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Why so many Core i7-2600 flavours?

Posted on 9th Aug 2011 at 11:35 by Clive Webster with 26 comments

There’s an interesting article over at Ars Technica, titled What processor should I buy: Intel’s crazy pricing makes my head hurt. That might seem a silly question at first: as the author points out, surely you just buy the most expensive CPU in the LGA1155 range. However, Peter Bright is no fool; looking closer at the specs and his requirements, the author struggles to make sense of Intel’s strategy with new features, performance and compatibility.

Budget overclocking is back!

Posted on 30th Nov 2009 at 10:50 by Antony Leather with 25 comments

I’ve felt a little lost over the last six months or so. AMD still hasn’t come back with a definitive answer to Intel's Core i7 and Core i5 CPUs and even they have been prohibitively expensive for many looking to upgrade from a Core 2 system.

Gone, it seems, are the days of the Core 2 Duo E1200 which could be bagged for less than £40. After a 100% overclock, it could turn into something that gave £150 CPUs a run for their money. I've used the CPU in several systems that I've built for people over the last few years, coupled one of the many budget uberclocking LGA775 boards that were pushed off the production lines.

When three storms collide

Posted on 17th Aug 2009 at 15:53 by Antony Leather with 14 comments

I was at a press event last week and whilst on my rounds meeting and greeting various hardware manufacturers and distributers, it was clear that a storm is brewing in the PC industry. However, in spite of the recession, this isn't a storm that will dampen our spirits further.

In contrast it will hopefully send a bolt of lightning right up the backside of any kind of daemon that has a financial grip on the IT industry. In fact it's what some might call a 'perfect storm' which, if you've seen the film, can only happen when two or more storms collide, the more the merrier really, unless you're a swordfisherman that is.

In this case, these storms are Windows 7, DX11 and Lynnfield and all are coming to an etailer near you before Christmas.

More shots of the Asus P55, LGA1156, Lynnfield motherboard

Posted on 30th Jul 2009 at 11:36 by Clive Webster with 11 comments

Egads, just how many buzz-words can an IT journo fit into a blog post title these days? I blame Google, to whom all us online folk are beholden. Maybe I should just add a few hot search terms...

Or not. The purpose of this blog post is I thought I'd share some new shots Asus has sent through of its first P55 board to supplement James' preview of the Asus P7P55-Evo that went up a week or so ago.

Supposedly these are of the final retail board. The main update is the Southbridge cooler, which seems massive, and that weird Turbo-V thing. Pics and more discussion below the break.

Is LGA1366 the most future-proof choice?

Posted on 16th Jul 2009 at 10:29 by Clive Webster with 46 comments

I was chatting to Rich yesterday about P55 and socket LGA1156, and how its imminent arrival makes it pretty tricky to pick a CPU type with decent upgrade potential. LGA775 isn't going to see anything new, so a Q9650 is pretty much the pinnacle of Core 2; meanwhile on the AMD side, it really doesn't seem that Socket AM3 has much further to go. However, we know Intel plans future LGA1366 releases, so this seems like the best option if you desperately need an upgrade now.

Lynnfield has arrived

Posted on 2nd Jul 2009 at 16:52 by James Gorbold with 16 comments

We just thought you’d like to know that a pair of Lynnfield CPUs arrived in the office today. Lynnfield is the codename for the second generation Nehalem-architecture CPUs that will replace the Core 2 later this year (for more on its actual retail branding, you can read our recent news story).

Lynnfield CPUs differ from current Core i7 CPUs such as the i7-975 in that they have four physical cores, but only the top two models will have logical Hyper-Threaded cores - lower spec Lynnfields will not support Hyper-Threading at all. In addition Lynnfield has a dual-channel DDR3 integrated memory controller instead of supporting triple-channel DDR3. As a result of these changes, Lynnfield CPUs will ship with LGA1156 packaging, so will not work in existing LGA1366 Core i7 or LGA775 Core 2 motherboards.

Intel to release Core i7 975, new D0 stepping soon?

Posted on 3rd Feb 2009 at 15:21 by Tim Smalley with 2 comments

Although most of the world is hurting right now because of the economic slowdown, Intel looks set to release a new high-end Core i7 processor in the coming weeks or months following some early benchmark results which have appeared on the Xtreme Systems forums.

Intel to release Core i7 975, new D0 stepping soon? Intel to release Core i7 975, new D0 stepping soon

Xtreme Systems honcho Charles 'Fugger' Wirth teamed up with Corsair, Gigabyte and Intel to break the 3DMark05 world record, stealing it back from Team Finland, who put AMD back on top in this benchmark for the first time in a long time. He broke the previous record of 45,474 with his pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2s humming along at their stock speeds and clocked up a new highest score of 47,026.

Episode 23 - More Intel Core i7 and loads of Left 4 Dead

Posted on 25th Nov 2008 at 13:08 by Podcast

To cheer you up on a cold and frosty Tuesday, Episode 23 of the Custom PC podcast is out, guaranteed to be louder than ever before. Clive is joined by Staff Writers Antony Leather and Mark Mackay to discuss the price of Core i7 motherboards - is over £250 too much for a single-socket motherboard? Also up for discussion is how to spell Mark’s surname as well as other processor news.

The games chart springs a few surprises, as Lord of the Rings Online releases its Mines of Moria expansion pack at the same time as Wrath of the Litch King is released for World of Warcraft. Whatever the bizarre logic for this, the plan seems to have worked as both expansions are in the Top 10. Btw, how does one pronounce ‘Litch’? Also in the Top 10 are Football Manager 2009 and the horrible-sounding Call of Duty: World at War.

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Episode 20 - Core i7 naming poetry, SLI for everyone and Autumn Games

Posted on 12th Sep 2008 at 19:26 by Podcast

Episode 20 of the Custom PC podcast is out, and features discussion of the official Core i7 name for Nehalem, Nvidia’s change of stance on SLI hardware and Intel’s SSDs. James bursts into the studio mid-recording to yell about Core i7’s performance, and the team look forward to Autumn games including Mirror’s Edge.

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bit-tech.net

Archive for the ‘core i7’ tag

Why so many Core i7-2600 flavours?

Budget overclocking is back!

When three storms collide

More shots of the Asus P55, LGA1156, Lynnfield motherboard

Is LGA1366 the most future-proof choice?

Lynnfield has arrived

Intel to release Core i7 975, new D0 stepping soon?

Episode 23 - More Intel Core i7 and loads of Left 4 Dead

Episode 20 - Core i7 naming poetry, SLI for everyone and Autumn Games

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