After all the excitement of Intel’s new P55 chipset and LGA1156 Core i5/i7 processors, it seemed as if Intel were slowly forgetting about their flagship CPU series, the LGA1366 Core i7.
Finally the time has finally come for Intel to replace what has indefinitely been the most popular LGA1366 CPU on the market, the i7-920. Indeed its performance and ability to overclock to high frequencies with ease have made it a favourite amongst savvy pc users, even the 300 people who received [COLOR=#848484]counterfeit 920s[/COLOR] wouldn’t of been discouraged from that minor setback…
So the question is, how does Intel improve upon a processor that was a clear favourite amongst its dearer siblings? They replace it with the [COLOR=#848484]i7-930[/COLOR]! Genius. Basically it is the same CPU with a bit more speed available to it from the get go. Seems Intel believes that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I can’t say I blame them.
The main improvement of the 930 over the now discontinued 920 is that the new CPU has a x21 multiplier over the 920’s 20x, giving the 930 a 133MHz increase in clock speed, making this processor clock in at 2.8GHz. The ever popular “turbo” mode increases the multiplier to 22x just as the 920’s lifted it to 21x. This gives the 930 a clock speed of 2.93GHz with turbo mode enabled.
It is by no means a slouch, not even out of the box. For a processor that should cost the same as the 920, this is a nice bonus. As with Intel’s naming scheme, this 930 fits nicely behind the discontinued i7-940 (a C0 revision chip) which has a 22x native max multiplier and a 23x turbo. It fits like a glove. All over specifications of the 930 are identical to the 920.
The 930 is on the same “D0” revision as what the 920 was, so judging by that, this chip should be one hell of an overclocker, better than the 920, according to Intel anyway. Well it’s still early days but judging by some early overclocking attempts by various forum users, they do not seem to be disappointing. I will admit that I have not seen any “golden” chips from the model yet, but it’s only a matter of time before somebody posts an amazing overclock with low voltage.
So we know what sort of performance to expect from this chip out of the box, it will be slightly better than a 920, very slightly but then the 920 wasn’t exactly struggling. It is my honest opinion that if you can purchase an outgoing 920 considerably cheaper than the new 930, there is really no disadvantage, even if you are not an overclocker.
Reviews are scarce for this chip atm, keep an eye out for it at the usual places, AnandTech and Guru3d are two that I would recommended.