Items tagged with corei7
It has been a while since I have personally setup a test bench, rolled up my sleeves and built a test system with top-shelf components, a fresh OS install and some overclocking mojo. However, Intel's recent release of Ivy Bridge-E gave us a hankering to do just that. We've been testing a lot of tablets, smartphones and ultrabooks, but there's a certain satisfaction that comes with building a high performance system from the ground up, that you just don't get from pre-built devices. So I decided to see if I still had the chops. EVGA recently took the wraps off a new high-end X79 motherboard dubbed the X79 Dark and its black PCB with red accents, as it turned out, matched quite nicely...
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We all love to see improvements in CPU performance generation to generation, and so we eagerly anticipate pitting the current top-of-the-line Intel Core offering, the Intel Core i7-3970X Sandy Bridge-E processor against an Ivy Bridge-E chip. Apparently, someone already has, and the results show up to an 11% performance increase. A poster to Chinese site Coolaler, named Toppc, claims to have benchmarked the aforementioned Sandy Bridge-E chip to the upcoming Intel Core i7-4960X Ivy Bridge-E processor. Sandy Bridge-E scores (click to enlarge) Ivy Bridge-E scores (click to enlarge) Toppc used Cinebench, CPUmark, Futuremark’s 3DMark Vantage...
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Intel’s upcoming fourth-generation Core-i7 CPUs (codenamed Haswell) promise to be game-changers, and we’ve reported on some of the specifications of its accompanying Z87 chipset, as well. Apparently, VR-Zone has gotten its hands on leaked details of the impending processor line, including the targeted launch date of April 2013. The naming scheme should pick up where the third-generation Ivy Bridge chips did, using “3000” and “4000” numbering for third- and fourth-generation CPUs, respectively, which will be helpful in identifying the fourteen individual SKUs that Intel plans to release. Intel's Dadi Perlmutter Standard voltage processors (which should come...
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The answer to the question of which CPU/motherboard combo from Intel delivers the most extreme desktop performance is the Intel Extreme Edition Core i7-3970X (3.5GHz, 4GHz Turbo) CPU and the Extreme Series Intel Desktop Board DX79SR (Stormville), which are now available. The 6-core Ivy Bridge beast of a processor offers up 15MB cache, 4 channels of DDR3 memory, integrated graphics, and of course it supports Hyper-Threading. The chip costs $1,059 in the box. As for the DX79SR motherboard, it features 8 DIMM slots and support for up to 64GB of system memory (DDR3-2400+ OC) as well as three PCIe 3.0 x 16 slots, two PCIe x1 slots, one PCI slot, up to six USB 3.0 and fourteen USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire...
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One of the great things about Intel’s “Tick, Tock” release cadence is that it gives us all an early glimpse into the company’s future plans and potential product offerings, especially since they’ve been able to execute so well over the last few years. Seeing Conroe eventually evolve into Penryn, and Nehalem into Westmere has given us all an idea as to what to expect with today’s official launch of Ivy Bridge, the “Tick” to Sandy Bridge’s “Tock”, otherwise known as Intel’s 3rd Generation Core Processor family. Of course, if you haven’t stayed on top of Intel’s plans since announcing their “Tick, Tock”...
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One of the great things about Intel’s “Tick, Tock” release cadence is that it gives us all an early glimpse into the company’s future plans and potential product offerings, especially since they’ve been able to execute so well over the last few years. Seeing Conroe eventually evolve into Penryn, and Nehalem into Westmere has given us all an idea as to what to expect with today’s official launch of Ivy Bridge, the “Tick” to Sandy Bridge’s “Tock”, otherwise known as Intel’s 3rd Generation Core Processor family. Of course, if you haven’t stayed on top of Intel’s plans since announcing their “Tick, Tock”...
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Custom PC maker iBUYPOWER is now including the Intel Core i7-3820 (3.6GHz) processor a an option for its Chimera 4, Paladin XLC, and Erebus Custom Liquid Cooling systems, replacing the X58-based CPUs the company was offering. In the emailed press release, Vice President of iBUYPOWER Darren Su, said, “We are excited to offer these speedy new CPUs that are faster than the previous generation but more efficient. Best of all the Intel Core i7 3820 is priced similarly to the slower previous generation, allowing us to pass that savings on to our customers.” The new CPU option is available today, so go get ‘em while they’re hot. Paladin D875 iBUYPOWER Incorporates New Intel Core...
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The one-two combo of Intel’s X79 chipset and six-core Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition CPU is a potent one--especially, it seems, for overclockers. MSI reports that overclockers all over the world are juicing their Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition chips to 5GHz on X79-based MSI motherboards using air cooling alone. MSI singled out one source, Guru 3D, which specifically hit 5.2GHz with an MSI X79A-GD65 (8D) board. 5GHz is nothing to sniff at, especially considering that the Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition has a stock clock of 3.3GHz (3.9GHz Turbo). MSI points to its Military-Class III components, including DrMOS II, as a reason why its boards can handle that kind of heat. Whatever the reason, it’s...
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Windows 7 is upon us, and with the launch of Microsoft's self-proclaimed "best operating system" comes a slew of new desktop machines, notebooks, and netbooks looking to take advantage of its added stability and features. One of the companies that is looking to serve up a number of new Win7-based rigs is Asus, and without a doubt they have assembled an interesting and compelling offering in their G51J-A1 notebook. Hitting the sweet spot between the average-sized 15" machine and the full-on desktop replacement, the refreshed G51 maintains the 15" form factor yet packs enough horsepower, with it's Core i7 mobile CPU and GeForce GTX 260M GPU under the hood, to plow through even the latest game titles....
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Since the great DRAM price plummet of 2007, memory prices continue to be extremely low. It's currently possible to pick up high capacity memory modules for very respectable prices. As the DRAM market is highly volatile, however, it's possible that we could see prices jump within the next month, week, or even by the day. However, it has been about a year since prices dropped, and things have yet to "recover", allowing prices to remain low. Regardless, continues to be a fairly good time to buy system memory. The majority of the really good deals are for DDR2 memory, which has completely flooded the market and is available for ultra low prices (under $30 for 4 GB in some cases). With virtually...
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With the introduction of the new Intel Core i7 processor architecture, the company affectionately known as "Chipzilla" from Santa Clara has once again topped itself on the performance charts. Core i7 chips deliver significantly better performance per clock cycle, while at the same time being more power-efficient versus its predecessors. There's no doubt that it's a great chip, an insanely complex piece of circuitry which can churn through whatever you throw at it with relative ease. It is the chip you want in your system, assuming price is no barrier. However, in this economic environment, price is a major factor for most people out there, and lots of people out there are...
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