LGA2011 Core i7-3960X

[ed29a]

Well there is the 3980X that is as of yet announced. It comes out about 2 weeks after the 3 announced versions. Likely the 8 core extreme edition.

Not 8 core but 6 core, according to these guys.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Crappy memory traces, poor voltage regulation, etc, will all still deep-six an overclock effort even when the overclock is being done via multiplier steps.

I had one of those original unlocked multi extreme quads (whatever it was back in Nov 2006, the Q6700X or somesuch?) and the max OC I could get was entirely dependent on the quality of the motherboard I put it in.

Your question is really no different than asking what good is it in having different PSU manufacturers, different DDR3 dimm producers, or different AIB's producing the same class of GPU products...differentiating factors will still be present as each company makes different decisions in terms of cost-savings and feature points.

Fair enough, I guess I should have imbued my post with a little more specificity.

What I meant was for motherboards within a given minimum price/quality tier, there seems to be less differentiating them now. I have always had good luck in achieving good overclocks using more economical boards (965P-DS3, EX58-UD3R, IB9, AB9 Pro, etc.)

As long as the board works for a given stock memory rating, it should work. I guess the most integral remaining factor is voltage regulation (apart from layout and maybe color scheme).

 

[Gikaseixas]

Well there is the 3980X that is as of yet announced. It comes out about 2 weeks after the 3 announced versions. Likely the 8 core extreme edition.

i was convinced the 3960X was the Extreme version. If that's so what amount of cache and what clocks will it have?

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

What will people do with so much processing powers on their PCs? Its like everybody driving a Veyron few years down the line.

Oh, we'll find something to use it eventually. I've said that to myself countless times before :
AthlonXP 2000+, OCed mobile P4-Celly, C2D @ 3.6GHz and most recently i7 920 @ 4GHz.

 

[OCGuy]

Monster chips.....

Hurry up and get one Aigo.

 

[AtenRa]

AMDs 32 on llano doesn't look so good . Not good at all. power hungry and slow.

Really ??

Reviews did shown a higher IPC (yes ok ~5%) and lower power usage than 45nm at the same frequency, perhaps not that much as was expected in the first place but it was there both in Idle and in Full mode.

 

[AdamK47]

Your thoughts

Want

 

[Cannibalskunk]

Fair enough, I guess I should have imbued my post with a little more specificity.

What I meant was for motherboards within a given minimum price/quality tier, there seems to be less differentiating them now. I have always had good luck in achieving good overclocks using more economical boards (965P-DS3, EX58-UD3R, IB9, AB9 Pro, etc.)

As long as the board works for a given stock memory rating, it should work. I guess the most integral remaining factor is voltage regulation (apart from layout and maybe color scheme).

And features. Number of USB 2/3 ports, included Firewire or eSATA, number of PCI-E 16x slots, bluetooth, etc etc. The biggest performance difference that I found when I was recently in the market for a new 1155 board was number/size of heatsinks and heat pipes to theoretically allow for better overclocking.

 

[bryanW1995]

It will still come down to the quality of the motherboard design and the components used on it, right?

Crappy memory traces, poor voltage regulation, etc, will all still deep-six an overclock effort even when the overclock is being done via multiplier steps.

I had one of those original unlocked multi extreme quads (whatever it was back in Nov 2006, the Q6700X or somesuch?) and the max OC I could get was entirely dependent on the quality of the motherboard I put it in.

Your question is really no different than asking what good is it in having different PSU manufacturers, different DDR3 dimm producers, or different AIB's producing the same class of GPU products...differentiating factors will still be present as each company makes different decisions in terms of cost-savings and feature points.

After my x58 mobo fiasco (3 mobos now) I've promised myself to get a quality mobo next time around. I got spoiled with the ip35 pro from a price/performance perspective, I don't see any others like that coming around again.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

After my x58 mobo fiasco (3 mobos now) I've promised myself to get a quality mobo next time around. I got spoiled with the ip35 pro from a price/performance perspective, I don't see any others like that coming around again.

Which one was that? I got one of the cheapest X58 boards for my i7 setups (EX58-UD3R Rev 1.0 and Rev 1.6). They've been working fine 24/7 and keep my 920 D0 @ 4GHz on air.

Same thing with my C2D setups (E6600 @ 3.6GHz on 965P-DS3 Rev 1.0s) and recently the same with all my Phenom IIs (X3 730BE @ 4-core 3.8GHz on air on Biostar TA870+ and TA880GB+ boards).

Now please understand I'm not saying that more expensive motherboards are stupid. There will always be hardcore folks like aigo pushing things. Personally for me, I'm happy to get say 85% of their performance for say 50% of the price.

 

[SHAQ]

I'm waiting on quad core results. 6 cores are not worth the cost since they don't boost performance in most anything. I would rather have a 5Ghz quad than a 4.6Ghz 6 core.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

3930K will run for $500-$600?

