Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80637I73770K

In July 2013 I built 2 identical desktop computers (one for me; one for my wife) based on the ASUS P8Z77-V Pro motherboard (MB) (8 GB RAM in each machine). The machines were constructed from entirely new components, as listed below. The components were purchased from various on-line retailers, primarily Amazon.com, Newegg.com, and BestBuy.com. Both machines have been up-and-running now for roughly 1 month without problems. I have yet to flash any BIOS's. I have run simple tests on nearly all components; virtually everything has worked "out-of-the-box".Before getting into the hardware review, I'll provide a bit of background. I am an electrical engineer, and the assembled machines were scoped to be dependable work horses -- as opposed to gaming machines. I built my first desktop machines back in the early 1990's. I have always used Intel and ASUS motherboards, due to their reputations for reliability; recently I have used ASUS exclusively.The machines currently dual-boot Windows 7 Ultimate (SP1 64-bit) and Fedora 19 (64-bit); both OS's use UEFI secure boot. I don't currently run VMware or VirtualBox, though I may later on. Currently, I am not overclocking the machines in any way, though I may do so in the future; hence I cannot comment on their suitability for such.Here are the principal hardware components for the machines:Case: Corsair 650DPSU: Corsair AX750 (Gold)MB: ASUS P8Z77-V Pro (MB rev. 1.0; AMI BIOS rev. 1805)CPU: Intel i7-3770k (3.5 GHz quad-core LGA 1155) (model BX80637I73770K)RAM: Corsair Vengeance Black [16GB (4x4GB) 240-pin DDR3 1600MHz 1.5v low profile] (CML16GX3M4A1600C9B)Hard disk: Western Digital 1TB SATA3 (WD1002FAEX) (no RAID system)GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 660 (GTX660-DC2-2GD5)DVD burner: ASUS DRW-24B1ST (OEM)Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse II Backlit keyboard (USB)Radio mouse: Logitech V450 Nano Cordless LaserI also elected to install the following additional components:CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVODual-port NIC: Intel® PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter (EXP19402PTBLK)USB 3.0 pass-through cable: USB 3.0 20-Pin MB header to 2 Type-A Female Connectors Y-CableComments:Cases: We looked at a number of different cases at brick-and-mortar stores before settling on the Corsair 650D. (I've used Antec cases in the past; the Cooler Master cases were strong contenders this time around.) The Corsair 650D cases are solid and nice-looking from a conservative perspective (not flashy); gamers would probably consider them boring. Since the P8Z77-V Pro does not offer eSATA support (and USB 3.0 has better specs than eSATA), the eSATA drive caddy on the top of the case is not useful for us. Also, I found the quick-release mechanisms for the front drive bays to be unreliable: I secured the DVD drives the old-fashion way -- with screws. However, we really do like the see-through side panel feature. Finally, the 650D was designed before the USB 3.0 motherboard header configuration was finalized, therefore the USB 3.0 cables that connect the front-panel USB 3.0 ports won't attach directly to ANY motherboard. To remedy this, I bought the adapter cable listed above; if you want one, here is the Amazon link:http://www.amazon.com/8-inch-20-Pin-Motherboard-Connectors-Y-Cable/dp/B007PODI1W/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1356639600&sr=1-3&keywords=usbPSU: I believe the AX750 series has been discontinued now. I chose the older Corsair power supplies based on their reliability and the fact that they used Japanese capacitors; I couldn't determine whether the new Corsair PSUs had quality capacitors. The fan in the AX750's makes a clicking sound at very low rpm -- typically only occurs just as the machine starts up. Other than that, they are extremely quiet and solid units. Also really like the modular cable feature; fewer cables in the case.Motherboard: I spent many hours reading motherboard reviews and comparing MB feature sets before choosing the P8Z77-V Pro. I mostly looked at ASUS boards, including some in their Workstation line. (I know that there are many other quality makers of MBs available, but ASUS retains its status as one of the best, and, with just 2 choices of manufacturers, the number of offerings simply becomes mind-boggling.) Ultimately it was a combination of reasonable price and a simple yet versatile feature set (PCI slots, SATA buses, video ports, peripheral ports, etc.) that drove my choice.I've found the P8Z77-V Pro to be solid and pleasant to work with. So far no problems with bad slots or ports; the on-board video and audio work fine. Some of the P8Z77-V Pro comments I saw online complained about