Save yourself $$ on picking the right i7

As all of you know. The flagship processor from Intel is the i7. It's been around for a while now. With that said, there are various versions of them, as well as some of them being on different sockets then others, e.g 1156 opposed to 1366.

I was browsing which i7 to buy. I chose the 860. I managed to get it for £120, instead of £200 (Yes brand new). Anyway, onto my point of the thread.

The i7's generally range from 2.6Ghz to 3.33Ghz stock, 3.33Ghz being the hexcore i7. What you're not being told, is that some of the "Different" versions, are actually the exact same as the previous version, just a little bit more expensive.

An example would be the 860 (The one that I have, on the 1156 socket) and the 880. The price difference is an incredible £200. Yet, what's so different? They're more or less the exact same. Below I'll show you why.

The 880 has a stock of 23 multipliers, yet even with turning specific modes on in the BIOS you will only ever see 22 of those multipliers (For those that do not know, a multiplier determines what frequency your processor runs at, along with the bus clock speed. E.g if your processor had a bus clock speed of 100, it would be 100*22 giving you 2.2Ghz).

Onto what I'm getting at. Most, if not all of the i7's have a special feature called "Turbo" mode. This isn't exactly boasted about in the sales of i7's for obvious reasons.

Lets take my processor as an example (i7 860). It has a bus clock speed of 140, combined with a multiplier ratio of x21. I did some research about over-clocking it, and I came across the turbo mode option. What this does, is it adds an extra multiplier. Changing my multipliers from 21 to 22. Thus giving me 3.08Ghz frequency. Now, think back to the i7 880 I briefly touched on. That processor already has "Turbo" mode turned on giving it 3.06Ghz, yet my i7 did not and was £200 cheaper.

So, to save yourself some money, buy the cheaper i7 turn the "Turbo" mode on, over-clock it and you will get more or less the same results as you would if you bought a more expensive version. A picture below to show that I'm not talking complete felgercarb or something.

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Buy the cheaper i7 if you're on a budget

Turn turbo mode on

$$profit
 
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