nm follow-ons from Haifa labs will come online fairly quickly, just over a year from now, and will use the LGA1155 socket. Oh boy, that one pin will make a whole lot of difference for your new P55 mainboard shelf life. But it will be good for the grumbling vendors' repeat sales, though.