November 17th, 2008
Going "Core i7" - What you need!
You know something funny, despite the current economic downturn, my Hardware 2.0 mailbox provides conclusive proof that there are folks out there who want to spend up to $1,000 on Intel’s newest piece of silicon - the Core i7 processor. But what do you need to get make your “Extreme” rig Core i7 ready?
Core i7 component gallery
The Core i7 processor
The Core i7 represents a new milestone in architecture for Intel. The LGA775 socket that worked for the Pentium 4 / Pentium D / Core 2 family has been replaced by the larger Socket LGA 1366. With the Core i7 Intel has also reintroduced Hyper-Threading, giving the desktop CPUs the power of eight virtual cores. You also get the brand new X58 chipset and support for DDR3.
The bottom line for all these architecture changes is an overall performance boost. Given the same clock speed, compared to the Core 2 architecture the Core i7 offers something in the region of a 15% performance gain - and these results are backed up by benchmark after independent benchmark. In fact, the bottom-end Core i7 beats Intel’s previous “”Extreme Edition” chip, the QX9770.
The Core i7 processors currently come in two flavors and three clock speeds:
- Core i7 920 2.66GHz | Street price: ~$320
- Core i7 940 2.93GHz | Street price: ~$600
- Core i7 965 “Extreme Edition” 3.2GHz | Street price: ~$1,070
Each processor comes fitted with 8MB of “Smart Cache” and support for 3 channels of DDR3 1066MHz memory.
More details on the Core i7 and Core i7 “Extreme Edition.”
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Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
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| 11/18/08
