Friday February 10, 2012 4:43 AM AEST

Core i7 CPU

By Justin Robinson
15:22 Nov 3, 2008 | 17 Comments
Tags: intel | nehalem | core | i7
«  »
Core i7 CPU
 
Performance:
100%
Overclockability:
79%
Value :
62%
90
Verdict:
Despite the cost, we still adore this chip for its incredible performance. In time, every enthusiast will need one.
Hyper-Space Threading
Hyper-Threading was one of the major points of contention back in the days of the (now ancient) Pentium 4 era. It is a function of the hardware to analyse code, and to locate any repetitions that happen multiple times (the Loop Stream Detector takes care of this). These repetitions are then split into two threads, and pumped concurrently to a single CPU core. The reasoning behind this is that the core is never left idle between instructions, and can work through the code more efficiently. This is why you’ll notice that Windows detects Nehalem as being an Octal-threaded Quad-core CPU. Applications that take advantage of this tech the most are video encoding and editing, as well as intense scientific calculations.

QPI – A whole new FSBallgame
You’re probably familiar (if not intimately so) with the FSB. The FSB, or Front Side Bus, is a method of connecting all the components on a motherboard with each other. This has been used in all Intel motherboards up until this point, and has proven to be a limiting factor in increasing performance, bottlenecking the amount of data that can be worked upon. It is also not very extensible, as each CPU or component added to the system takes a slice of the total bandwidth available, reducing the benefits of having two. The FSB also requires a very high frequency (333MHz is very common), and can place stress on some motherboard components. It’s essentially an outdated tech, which has spurred on the evolution of the FSB’s replacement – the QPI.

The QPI, or Quick Path Interconnect, is similar to AMD’s HyperTransport, or HT bus. The HT bus is a bi-directional parallel link, and the last standard (3.0) provides a theoretical bandwidth of just over 40GB/s per second. QPI, along much the same lines, provides multiple links between each core of the CPUs, memory, and all the components on the board. Since this is not shared, each link is free to operate at the full bandwidth, allowing a core on another CPU access to memory data at a very fast speed. Current theoretical performance on an X58 motherboard of the QPI is just over 25GB/s. This might not sound like it’s as good as AMD’s, but here’s the kicker – this is between every major component on the board, in any direction, at any time. In terms of real-world usability and viability, the QPI is a significant improvement, and Intel will surely encroach heavily on the Server market once these chips become available.

 
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Product Info
Supplier:
price check*
$22.80 Intel stock fan for Core i7 LGA 1366 EXTREME CPU
Digitan Technology (NSW)
$621.00 Intel Core i7-980 Processor Extreme Edition 3.33 GHz, 4.8 QPI, 45nm, Integr...
Gocomp (QLD)
$1078.00 INTEL CORE i7-990X Extreme Edition CPU, 3.46GHZ, 12MB CACHE, 6.4GT/SEC QPI,...
I.Store (VIC)
$1099.00 Intel Core i7 Extreme 990X CPU 3.46Ghz 6 Cores 12 Hyperthread 6.4GT QPI LGA...
NetPlus (WA)
$1109.00 Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition Gulftown 3.46GHz 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 12MB...
iiBuy (NSW)
$1139.00 BX80613I7990X Intel CPU Core i7-990X Extreme Edition - LGA 1366
Centre Com (VIC)
*Products and prices sourced from staticICE and are in no way associated with Atomic MPC Powered by
 
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17 Comments
DanAus1983
Nov 3, 2008 3:40 PM
Great review! I hope the prices drop fairly quickly, I'm planning on building a new system in six months or so, but they should have dropped a fair bit by then.
Girvo
Nov 3, 2008 4:06 PM
That's wicked!

:)

This should see Wolfdale prices drop a fair bit, which makes me a happy camper. New build in late 2009 will see me grab an i7 I reckon. :)
emccat
Nov 3, 2008 4:31 PM
YAY woblblubluulb (thats ment to be a word)
Scuba
Nov 3, 2008 4:33 PM
Looks like an amazing chip. Current prices in AUD appear to be around $650 for the 920, $1100 for the 940 and $2500 for the 965 (with an outlier at $1990 from Penta!).

There looks to be quite a variation across the store prices for now, here's hoping the retailers have a nice price war and we see them come down over the coming weeks. Also - Go Aussie-dollar, go!
Fat_Bodybuilder
Nov 3, 2008 4:34 PM
Overlord is a pretty low atomic rank... =P

I woulda said Nehalem Colossus
^Faldo^
Nov 3, 2008 5:23 PM
http://digg.com/hardware/Nehalem_review_with_benchmarks_and_architecture_details

Go, go, go!
osama_bin_athlon
Nov 3, 2008 7:01 PM
sounds like it's everything we'd hoped it would be!
Argotha
Nov 3, 2008 7:20 PM
/orgasm

Yes that is the only thing that comes to mind. If there is anyreason to keep doing the paper run it is to save up for one of those babies (and hopefully will later be, my baby)
battlefield_gir
Nov 3, 2008 9:08 PM
Pants definitly tented!
I hope the socket is place a little bit lower on the majority of mobos due to problems fiting it in my case?
strifus
Nov 3, 2008 11:09 PM
those pics just give me goosebumps. so beautiful.
SceptreCore
Nov 4, 2008 1:30 AM
Awesome

I bet you guys can't wait to get your hands on a dual core to push Nehalem to it's highest frequency.
darklife41
Nov 4, 2008 4:37 AM
I'll take 2 pls. :)
colganaitor
Nov 4, 2008 11:07 PM
Woah . . .there's only one way to describe this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priapism

Hawt.

Can I has sexes with it?
Doc Forrest
Nov 6, 2008 10:30 PM
This will be the core of my new system.
Nath84
Nov 10, 2008 9:45 AM
:p Im in!
Mr Faunce
Nov 12, 2008 3:57 AM
I am an AMD boy, so i will never know.
davidald
Nov 13, 2008 1:47 AM
Great review but where did your price examples come from? The new I7 is available from $600 at my local PC store.
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