Ugh. What happened to the days of the godly i7 920/930? $199 at Micro Center? OC to 4ghz easily... sigh.

Sure the budget SB-E will still be $300, but you can't OC it at all. I'm sure a 2600K overclocked would squash it.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yeah, i'm not into bullsh*t prices for marginal performance over mainstream. I learned that when 1156 came out.

 

[Idontcare]

3930K will run for $500-$600?

Ugh. What happened to the days of the godly i7 920/930? $199 at Micro Center? OC to 4ghz easily... sigh.

Sure the budget SB-E will still be $300, but you can't OC it at all. I'm sure a 2600K overclocked would squash it.

I'm guessing that the problem was too many people went for the 920 instead of the middle tier. Management has an easy solution for those kinds of pesky cheapo customers!

 

[exar333]

3930K will run for $500-$600?

Ugh. What happened to the days of the godly i7 920/930? $199 at Micro Center? OC to 4ghz easily... sigh.

Sure the budget SB-E will still be $300, but you can't OC it at all. I'm sure a 2600K overclocked would squash it.

Im guessing a cheap SB-E hexacore will be available when the 8-core Extreme becomes available down the road.

I will bite on a 6-core SB-E if I can get a solid MB for <$300 and the CPU for <$500. Otherwise, wait for IB.

 

[Rifter]

3930K will run for $500-$600?

Ugh. What happened to the days of the godly i7 920/930? $199 at Micro Center? OC to 4ghz easily... sigh.

Sure the budget SB-E will still be $300, but you can't OC it at all. I'm sure a 2600K overclocked would squash it.

100% this.

To me overclocking other than the obvious reasons of being fun and a hobby has been about getting free performance, but having to work for it and select good components/cooling to make it happen.

This is why i usually get the cheapest chip on the highest end socket and see how close to the top chip of that socket i can get it.

Honestly i think intel is going down the wrong road with locking out Bclock overclocking, for me at least its going to take all the fun of fine tuning a system.

 

[Tuna-Fish]

Ugh. What happened to the days of the godly i7 920/930? $199 at Micro Center? OC to 4ghz easily... sigh.

AMD failed to compete. That's what happened.

I remember back when a decent (not top of the line) cpu was $400 or so. The single thing Intel most wants to do is to hike up the ARP, until all the profit of a computer ends up with them. The only thing stopping them is competition -- from amd, from arm, and especially from their own last years model.

Unless the threat of amd or arm actually materializes, expect the price points to creep slowly, but solidly upwards with every release.

 

[jvroig]

Unless the threat of amd or arm actually materializes, expect the price points to creep slowly, but solidly upwards with every release.

On a more positive note, there would be a natural limit to what they can charge (not saying it will be well within our comfort margins, just saying there will be a limit), so it won't exactly increase with every release. Intel is competing with themselves, and with each generation they have to convince a significant portion of their entire market that it is worth it to upgrade - either for the extra performance, lower power consumption, cooler temps, or any or all of them combined.

 

[nonameo]

On a more positive note, there would be a natural limit to what they can charge (not saying it will be well within our comfort margins, just saying there will be a limit), so it won't exactly increase with every release. Intel is competing with themselves, and with each generation they have to convince a significant portion of their entire market that it is worth it to upgrade - either for the extra performance, lower power consumption, cooler temps, or any or all of them combined.

Or compatibility

I'm sure intel(or any other company) can come up with a way to engineer some planned obsolescence in there to stay employed.

Hey look! I made something SO awesome that I put myself out of a job! how awesome is that!

 

[dajeepster]

Or compatibility

I'm sure intel(or any other company) can come up with a way to engineer some planned obsolescence in there to stay employed.

you mean like the lga1156 to lga1155... :hmm:

 

[blackened23]

What will people do with so much processing powers on their PCs? Its like everybody driving a Veyron few years down the line.

I remember saying this in the 90s when P54C chips were just released

 

[blackened23]

I'm guessing that the problem was too many people went for the 920 instead of the middle tier. Management has an easy solution for those kinds of pesky cheapo customers!

Hmm, I'm really curious as to how much that affected them. Enthusiasts are a very small share of their sales, and its mostly enthusiasts buying stuff like 920's and 2600-k for overclocking.

 

[gevorg]

Will never go back to 130W CPUs ever again.


<==== Happy owner of 2500K

 

[podspi]

Will never go back to 130W CPUs ever again.


<==== Happy owner of 2500K

IMHO, high-wattage CPUs just aren't as bad as they used to be, with modern power-saving features.

It's not like how it used to be where the thing was sucking down power full-blast sitting at the login screen

Even idle usage doesn't bother me too much. With reliable sleep/hibernation the power the machine uses when I'm not around is negligible (to me).

 

[skipsneeky2]

These new chips are gonna be monstors but i doubt gamers will go for them.

Hope they have some quad core models out cause this 2500k does the job perfectly fine and i don't miss the hyperthreading my i7 950 had.