Hardware News

Intel 'Sandy Bridge-E' Core i7-3960X CPU Launched!

Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan

2011-11-14 23:59:59.0


Intel have just launched the high-end Sandy Bridge-E LGA2011 desktop platform, which features three new processors and the X79 Express chipset. The flagship model for this new platform is the Core i7-3960X six-core/twelve-thread processor. It has a 3.3Ghz default clock, can Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz, has 15MB of L3 cache, a quad-channel DDR3-1600 memory interface, 40 PCI-E lanes, and support for PCI-Express 3.0.

So without further ado, here are a bunch of processor and motherboard reviews for this new platform:


As expected, the i7-3960X is now the fastest processor on the market, by quite a bit when it comes to multi-threading performance. However, at $990 it is priced well above what most people can afford. Thankfully, Intel is also offering the $555 i7-3630K, which fundamentally the same the 3960X, just clocked 100MHz lower and with a little less L3 cache. There is also the i7-3820, which is a quad-core/eight-thread part clocked at 3.6Ghz with Turbo capabilities up to 3.9Ghz. It will only be released sometime in Q1 2012 for an announced price, but it should be in the $300's.
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