Intel Core i7 920 ‘Over Clocked’ – Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition

Intel Core i7 Family of processors was launched in November 2008, Five months ago and since then they have become the talk to the town for the Tech Enthusiasts. It has not disappointed anybody with its performance. They are the fastest processor on earth is now an accepted fact. But as usual, Intel has been very harsh with the processor prices and in the case of Intel Core i7 965, it is a whooping 1000 USD. It is the most expensive processor too. Performance always has a price to pay. But here you will see that is not true! You can buy a complete PC with as much performance as delivered by the Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition and more in some cases at the quarter price of what the monster core i7 965 EE would normally cost. It sounds a little strange but just scroll the page and look for yourself.

For the Benchmarks we selected a computer with the following configurations that allowed us a stable over clocking of the processor without overheating it. We had a ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard and a 6GB triple channel Corsair Dominator 2 kit that's rated to 1,600MHz with 8-8-8-24-2T timings at just 1.65V. We arranged a Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme mounting bracket, which provide tremendous cooling power for this monster running at no lower than 130 W idle.

Now we were all set to go. We conducted the tests and the results we saw are described below:

• Memory Test – Read

  Intel Core i7 920 Over clocked out performed the big brother with a huge margin. The performance increase was approximately 51%. This is a huge difference.

• Memory Test - Write

  This test also confirmed the same results and showed an performance increase of the approximately 29%

• Image Editing – Video Encoding

  When this system was tested with Paint.NET, we saw a performance boost of 9 % as compared to Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition. AutoMKV showed us a upward shift of 13 % which is significant.

• File Compression – WinRAR

  The time required by the core i7 920 for compressing a file was 63 seconds which took 69 seconds by the core i7 965 Extreme Edition. So this factor also shows us a significant performance boost

All the tests confirmed the same result. So at a stable overclocking of core i7 920 at 4.0 GHz is comparable with the Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition.

Now let us compare the rates. The system that we prepared using the Intel Core i7 920 cost us just above 875 USD. And if we consider the price of the Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition alone, it is a whooping 1000 USD. Though the actual benefits can be seen only when they are compared in similar fashion. We had not overclocked the Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition. But what more important is that majority of the professional seldom require such very high configuration and if that same can be achieved by a more cost effective way, then that solution does count. The war was never for performance alone. It is always for Performance per Cost.

In that manner Intel Core i7 920 definitely wins the battle and is the most cost effective processor we tested considering the price factor as crucial. Thus if you decide to buy a techy computer then it is better to learn how to overclock the Intel Core i7 920 rather than spend more money for the Extreme Edition in the Intel Core i7 Family of processors.