That’s the theory but now it’s time to see how Core i7 performs.
Intel said, 'test these.' So we did.
Our Intel-supplied review kit consists of a hefty box of goodies that includes a Core i7 920, Core i7 965 Extreme, DX58SO motherboard, three 1GB 1066MHz DDR 3 DIMMs from Qimonda, a regular Intel heatsink, a hefty Thermalright heatsink and an 80GB X25-M Solid State Drive.
Although we love the X25-M dearly, it’s 80GB capacity makes it impractical for everyday use and its £500-600 cost makes it an exotic treat. For the purposes of this review we’re sticking with a 1TB WD Caviar Black, which is a decent hard drive and which neither slows nor flatters the Core i7.
Asus' Rampage II Extreme mobo: CrossFire and SLI
The other decision we took is to test the new CPUs with an Asus Rampage II Extreme motherboard that supports both CrossFire and SLI. We used a relatively puny GeForce 8800GT during our tests as the emphasis was on system and CPU performance, but we have also done some quick runs with a pair of GeForce GTX 280 cards in SLI and intend to do a follow-up on Core i7 and X58 for gaming.
Although the Intel DX58SO motherboard looks very interesting, it seems a bit daft to exclude the possibility of SLI while we’re getting familiar with this new processor and chipset.
Our starting point is the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 overclocked from its stock speed of 3.0GHz to 3.16GHz on an Intel DX38BT with 2GB of dual-channel DDR 3 running at 1333MHz. This is a damn fine PC that represents the best of the current generation of technology so it is telling to compare it with the Core i7 Extreme at its stock speed of 3.2GHz with triple-channel memory running at 1,066MHz.
COMMENTS
Ugh!
You did it again, the graphs are completely meaningless.
@Blackadder; no, you get all the memory you buy, so long as you can address it all.
@Tak Omega; there's still time.
@Blackadder
It is just like two channel but three instead.
If you populate slot one of channels one, two and three then you have three GB RAM. If you populate both slots of each channel then you have six GB RAM.
Gaming
I really would like to see the gaming systems tested with this.
I'll give Intel credit for not coming up with a "tri-core" version simply because the chip didn't pass QA.
tri-channel memory
@blackadder
yes, in one sense, rather than one big memory DIMM, you'd want to be fitting three DIMMS to get the advantage of the three channels.
luckily memory is pretty cheap these days! time to buy some shares in a DDR3 manufacturer!
@E
"I wish there was a Sarah Palin icon. I'd use it because she is a monster too!"
Seconded that, but I think it would be more apt if it stood for 'The following post is absolute drivel, I don't know what I'm talking about' - THEN it would be suitable to put Sarah Palin next to it :-)
Or maybe we could have a couple of global warming icons, Palin vs Al Gore or something...
