The term “V8” evokes stark thoughts of American Muscle and might – the end-all, be-all of mechanized power. The same could just as easily be thought of in regards to the amount of CPU cores now available in a Desktop PC, and thanks to Intel that dream is one step closer to reality.

When Intel released its Core2Duo processor line last year it ushered in a brand new era of PC performance – so great was the performance over previous generation CPUs that even companies like Apple had to take a step back and rethink which CPU should power its computers. Much has been made of this design and it was rightly so found its way into Intel’s workstation/server class CPU; the XEON.

Built around the same great technology and core that powers its desktop counterpart, the latest XEON processors are no joke. They use a similar socket-design as the Socket775 (these use 771) made so popular by Intel’s past desktop processors which means installation and removal is a snap. Mechanical and core similarities aside, the XEONs do require a completely different chipset in order to function properly and for that we use Intel’s 5000-series which supports not just the XEON but all the ensuing cores that come along with them – eight in all.

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Article Index
Intel Xeon X5365 "V8" - 8 Cores
A Closer Look
S5000XVN Motherboard
Benchmark Setup
Cinebench, PCMark 05 and SiSoft
Pov-RAY And Conclusion