Overclocking guide shows what Intel's Core i7 is / isn't capable of
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 30th 2008 1:35AM
posted Dec 30th 2008 1:35AM
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
Not Impressed, drop the price, and maybe :D
"Not Impressed"
@iLack, I almost thought you were Mr. Professional there for a second. ::phew::
nah can't be fuzo, he (or she) has't said the word fugly in that post.
My Q6600 @ 3.4Ghz bows its head in shame...
My Q6600 stock won't let me open the read link :P
My AMD Quad core dropped down to a tripple core when it saw this article...
Oh wait... AMD did that...
meh. i'd rather take an overclocked Q66 or Q93 with 4GB+ of nice cheap DDR2-1066 on Vista x64 SP1 tri-booted with Leopard and XP SP3. it'll do the same thing. render times should be similar. for far far cheaper.
Not really..... From Benchmarks it looks like a 3Ghz i7 beats a 4Ghz C2Q
Um... Where have you been? Oh that's right, hiding under a rock.
i'm not thrilled about replacing my motherboard AGAIN.
Does the guide include making it affordable?
$295 for the 920 i7 isn't really that unreasonable. Remember you pay the premium to be an early adopter. The stupid QX9770 are still $1300.
You forgot to add the 300 for the motherboard you need, and the 300 for the triple channel 1.64v RAM, so that's 900+ right there.
q9550 is still going for $320 on newegg. so let me get this straight...pay $25 less for much higher performance. sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
@ Wwhat. You can get DDR3 RRAM from new egg for 70 bucks & they sell sub $300 motherboards for the i7 now. What are you talking about? The GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard is only $209 Crucial 3GB (3 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory is only $73. That's less then $300 for something you said cost $600.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148244
These are NOT on sale btw.
@Zenstyle
yeah, but you're only as good as your weakest component, sure you can build a cheaper machine with those parts, but if your spending the money anyway, you might as well invest in some really decent parts. don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
Do the i7s use less energy than the C2Ds and C2Qs?
No
Hey, I'm not your friend, buddy.
I'm not your buddy, guy
i'm not your guy pal!!
I'm not your guy, friend.
I'm not a guy, man.
I'm not your friend, guy.
Not only am I not 12, not female, and not horny, I work for the CIA.
You're my guy, dude.
Easy now fellah
How 'bout we sing, 'Kyle's Mom is a stupid bitch' in D Minor.
I can overclocking my Q9550@4000mhz this is more than enough power.
I can haz cheezburgerz? Btw I have a Q9550 & it's nice, but the i7 runs circles around it.
You guys still into the stuff that more Mhz = better? Lal
Yes, what don't you understand? Faster = Better. Again, what do you not understand? Unless there is a serious flaw with the chip then faster will always = better when it comes to computing.
Wow you are one funny guy.. First you say that the i7 runs circles around the Q9550, but then you say that the Q9550 should be better as it has a .2 ghz higher clock speed..
Surely you are a moron. Without changing the architecture, you should always see an improvement when increasing processor speed. The reason Core I7 is faster with a lower speed is because it has a better architecture. I am not the best with computers, but neither are you so please stop acting like you know everything.
Oh I'm sorry I assumed you guys knew more about the architecture of the processor. i7's use the good ol Hyper Threading technology too. So 4 cores, 8 threads. Even @ stock speeds these things are faster then anything that came before it. These things can also hit 4GHz easy. @ Patriks sorry didn't comprehend there, it was really late.
@ZenStyleJunglist & @elliiot,
wow, i could create a few Mhz just between the flaming of guys.
-Brett
come on guys the price on DDr3 has gone way down Patriot Viper 3GB DDr3 1333 70$ the chepest X58 motherboard is about 200& with a i7 920 you can upgrade for about 570$ and dont for get about the Intel Core i5 and P55 chipset, after Q1 the pirce of intel X58 will be more mainstream.
If you buy the cheapest RAM and the cheapest mobo then what is the point of 'upgrading'? you can pay less and buy good RAM and a good old q9550 or something CPU and at least OC it, with the result of a faster system than your unstable slow i7-on-a-budget-stock-speed system.
@ Wwhat. O.k. I'm now convinced you have no idea what you are talking about.
@Wwhat: The cheapest X58 motherboard ($200 Gigabyte) has triple channel DDR3. Even the cheapest DDR3 modules with triple channel enabled will surpass the typical enthusiast Q9550 dual channel setup. So yeah, for less than $600 (MB+i7CPU+RAM), you've got yourself a Q9550 killer.
