The X99 – All’s Well That’s Haswell

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August’s windy twilight bore witness to a seductive  swath of masterful motherboard moulding from Intel’s carnivorously competitive majors in command.

With the ageing and some would claim, ailing x79 finally encountering  a nemesis more keenly awaited and sonorously sensationalized than many enthusiasts would have thought possible when last parting their purse strings, it was little wonder that the Haswell-E’s honeymoon haven drew forth inspired innovation and stupendous functionality in delightfully decadent deluges of PCB porn.

Yet, on the eve of the x99’s embargo being raised, I couldn’t help but feel as a humble hobbyist how tough it had become to harvest reams of relevant stats and helpful observations, then impart them succinctly and imaginatively enough to engage fellow “speed” addicts who had likely ingested all such information an eternity of embargoes ago.

Not for a minute would I tearfully reminisce over the days when ponderous paper launches gifted all “accredited” press and the best heeled hardware hacks the luxuries of touching, tasting and telling in unjust advance of penniless but genuine scholars of technology.

But in an age when the lines between ceaseless social networking and a desperate hunger to be branded a trend setting news bearer grew finer than chinchilla fur, a fresh force of resource laden review sites had raised the stakes.

Articles dozens of pages long crammed to the hilt with fancy flash flora aptly depicting data from every benchmark deemed useful – and many more besides – were surgically prepared by hoards of hot shot tech journos weeks in advance of worthless NDAs, leaving those less well connected floundering helplessly in a wake of silicon dust.

In spite of this desperate lament, the concurrent emergence of free and powerful methods with which to self publicise, could be said to have aided these independent coveters of componentary, stimulating their untapped creativity and generating sources of joyful jargon as immediate, enriching and arguably more engaging then any professionally compiled equivalent.

A polished unboxing showcase shot with more angles than a dodecahedron, an elegantly composed split screen comparison conveying the contrasting potential of cutting edge consoles or, with matters in hand beginning to press, a knowledgeable series of prophesies pertaining to the probable perks of a fresh and ravenous pack of Haswell-E Huskies.

Why should a perfectly healthy right to reap or refuse a liberal supply of advanced knowledge sully the age old and welcome tradition of heated hardware debate and a goodly dose of graph gazing?

On the crest of that positive, what of this freshly spun trio of “extremists”?

In light of the plethora of admirably meticulous reviews and a personal lack of pertinent hardware, it would be arrogant to assume any reader….oh….wait…..you’ve gone already?  Wait! One moment, what about a delicious deep fried table, oozing with molten chocolate, with a delicate sprinkle of sweet statistics? Go one, just before you swan off for that Honey Roast Hawell?

Well, its coming besides, along with a crescent of chunky charts filled with a deliciously flavoursome fact and figure sauce, I dare you to resist.

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