THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Jeremy Laird
WITH ANY NEW CPU architecture, our first build is always a major landmark. But Intel’s Alder Lake is still something special. Not only is it a radical departure from all previous CPUs, what with its hybrid cores, but it also marks the first step in what we hope is a multigenerational return to form for Intel.
As I said in last issue’s Lab Notes, I’m not convinced Alder Lake is the CPU Intel originally planned. Problems with Intel’s 10nm and 7nm nodes put paid to that. But the benchmarks don’t lie and, as our reviews from previous issues and this month’s build prove, Alder Lake puts out the numbers. It was great to unleash Sam on our first Alder Lake build, pairing it with some serious GPU power and that hot new DDR5 memory. There’s something about running the latest technology that’s satisfying, even beyond the raw numbers.