Ever heard of the German blitzkrieg? That's how this reviewer felt when the Intel press package arrived with just two days left before the embargo date lifts and the news of the new i915 and i925 chipsets hits the world. Two boards, two chips and two days; it almost sounds like a sappy pop song, but this was the reality I was faced with if I wanted to be on the A or B list of news releases. No sleep 'til Hammersmith is what I always say or at least something of that variety as the show must go on, right? Well, maybe. This release in itself was not the usual set of circumstances as VGA cards for the new platform seemed to be few and far in between, and problems with the CPUs made initial testing of the 3.6GHz Socket 775 Prescott all but impossible. A few phone calls around the Industry got the ball rolling as the folks at NVIDIA, ATI and Intel did try to help by sending most of the needed product to get up and going. The products finally arrived around 1PM on Saturday not all, mind you, but the basic elements. This left me with a barely 24HR timeslot to test, confirm and write a legible review to be published by the 19th of June by 12am Eastern standard, Obviously I never was able to complete this on time as many roadblocks continued to plague me in this venture causing a delay in my release schedule. Not to mention the four other boards that arrived in the interim that found their way into this review.
D915GUX Box Shot
D925XCV Box Shot
A few years back I used to complain to AMD's PR rep that ample time needs to be available to reviewers in order for them to fully test and evaluate a new release. In regards to this, they have changed the way they handle their press relations in many ways. For one thing all media sites (and I stress this) receive their test kits at the same time. Another is they always give at least two weeks of pre-evaluation as a pad for any unforeseen problems and accurate testing periods. This has until now been Intel's policy as well; but what happened? Intel gave a handful of pre-selected media test kits weeks before the major bulk of other reviewers received theirs, making for an uneven playing field. This strikes me as a very selective and biased action on the part of Intel and lends credence to favoritism on their behalf. I personally feel that a company like Intel, who wants unbiased reviews, should send evaluation kits to all the press or none of the press, in an unbiased manner and equal timeframe, but what can a guy do? Oh well, enough of my ranting lets move forward. Intel in this round is moving technology ahead a few paces and the i915/925 platforms offer new features and functions never before seen in the PC environment. This is all well and good stuff on paper and it does look promising, but how much these changes will benefit the end-user remains to be seen. Follow along as we take an in-depth look at Intel's latest efforts into the PC world and what it has to offer us.
