I bought a new computer recently, complete with the new Core i7 from Intel, 6GB DDR3, and GTX 275. The last time I did computer hardware research was when I built my old computer 4 years ago so I have been a little out of the loop. After getting some pointers and doing research myself I put this computer together and I am so impressed that I wanted to write something about the Core i7.
Firstly, for those like me, the Core i7 is the newest cpu from Intel. The chip has four cores and two process threads each, so you can run
eight concurrent programs without a hitch. The truly amazing part of this cpu though is the overclockability. I bought the Core i7 920 which is clocked at 2.6Ghz by default. After toying around for 6+ hours tweaking this and that I ended up stable at 4Ghz.
The cpu is very stable and sturdy, even at almost 1.7v core (default 1.25). Compared to my old FX-55 ( remember how leet that processor used to be, haha ) its like a different world. As you can see from the picture I am currently running at 3.6Ghz because the processor was getting a little to hot when under load. It would peak at 90 degrees celcius at 4Ghz, max operating tempurature is widely accepted as 100 degrees celcius. This is not documented or set by Intel, its more of a rumor. Apparently at 100 degrees the cpu starts to underclock itself, therefore 100 degrees is the max.
Also, unless you are very lucky in order to achieve 4Ghz you must enable Intel’s Turbo Boost technology, which automatically adjusts the cpu multiplier based on load. Usually the cpu’s multiplier is set to 20, but with Turbo enabled and heavy load the cpu will overclock to 21. Unfortunently according to the posts I read online when the cpu overclocks itself it only overclocks a couple of cores. Therefore even though the cpu makes it to 4Ghz when under load its really just a number, the true frequency is a bit lower.
Therefore I decided to disable Turbo and leave the cpu at 3.8Ghz for a time. After a few days I decided to lower it further to 3.6Ghz to keep the voltage within spec. Believe me though, the Core i7 is an amazingly strong overclocker.
As a special note, the board I got does not allow setting the multiplier over 20, but I hear talk of a future bios update to allow it.
