Intel Core i7 Processor i7-920 2.66GHz 8 MB LGA1366 CPU BX80601920
by Intel
|
Our Price: $285.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Personal Computer See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Intel Core i7 Processor i7-920 2.66GHz 8 MB LGA1366 CPU BX80601920
Customer Review: Very Satisfying
Summary: 5 Stars
Pros:
It's my first build and coming from a Pentium 4 3.4 ghz in my Dell to this processor is simply amazing. I can now play Oblivion and L4D in the settings I want! Everything else it pretty much cuts through it like butter. It get a Windows 7 WEI of 7.6 3dmark Vantage CPU score P42500+ and I have it overclocked to 3.67 with blck of 184 vcore 1.225 with vdroop. Coupled with a Cooler Master V8 it's prime 95 stable (small ffts - 2 hours, large - 2 hours, blend - 9 hours) and LinX stable (max memory 10 runs) 75 degrees C max. Ambient 80 F
Cons:
None
Other thoughts:
If you are new to overclocking like I was here are some simple steps for a modest overclock:
WARNING: It is entirely possible to burn your CPU! Don't go crazy and set a high base clock from the start. Follow the steps!
1) download Realtemp.exe, cpu-z, prime 95, and LinX (google em)
2) go into your bios and increase the base clock by 5 (or 10 if impatient but remember my warning)
3) Load Windows and breath a sigh of relief if it does. But thats only 1/5 of the battle.
4) Run CPU-z to verify your overclock, close it then run realtemp.
5) Run LinX max memory, 3 runs. If it blue screens, restarts or errors then you've gone too far and you need to dial it down to keep your machine stable. Your last setting is your max overclock without adding vcore (cpu voltage).
6) If it passes with no errors and your max temps aren't above 85 C (some people use 80) then you're good, and you can add more base clock.
7) Go back to step 2 rinse and repeat.
8)Once you get to a speed you're happy with and it passes LinX, and is below 85 C, run prime 95 stress test for at least 6 hours of blend, 2 hours of small ffts, and 2 hours of large ffts. If it survives that then you're good for gaming and most everyday apps. If it survives p95 blend for 24 hours (no errors, < 85 C) then you're rock stable ready for mission critical or server work.
You can run Linx for more passes or folding@home SMP for further stability testing.
Finally don't expect much if you're using the heatsink that came with the processor.
Good luck. If I made a mistake somewhere please correct me in the comments.
BTW my motherboard is the EVGA X58 vanilla. The folks at the forums in their website are the most helpful and supportive folks you can find. Really thats the stuff that money can't buy, I strongly recommend their motherboards just for that. They have guides for more serious overclocks and guides explaining voltages, guides on optimizing Vista etc.
All the info about overclocking and stability testing comes from the stickied threads on the EVGA forums
Customer Review: Blazing Fast!
Summary: 5 Stars
I cannot believe how fast this processor loads Vista compared to my "little" C2D (E6300 Core2Duo) gaming machine which loads Windows XP. Very few games take advantage of this Quad Processor. Even though I don't play first person shooters, I had to get this bad boy on the new block. When my new system based on this processor first started up, I sensed it was a thing of beauty. Blazing fast! It installed Vista like it was no challenge. It took less than 30 minutes to install and load it up (upon restart). When my system restarted after Vista was installed, I was amazed at how quick it loaded to the desktop. I gushed over the fact that when you press <control> <alt> <del> there it was; what looks like 8 processors running (also known as 8 threads)! Wow! I actually bought this on sale for $219 at Micr-c----. I plan to O/C later on as I've read that this overclocks very easy and can reach up to 4GHZ. The processor on the front end looks similar to the Core2Duo as it fits into the socket (Socket 1366 which is not compatable with LGA775) when you align the pins on the side. When closing the metal gate onto the proceessor, it gives just a little more resistance than what you are used to (for people who build their own). I will say this, a stat heavy baseball game that I play (Out of the Park Baseball), I've gone through 10 seasons so far, and when I reach the end again, this processor eats it up quickly and loads my next season with blazing speed.
Loading all my drivers was fast and easy after I loaded Vista.
Many people complain (it's their choice) about the Intel heatsink that is included and yeah, if you overclock, it's best to get a better heatsink. If you don't overclock, then the included Intel heatsink will do just fine. I have the Intel heatsink on my C2D system and never had any heat issues and always kept the processor cool (even at its peak).
I will update when I load newer games such as The Sims 3.
<Update>
I've installed and played Flight Simulator X and I could swear that I hear it laughing and saying," Is that all you got!" All my graphic options as well as AI traffic and ground vehicles are pumped to the max and it's running like a charm. All the graphic options are set to Ultra High. Flying an airplane is once again, ever so cool, now that I have a processor that can handle it! High framerates! Smooth flying!
Sims 3 runs great on my system. With a virus scanner on my previous system, it turned my system into a turtle and The Sims 2 didn't like that. With my present i7 system, everything is running great; no hiccups, no crashes, no slowdowns....just smooth running.
Customer Review: 2010 price "KNEE" - basically a good deal for an i7
Summary: 5 Stars
Today (8-2010) in servers you can either build your own or buy one off the shelf from a mfgr. I needed 2 servers, so I did one of each.
The buy off the shelf system was an i7 975 3.33 ghz, 24 GB RAM, 1.7G 216 cuda core nvidia graphics, windows 7 ultra. I bought it from HP with some good discounts and got the price down to 2100 delivered, which at the time the proc had a street price of 1000 bucks alone. Forget the 24G of ram - that's 12 banks of 4 GB and today 2GB ram is about all you can find on the street - bigger configs are getting taken by companies like HP depleating the store supplies.
