An aspiring overclocker and Coolaler forum go-er "u48802109" got his/her hands on an engineering sample and set out to see just how far he could push the upcoming Intel Core i7 2700K processor using air cooling. In an exciting result, the overclocker was able to achieve a stable 5 GHz overclock on the 2700K with a 100 MHz bus speed and 50x multiplier. Even more amazing are the voltage and temperature results (keeping in mind that we don’t know the particular HSF being used) of the overclock. Specifically, they were able to hit 5 GHz with 1.384 V and hit a maximum temperature of 65 C.
A zoomed in look at the CPU-Z readout.
While air cooling may not be able to support going to much higher frequencies, water cooling could certainly open up even more headroom in the chip. Also, keeping in mind that these are engineering samples, it will be interesting to see where the Core i7 2700K falls once it starts rolling out to consumers. If these results hold out, it does seem like it may just be worth it to pay a few extra bucks and eschew the 2600K for new builds. What are your thoughts, are these results encouraging to you? You can see the full overclocking results here.
I think its just marketing. A
I think its just marketing. A cherry picked engineering sample. Most will probably do 4.2-4.3 on air.
Someone else who claimed to
Someone else who claimed to have an engineering sample of the chip was saying that they were able to hit 5 GHz but at a much higher voltage, so you might be onto something benefit14snake. With most chips, water cooling will probably be required to hit 5 GHz but it’s kinda cool to know that there are some cheery chips out there 🙂
I think i7-2700 plus one of
I think i7-2700 plus one of Asus’s new GEN3 boards is where its at till Ivy Bridge next year.
The voltage is impressive.
The voltage is impressive. The 2600k has to be over 1.5v to get to 5Ghz. Mine has been running stable at 4.6Ghz at 1.38v.
Agree. only very rarely are
Agree. only very rarely are current 2600k’s hitting 5 ghz at 1.39-1.4 volts. Would be happy to see more of this since ~ 1.4 volts seems to be the danger zone for long term health of Sandy Bridge.. I own a WC’d SB (4.7 ghz, 1.32 volts), but am looking forward to seeing renewed competition next week..
These are probably cherry
These are probably cherry picked best-of-the-best Core i7 2600K binned from those going for sales currently. Would be interesting to see if the final retail Core i7 2700K able to hit 5GHz and higher with lower volts than current Core i7 2600K. We could be seeing another resurgence of Sandy Bridge for users who overclock their machines.
Same D2 stepping as the 2600K
Same D2 stepping as the 2600K and E1280 Xeons.
Looks like these are just cherry picked parts
A the end of the Core2Duo run they actually brought out a final stepping for the E8600 and it was an overclocking banshee.
I was kinda hoping for an actual new stepping.
Intel is well over a year into 32 nano, and I am sure they have tweaked the process even more over that time, so the lack of a new stepping is a mild disappointment.
That being said, Sandy Bridge was and remains a total monster.
Nit picking about having a hard time hitting 5 ghz (on air) on your sub $400 quad core is kinda like complaining that the super model on the cover of Maxim isn’t great at advanced calculus.
A nice price cut to the 2600K so say, oh, $245 would be nice 🙂