Intel's Core i7... a Victim of it's own Success?

Today's a good day! My new Core i7 920 (D0 stepping) processor should be delivered this afternoon. I already have a C0/C1 stepping 920 in my Main rig, but I my success at overclocking has motivated me to "upgrade" my secondary system as well. So this time I'm going all out.

First, I bought my CPU from Antares Digital Inc. who, for a nominal charge, will assure me delivery of a D0 stepping 920 (more on that later...). Second, I'll be getting a new motherboard. EVGA's best overclocking board - the X58 Classified SLI. Third, for the time being, I'm getting the highest rated Air Cooling solution - the Prolimatech Megahalems. And fourth, I'm getting some 1866MHz Corsair Dominator memory, so I can run with tighter timings at just above 1600MHz. Overall my goal is to have a system that runs day to day at just over 4GHz. And, after I do more research, I might even install water-cooling for the motherboard and processor.

Now you might be wondering, if I'm "going all out", why not get the fastest possible processor? And the answer is because I don't need to spend $990, when a $285 processor will run at practically the same speed. And that's the main theme of today's rant. You see by the end of this year, all but the very fastest (Most Expensive!) Core i7 processors will be discontinued. So basically, the Core i7 920 will be a victim of it's own success...

See the D0 stepping of the 920 is special for two reasons. Primary is the fact that they will generally run at the same speeds with less voltage, and the fact that many of the processors architectural errata have been corrected. Second is the fact that none of the other initial models will feature this stepping. So the Core i7 940 and 965EE will be replaced by 950 and 975EE models respectively. Net result is that the 920 D0 is really great deal!

However, Intel has a long history of not giving it's customers "great deals", and they sure don't like selling chips that over-clockers love. Despite the fact that doing so helps elevate them in the minds of enthusiasts. I personally wasn't terribly interested in the Core i7 at first. Honestly I tend to be skeptical about radical stuff like the new "Turbo Mode" of the Core i7. And it's because I tend to feel that it's not really needed. Seriously, I was quick to adopt multi-core processors, and I like the way they allow me to multi-task. So why would I want a processor that will throttle 3 of it's cores to boost 1 core's speed? Things might be different if most software really required more speed, but they don't!

Now these circumstances, combined with the fact the performance of the Core i7 isn't that much greater than the Core 2 Quads, led me to conclude that I should wait for whatever they make next... That is until, I found out what "next" was going to be, the Core i5. I then decided to try Core i7, and I wanted to overclock it from the start. In short, I got the processor, motherboard, and memory as part of a combo deal to save money. And I was immediately able to get to 3.6GHz without significant changes. Part of this sucess is due to the motherboard, an Asus P6T. And part was the processor, because although it was not a D0 stepping, it still has alot of headroom for overclocking.

The bad part is that it probably won't take long for these 920s to be sold out. An example of how popular the 920s are can be found by looking at how many reviews there are at NewEgg, compared to the 965EE. Which roughly indicates a ratio of 10:1. Still Intel doesn't really care. They'll cut back on production of Core i7. It's just one of the things a company with monopoly power can do.

I'll post more in the coming days, as part trickle in... And hopefully I can document this build with pictures. :D