From our front-page news:
It's been a long wait, but today marks the official launch of Intel's latest processor lineup, Core i7. Although the origin of the name itself is still a mystery, the performance that the new models offer is not, as seen in the preview article we posted a few weeks ago. We still plan to follow-up to that article, but are awaiting a few more motherboards to test with, so we can get the full story.
Although today marks the launch of the new processors, some e-tailers began selling the new models over the weekend, such as NewEgg and Mwave. Those two actually happen to be the only two right now I can find that are currently selling (or have them even listed), but more will undoubtedly pop up during the week.
Of the two e-tailers mentioned above, Mwave undercuts NewEgg's prices by a rather healthy margin, although since I have no experience with them, I can't personally attest to their customer service in order to recommend them for the purchase. At the time of this post, here are the links and prices for all three models at both stores:
(Click for 1920x1200 desktop wallpaper.)
As a reminder, the i7 920 and 940 both have locked multipliers, meaning the overclocking will be via increasing the Base Clock only, while the Extreme chip has a fully unlocked multiplier (up to 40x) to allow even higher clocks to be seen. It's still a little early in the game to take a guess at typical overclocks for either of the three new models, but for a point-of-reference, we hit a stable 3.60GHz on the Core i7 920 using near-stock voltages on the ASUS P6T Deluxe.
Need to know even more? Be sure to refer to our preview article from a few weeks ago and also our "Choosing the Best Memory Kit", which might just save you some cash in what will be an already expensive upgrade.
Although today marks the launch of the new processors, some e-tailers began selling the new models over the weekend, such as NewEgg and Mwave. Those two actually happen to be the only two right now I can find that are currently selling (or have them even listed), but more will undoubtedly pop up during the week.
Of the two e-tailers mentioned above, Mwave undercuts NewEgg's prices by a rather healthy margin, although since I have no experience with them, I can't personally attest to their customer service in order to recommend them for the purchase. At the time of this post, here are the links and prices for all three models at both stores:
- Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz - Mwave ($289.00)
- Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz - NewEgg ($319.99)
- Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz - Mwave ($575.00)
- Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz - NewEgg ($599.99)
- Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 3.20GHz - Mwave ($1,039.00)
- Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 3.20GHz - NewEgg ($1,069.99)
(Click for 1920x1200 desktop wallpaper.)
As a reminder, the i7 920 and 940 both have locked multipliers, meaning the overclocking will be via increasing the Base Clock only, while the Extreme chip has a fully unlocked multiplier (up to 40x) to allow even higher clocks to be seen. It's still a little early in the game to take a guess at typical overclocks for either of the three new models, but for a point-of-reference, we hit a stable 3.60GHz on the Core i7 920 using near-stock voltages on the ASUS P6T Deluxe.
Need to know even more? Be sure to refer to our preview article from a few weeks ago and also our "Choosing the Best Memory Kit", which might just save you some cash in what will be an already expensive upgrade.