@Techworship
You have no idea what you are talking about. It has long been proven DDR2 is still a top contender and DDR3 does add much to the table.
im not your guy buddy! and im not replacing my motherboard a fourth time!
Due to the tiny pins it takes minimal force to push an i7 in an old socket I bet, make sure you first install vista so you aren't too disappointed by the results :x
I love how this is being covered over a month after [H]ardOCP already covered this.
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU4MSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
We had a review/benchmark ready over at Guru3D the day Intel officially announced the damn things. It always takes engadget a while to catch up.
Guru3d is nice and handy and all, but it's not exactly a place of hardcore OC enthusiasts in my view, the reviews are 'OK' but not 'That was a good, I'm going to bookmark it for reference'
@ ZenStyleJunglist
That may have something to do with the fact that ninety percent of Engadget's stories are submitted by a small handful of people, and half of them by our friend, Darren Murph. It takes awhile to get around to every story. But, hey, if you think you could do better, you could always apply to write for Engadget!
Here is hoping that AMD can deliver enough punch to make Intel lower prices.
Summary:
Buy the cheapest Core i7 they sell.
Get a good mainboard.
Go for 3.5 GHz with third party air cooling.
Lower your RAM multipliers, up your mainboard reference clock.
Now there's a useful comment!
I'm flirting with the idea of building one of those but the price and the fact that I would be leaving my gaming laptop and that is a big change for me. GTA IV kicked my Clevo's ass and I didn't like it though... My fault for going cheap on the processor... :(
(SHUT UP! It does run most games on high at 1680X1050 and it's not a dumb buy! Just anwser this: Can you game with your fancy quad core rig IN BED??? And lounging on the sofa? Didn't think so :P)
kewl. my next rig is going to either have LGA 1366, or LGA 775. not sure yet. waiting for DFi's Junior mobo to launch for the ci7. itll be a sff computer with watercooling. im not totally sold on ci7 (1366) just yet though.
We can finally put it to rest: Core i7 can play crysys at 60FPS!
http://hothardware.com/Articles/Overclocking-Intels-Core-i7-920-Processor/?page=7
But can it play Supreme Commander?
Quick question. It says "Optimized for such and such chipset" but what happens if you use it with a different (older) LGA775 motherboard, such as the ASUS P5B Deluxe?
Actually, nevermind, since the Core i7 isn't even LGA 775. But what would happen if you use a processor with a motherboard that supports the right FSB, but isn't "optimized" for it?
Um... You can't.
Dude read some info on the thing. It doesn't use a FSB it uses a QPI. cmon!
Ahhh! Too many things changing at once. Thanks for the help, though. XD
Sort of a point though, why say 'optimized for such and such chipset' when there is only 1 bloody chipset available really huh.
My next CPU will be that 920... because After Effects benchmark show there is not so much difference between the 920 and the extreme one BUT a big difference compare to the old D2C!!
Huzza!
idiots what i mean is nearly the same performance for less money.
some people have a brauin like a Peanut
A "brauin"?
I like peanuts, but I'm afraid I don't know what a brauin is.
If you are complaining about price here then you should probably visit the Dell website and have them build you system. A. The 920 is pretty damn cheap at 300. Considering you can OC to 4.0 on air and people are getting 4.5+ on liquid. Probably one of the best OCing chips out there now. 4 cores 8 threads? Not saying anymore B. Triple channel DDR3 running at 1600 mhz for a cost of 200 dollars is not expensive at all. Hell if you want the 3 gig setup it will run you under 200, even better. I mean DDR2 memory has drastically reduced in price the last 2 years, I think some of you are spoiled because of that. Mobo will run you 300 but all the x58's have all the bells and whistles.
If you are still scared of the price then hell wait a few months buy the setup and then go complain about the price of the next biggest and baddest thing. It seems a lot of you are looking at the price of the processor, mobo, and ram but not realizing what the setup has to offer. The mobo does more than just hold your processor...Fairweather fans should wait patiently for the price drop and quiet up already. Damn right it's expensive, it just came out a few months ago. The people buying this setup now are going to be paying more for it, yes. Chances are though, they actually know what to do with a beast of a setup like this and not running Hello Kitty Adventure Island on their system.
Bottom line, you people are talking about a minor improve in a few areas. Did anyone other than me notice that 2.66 Ghz to 4.0 Ghz only yeilded a increase of 12 frames per second in gaming? I can overclock my GPU a little and get the same results in gaming.
I am not spending $500+ so I can encode DVD's a few minutes faster.