Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Intel
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PRODUCT BENCHMARKING & TESTING
Overclocking
Overclocking is the main reason why Intel chose the "k" version of the i7-2600 for the launch. If you have been poking around the hardware community, there have been reported overclocks of anywhere between 4.1Ghz to over 5.1Ghz in some cases with only air cooling. Of course a lot of factors key into an overclock of this size. For one, the motherboard plays a key role.
In the case of this review, the motherboard I used was Intel's own stock DP67BG Burrage based motherboard. To be completely honest, overclocking couldn't have been easier. All I had to do is override the base processor settings and up the Turbo multipliers to 45X, up the voltage a bit to 1.3v and reboot and viola, 4.5Ghz. Everything was and still is rock stable. Anything above a 45x multiplier would lead to a boot hang while loading windows.
I have to say, this was and will be the easiest form of overclocking I have seen to date. Messing with the front side bus was a lost cause and anything over 101Mhz would lead to a hard lock up and having to reset the bios completely. But from what you will see in the upcoming benchmarks, 4.5Ghz packs a lot more punch than you might think.
Intel SandyBridge Testbed
Intel® Desktop Board DP67BG Motherboard
QIMONDA 2 x 1GB DDR3 1067 CL7 non-ECC UDIMM Memory Kit
1 x HIS HD4870 1Gig Videocard
Cooler Master 1000watt Power Supply
Windows Vista Ultimate Premium Edition 64bit
Intel Clarkdale Testbed
Intel® Desktop Board DH55TC Motherboard
QIMONDA 2 x 1GB DDR3 1067 CL7 non-ECC UDIMM Memory Kit
1 x HIS HD4870 1Gig Videocard in Crossfire
Cooler Master 1000watt Power Supply
Windows Vista Ultimate Premium Edition 64bit
Intel Lynnfield Testbed
Intel® Desktop Board DP55KG Extreme Series Motherboard
QIMONDA 2 x 1GB DDR3 1067 CL7 non-ECC UDIMM Memory Kit
2 x HIS HD4870 1Gig Videocard in Crossfire
Cooler Master 1000watt Power Supply
Windows Vista Ultimate Premium Edition 64bit
Intel Nehalem / Gulftown Testbed
Intel® Desktop Board DX58SO Extreme Series Motherboard
QIMONDA 3 x 1GB DDR3 1067 CL7 non-ECC UDIMM Memory Kit
2 x HIS HD4870 1Gig Videocard in Crossfire
Cooler Master 1000watt Power Supply
Windows Vista Ultimate Premium Edition 64bit
Intel Core 2 Quad / Core 2 Duo Testbed
Gigabyte P35-DS4 P35 Motherboard - Shop for this HERE
Crucial Ballistix 2Gb PC2-8500 Memory Kit - Shop for this HERE
2 x HIS HD4870 1Gig Videocard in Crossfire
Cooler Master 1000watt Power Supply - Shop for this HERE
Windows Vista Ultimate Premium Edition 64bit
Processors Benchmarked:
Intel i7-980x Gulftown
Intel i5-661 Clarkdale
Intel i5-750 Lynnfield
Intel i7-870 Lynnfield
Intel i7-920 Nehalem
Intel i7-965 Extreme Edition Nehalem
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Quad Core 1600Mhz FSB - Shop for this HERE
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 1333Mhz FSB - Shop for this HERE
Benchmarks Used:
3DMark Vantage CPU Benchmark
POV-Ray Beta 3.7 v34 Multi-Core Benchmark
CineBench 10 Multi-core Benchmark
Sisoft Sandra 2009 Lite CPU Arithmetic Benchmark
Sisoft Sandra 2009 Lite CPU Multi-Media Benchmark
Sisoft Sandra 2009 Lite CPU Multi-Core Efficiency Benchmark
Super Pi ( 1 Meg Calculation ) Benchmark
Passmark Full CPU Benchmark
HOC Crysis CPU Benchmark
Load Temperature Testing
Benchmarking Method:
Benchmarking was undertaken in a pure Windows Vista Ultimate Premium Edition 64bit environment with all hardware kept the same when possible to keep the playing field level. The i7-2600k was tested with the Turbo functionality disabled, enabled and also while under the 4.5Ghz overclock.
