Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition Review

[hardcore_gamer]

From a gamer's POV, 2600K is the absolute best

 

[hangfirew8]

Loving the idea of winning one of those overpriced, underperforming 990x systems!

Run some 6+ thread Linux benchmarks and you'll see some real differentiation against Sandy Bridge. That's pretty rarefied air for most, but for some industry and government users where time is money, yeah, only the biggest and fastest will do, and the cost justification is there. Keeping those 6 cores fed with data is where the superior X-58 connectivity comes into play, but again, not needed when you can run a whole HOTAS/Pedal/Console off of one or two USB ports.

 

[cadder]

With Core i7-2600K selling for $330, the value equation got flipped on its head

There goes any possible way we could ever recommend a Bloomfield-based Core i7-960, -950, or -930

Am I reading this right- you are recommending a $330 processor that doesn't work over a $200 processor that does work? Didn't all of the sandbeach processors get pulled from the market?

 

[davewolfgang]

I already have a 1366 board, so I'm IN!

And remember, a lot of us don't just play games and have nothing else open. Outlook, FF with many tabs, Messengers, Skype, and usually a VM or two also. You should run some test with the games AND all that other stuff open.

 

[-Fran-]

I want to participate too, but I'm from Chile 8(

Anyway! It's a weird perk you guys found in F1 2010; glad I'm sitting on a 965 which covers every need i have so far (for cheap, that is) xD!

Nice review as usual, Mr. Angelini.

Cheers!

 

[vvhocare5]

Good article, but....

I would have preferred to see all clock rates normalized to see the architectural differences (something this site used to do), rather than allow the natural clock and RAM differences to show through. Most people here are going to overclock anyhow, which negates much of the testing.

Toms sounds more and more like Consumer Reports magazine every day. I appreciate their thoroughness to testing and their analysis on quality but I do not agree with them when they say you can get something almost as good for less. This is the mindset of people who do not understand quality and performance and those who can frankly afford it.

Yes your VW goes as fast as the Ferrari in traffic, and gets better gas mileage, but you dont have a Ferrari. You want to go faster and for the most part you can, but you are not driving a Ferrari. Consumer Reports will never understand that difference nor will many of these readers (including the author).

I hope you are happy with your AMD cpu and your discounted parts.

I know, I know...some will say "idiots with money, but who has the money here, and who is the id1ot?

 

[rambostyrer]

Anyone who would have liked to see what the new 990x could have done if the performance i games had been pushed to the limit? I mean a single gtx580 did not push that 990x at all.

Why no 580 i sli, or even 3-way sli???

I get the point, a 990x for games is pointless, but it would still be fun to see how much graphics it can handle.

 

[azcoyote]

Nice review! I can only dream of a machine like that tho.
My poor Pentium D shall have to keep trudging along for at least another year... 🙁

 

[lradunovic77]

AMD is so behind.

 

[lradunovic77]

If you have 3 or 4SLI setup, that's where x900 series shines Too bad this review didn't include such setup

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]vvhocare5[/nom]Good article, but....I would have preferred to see all clock rates normalized to see the architectural differences (something this site used to do), rather than allow the natural clock and RAM differences to show through. Most people here are going to overclock anyhow, which negates much of the testing.Toms sounds more and more like Consumer Reports magazine every day. I appreciate their thoroughness to testing and their analysis on quality but I do not agree with them when they say you can get something almost as good for less. This is the mindset of people who do not understand quality and performance and those who can frankly afford it.Yes your VW goes as fast as the Ferrari in traffic, and gets better gas mileage, but you dont have a Ferrari. You want to go faster and for the most part you can, but you are not driving a Ferrari. Consumer Reports will never understand that difference nor will many of these readers (including the author).I hope you are happy with your AMD cpu and your discounted parts.I know, I know...some will say "idiots with money, but who has the money here, and who is the id1ot?[/citation]

Greetings vvhocares5!

We've run those tests already--no point in running them again. They were even linked on page one of this story. For clock vs. clock comparisons of Sandy Bridge and Nehalem, check out here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k-core-i5-2500k,2833.html.

Enjoy!
Chris

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]jimishtar[/nom]What tax? U get all hardware for free, right? Anyway, I am more than willing to pay for all the tax + delivery expenses, you just send the combo, np. Or don't giveaway at all, cause this is just pure discrimination.[/citation]

Check out: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/news/tax_surprises/prize-winnings.asp.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]cadder[/nom]Am I reading this right- you are recommending a $330 processor that doesn't work over a $200 processor that does work? Didn't all of the sandbeach processors get pulled from the market?[/citation]

The processor works fine--it was the chipsets that had an issue. And, motherboards with the updated chipsets are coming soon. It's worth the wait in most cases!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Guest]

Am I reading this right- you are recommending a $330 processor that doesn't work over a $200 processor that does work? Didn't all of the sandbeach processors get pulled from the market?

What's wrong with you?

My poor Pentium D shall have to keep trudging along for at least another year... 🙁

You don't have to buy a hexa core to upgrade, even lowly Athlon II X2 would be a solid upgrade, if your PD is not enough.

 

[osxsier]

[citation][nom]silky salamandr[/nom]AMD gettin the business like always. I check probably 10 times a day hoping that the egg gets 1155 back online. They activated the procs last week so they should be getting the mobos back in soon I hope![/citation]

Gigabyte, ASrock and others started shipping the 1155 with B3 stepping today. They said it should be arriving in retail channels as early as next week. So check back then...

 

[impulse89]

I loved this article.
Ive wanted to see what the $1000 chips were all about for awhile now.
It blows my mind the the 2600k rips them a new one in most respects for 1/3 the cost. My head would explode if I won something
I love building PC's but these high-dollars items are a bit out of reach.

 

[geekapproved]

The only thing extreme about this cpu is the power it uses and the price.

 

[krogtheclown]

For Gaming I'd still get AMD 965 BE oc it to 4.0 spend the money I saved on the Intel and buy a really nice GPU. I can wait an extra 45sec for my movie to burn or even a half hour but I cant play a FPS game with even a little lag or @ slide show speed. I certainly do not want to play games with the settings turned down if i did I'd just buy a crappy Xbox!

 

[Guest]

@killerclick

i knew a friend who shot himself with a paintball gun just cause he could......

 

[SteelCity1981]

The moral of this story is 1,000 dollar cpu's are overrated. The funny part is you can build a decent gaming Sandy Bridge system with a 2600k cpu for the price it would cost you to buy 1 990x lol

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]SteelCity1981[/nom]The moral of this story is 1,000 dollar cpu's are overrated. The funny part is you can build a decent gaming Sandy Bridge system with a 2600k cpu for the price it would cost you to buy 1 990x lol[/citation]

Sure, but if you can win a FREE $1000 CPU, then it's all good ;-)

 

[malnute]

I am just curious what app or apps they were running to get all cores and threads running at 100% in task manager and how is it task manager says only 6 gigs or ram available when they were using a 8 and 12 gig kit. My system currently has more threads, handles and processes running and my cpu usage is only 1 % and less than 50% memory usage out of 4gig. I think this is photoshop magic.

 

[cangelini]

That screenshot came from our -980X review, malnute. It's just to demonstrate the 12 threads in action.

 

[Guest]

Boo! Hiss! Another exclusionary contest, typical. I am really getting sick of this.

 

[Guest]

My husband LOVES any and all of these electronic gizmos, soooo....