A few weeks back, we took a look at the Core i7-3960X, Intel’s first desktop processor to feature the company’s Sandy Bridge-E microarchitecture. If you're unfamiliar with the chip, Sandy Bridge-E is the ‘tock’ in Intel’s tick-tock release schedule cadence that bridges the gap between first-gen Sandy Bridge-based processors and next year’s Ivy Bridge microarchitecture. Sandy Bridge-E shares many of the same features of the original Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, but as the “E” denotes, SBE is a more extreme derivative, targeted at enthusiasts.
We briefly discussed the Core i7-3820 we’ll be showing you today in our Core i7-3960X coverage, but didn’t have a chip on hand for testing. The Core i7-3820 is based on the very same die as the higher-end Core i7-3960X, but two of its cores (and some cache) have been disabled...
Intel Core i7-3820 Quad-Core Sandy Bridge-E CPU Review
Marco Chiappetta
Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com