slow upload/download problems associated with the on-board networking (I also turned off the MB wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) feature in the BIOS, so I cannot comment on its functionality; this feature also gets many negative comments in P8Z77 blogs.)The MB AMI BIOS is well-designed and fairly user friendly. I was disappointed to see how many unnecessary 3rd-party software add-ons were included on the ASUS CD-ROM that contains the MB device drivers. (Experienced machine builders typically ignore the CD-ROM and get the latest device drivers from on-line repositories, but I tend to only flash-and-patch on an "as-needed" basis.) Anyway, after some web research, I opted to NOT install the following ASUS CD-ROM software features:Network iControl (Many on-line posts recommend disabling this.)LucidLogix Virtu MVP (As far as I can tell, this only helps gamers -- and even a fair number of them recommend NOT using it.)CPU: The Intel i7-3770k CPU represented the best price/performance trade-off available last spring. The "k" model offers better overclocking capabilities; if you are interested in running VMware or VirtualBox, you might want to go with the straight "3770" model.RAM: I opted for the Corsair memory on this go-round simply based on reputation and price. I haven't yet seen a single memory hiccup. In the past I've used Crucial. You want to buy the RAM in packages of matched modules (to avoid timing conflicts). Also, use of the "low-profile" modules avoids potential MB space conflicts when mounting a CPU cooler.Hard drive: I've used Western Digital drives exclusively for years. They are fast, quiet, and I'VE NEVER HAD ONE CRASH even though I frequently have 2 or 3 drives in my machines. (I cannot say that about other HD lines.) (Note: I religiously replace my HDs at the point that their warranties expire; the 2 desktop machines I am currently replacing have been in service for over 9 years, and each one has had the primary drive replaced twice.) I saw some on-line reviews that stated that the WD1002FAEX model is noisy. The reviewers must have gotten bad units: the two that I just installed are whisper quiet. And the WD1002FAEX comes with a 5-yr warranty.GPU: We may not play games at home, but we often watch uTube and DVD videos. I chose the ASUS GeForce GTX 660 based primarily on reviews. (I went the nVIDIA route, as opposed to AMD graphics, because of nVIDIA's strong reputation for UNIX/Linux OS support. ATI's support was abysmal, and AMD seems to be following suit.) The card runs cool and quiet, and it even came with a cable adapter for my old 21" CRT monitor. We get gorgeous, even-color images at 1600x1200 and higher resolutions.DVD burner: No issues so far with the DVD drives, though we haven't tried burning anything yet. The burner software provided (on CDROM) with the drive isn't worth much; we're going to try Ashampoo (free) this time around.Keyboard: I bought my first Saitek Eclipse II at least 7 years ago for doing work with my laptop while reclining on the couch at home. We now have 3 of them. The keyboard gets decent reviews on-line; some reviews complain about the paint wearing off the keys. The keys on my original one show no signs of wear. I'll admit that only the violet backlighting color works well when typing in the dark; perhaps that's why gamers give it mixed reviews. For us, the keyboard offers good heft, nice tactile response, and longevity.Mouse: Like the Saitek keyboard, I bought my first V450 Nano mouse for use with my laptop. Soon after, I replaced the corded mouse on my old desktop machine with a second one. We now have 3 of these in the house. Recommendation: The mouse runs on a pair of AA batteries: get a decent battery charger and some rechargeable AAs.CPU cooler: Although we currently live in a city where outside temperatures rarely surpass 80 degrees (F), it was only a few years ago that we lived in an area where temperatures regularly exceeded 100 F in July and August. Also, the Intel i7 LGA 1155 CPU series reportedly has poor heat dissipation characteristics. Hence I opted to forego the heat sink that came with the Intel CPU and instead deploy the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO cooling system in our new machines. The Hyper 212 EVO is one of the cheaper (but still well regarded) cooling solutions on the market; it should suffice as long as we don't seriously over-clock the systems. (I also opted to use Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound rather than the thermal compound that Cooler Master provided with the Hyper 212 EVO. The Artic Silver 5 compound is among the most effective products of its type; many of the expensive commercial compounds available perform worse than mayonnaise. See link below.)[...]

