Hardware Intel Core i7-930 CPU Review

Did not know that motherboards can bypass it.Thought it was cpu controlled and that the cpu locks you out of changing it to the higher 6.4gt/s

 

Nice review, was thinking of building a core i5 750 for my missus , but now i`m not too sure may go the core i7 930 route, although price wise i still think the i5 is the processor of the year.

 

That 1.45V vcore seems alot for a DO. Im currently running my 920 DO at 1.30V at 21 x 205 on the ASUS P6T Deluxe on air cooling!

 

I've got a test bench up with P6T Deluxe V2, XSPC Delta V3, 750lph pump/res and BlackIce Crossflow 360 with three DH12SH-12 Yate Loons and am struggling to get sensible temperatures using the settings used here on a retail i7 930. So as per usual your mileage will vary.

 

You guys really threw me off with this article.

Why not use turbo? This effectively gives the 920 the 21x multi that you claimed is new for the 930. Also, the 930 has a multi of 22x with turbo enabled.

Also, more opinions. Your 920 is a bad overclocker. Most D0 revisions I've seen will run at 4GHz at or below 1.25V. Mine will do 4.4GHz on 1.43V. From what I've seen of those that managed to get their chips early, the 930's has been terrible overclockers. They've required around 1.4V for 4.0GHz and haven't been stable at all using the 22x multi (the main reason people would upgrade from the 920).

So, I have NO idea why you rated this chip so well, as so far all the results I've seen, yours included, have been mediocre at best.

 

I thought the 920 was a C0, not a D0...

 

Some of them are C0 but the newer ones are D0 and have been that for a couple of months.

 

I was referring to the 920 in the review.

 

I have my 930 bench running just fine now, settled on 4.2GHz. But I've turned off most of the fans for some heat stress on a watercooling loop. However, as someone who overclocks i7s pretty much daily I find your comments slightly naive. Yes there are batches of i7s that will do 4GHz at 1.25V but this is not the norm it also depends on the board you are using so if you've had 10 D0 920 in the same board requiring 1.25 then it may just be the board. Take 10 different boards and the same 10 CPUs (100 data points) and come back with a trend.

What is disappointing about this CPU is that it is neither hexacore nor 32nm, it appears that Intel is resting on it's laurels by holding off the roll-out of that behemoth. BTW PRPro has a review of the 980x (which is 32nm and hexacore) already, CPC is the high end stablemate of PCPro yet they get the first review before you lot have anything online!

 

looks like the chip to get if the price is right.. if building a new system anyway- your already spending hundreds.. might well go for this over the i5

 

Link please. Anything posted now is breaking NDA.

EDIT: It's print only, and only subscribers have received it at this stage.

CustomPC subscribers will get it in Issue 80 of their mags THIS WEEK too (afaik), and it'll be on the news stand next week.

 

PCPro, Issue 187, Page 55

Does print only stop it from being an NDA breach?

I hope you have some more depth than the single page in PCPro, can you get it to hit 4.5GHz on air?

 

has anyone seen any motherboards that can change the qpi on the 930 to 6.4gt/s

 

Just got my i930 this past sat, April 24th. $199 at Micro Center Computer and Electronics. Heres the link.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0331303

 

They achieved a nice overclock on the 930; however, it means absolutely nothing without temperatures. At the CPU voltage they used their temperatures must be way too high. I am running a Swiftech water cooling system with my 930 running 4.3GHz at 1.31 Volts and using Prime95 Blend test I am seeing 75°C+ temps.