This one slipped through the cracks while we were doing a bit of site re-designing and not getting much sleep. The AMD Phenom X4 955 is based on AMD’s AM3 socket that was revealed some time back, featuring DDR3 support.

When the 955 was released, it was AMD’s flagship CPU running four cores at 3.2GHz but has since been replaced by the 965 that runs at 3.4GHz. Both these CPUs are “Black Edition” meaning they’re multiplier unlocked and overclocking friendly. A 6MB L3 cache is present onboard that has a Northbridge speed of 2.0GHz. Lastly, the TDP is 125W which is a bit higher that we would’ve liked. The following is a CPU-Z screenshot

Lets get on with the benchmarks using our standrad testbed made up of Corsair DDR3-1333 and an nVidia GeForce GTX 280. This CPU was benched on the ASUS CrossHair III motherboard. We’ve compared the 955 to the older 940 by AMD as well as the Core i7 920 and QX9650 CPUs from Intel

The Intel processor just got faster with the introduction of Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor and Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor Extreme Edition. Consumers living and working in the Middle East can now enjoy the latest benefits from unmatched, intelligent technology performance. The processors are designed to take on even the most demanding of tasks such as; creating digital video, playing intense games, and turning them in to simple, time efficient jobs.

Based on the revolutionary Nehalem micro-architecture, the processors are a welcome addition to the mobile market. “The UAE market is by far a mobile market with more than 80 percent of the PC shipments to the country being laptops versus desktops. Consumers today demand laptops that enable them to do a multitude of tasks without slowing down their machine,” stated Nassir Nauthoa, Intel General Manager, GCC. “The Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor and Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor Extreme Edition, are designed to provide the optimum mobile experience for intense applications such as; gaming, digital media production, photos, music downloads and a host of other energy intensive activities.”

Formerly codenamed “Clarksfield,” Intel® Core™ i7 mobile processors offer Intel® Turbo Boost Technology1, which can accelerate the processor clock speed up to 75 percent to match workloads, as well as better performance on highly threaded applications with the power of Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology2. The new Intel® Core™ i7 mobile processors also include two-channel DDR3 1333 MHz memory support and full 1 x16 or 2 x8 PCI Express* 2.0 graphics.

“Whether users are editing a video, composing a song, playing a video game or updating their Facebook* status with the latest YouTube* video craze, Intel® Core i7 mobile processors adapt to provide the right processing power for the task, with more performance and flexibility to match their on-the-go needs” concluded Nauthoa.

Laptop PCs powered by the new Intel® Core i7 mobile processors will be available this month from leading international and local OEMs at the Gitex shopper.

Pricing and Availability
Leading OEMs including Asus, Dell, HP and Toshiba shipping laptops today based on Intel® Core™ i7 mobile processors, with additional systems from OEMs available in the coming months. 1ku pricing for the Intel® Core™ i7-920XM, Intel® Core™ i7-820QM and Intel® Core™ i7-720QM mobile processors is $1,054, $546 and $364, respectively.

New Intel® Core™ Processors for Consumers
Formerly codenamed “Lynnfield,” these new chips are based on Intel’s award-winning Nehalem microarchitecture and are designed for consumers who need top-notch performance for digital media, productivity, gaming and other demanding applications. These processors, along with the new Intel P55 express chipset, are available today.

All processors are lead- and halogen-free1 and feature Intel® exclusive Turbo Boost Technology. The top-of-the-line Core i7 processors also support Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology. Combined, these features give computer users absolute “intelligent” performance when necessary and optimum power-efficiency when the computer is lightly loaded.

Computers Just Got Smaller

The new chipset brings the most revolutionary design changes since the invention of the PCI bus in the early 1990s and sets the stage for Intel’s forthcoming 2010 compute platform. The Intel® P55 Express Chipset will be the baseline building block component for motherboards worldwide, delivering great new levels of performance and scalability for everyone from the retail buyer to the technically savvy do-it-yourselfer.

The new Core i7 and i5 processors are the first Intel processors to integrate both a 16-lane PCI Express 2 graphics port and two-channel memory controller, enabling all input/output and manageability functions to be handled by the single-chip Intel P55 Express Chipset. Previous Intel chipsets required two separate chips. A new Direct Media Interface (DMI) connects between the processor and chipset. The chipset supports 8 PCI Express 2.0 x1 Ports (2.5GT/s) for flexible device support. Dual graphics cards are supported in a “2×8” configuration. The chipset also supports 6 SATA 3 Gb/s Ports with Intel® Matrix Storage Technology providing RAID levels 0/1/5/10. Up to 14 USB 2.0 Ports can be supported with the chipset’s integrated USB 2.0 Rate Matching Hub, along with Intel® High Definition Audio for premium digital sound. The new processors are the first to be supported by the new Land Grid Array (LGA) 1156 package and socket technology.

Better Entry Servers
Small businesses requiring 24/7 operation and educators now have more reasons than ever to buy a purpose-built server with Intel’s new Xeon processors and Intel® 3400 and 3420 chipsets. These new products improve small business productivity by running email, file, print and dynamic Web serving tasks more efficiently. They also improve education by enabling dependable classroom collaboration and making school administrative services more productive. Servers based on Xeon 3400 processors provide more dependability over desktop systems through differentiated features such as Error Correcting Code memory and RAID 0/1/5/10 for server operating systems. They are designed to help small businesses grow by enabling up to 64 percent2 more sale transactions and up to 56 percent faster business response time. This improvement is enabled with Intel’s Nehalem microarchitecture and a 4x improvement in memory capacity (32 GB). Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology enable these servers to automatically adapt their performance to unique business needs. The processors launched today also include the Intel® Xeon® L3426, a low-power variant that delivers up to 188 percent improvement in energy efficiency per dollar than the previous-generation Intel® Xeon® X3380, and enables innovative server form factors for space and thermally constrained environments. For more information on these products, please visit www.intel.com/xeon.

Processor Number1 Base
Clock Speed (GHz) Turbo Frequency (GHz) Cores/Threads Cache 1K unit Price Intel Hyper-Threading Technology? TDP
Intel® Core™ i7-870 2.93 Up To 3.6 GHz 4/8 8 MB $562 Yes 95 W
Intel® Core™ i7-860 2.80 Up To 3.46 GHz 4/8 8 MB $284 Yes 95 W
Intel® Core™ i5-750 2.66 Up To 3.2 GHz 4/4 8 MB $196 No 95 W

Xeon X3470 2.93 Up To 3.6 GHz 4/8 8 MB $589 Yes 95 W
Xeon X3460 2.80 Up To 3.46 GHz 4/8 8 MB $316 Yes 95 W
Xeon X3450 2.66 Up To 3.2 GHz 4/8 8 MB $241 Yes 95 W
Xeon X3440 2.53 Up To 2.93 GHz 4/8 8 MB $215 Yes 95 W
Xeon X3430 2.40 Up To 2.8 GHz 4/4 8 MB $189 No 95 W
Xeon L3426 1.86 Up To 3.2 GHz 4/8 8 MB $284 Yes 45 W