The second system I built had a more modest 8GB ram, asus motherboard, just enough to get by on VGA card until the newest cards from nvidia come out, and most importantly used this processor along with a decent power supply built for sli x4 systems. Cost was around $700, but will have a $200 hit when the new graphics card comes out for $900 with expected exceptional performance.
The ability of the graphics card to take over some of the processor's duties with cuda and the follow on from Nvidia, Fermi was an important factor in making the second system with a reduced speed i7 processor. In the futue, the pairing of the graphics card and the processor will dictate where the money does the most good.
This processor is a very economical entry into the i7 series of chips from intel. Pairing it with a 512+ processor graphics card from Nvidia will likely make more economic sense than buying a 3.33 ghz quad core duo (8 threads) - I see that as the logical progression of high performance computing solutions down the road. My only regret is the limited (8G) main memory - by creating a ramdisc on the 24G machine it runs extremely fast with 8G of main ram and 16G of ramdisc used sortof as a cache. We'll have to wait a while for the 4G dimms to come out and offer us large memory environments in the future.
Basically - don't toss all your money into the processor in future custom builds - make an evenly distributed system where the graphics card lends a hand at a performance boost. Future software won't need massive processors but balanced systems with high performance graphics. What took a week to render in high definition (1920x1080x120Hz) on a 2.83 Ghz quad core 8 GB 1 year old system was done in 1 hour on the 3.33 Ghz quad core system with the nvidia cuda 216 processors and 1.7 GB ram graphics assistant.
Customer Review: Blazingly fast processor
Summary: 5 Stars
Stepping up from a Pentium D, or the Core 2 Duo P9500 on my laptop, I'm just amazed at the power of this CPU. I'm currently running Windows 7 (RC) 64-bit, with 12GB of Corsair 1333MHz DDR3 RAM on an Asus P6T motherboard, with two WD 1TB drives. Everything is at stock speeds. Video is nVidia GeForce 9600 GT with two ViewSonic monitors.
Windows 7 delivers everything you'd want with the Core i7 processor in terms of speed and power. The 8MB L3 cache is a great adaptation for 64-bit processing - it's not widely noted, but running in 64-bit mode will give a 1.2x to 1.4x speed reduction, because the larger addresses reduce cache utilization. The Core i7's cache configuration compensates nicely for this. The QuickPath Interconnect, DDR3 memory, and three memory channels also help speed up memory access, so that memory is never a bottleneck. Overall, my system rates a Windows Experience score of 5.9, based on graphics and disk speed, but the Core i7 rates an amazing 7.4 score, and memory is 7.5.
In the task manager performance panel, you see 8 CPUs, for the 4 cores and their hyperthreads. Windows 7 scheduling and threading has been updated to work with more cores and to use hyperthreads effectively; if you want more on this, listen to this podcast:[...] featuring one of the Windows kernel development team members who works on thread scheduling.
In terms of user experience, I've never experienced such a responsive machine. Nothing makes it break a sweat! Photoshop uses the GPU for image rendering, and it's breathtakingly fast on image editing. Visual Studio compiles large projects many times faster than the same project on my old machines. Whatever I want, this machine does it, right now!
For those who ask if there is software that can take advantage of the multiple cores, the answer is yes. Photoshop and other Adobe image and video editors have been multicore-aware for many years. Most of the MS Office apps are heavily threaded and very responsive (Outlook, Word, and Excel especially). Visual Studio runs background compiles constantly for syntax checking, and Intellisense support is always immediate. And for web development, IIS and your database of choice (SQL Server, in my case) are right ther in the background, ready to go. SQL Server, in particular, is well-designed for multicore systems.
This is simply a fantastic machine, even if you're not a gamer.
Customer Review: nice upgrade
Summary: 5 Stars
i am glad i purchased this cpu. this is one fast chip. i upgraded from amd 4200x2 90nm cpu. get a new hsf as soon as possible..i am personally using a thermalright true 120 ultra 1366 w\fan mount, my idle temps are about 15c cooler than stock hsf and close to 20c under full load. this chip is an easy overclocker as well. i took it to about 3.5ghz without changing any settings but the QPI(went from 133(stock) to 180) before i had to add voltage.i finally settled on 3.94ghz stable with prime95 and intel burn in test.my dual core athlon took about 40 minutes to convert dvd(on hard drive) to mp4 with nero recode, with my i7 at 3.94ghz it takes about 12-16 minutes. i could probably get over 4ghz but i don't want to exceed the recomended voltages just for 60mhz.needless to say i could'nt be happier with this cpu(almost 50% overclock).
i paired this cpu with evga x58 motherboard and corsair dominator 6gb ddr 1600mhz ram.i only have 1 video card at this time but like having the upgrade path for later. don't even consider the 940 as the extra 300mhz does not warrant the hefty price increase...i was able to exceed the 965 stock speed at my stock settings. also just fyi for you overclockers i had more luck turning of turbo and hyperthreading..i encoded video with 4 cores and 8 cores and saw no real difference between them..the disabling of turbo lost me a x21 multiplier but no big deal as i used a x19 multiplier with a 208 QPI.
cpu vcore 1.350v
cpu vtt +175
pll vcore 1.375v
vdimm 1.625v
ht off
turbo off
x16 uncore 3333mhz
ram 2:8
8-8-8-24 74 1T
3.94ghz cpu
1660mhz ram speed
8800 gts 512 @ 800 core 1998 shader 1125 memory
idle temps are 30c-35c
load with prime95 about 58c
load with intel burn in about 68c
looks like there are advantages with the batches as well
my batch number is
3839A589
i hear good things about the 3841's
it defintely pays to overclock this cpu at stock speed of 2.66ghz temps idle were only about 3c different than running at 3.94ghz and maybe 8c different under load. running in u2-ufo case with 9x120mm fans +1x120mm on cpu cooler.