Water Cooling (2 Liter selfmade custom radiator)100% CPU load on maximum heat stress test prime95 x64 @3900MHz.Room temp: 25°CMainboard temp: 30°CCPU all cores: ~68°CCPU mainboard: 55°CIDLE @1600MHz all cores: 37°CIDLE @1600MHz CPU mainboard: 34°CIntels CPU Tcase: ~67°C (which should roughly be ~10°C lower than core temp - theoreticallymeasured on top of the cpu heat spreader, but there is no sensor)The Tcase temp is the maximum temp intel guarantees it to work perfectly fine. So adding ~10°C to the core temps you measure, the allowed maximum should be around ~77°C for not overclocked systems. I reached this in stress test with watercooling, while the water and copper pipes I use just are lukewarm.The problem is the high density of the CPU under it's new hood. It's more cramped together and less coolersize to give it up to. So it's only normal to be more hot than the older generation.The new HD4000 integrated graphic chip, which shares place with the 4 CPU cores is taking quite the huge part and if you are not careful in selecting your mainboard, you will find this GPU completely unused by your system. For the information: Intel is not working in harmony with Nvidia so you can't combine the GPU of Intel and Nvidia (normally). I got lucky with an ASUS mainboard, which uses Virtu Logix that is at least able to switch on *exe, which GPU shall be used. That means both are using their minimum power all the time, which is more as if you just run your PC with only the CPU HD4000 graphic. But therefor you can have the ultimate power more easily. For example is nvidia with CUDA much slower than Intel in converting HD videos now, with the right Software (Media Espresso). Took me 2 Minutes to convert a 1.4GB 1920X1080 video stream with HD4000, compared to 4 Minutes with CUDA on a GTX560TI from NVIDIA. So this onboard Graphic can be very supportive with the right applications and may save energy for older programs that don't need a 300Watt power consuming PCI-E video card. :)Overclocking:As others mentioned in various tests and benchmark, it might only take 1 minute to overclock this CPU, even in windows easily and stable. On my first day I just tried to see and made 4.5GHz stable with just rising the voltage to ~1.2V Be careful with your mainboards OC abilitys. Mine took advantage while it had some "auto range" and pushed this cpu to 1.45 Volts already while I didn't notice. I only was warned by mainboard CPU sensor peak temperatures of 75-95°C for short. This was probably the mainboard sensor only. Means the core was probably even more hot. So the tendency of this thing is to heat up fast if it gets too much voltage. I used to set 1.85V later and the autoranger software pushed it up to 1.25V. The trick is to get as low as possible and have it still stable calculating. The less heat you will receive. So 1.2V might be a working number, but depending on your software/bios and mainboard this may vary.Sum: While running on 4.5GHz or similar this thing beats up the 1st places on some CPU benchmarks in AIDA64 or Passmark. For more power I had to update Win7 to SP1 since 1 CPU feature was not used before. The Benchmark AIDA64 advised this and the result prooved the higher power with SP1.Ah, btw: the cores are clockable individually or together (4 cores in total). So you can have core 1 on 3400, core 2 on 3900, core3 on 4300, core 4 on 3600MHz. I don't really get an Idea how to use that feature yet, but it might save power or if you are using software that adresses individual cores only, you might save heat if you have the unused cores throttled down at slow speed. Who knows yet?!With this CPU you will have one of the most powerful CPUS there are at the moment. Only contrary is the integrated graphic chip that I did not need. If you go for a Z77 chipset you can use the full overclocking potential and can use the integrated graphic, as well as a dedicated one. Depending on the MB manufacturer maybe the Virtu MVP to switch between both in windows.I would have bought the same CPU withouth the HD4000 since I don't render videos or playing in low resolution. The software that uses quicksync to squeeze out the full power is very limited at the time. Mediaespresso for example, and this can not render MKV HD audio files, which makes it totally useless for me. What does the speed if the file format I want is not supported? :) It makes me feel strong, but useless too. Thanks to not having the integrated graphics on the mainboard and in the CPU instead it only wastes important cooling space in my opinion and therefor overclocking power is limited due to higher temperatures, thanks to a iGPU that overclockers don't really need to have for gaming.Hope this was helpful